Fire belly newt rotting mouth

[kelvin]

The mouth of my japanese fire belly seems to be slowly rotting away. There are two holes on the lower lips now and they are slowly enlarging.

I change water regularly but direct tap water. Inside tank is a corydora which i have since removed.

Nothing else in tank except a small internal filter with driftwood and javafern.

Kept in office so temp is not as high as outdoors.

How do i stop the rot/ulcer?

 

[ali]

I certainly hope you're using something to dechlorinate the water, such as Stress Coat. If you do not treat the tap water then it needs to sit out for 24 hours before you use it.

To stop the rotting, try Melafix which you can get from any pet store or Wal-Mart in the fish section. This will only work well if the animal is spending time in the water.

 

[jennifer]

I doubt Melafix would do much for an advanced infection like this. I'd recommend a vet and strong antibiotics.

 

[kelvin]

another point is that since i got it one month ago, it hasnt shed at all!

my tank is congested so if it shed i would see the skin but i havent seen any

 

[andrew read]

I've found that a concentrated solution of erythromycin applied locally often works well against this problem.

 

[edward]

The majority of amphibian pathogens are gram negative bacteria and erythromycin is primarily for use against gram positive baceteria as gram negative bacteria do not readily respond to erythromycin. Erythromycin is not a drug of choice for treating amphibians, fish or reptiles for those reasons.

Often lesions like this are due to more than one species of pathogen in the jaw and a slide impression should be taken to determine if there is a fungal element involved in the lesion as antibiotic will not resolve the fungal caused lesions.

Ed

Ed

 

[ali]

Newts often eat their sheddings too. So if it has shed, it may have eaten it and you wouldn't see it. Normally when there is a wound, I think they shed more often in an attempt to heal itsself.

 

[kelvin]

are there any occasion that it does not shed? what is the consequence of not shedding?

 

[edward]

I would have to try and dig around in the literature but I expect that it would be possible the skin to not be shed but I doubt that is the case in your animal. I believe that this has been recorded in some fungal infections)
This or a similar problem has been documented in caudates imported from Asia in the past and has been usually due to an infection that needs effective treatment. It is believed that some small damage allowed for the infection to get started. The problem is that you need to get the tytpe of infection identified and appropriate treatment.

Ed