Illness/Sickness: Puke = overfeeding?

[Dicranurus]

Hi all...I'm new and I wanted to ask you some information and advice about my poor little baby that is apparently sick in the last few days

It's now more than 3 months that I have an axolotl. I don't know exactly how old is she (she's about 17-18 cm long). I took it from a pet shop where it was kept in horrible conditions. I had it for 2 months in a rather small tank with no plants but continuosly checking values that were ok except for a quite high Ph (around 8,5). Since September 11th I moved her in a larger tank (80 L). I have 3 little Anubias in it with only a small plastic cave and 12 large carbonatic rocks. No substrates since I didn't want to risk bad accident with small pebbles as in the previous tank

She never had problems with food except that at times she was swimming/floating close to the surface with inflated chest. But after 2-3 days of no feeding she was again ok.
I usually feed her alternating 3 small pieces (3-4 cm long) of chicken/trout/earthworms (usually 3 small ones) every 3-4 days and she never had digestion problems.

Since I moved her into the new tank she started eating less (1-2 earthworms/chicken/trout every 3 days or for two days and than no eating for 4 days). I wasn't scared about the situation because I thought it could be normal considering the stress of the transfer. Now it's about a week that she started having some serious problems. On September 27th she ate 3 earthworms and on September 30th-October 1st-2nd she excreted from cloaca some wormy shaped white things that I checked being mucus or something like that. I fed her again on october 1st with one little piece of chicken (she refused to eat more). Then on October 3rd I fed her with 2 little earthworms but after about 5 hours she puked the worms surrounded with some white mucus. Do you think that I should simply leave her without food for 4-5 days?

I checked the water values and they are rather ok except for dKh that is quite low in the new tank with respect to the previous one. Other values are: T: 20°; Ph: 8; dKh: 6°; NO2: 0,25; NO3: 25 mg/L. I'm adjusting other values with partial changes of water.

I'm sorry for the long description but I'm new and I'm really worried about her health

Thanks in advance for your help.

PS In attachment a couple of photos of expelled earthworms and my axolotl

 

[PatchworkClocks]

Well, for starters, I read that you fed her chicken? That's not a good thing to feed an axolotl. They should only be fed with worms, freshwater shrimp varieties, freshwater feeder fish, or salmon/shrimp/axolotl pellets. Never feed them freeze-dried foods or beef, either. At least she looks plump and healthy, though she does have some short gills. I assume she was like that when you got her though, given that you bought her from a pet shop.

Beyond that, I'm not sure what the white mucus-like stuff is. Hopefully someone has more insight on that.

 

[Morrison]

Do you have a picture of the 'weird goo' coming out of the cloaca? I once had an axie with weird, white, mucus like poop. She had internal parasites and she's totally fine now after a little treatment. If there are parasites it may also be the reason why she's not eating normally.

But I also have a very picky eater. He eats worms sometimes and then he HATES them and won't eat for a week or 2 (!) and if I'm lucky, he'll eat some pellets. Right now he's refusing everything again. But no other signs of illness or so.

I agree with PatchworkClocks about the food.
And I also believe that earthworms will always be the number 1 food for axies.

Oh and when an axie throws up a worm, the worms usually will look mucus'ish. It's the worm itself, being a little 'damaged'.

 

[Dicranurus]

Thanks a lot for your answers. As regards the gills they have always been short (they were already short when I bought her). Is it a bad feature? Is it a sign of illness?
As regards the mucus-thing, it can be seen in the second pic on the left of the axolotl. That is a quite small amount but she also expelled more of it (pieces about two times longer). I know that the pic is dark but I haven't a better one and I immediatly removed the mucus

She always had no problems with food and she always loved earthworms. Of course I will follow your advice and I will give her mostly earthworms as food. I just hope she'll start eating again. How many days should I wait before trying to feed her again?

 

[Morrison]

I would check daily if she's interested in food. If not, I'll try it again next day, etcetera.

 

[PatchworkClocks]

This is just a thought, but I have a couple questions for you. How long have you been feeding her chicken? And the times you did feed with chicken, was it raw or cooked?

I only ask because it's very common for raw chicken to carry nasty things, sometimes even parasites, but more commonly salmonella. She may have gotten sick from it.

 

[Dicranurus]

It was raw but I occasionally gave her chicken. I would say 2-3 pieces every 15-20 days.
Is there any way to check if it is salmonella? A vet?

 

[PatchworkClocks]

If you can find any vets that have experience with amphibians, that's your best chance at the moment.

 

[Dicranurus]

Hi all. Yesterday I fed my axie with an earthworm and she did not have problems with it I will try again today. Finger crossed

 

[auntiejude]

Some worms excrete a nasty tasting goo when they feel threatened - one of my axies won't take live worms because of this, so I have to blanche the worms with hot water for him to eat them.
You could try that - just splash a small amount of boiling water on the worm, then cool it immediately with cold water - it kills the worm and then it doesn't excrete the nasty stuff, but the worm is still raw and fresh.

 

[Dicranurus]

Dear auntiejude,

I followed your instructions and my axie is finally recovering she ate three small earthworms in 4 days

Thanks a lor for your advice. Earthworms were in fact expelling white goo