Tylotriton playdead/ actually dead/ stupor etc

[newtboy_uk]

ill keep this as short as possible:

two of my mandarin newts became ill with mouthrot last week and went off their food.

Pessimisticlaly i began treatment - on monday one newt started eating and looked very bright - on tuesday the second despite looking dull accepted food

i was gutted when i found the first newt dead this morning. the rest of my day was just terrible - i was very depressed.

so

you can imagine my reaction when the newt began to breathe at 8pm after 12 hours of being clinically dead it then immediatly proceded to shed its skin and was very active

hibernation? very unusual - room is warm and other newts unnaffected...

in fact there are many questions that need answered
especially when u hear the background of the whole affair and the progress of the other newt. There are aspects of amphibian biology i have observed that i have not seen noted anywhere - but those can wait for another time


If i hadnt been late this morning i would have buried the newt..... thank god i didnt!

i have heard stories of this sort of thing before but never as strange as this (u need to hear full story)- and never as great!!!!!!!!!


Note: when i say clinically dead the newt had zero nervous response, zero muscular reaction and was not breathing. I dumped it semi upside down ina box as i ahd no time to bury it- at 6pm it was in the same position - one that would not be tolerated by any newt no matter how ill. At 8pm it was walking around shedding its skin.

 

[amy]

Wow! my newts have done this too! Even my baby ones. I too almost buried one once. I still haven't figured it out though. I thought it must be a sort of hibernation thing too, but that would be very strange. One of my newts is behaving as if he's going to be doing it soon. I'll let you know! Amy xx

 

[steve]

yikes!

Don't tell me this after i've buried numerous species in the past. (im going to dig them up and see)LOL

*Sometimes, like you, I wait (time restraint) to dispose of the corpse. But normally it has blown up (like bloat),including the body and chin, and never moves again(even the next day),so maybe mine were really dead, but will look at this in the future.