Injured leg

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dawn

Guest
I have a C.Orientalis that I got a couple months ago and up until now she (or he) has been spending most of her time in the water, occasionally coming up onto the small piece of land in the tank but lately she has been spending almost all of her time out of the water and when I took a close look at her today I realised she has injured one of her front legs. She has the whole aquarium to herself so she was not attacked, I think she might have got it trapped under a stone or something. She can move it around but it is straight at the elbow and she cant seem to bend it at all, it also looks a little swolen.

The real problem is that she won't go in the water and I can't get her to eat. I have been feeding frozen bloodworms until now but when i tried putting her in the water to feed her today, she got all panicy because she couldn't swim properly and she wouldnt go too deep, it seemed like she was scared she wouldn't be able to get out again.

I will try and find a bait shop in the area and get some live earthworms to feed her on the land but apart from that is there anything I can do about her leg? Do I need to just leave it to heal naturally?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.
 
I notice no one has answered yet and I dn't have any experience. But have you looked at the article at the home page www.caudata.org. I found a FAQ there about uninfected injuries and about how to coax a newt into the water. Hope you get your answers soon.
 
Dawn, did you find the FAQ? Coming out of the water could be a sign of heat stress or illness. Once their skin dries out, they have the reaction you saw - acting distressed in water. Try feeding with tweezers. Regarding the leg, see:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/sores.shtml

(Message edited by jennewt on July 17, 2005)
 
Thanks for that guys.

I can't see any open wounds though so I don't know if antibiotics or the other treatments mentioned are the answer. I will try and get a closer look to make sure the skin is not broken.

We have had an unusually hot summer this year so it is possible that is having an effect. I have been floating ice packs in the water but unfortunately nobody has AC in their homes in this country! Water quality is good and there are no tankmates to pass on infection or take a bite out of her.

Still looking for somewhere to buy earthworms. Is anybody here from the Fife/Dundee/Edinburgh/Perth area and can recommend somewhere?

Thanks again for the help, will keep you updated.

Dawn
 
Jen - I have been talking to another member of the forum via email and he said you were the person to ask on this as you have plenty experience.

Since this thread was started I got hold of live earthworms. They're small and I cut them up into bitesize pieces. I tried laying them on land and also holding them in front of her with tweezers. She still won't eat though. I've been keeping her moist and tried lifting her into the water again and she isn't so panicy anymore so I guess there is some small progress there. She is still spending all her time out of the water though and not eating.

As for the leg, here is a picture showing it. It's the front one. She can't bend it at the elbow.
40955.jpg

You can also see how skinny she is getting.
sad.gif
I am getting seriously worried but I don't know what else to do. I'm only writing this as a last resort to see if anyone has any bright ideas. Many thanks if anyone does!
 
I wish I had some useful advice for you, Dawn, but I don't. It sounds like you are doing the best things for trying to get her to eat. You could try moving her to a very shallow water setup and see if you can get the newt to re-equilibrate to water. But if its leg is really injured, this may just cause it more pain or stress.
 
Hi Dawn, I do not have much experience or alot of knowledge of firebellies however mine will only eat live chopped earth worms and will not eat the bloodworms my pet shop sold me. Mine spend alot of time on land so I feed them small pieces of chopped earth worms on a small flat rock, they seem to be attracted by the worms wiggling about. I dont know if u have tried this already but hope it is of some help. Good Luck!
 
Dawn, for earthworms try the following website..

www.wormsdirect.co.uk

i use them quite often, and i now a few other forum users do too.. they are delivered quite quick too nd good value for money
 
One of the missing weekend posts was a reply I added to this thread so here it goes again....

Hugh and Kim - Thanks for the help. I had already managed to get earthworms from a mail order catalogue.

Jen - Putting her in the shallow water set up seems to have done some good and she is now spending much more time in the water. Once she was back in I decided to try again with some blood worms and she took a couple so there is a little progress there.
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Thanks everyone!
 
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