I woke up and my newt is crippled :S

[jessy]

hello!

I think this newt likes making problems for me... this morning when I was feeding Newt I noticed his leg was all bent up funny it's his back right and I've noticed him moving funny on it for a bout a week but it didn't seem strange to me until tonight, I just assumed he was a bad swimmer. But today he wasn't moving it at all, and it's bent completely upwards, he wasn't using it to swim or to walk on land.

anyone know if I can help him at all? he's in the tank, just him and a snail.. so unless the snail pulled out some kung-fu of something... i don't know.. any ideas?

Thanks!!!

 

[cecilia]

maybe he broke his leg, maybe a bad fall on it or maybe while he was eating. just give it time is it swollen or infected? if it is clean your tank and try not to disturb him

 

[james]

If it goes on for a long period, or he is looking extremely unhappy, you may want to consider amputation. This isn't as bad as it sounds, as the leg will regrow after a few months. Your main worry would be infection to the wound. Maybe a trip to the vet would be better than home surgery.

 

[jessy]

oh my god, I could not cut his leg off.. I would deffinatly have to go to the vet for that.. His leg is a big swollen, I'm trying not to bug him too much, when I woke up this morning, he's still in the same place/position I left him in when I went to bed last night... and I left some food a few inches away from him and it hasn't been touched. Anybody know of a vet in the Ottawa area that might know about newts?

 

[james]

Take a look at:
http://www.herpvetconnection.com/ontario.shtml
I am sure one of the vets listed could help.

For more info on limb regeneration, take a look at:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/limb_series.shtml
Not sure which newt you have ....

 

[john]

Get the snail out of there. If the newt is close to the snail and the snail decides to move, it could crush the newts limbs under its suction pad. It would most likely break the limb. It sounds like that is what happened. I have heard a couple of stories just like this one.

The only tankmates for newts, should be other newts of the same species. Thats it. Get the snail out of there and get that newt to a vet.

(Message edited by nuggular on May 18, 2005)