Illness/Sickness: Floating, bloated newt

[Babidi]

Hi all.

My paddletail, who's about 8-9 nine years old, has had some swelling about his middle for about a year now. It started out barely noticeable, then very, very gradually became larger. This never seemed to change his active, playful temperament or appetite, so without any qualified herp vets in the area, I just let it be.

Just today, he seems very different from his usual self. He will not chase you if you place your finger in his water as he would before and food doesn't seem to interest him. His middle is very bloated, but the rest of his body is not. Before this, he ate in excess as he usually does - waxworms, bloodworms, mealworms - but now his ribs are slightly evident, barely 48 hours after his last meal. Most worrying, he seems to be having difficulty keeping himself upright and submerged. He alternates between being mostly submerged to outright floating on the water's surface, often keeping his head above water. Is this just a passing episode of gas or is there something else going on here that I can do something about without a vet's help?

 

[RobM]

Is it just her middle that is bloated? or her throat too?
Has anything recently changed in his environment? new decoration, different temperatures, a decrease in water quality?

 

[Babidi]

It's just his middle. He hasn't had any drastic changes to his environment lately. I tested for ammonia and found nothing, too. There are no live plants or anything from outdoors, just the same artificial trees, logs, and filter he's had for years now.

He also now seems very intent on trying to get out of the water and sit atop things, which he never had before, being fully aquatic. Last night, he shed in pieces and left his skin hanging from decos in the tank. This morning, I found him sitting, mostly out of the water, atop his filter. He's still moving around quite a bit. His equilibrium has seemed off for quite a while now, causing him to swerve around and then awkwardly swim when put down, and he seems to have particular discomfort over being picked up by his midsection (note: I don't pick him up very often at all, just the odd time when he seems to get stuck on decorations in his tank).

 

[Babidi]

Hi again.

Following the advice offered in other threads when people had bloated/floating newts, I did about a 75% water change for him today. He now seems to be able to submerge and walk around, but is still somewhat swollen about the midsection and much prefers being out of the water, atop his filter, than within the water as he's always been in the past. I don't know whether he can control his floating or sinking, but he either swims himself over to and climbs up on top his filter, or guides his floating self over to climb up onto it. He still seems to have a lot of strength in him and is very mobile when in the water, but once he's out of the water, he seems perfectly content to just stay there, which he has never shown any inclination toward in the past 8-9 years. He does not respond to motion in front of him, such as a worm or a finger, something he would readily chase and/or eat in the past.

 

[Babidi]

Hi all.

I found him atop his filter tonight again, half in, half out of the water. This time, he was doing something a little strange; he'd sort of push against the hard surface of the tank wall, straining himself, and 'belching' up little bubbles as he did that. I thought he was hurting himself, so I sort of inched him away from the wall to coerce him out of it, but he responded by just stretching himself back and forth, expelling more bubbles and sometimes taking air in. Sometimes, as the bubbles left him, his middle momentarily 'deflated', but just grew back again immediately after.

What's going on here?

 

[RobM]

That sounds very peculiar. I am afraid I do not know what the problem is, I would guess its related to trapped gas though. Perhaps don't feed him for a while and see if that helps clear it?

 

[donia]

Sorry if I have missed this somewhere in the thread, but does he have gravel as substrate? Could it be that he has swallowed some (or anything else) that he now can't pass? This may also account for the burping you saw - maybe gases building up can't get past a blockage.

I don't know anything about keeping this species, but I had a similar problem with one of my Ribbed newts 2 years ago. She got so bloated, even after antibiotics, that I had her put down. Personally, I won't be taking any of my newts to a vet again. Long story short, even exotics vets seem to know little about amphibian conditions (but will still take your money!!). Maybe Canadian vets are more advanced in this area though............. If you do go to a vet, an X-ray could show what's going on........

Hopefully someone else with experience of this species will come along.

 

[Babidi]

He has not eaten for about a week, simply because he doesn't show any interest in food.

He once had gravel as substrate, and I feared that he had swallowed some because of his initial swelling, so I removed it and left him with a bare tank bottom. This seemed to stress him out significantly, to the point where he was no longer eating and very quickly losing weight, so I found larger gravel to put him back into and he returned to normal again. Now, not so much.

I did a Google look-up about newts expelling bubbles and found this:

Gas Bubble Disease in Aquatic Frogs, Newts and Salamanders | That Reptile Blog

I can't think of any reason why he'd have this, though. There's no hose for his filter to have leaks in and its outflow has constantly either been a very light aeration (flowing just above the water's surface) or a strong current (directed below the water's surface) as the paddletail caresheet suggests for stream newts. There is also no sizable collection of bubbles on or in his water. There have always been a lot of tiny, white 'worm-like' figures, but they've never appeared to bother him before.

 

[findi]

Hi,

I wrote the article you mentioned re Gas Bubble Disease; I believe you are correct in that GBD is likely not the problem. Bacterial infections of any type can cause gas buildup as well, but such would usually be fatal if untreated for such a long time. Waxworms and mealworms are very hard for newts to digest, an occasional waxworm would be fine, or a newly-molted (white) mealworm, but otherwise best to avoid. A blockage may be involved...this fits in with the slow progression of the problem as well.

Please check back in on my blog, at the article you mentioned, and I'll try to refer you to an experienced vet in your area; any other info you have would be useful as well,

Best, Frank Indiviglio

 

[Babidi]

Hi, thanks for the reply, Frank.

I had worries about a blockage ever since I first noticed the swelling, but he still passed excrement as much as he ever did and had no change in his appetite. I know waxworms are very unhealthy for them, so I only fed him one or two every couple of weeks. The mealworms I feed my newts, I always wait until they've shed first, on account of worrying about their hard outer casings.

I can't think of much more info to add. The last thing he had was a couple of waxworms about 4-5 days back, the first he's had in a couple weeks. He always enjoyed them the few times he's had them, so I thought I'd give him a treat. Otherwise, his main diet has been frozen bloodworms, with some episodes of live crickets over the years, but not recently. He hasn't had any mealworms in a week or more.

 

[Babidi]

Is there any reliable way to force-feed a paddletail newt? Is there anything I can or should be doing to help him?

 

[RobM]

Newts can go weeks without eating, there is no need to attempt to force feed him yet.