Question: Risks of eating live earthworms?

[Jaysolorzano]

This might be an odd question but, what are the risk of axolotls eating live earthworms?
I had a 3 month old axie that was very healthy, he loved to eat earthworms and always was super hungry and active. A week ago he passes away from a strange illness that im still trying to figure out the cause. As i am taking everything into consideration, i opened up one of the live earthworms i keep in organic substrate, and of course found a ton of organic plant matter and soil inside the earthworm, and i took some pics and posted them below. I was wondering what could be the chances of an axie dying from an intestinal impaction from the plant matter that would be present inside of an earthworm? as you can see on the pics i did find quite "large" pieces of plant matter inside the worm, and they look rather pointy. Would a 13 cm axolotl be able to digest this plant matter? or pass it down on his stool with ease? These earthworms are supposed to be Californian red earthworms or red wigglers. The worm breeder assures me that they are grown in 100% organic material with no added chemicals or pesticides whatsoever.

If anyone wants to read the thread that covered his strange illness, heres the link:
http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...xolotl/106514-axolotl-fungus-please-help.html

Like is said, he was very healthy and stopped eating all of a sudden, some holes appeared on his body and six days later he died. Is it possible for him to have picked up a parasite from an earthworm? I do have another smaller axie living in the 35 gal tank that he used to share with the other axie that passed away, so im really concerned for his well being, eventhough he seems to be doing just fine right now, and eating his daily chopped earthworm.

I would really appreciate if someone would comment and try and help me would could probably have gone wrong? Thank![/FONT][/COLOR]

 

[Mark]

The rapid deterioration doesn't suggest parasites. A high parasite load (all amphibians will have parasites in their digestive tract to some degree) usually manifests itself as anorexia and cloacal bleeding or vomiting. It would have become skinny over a period of time. Impaction on the other hand would have caused swelling. Axolotls would naturally prey on invertebrates that have vegetation in their digestive system, so again that seems unlikely.

From apparently healthy to dead in 6 days is something quite aggressive like a serious infection, poisoning, organ failure etc.

 

[Jaysolorzano]

The rapid deterioration doesn't suggest parasites. A high parasite load (all amphibians will have parasites in their digestive tract to some degree) usually manifests itself as anorexia and cloacal bleeding or vomiting. It would have become skinny over a period of time. Impaction on the other hand would have caused swelling. Axolotls would naturally prey on invertebrates that have vegetation in their digestive system, so again that seems unlikely.

From apparently healthy to dead in 6 days is something quite aggressive like a serious infection, poisoning, organ failure etc.

Hello Mark
Thanks for the quick reply! Yes i have been considering the same, some kind of organ failure or a really aggressive infection. I should mention that the day before he died, he did throw up 6 small pellets he ate days before and his poop seemed more like diarrhea with a light brown color and not solid dark brown turds like he used to do when he was healthy. I do have another smaller axie in the same tank, and eating the same food the other axolotl was eating, live earthworms and occasional salamander pellets, and he is doing just fine, he is a healthy little one, so this makes it all even more strange, maybe if it was an infection or some kind of poisoning, the other axie should probably be sick by now as well, but that is not the case, or maybe he has just been REALLY lucky and that batch of earthworms contain a nasty bacteria, which really seems unlikely since its the same provider i have been using for almost 4 months. What should i make all of this? what should i do next? What can i do to prevent the same thing from happening to my other axie?

 

[Mark]

Without an autopsy by a veterinarian the cause of death is likely to remain undetermined. If there was something wrong with the environment you would expect the other axolotl to also suffer. It's not unheard of for people to lose animals to "bad" earth worms but what makes them "bad" is rarely established.

As the cause of death is unknown it's difficult to suggest a course of action other than avoiding the worms which are your prime suspects. That said, it may be nothing to do with the worms...