Little guy, missing arm, need help & advice!

[ILoveYouZandT]

Hi there, I'm new to this site so be gentle with me!

My husband found a newt/salamander (I really can't figure out the difference ) in our backyard. We live in townhouses with small yards which open out onto a parking lot! I couldn't figure out where he could have come from and then realized I used to hear frogs far far down the road, so perhaps that's where.

Anyways! My husband found him, and he is missing his right arm. The whole thing. We took him in because honestly our backyard was not the place for him to be and we really didn't know what else to do with him. So we went out and bought him a home, and basic stuff. We got him frozen blood worms. We quickly realized he wouldn't eat those and on advice of a friend we went and got some pinhead crickets. He wouldn't eat those either. Now we've had him since Monday, so 5 days and he hasn't eaten. Then last night I was checking him out as I do through the day and noticed 'fuzz' growing from his arm stump? I've come to realize this could be fungus/infection, yes?!

So I guess I'm wondering, what are the possibilities of his survival? He spends most time on land hiding behind something we have in his home. He does always look wet so I assume he is going in to get wet. Did I wait to long to take action? I naively thought it would just.. Heal/grow. And that once he was settled he would eat. It appears this is not likely.

What should I do?!

Should I try something to help him? Should I let him go? (Advice of a dude at the pet store).

My son loves him and we just want him to live! I'll attach a picture of him.

Thank you in advance for any help or advice!

Taya

**The picture was right after we found him**

 

[ILoveYouZandT]

No one?! Really?! Seriously, even if its just to say he's beyond help. Something!

 

[jasper408]

Once you take in a wild animal, you are essentially stuck with it. You are not supposed to catch and release because you do not want to be introducing new pathogens into the environment.

I'm guessing what you have is an Pacific Giant Salamander. Do you have any pictures of the enclosure? This species requires care like that of the tiger salamander (there isn't much on Pacific Giant Salamanders). Caudata Culture Species Entry - Tiger salamander
There are plenty of example enclosures that people have used to great success. Do you meet the temperature and enclosure requirements?

5 days without eating isn't unheard of, especially among the larger species, and even more so of a wild-caught, unacclimated individual. I have had one species take over a week to eat... and these were not wild-caught. At lower temperatures, the metabolism slows and the need to eat is lessened. However, you should still provide hides to make him feel safe, and he should eat on his own accord. You can also try earthworms; their movement encourages feeding.

Fungus growing on a wound is also pretty common, and I would recommend clearing it off, applying hydrogen peroxide, and then neosporin over that, as detailed in: http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...-treat-tail-wound-terrestrial-salamander.html
The salamander detailed above did not have fungus, but hydrogen peroxide is known to be anti-fungal.

Don't take this the wrong way, but the search function provides a quick and easy answer if you have any more questions. Feel free to ask; I'm just pointing out a great reference. Best of luck to all of you.

 

[ILoveYouZandT]

Thank you for your response.

I am about 99% positive he is not a Pacific Giant Salamander. That is not what he looks like at all. But this is the issue when it comes to just using the search function, I don't know what type of salamander he is. And I see information for other salamanders that are much much larger than mine. There are so many different kinds out there, obviously it's fairly difficult to identify them. the closest thing I could find was a Northwestern Salamander. However he is very small, and I'm still likely not correct.

I didn't have any plan to release him, that was just the suggestion of a guy at a pet store. As far as I'm concerned he has a better chance with us than in the wild.

I don't have a picture of his enclosure on hand. But I know I have no idea what his water temps are or anything. Which all goes back to having no idea what he is. I don't know how I'm supposed to be treating him. I'll try the peroxide, I don't have neosporin and actually don't think it's sold here..? I'm not sure. I have polysporin? I'm sure it would work the same.

 

[jasper408]

If you are ruling out Giant Pacific Salamanders due to color, you shouldn't- coloration is highly variable in this species, and definitely changes among populations. In addition to that, juveniles are also commonly a drabber brown, and are both smaller and less stocky than adults.

Either way, your guess is as good as mine, (probably better) because he is right there in front of you. Species does not matter all too much; both species mentioned have the same distribution and therefore the same living conditions (Like that of a tiger salamander). He was caught on land, right? General rules of thumb: cool temperatures, a water source(an accessible water bowl), and hides(Can be as simple as bark and some rocks found in their habitat) Your best bet is to simulate their natural habitat. How about your air temperatures?

Polysporin lacks neomycin when compared to Neosporin, but otherwise has the exact same antibiotics, and should work the same. Update us on how everything goes!

 

[ILoveYouZandT]

I guess I was just thinking more in his size! All the salamanders and newts and stuff I'm seeing on here are so much bigger when they're being treated. And mine is so small. Could he just be young? Or malnourished? Siigh.

I'm glad you responded because I was just coming to check out if the polysporin was okay. I treated some water then mixed it with peroxide and was dabbing at his arm with a q-tip. It seemed to bubble a bit?! I feel SO bad doing this too him. And his stump is hard and kind of gross feeling when I touch it with the q-tip, and sometimes when I touch it he flips out a bit. I just keep saying "I'm sorry!! I'm so sorry!". This is really hard to do. I'm not sure what is what at this point. If the hard stuff on the end is infection? Or something growing back?! I'm so confused and don't really know what I'm doing. So I'm going to put some poly on it now. I noticed he was pretty dry when we took him out of his enclosure, so I was going to pour a bit of water over him? And put him back in on some damp paper towel?

I have no idea if I'm doing anything right haha. I just want him to live.

Ummmmm, It's quite cold in our home. We don't use the heater. In our room (where he stays) it's kind of fridge like.. Would it be too cold for him?

In his enclosure it's got some gravel which slopes down into water. And he has a... Spongebob pineapple... He hides behind his pineapple ha. I had bought the pineapple for our fish and then it didn't fit in his bowl so I put it in with the salamander because I didn't have anything else and he immediately took to it. We just haven't been back to get him anything else.

 

[AngieD]

It's likely he'll love the cold.
Make sure the 'sporin is the variety which does NOT have painkillers in it

Could it be a rough skinned newt?

 

[ILoveYouZandT]

It doesn't have painkillers from what I could tell. I read the label over and over and over again to check. It was triple antibiotic.

He's not a rough skinned newt, I've had plenty of those growing up. Which I discovered when I started searching what kind of newts live around us lol. :happy:

I hope my pictures work. But I tried to get some closer pictures of of him and his missing arm. Apparently my cameras SUCK. I had him in a separate container while we were treating him, he was trying to escape in the second picture.

Great they worked! You can see his coloring better in these photos. His little tiny speckles he has. His name is Newton.

 

[ILoveYouZandT]

His stub looks like it's grown.. But I'm not sure if it's just infection growing on the end, or the limb actually starting to grow.

 

[ILoveYouZandT]

Just wondering if anyone could answer a question. My salamander is going very pale, is this a bad sign? It started very quickly after using polysporin/peroxide, which we only did twice.


Wishing we had found a salamander NOT missing an arm.

 

[jasper408]

From what I read, http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...er-help/76064-spotted-salamander-so-pale.html , it should be fine.