Weird-looking mouth - damaged, sick or just a bit ugly :3

[jame]

She's been looking like this for a while now. The mouth looks rough around the edges and is a bit open most of the time. On occasion, it looks and feels like there are tiny scabs. It doesn't look typical to me. I really hope someone can shed some light on it, as it's not going away by itself and is starting to worry me.

Behaviour seems normal though, luckily. She doesn't eat much of the food that gets put out, but I think that's due to a larger, dominant male (I'm going to separate them with a net that's arriving tomorrow). When hand-fed, she eats happily, although lately she seems a bit more erratic (missing the food completely, nibbling at my finger instead, or biting at food that isn't there).

Hope someone can help! Thanks a lot for taking a look

 

[Wysper]

That looks like a mouth infection to me... I would try a tea bath and fridge to help her heal. The tea bath will soothe her skin and help it heal faster, as will the fridge with cooler water.

However, I have never dealt with something like this, so you may want to wait for someone else to chime in.

But at the very least, I would immediately separate her with cool clean dechlorinated water.

 

[tipnatee]

From the picture to me it looks like an infection from injury from bitten on something that aren't food. Do to axolotl bad eye sight sometime they attack the tank decor mistakenly for food and by the looks of what next to him that might be one of them. I'm not saying that your decorating choice was wrong or you did anything wrong. It just kinda happens sometime with axolotl. Very long time ago I bought a bio block ( the size of 3x3" big) that I've got for axolotl to climb around. It was also suppose to help boost good bacteria and it's has no sharp edges whatsoever but the texture is sandy. Only one of my axolotl just kept on attacking it for unknown reason which I didn't see the attack until one morning. He just lunching the bites attack like mad, I immediately pull the block out of the water. His lips was wounded but luckily I always keep my tank water clean so there wasn't that much swollen or any infection to deal with. Still it took a whole month for the mouth to completely smooth back to normal. It did look like he had a bad lip injection for a day after the attack . . First I kept him in the fridge after aquarium salt bath and that was how I use to clean the wound , I didn't use table salt cause that would irritated him and it was no need to use table salt for flesh wound. But I don't know how much infection yours has, or if I'm even correct on my guess just buy looking at your photo. So please check around and see first before you take my word for it. Meanwhile tea bath does sound good too for skin irritation.

 

[jame]

Thanks guys! Will give it a go and let you know how it goes

 

[Elise]

I would guess possible infectious stomatitis which would be best treated under the supervision of a vet. I would consider separating this axolotl from the others until treated as forms of this condition are pathogenic in nature and therefore can be contagious.