A
alexandra
Guest
Hello everyone,
I am very happy to report that my T. gran Peter has recovered from his infection.
The diagnosis was a systemic bacterial and parasitic infection. Signs were bloating in the head and stomach region, red arteries along ventral side of body (usually a sign for a systemic infection), darkened central artery (running from head to tail on ventral side), lethargy, no appetite, hard lump in lower jaw region.
Interesting was that the vet said that blood work cannot be done on newts as the amount of blood that can be drawn is too little to give an accurate reading. My first newt Izzy who passed away about a year ago and who I had brought to a different vet had drawn blood twice!
The reason for the x-ray was mainly to determine what the lump in his lower jaw was caused by, but the vet was unable to come to any conclusions from the image. The elongated dark line on the right side along the spine is the right lung. The vet suggested that the left lung might have rolled under and that it is not unusual in amphibians to see only one lung on an x-ray. The darker spot at the median right lung lobe just along the spine is his stomach which appears to be empty.
I thought some of you might find this x-ray of interest.
X-ray
Here is how I treated Peter:
Administered Baytril 2.27mg/ml Dilution - .03 cc once a day for 12 days (against bacteria)
Metronidazole 5 mg/ml - 0.02 cc once a day fro 5 days (against parasites and anaerobic bacteria)
Ringer's Solution Bath (I couldn't get the ingredients in time to make the Ringer's myself so the vet put together a Normosol-R/5%Dextrose 2:1 solution instead) 30 minutes twice a day.
The 'Clinic'
Quarantine Tank with spring water, a wet unbleached paper towel on clay plant saucers to prevent dehydration (newts tend to come out of the water when ill), some leafs to hide and a small Elite Mini filter without carbon filtration
As soon as I started the Normosol bath Peter seemed to get more lively. Normosol is an aqueous solution containing the electrolytes sodium, potassium, magnesium, chloride, acetate and gluconate.
After the bath I let him sit in spring water to wash off the Normosol and to offer frozen blood worms which he refused for several days. The vet highly suggested to keep his weight up, so I smashed up the blood worms into very fine pieces and used the syringe in the picture with the very fine tip to feed Peter once a day a small portion. It worked very well. The smaller syringe opening definitely makes administering the meds and food a lot easier than using the regular syringe with the large round opening.
I used two of these, one for the meds and one for feeding
To get the syringe tip into his mouth I very gently pushed down on his lower jaw while moving the syringe tip along the mouth until the mouth openend a little. With the small tip the mouth needs to open only very slightly. If you have to administer meds, make sure to hold your newt upright for a few seconds to make sure that the meds are swallowed. Because the dose of medication was so small, I would draw the right amount of meds in the syringe, attach the thin tip, push the meds in the thin tip, take of the tip in which the meds would sit like a little drop, draw some spring water into the syringe and re-attach the thin tip with the meds. If you don't use some extra spring water to flush the meds out, they will just sit in the tip of the syringe and not get into the animal.
Drawing Baytril
Carefully prying mouth open
Administering Baytril
Offering Blood Worms/dip in spring water after Normosol bath
Testing Water Chemicals
Peter moved back into his home two days ago. He shed almost right away and I believe he ate the shed as I couldn't find the skin anywhere in the tank. He didn't eat for the first two days. Today he ate a chunk of frozen blood worms for the first time after he got sick all by himself!
All better and back in his home, Day 15
I am very happy to report that my T. gran Peter has recovered from his infection.
The diagnosis was a systemic bacterial and parasitic infection. Signs were bloating in the head and stomach region, red arteries along ventral side of body (usually a sign for a systemic infection), darkened central artery (running from head to tail on ventral side), lethargy, no appetite, hard lump in lower jaw region.
Interesting was that the vet said that blood work cannot be done on newts as the amount of blood that can be drawn is too little to give an accurate reading. My first newt Izzy who passed away about a year ago and who I had brought to a different vet had drawn blood twice!
The reason for the x-ray was mainly to determine what the lump in his lower jaw was caused by, but the vet was unable to come to any conclusions from the image. The elongated dark line on the right side along the spine is the right lung. The vet suggested that the left lung might have rolled under and that it is not unusual in amphibians to see only one lung on an x-ray. The darker spot at the median right lung lobe just along the spine is his stomach which appears to be empty.
I thought some of you might find this x-ray of interest.
X-ray
Here is how I treated Peter:
Administered Baytril 2.27mg/ml Dilution - .03 cc once a day for 12 days (against bacteria)
Metronidazole 5 mg/ml - 0.02 cc once a day fro 5 days (against parasites and anaerobic bacteria)
Ringer's Solution Bath (I couldn't get the ingredients in time to make the Ringer's myself so the vet put together a Normosol-R/5%Dextrose 2:1 solution instead) 30 minutes twice a day.
The 'Clinic'
Quarantine Tank with spring water, a wet unbleached paper towel on clay plant saucers to prevent dehydration (newts tend to come out of the water when ill), some leafs to hide and a small Elite Mini filter without carbon filtration
As soon as I started the Normosol bath Peter seemed to get more lively. Normosol is an aqueous solution containing the electrolytes sodium, potassium, magnesium, chloride, acetate and gluconate.
After the bath I let him sit in spring water to wash off the Normosol and to offer frozen blood worms which he refused for several days. The vet highly suggested to keep his weight up, so I smashed up the blood worms into very fine pieces and used the syringe in the picture with the very fine tip to feed Peter once a day a small portion. It worked very well. The smaller syringe opening definitely makes administering the meds and food a lot easier than using the regular syringe with the large round opening.
I used two of these, one for the meds and one for feeding
To get the syringe tip into his mouth I very gently pushed down on his lower jaw while moving the syringe tip along the mouth until the mouth openend a little. With the small tip the mouth needs to open only very slightly. If you have to administer meds, make sure to hold your newt upright for a few seconds to make sure that the meds are swallowed. Because the dose of medication was so small, I would draw the right amount of meds in the syringe, attach the thin tip, push the meds in the thin tip, take of the tip in which the meds would sit like a little drop, draw some spring water into the syringe and re-attach the thin tip with the meds. If you don't use some extra spring water to flush the meds out, they will just sit in the tip of the syringe and not get into the animal.
Drawing Baytril
Carefully prying mouth open
Administering Baytril
Offering Blood Worms/dip in spring water after Normosol bath
Testing Water Chemicals
Peter moved back into his home two days ago. He shed almost right away and I believe he ate the shed as I couldn't find the skin anywhere in the tank. He didn't eat for the first two days. Today he ate a chunk of frozen blood worms for the first time after he got sick all by himself!
All better and back in his home, Day 15
