Fire salamander help please!!!!

[jameswei]

It has been extremely humid in the city lately and my air conditioning broke. As a result, most of my entire batch of sallies have been in the fridge. I took my fire salamander out today to give him a little water spray, and to make sure it was still wet and okay. I took him out and let him hang around while i was cleaning his regular set up. The next moment i heard a huge squishing sound. There were white liquids oozing out of it's back. Its mouth was open and it was convulsing. Im not sure whats happening right now but this is the FIRST time this happened on me. it was convulsing and its raised its head up.... At the moment, its still shaking but i am not sure if this is normal behavior.. can someoen please explain this for me. i lifted him up to inspect him and i noticed that his body weight has changed dramatically and that it felt less solid somehow. i have no idea whats going on.. I will send a picture sooner or later tonight when my sister comes back with her camera. I am not quite sure what to do. Should i take it to a vet. Should i just put it back in the fridge. Or should i just let this past.... please help.

i decided to at least clean off some of the white substance.

(Message edited by newtron on July 28, 2005)

(Message edited by newtron on July 28, 2005)

 

[jennifer]

I'm no expert on fire sals, but it sounds like it released a lot of skin toxin suddenly. Was he handled, or changed abruptly to a different setup or temperature that might have triggered this? You should probably rinse it off and move him to a clean setup (and maybe move it to a clean setup again in a few hours). I have heard cases where newts appear to have paralyzed themselves with their own toxin, so I imagine you want to minimize his exposure to it. How is his behavior now?

 

[jameswei]

Thank you for responding. I change its setup, use water to lightly clean his dorsal and other areas where I saw the white secretion. Right now its lively, its has regain its compsure, it is no longer limp or life-less. I guess jenn that your explanation is correct. What happen was I did not handle the salamander in any way, I simply took him out of the fridge, I guess that the temperature change at that point might have stressed him enough for this to happen. Which is very weird, cause I've done this multiple times without visible signs of stress. It gave me quite a scare, but it seems alright now.

 

[joan]

James, maybe next time you put it in the fridge, you could put a cover on the container, which would kind of insulate the air, and keep it from changing suddenly.

Glad it seems okay though.