Illness/Sickness: Axolotl has a swollen mouth

[Axolotlgirl18]

Yesterday I got home to find my axolotl laying upside down at the bottom of the tank. I gently turned him over and he’s still alive, but very weak and his mouth looks puffed out or swollen as if he’s trying to swallow something. I’ve checked and there’s nothing stuck in it. I changed his water immediately and he now has clean water and is in the fridge as it’s been hot lately. Any advice?
I’m new to the site so I can’t tell if I uploaded the photos of him correctly. If I did, it’s just some brine shrimp in the water that will be cleaned out (it was added after the water change)

 

[Murk]

Oof, this sounds bad. Laying upside down is not a good sign. Is he able to keep upright by now?



The pictures didn't work; if you can manage to upload those, that might help.

Furthermore: does the axolotl seem bloated (more round than normal) or maybe thinner than usual?

Has he eaten well the past days (and if you know: pooped well)?


Did you take water parameters before changing it all? Ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are always good to know.

 

[Axolotlgirl18]

Sometimes he can stay upright, every now and then I find him in his side or back. Once I set him right he seems fine. He seems swollen around the front part of his body but not the back part. He’s been off his food a bit but during summer that’s normal for him. And no idea about the poop situation. Unfortunately I don’t have access to any test kits to check the water. I’ve tried to attach the pics to this message, I think I was more successful this time

 

[Axolotlgirl18]

Please I’m still looking for help. My axolotl is moving around much better and seems happier but won’t eat. His face is still swollen and now the little bump under is tail -the cochlea I think- has swollen to two big bumps. There’s also a bit of a white substance in the water every now and then

 

[Tomacine]

my axolotl has a swollen jaw as well his mouth won't close and he won't eat... i changed the water and gave him a sea salt bath today for 15 minutes in hop a s that he will get better.. however he is not eating at all

 

[Calgarycoppers]

That is likely an infection and needs vet treatment. I have heard the same presenting complaint a few times from my vet friend.

my axolotl has a swollen jaw as well his mouth won't close and he won't eat... i changed the water and gave him a sea salt bath today for 15 minutes in hop a s that he will get better.. however he is not eating at all

 

[Laciesharee]

It looks like he may have swollowed something. Axolotls in the wild swollow rocks lots of them. To the point this behavior was studied. They deemed that they use the rocks like gastroliths which are rocks that are swollowed by an animal to aid them usually to help with digestion. Chickens do this too, they swollow rocks to help grind up their food because they have such simple stomaches. So do axololts, but there are notable differences; they studied the behavior and noticed that baby axolotls seem to instinctively pick up different stones rolling them in their mouth and picking smaller rocks that they can regurgitate or poop out spitting out larger rocks they observed that this allows baby Axolotls to have a better center of gravity allowing them so swim in a current better, and the rocks can aid in digesting harder materials like shrimp shells, bug... my brain is forgetting the word but a bugs natural thick skin their something Skelton? Anyway you catch the drift normally I'd say that's an infection and it could be but you can see the bump is passed their throat as the line where the mouth ends is above the bump so you likely wouldn't see anything with their mouth open. The fact they were up sidedown and can't eat just furthers my suspicion. Either way even if it a really bad infection though it doesn't look like open mouth or any internal bacteria I've seen before if they're laying up side down they need a vet. I'd put money they swollowed something ..