Dying newt?

[RobM]

Hey all,

I posted a thread a little while back regarding what seems to be the same problem:
http://www.caudata.org/forum/f1-gen...-discussion-news-members/66839-dead-newt.html
Since this incidence I have kept one of the my newts in a separate terrestrial tank, he was always really inactive and would not eat, I think on one occasion he ate part of a chopped up worm.. other than that he would ignore, worms, small crickets and frozen bloodworm. I have another 3 Neurergus kaiseri from a different supplier, and they are very active and will eat avidly, so I never put this one back with the others.
On Thursday I stupidly decided to fill this newts terrestrial tank with water in the hope it might make him more active. He was fine for over 24hours and he did indeed seem more active, as every time I checked on him, he would be in a different location. He still would not eat what I gave him though. Yesterday when I checked on him, he was on the bottom of the tank, with he's mouth slightly open, as I knew from the past this generally wasn't good, so I fished him out and put him on a rock, he was concious still as he walked over it a bit. I decided to put him in a small cricket box with wet paper towel for a while, so I could check on him (plus it was obvious it wasn't safe for the guy to use the water). I straight away done a PH test on the water, which was between 7.5 and 8 ( I am under the understanding between 6.5 and 8.5 is within an ok range).
Woke up this morning and checked on him, and now he wont move, only he's tail, just as described in my previous thread mentioned at the top. As before I see red/blood near the cloaca.
What can I do? What is the problem?

Hopefully these pics might help:
The Red/Blood:

PH test:

Tank:

 

[Bellabelloo]

You need to check this out with a vet, this has been going on a while now.

 

[RobM]

And what do you suggest in the meantime?

 

[Jennewt]

When a newt reaches the point where only the tail moves, it's almost certainly a goner. I don't think that the pH was a factor. I don't think there is anything you can do except to keep the newt on wet paper towels and see what happens.

 

[Mark]

What is the main set-up like and how/what do you feed them? I assume both animals started off in the main set-up with the three healthy ones?

The one shown in this thread is very thin. Did the other newt stop eating as well? With newts it's a vicious circle. Once they stop eating they become weak, when they become weak they become prone to infections, when they become infected their metabolism rises and they don't have the strength to fight it.

What killed it, i.e. an infection, may not be the problem. It's what originally stopped it from eating that you need to figure out, hence the question about the main set-up.