Illness/Sickness: Eurycea with lesions, doesn't use hind legs, weak

[Lamb]

Hi folks,

I've got a Eurycea guttolineata with lesions on the dorsal surface of its tail, immobile hind limbs, and weakness. I also noticed that he was shedding his skin today. I was unable to get crickets for him until today, so he wasn't fed as frequently last week, but he has gone for similar spells without food and been fine. I believe the tail lesions to be cricket bites. I think they are the culprits because his hind limbs can't move so he can't escape them. These crickets are small, the size that he has been eating for months now.

This is not the first time that he has had trouble with his hind limbs. In early August, he lost the use of one of his back legs. I thought that it was due to dehydration, as at the time, I didn't mist his terrarium enough to keep the soil damp enough for him. I misted more often, and he regained his health. This past week my misting has been lax again, but he has a large pool to swim in, and I have seen him use it before. The onset of the immobility of his hind limbs seems rather fast. Less than a week ago he seemed to be in perfect health and was prowling about.

Without knowing what else to do apart from try to keep him cool, moist, and clean, I've put him in a container with wet paper towels in the refrigerator. I have small phoenix worms that are supposed to arrive tomorrow, and I was going to try and feed him those. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I have to admit, Liedenbrock (the salamander's name) has been the more difficult of my amphibians to keep. I haven't had nutritional issues or hydration issues with either my tree frog or my green frog. I wonder if the immobile hind limbs could be a nutritional issue as well? That thought is what prompted me to order phoenix worms. I feel awful about his subpar care thus far.

Attached are three photos. The first is Liedenbrock healthy, the second is over exposed, but note the red lesion on tail. The third is underexposed, but you can make out the spots where there were/still are lesions (look for where the golden strip down his tail is interrupted). Most of the spots are a medium grey color. I wonder if that means they have begun to heal? Or is it something else?

 

[jbherpin]

Describe his enclosure from bare bottom, through all substrate, and also how long has his tank been going?

-jbherpin-

 

[Lamb]

Bottom up: fir& sphagnum peat moss mix then leaf litter and a rooted cutting of golden pothos plant. A 2x4 inch water container that is at least half full, with a stick sticking out onto land, a rock, and a cricket floater. The terrarium container itself is a critter carrier, so the top has lots of slits in it, which makes maintaining a high humidity difficult. I keep it covered with a tea towel, which helps. He's been in this tank for 1 month. The carrier is prob. equivalent to a 4 gal. tank.

 

[Lamb]

Update:

The phoenix worms came in. I put 3 (they are small) in the quarantine container with Liedenbrock, I'll let you know if he munches any. He was more active this morning, but cannot seem to use anything below his waist. I spoke with my herpetology professor, he said that the outlook is grim. Apparently, hind limb paralysis occurs with some neonate lizards, and once the limbs are paralyzed, death is soon to follow. He doesn't know the tendency in caudates. The lesions are not longer red, they look like they have all healed.