Please Help My Pet Stitch!!

[stitch]

Hi guys, Stitch my axolotl is in a terrible condition - what should we do?? He's had his leg bitten off, the wound turned black, but we amputated his leg above the blackness as reccomended. Now his whole body has blackness through out, particularly around the abdomen and lower stomach - he seems to have lost all orientation and i think he'll die soon. We want to take him to the vets but they dont really know about it. Can anybody recomend any medicines to suggest, also, do you think this is bacterial infection or something else???

Please help him!! he HAS to survive"!!!!

These photos were taken this morning, but the blackness has got worse since then and overtaken his whole body

The Blackness is visible in his finders and hand in these shots - it's now up his abdomen

This is how the poor guy used to look for comparison::

 

[tmarmoratus]

Honestly, at this point, don't think there's much you can do at this point. How did he lose his leg?

 

[stitch]

The other axolotl bit it, and nearly bit it off, then it was hanging on but really damaged - looked as if it might heal, but after a couple of days it started to turn black and we amputated it. Everything looked fine, then he started looking really ill, as in the photos, and now his whole body is turning black. We're trying to find a vet at the moment, hopefully they can help!

This is a picture of him in isolation (in a bucket) you can see how black his body is getting:

 

[naymo]

Maybe thats an infection..Ive never seen that before

 

[dvsgal]

ahhh im going through the same thing.
My axie is the same color, and lost his leg too.
The first time he lost his leg he started to go a bit greyish, but eventualy he went back to normal.

Now he lost another leg cos of a peckiesh room mate, I noticed today he dropped the leftover bitten leg and was going grey again.
It may have something to do with the circulation in the body when losing a limb, and because they are a lighter color we can see it more.
Every 2 days i bathe him in MELAFIX, i fill a 2ltr ice cream container just over halfway with tank water and add 1/2 a cap full into his water and leave him overnight, then i change the water in the morning. MELAFIX is an antibacterial fish remedy, and it works well. Its a bit expencive but its worth it.

 

[Kaysie]

Stitch, at this point, your best bet is to seek a veterinarian.

 

[stitch]

I'll be taking him to the vet on monday hopfully - if things dont improve (or get too much worse), but in the mean time he's living in a big tank on his own, with nice cool water. He seems to be slightly improved in his physical condition, but is spending a lot of time lying on his back and swimming upside down. He can right himself though and after being upside down for a bit will return to appearing like a normally behaved axolotl. It's very onfusing, and none of the vets near me know anything about axolotls - all the ones we called say they will look, but can only really reccomend vitamin injections. So maybe'll i'll try Melafix as recomended - i'm really stuck - nobody outside of the internet seems to have even heard of them!!!

Thanks for the help though guys!

 

[dvsgal]

how is your Baby going?

 

[stitch]

I think he's getting better - he's had a couple of salt baths, and the greyish stuff has started peeling off, he's going pink again now - i'm suprised it's coming off though, it looked like it was on the inside!!! He still swimming around upside down a lot, but now i reckon he's doing it to scratch the grey stuff off, I don't know - but he seems much happier!!! unlike his mate, who's looking sulky and neglected cuz stitch has the airpump and all the attention!!!

 

[dvsgal]

Hahahaha. Just like real kids. love em.

 

[Ethansfamily]

Glad to hear Stitch is looking better! He looked pretty sick - gives me hope for our one yet.

 

[kapo]

If he's swimming/flipping upside down you should try and keep the water lowered in his bucket, even to just above his top fin, so he doesn't flip. Just make sure to change the water in this bucket daily.