Sick axolotl

[elisabeth]

Hi all... I'm new here and have read through some of the threads for help, but can't find anything specific to my situation.

I bought my son an axolotl a week ago today. A few days ago we went out and when we got home we found that he was not in his tank! I don't know much about axolotls and underestimated their climbing abilities... and eventually found him in the corner of the room on the carpet. He'd fallen about a metre

Poor little thing

He'd climbed out in the little cut out corner of the glass lid where the filter cable comes out. I've since put plastic over it.

Anyway... as soon as I put him in the tank he swam around like crazy and I thought he looked OK. I was extremely relieved as you can imagine... But in the two days since then he has not eaten anything. Yesterday he developed some white fuzzy stuff around his tail and under his chin. Today I saw some more under his tummy. Just a minute ago I tried to get him to eat (frozen beef heart) and he did a sudden movement away from me when I gently reached into the tank to try to give it to him with my hand. As he did so I saw some big wounds under his chin and belly, and as he swam away the end of his tail came off as it hit the plants

I feel awful for him... poor little thing

There is now a big bit of backbone sticking out

The only improvement over the last couple of days has been that I've noticed him moving around the tank a lot more.

What can I do? Any advice? I'm clueless as to what I can and should be doing.

 

[jake]

are you sure its an axolotl?
i havn't every heard of an instance of them crawling out of the water and onto the floor. i was under the impression that they were strictly water based animals and couldnt breath out of the water.

to make sure its an axie and to learn more about them, go to www.axolotl.org

 

[elisabeth]

Yes, it's definately an axolotl lol! I didn't know it could happen either, but it did! Very upsetting

So I've been browsing in the meantime since writing this post and I see that salt baths plus fridge time is probably the best thing? The wound is probably infected with fungus right if it's white fuzzy stuff? It's hard to find quick info here without reading through every single one of the threads. Sorry, I'm having trouble finding steps on what to do with regards to the salt bath and fridge time. I'm worried that if I give a salt bath that he will shake around and damage himself more. I can't see that I'll be able to pick off the fungus with my hands as he's wounded.

Any advice? Please... I'm feeling awful about the whole thing! Sorry... getting stressed about the poor little thing here... don't want to start doing anything until I know exactly what I'm doing!

 

[heihei]

Firstly, I think you should take your axie out of the tank and put him in a container of dechlorinated water and put him in the fridge, 5 degree celcius minimum. Put another container/bottle of dechlorinated water in the fridge too so you can do complete daily waterchanges. The fridge will slow it's metabolism down and destress it as well as give it a chance to heal.

2ndly, did you cycle your tank before you added your axie and what is your tank temperature? If not, read this link: http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cyclingEDK.shtml

If your tank temperature is more than 22 degrees cel then you need to cool it down - don't use icecubes, use a fan blowing across the surface; and/or move the tank to the coolest room in the house - away from direct heat/sunlight/window sources; and/or use icepacks placed in ziplock/plastic sealed bags and float them in tank, before it melts place another frozen one in. You can also use bottles of frozen dechlorinated water in the same way rotating them consistently to keep temperature constant.

If your tank is uncycled your axie may be getting stressed from the ammonia levels in its tank and tank temperature. You will need to test your water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. If you don't have freshwater tests then take a sample of water to your petshop and test for them and give you the results (anything above 0 for ammonia/nitrite is unsafe for an axolotl; but if you tank is cycling that is normal - so if your axolotl stays in the tank you will have to do regular tests for those mentioned and regular daily waterchanges (at least 20-30%) to keep it safe for your axolotl until it is cycled.

You also may need to give your axolotl salt baths twice a day if it has fungus (whitish furry/fuzzy bits). 2-3 teaspoons of aquarium/tonic salt or non iodised table salt, if you don't have the other, per litre of dechlorinated water. Bathe him/her for 10-15minutes maximum (no longer as it will burn gills)

Jake I have heard of axolotls jumping out of tanks without lids and surviving, if they get up enough speed they can, a friends also tried to jump through the triangle bit but it got stuck at the mouth, as it was too big, and had a few scratches for its efforts.

 

[heihei]

REgarding the saltbaths, he may find it uncomfortable at first but persevere. One of my 2 inch babies had fungus and I never even thought of pulling it off, I did the salt baths and it looks like it's finally clearing up (week and a half), thankfully.

If you don't want to handle him, you could you two plastic jugs/cups/containers (depending on size) to scoop him up (one to gently herd and the other to scoop (or a net and container) him up.

If you fridge him my sisters method was 2 icecream containers of dechlorinated water (him in one), and a bottle of dechlorinated water (all 3 go into fridge at same time).
-Cover his container with lid (no holes needed), wrap with teatowel.
-At a waterchange and saltbath, pour the bottled dechlor water into a bowl/container add the salt, stir a bit,
-then pour as much of the water in his current container out (making sure he doesn't go with it), then pour him into the saltbath. Cover in case he gets urge to jump out.
-While he's bathing clean out his used container with bakingsoda and water, rinse, then put more dechlor. water in, seal and put in fridge.
=once bath is finished, transfer him to the clean container of chilled dechlor. water (using a net or hands if he'll let you handle him),
-cover with lid and put back in fridge.

The fungus can take several days -sometimes couple of weeks to clear up.

 

[elisabeth]

Thank you SO much Heihei! That is really helpful, just what I needed. Thanks for taking the time to reply. Just one bleedingly obvious question though... how do I dechlorinate the water? The shop I bought Aladar from never said anything about this

 

[elisabeth]

I just read your second post. Thanks!

Could I ask something else... As the end of his tail is so badly wounded, does this usually grow back? I've been observing him over the past couple of hours and he's walking around a lot more and actually looks a lot better but his tail looks awful

Hopefully the salt bath and fridge treatment help him. Poor little fella

I'm off to the pet shop first thing tomorrow to get some water testing stuff! And dechlorinator if they have it?! Gee whiz, I can't believe I wasn't given this info when I asked at the place where I bought him

 

[heihei]

ok sorry, did they sell you a water ager, water conditioner also known as water dechlorinater? It's something that removes the chlorine and chloramines from tapwater. That's what I mean by dechlorinator

 

[heihei]

If your axie is young his tail will grow but may be slightly deformed. 4 of my sisters axies have slightly deformed tails from where their tails had been damaged when they were young, probably from being chewed by a sibling or scraped against something rough, prior to her owning them.

 

[elisabeth]

Awesome, good to know it will grow back. He looks fairly young - he's "middle sized" lol. Haven't measured him. And no they didn't sell me any water conditioner

Will get some tomorrow.

 

[elisabeth]

Oh, one more thing I just thought of... Should I continue to try to feed him whilst he's in the fridge, or needn't I worry due to his metabolism slowing down?

 

[heihei]

I can't understand why they didn't sell you that of all things - they tend to sell things here if you even look sideways at it in a petstore (the bigger ones do anyway)! Are you on tankwater or something in your area?

If your fridge is around 8 degree or higher then offer him food before you do the waterchange. If lower thn that just leave him for few days and yes in answer to metabolism.

good luck and any doubts feel free to ask them here as there should be someone around to help.