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Unknown Mouth Issue

EasternRomioi3

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Hey, can anyone help me with my axolotl. When she was real young, before I got her, she got a bad cut on the side of her face and it left a weird bump and gave her a crooked smile. But over the past few months, and really recently, something else has started. You know how they have that little line of vestigial teeth sometimes, well mine looks like she had some, but now it looks like she has a black necrosis or black tumor that is now eating through her lower jar. I thought she was getting age spots but that's not the case. I do not know what to do. For like 3 weeks, we've had no worms in my area, at all, so she's been sucking up pellets and whatnot, I leave them in a little bowl in her tank and she comes back when the lights are off and no one is around, to suck them up. But with worms, she used to be able to eat a 3-5 inch long worm, now she tries, and spits it out, and I have to slice it into chunks. She can still eat them, she sucks them in instantly. She's been somewhat restless lately, digging into the sand like something's irritating her. Other than that, she's sleeping, pooping, eating, swimming around at a slow pace. Her mouth has me ultra worried. I am going to post photos. Please let me know if you can tell what's going on.

First photo is when I got her, February 2020. She was born February 2018.

Second photo is a few weeks ago. See that black thing? What is that...

Third photo is today, post worm eating, but it looks like that black whatever is gonna bust out of her lower jaw...

Her temp is at about 60-62 all the time now, she has low ammonia, low everything, I do a water change about once every 4 days, feed her every other day. Let me know if you guys know what's going on, please. Thanks in advance.
 

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wolfen

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the good news is axolotls are highly resistant to cancer so you can cross off tumour, I do though have a few questions 1. is there a air stone installed 2. how deep is the sand, 3. do you use any salt or minerals in the tank, last question is when you say ammonia and nitrites are low is that 0 or 0+ also how low is the nitrates. the reason I ask the fist question is because the gill stalks look slightly shorter in photo two and three compared to photo (nothing drastic though), second question is because sand can develop denitrifying bacteria which can be irritating (also smells a big like bad eggs, look for dark layer in the sand) I asked about the low nitrates in conjunction with this. In cold water nitrites are more harmful than ammonia because most free ammonia (the harmful type) is converted to ammonium (the non toxic form). the axolotl come from a low salt high mineral environment and has been found that without these they are more prone to fungus and skin conditions (although the majority seem more than happy in just a freshwater environment) so if your concerned about overall health then modified holfreters solution might be worth looking into. the black could just be colouration changes as just as mels can get white patches lucies can get black.
 

EasternRomioi3

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The first photo is from summer, it appears she gets fluffier gills when the weather is warmer and I'm forced to cool her tank down. She has no air stone but she loves to sit on top of her filters and put her gills in the bubbles. Her nitrites and ammonia are usually around 0, her nitrates, no matter what I try, hover around 40, and get to 80 if I don't do a water change every 5 days, so I do them regularly to keep the nitrates down. Her sand isn't super deep, I'd say 2 centimeters at the deepest point she can walk on. I have it piled up deeper under her rock and driftwood. As for the salt, we do use a home made Holtfreter’s solution. I am not particularly confident in it though, I have tried to buy some pre-made stuff but it's hit or miss in my area of the US. Do you have any like online recommendations for the solution? Like where I could buy them from. If they're good and helpful, I'll buy from just about any distance away.

I will add this, she hurt her right gills over summer. I was cleaning her tank and she must have gotten startled, she's usually awake when I do it, but I think I woke her up, and she attempted to reverse full speed into her drift wood cave and totally snagged her bottom 2 right gill stalks and cut them bad. She had to regenerate all her gill filaments. But I've noticed since the weather isn't so blazingly hot, her gill filaments have shrank, which is the second time this has happened, so I am assuming when it gets entirely too hot, and I'm constantly changing her ice packs in because we don't have AC in my area, her gills will fluff up again. Like I said, no adverse behavior. Just went downstairs now and she walked over to her bowl, sniffed it, swam away. I haven't noticed her trying to scratch her face or anything. It just looks super awful. You see the black spot at all times, even if her mouth is closed now. If it is just a color spot, that's fine, I know they do that and she is 4 years old but I'm worried, it doesn't look infected, there's no obvious discharge.

Thanks for the help so far, and if you know where I could get a good Holtfreter's solution from, please link me. Thanks again.
 

wolfen

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in the uk there are some places that sell it online (should be same in usa) but I tend to make my own up, 1g per litre himalayan unrefined salt, 0.05g per litre calcium carbonate, 0.05g per litre magnesium sulphate (epsom salts), I weight the ingedients into a 5 litre container with boiling water, then add 200ml into every 25 litre water change.
 

EasternRomioi3

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The one I have been using, calls for baking soda, epsom salts, and aquarium salt. I forget the quantity, I have them written down but they're in US measurements. We just mix it into a 1 gallon jug of distilled water, after letting all the bits dissolve.
 

wolfen

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The one I have been using, calls for baking soda, epsom salts, and aquarium salt. I forget the quantity, I have them written down but they're in US measurements. We just mix it into a 1 gallon jug of distilled water, after letting all the bits dissolve.
yes its called johns solution this tend to be quite popular as it doesn't cause water cloudiness and it doesn't have as much salt, I don't mind the cloudiness for a few hours so I use calcium carbonate to buffer the water and manage ph aswell as gh, instead of bicarbonated soda, but I do still use magnesium sulphate, I use himalayan salt (because it contains trace elements of other minerals that mountain streams would contain) but at the same weight as if I was using normal salt in johns solution.
 

EasternRomioi3

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Well, I will continue doing what I'm doing. I'm gonna clean her tank in the morning, if I get left alone to do so. What if it is some necrosis or infected? How would I even tell....
 

wolfen

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go through the sand regular with fork just to aerate it a bit, there isn't much info on necrosis in axolotls apart from the liver, as to black spots they can develop over time and are normally seen as beauty spots (not much information at all) it doesn't look like a infection a vet could probably cut it out but that could be more stressful and damaging then just leaving it, just carry on as you are doing but just keep a eye on it. sorry I couldn't be of more help
 

EasternRomioi3

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I do go through her sand at least once every other cleaning with a fork and a spatula. Someone told me about that tip in 2020 and I understood its purpose instantly. Good idea. I cleaned her tank today, no issues. I actually was able to get more photos of the issue, I will attach them here.
 

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axolotl nerd

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I do go through her sand at least once every other cleaning with a fork and a spatula. Someone told me about that tip in 2020 and I understood its purpose instantly. Good idea. I cleaned her tank today, no issues. I actually was able to get more photos of the issue, I will attach them here.
perhaps it’s an abscess? just throwing out ideas here
 
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