Illness/Sickness: Possible Cloacal Prolapse

[exrocketsled]

Hello everyone, I'll see to introducing myself properly once this is resolved. My friends recently gave me their gfp axolotl, Mr. Kipper, because they are moving across the country and needed to re-home them. However, I noticed an odd protrusion coming from his cloaca about a week ago, and at first I wasn't sure if it was a prolapse or if it was something that naturally occurred in males that are ready to breed. It has not retracted or protruded any more since I first noticed it. Now that I am looking at pictures of normal male axolotl cloaca, I believe his cloaca was somewhat inflamed when I first got him as I was a bit shocked as to its size. However, I did not notice the prolapse until about a week ago. There is occasionally a bit of redness around the cloaca as seen in the second photo, but this seems to come and go.

I tested his water parameters yesterday afternoon and they are as follows:

Temperature: 68F
pH: 7.0
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: between 0 and 5ppm

In addition, he is a two and a half year old male, about eight inches long, living in a standard 10 gallon tank with large river rock substrate and a couple of small plants. The tank has a baffled HoB filter that produces very little current, and I siphon under the river rock as best as I can every four days or so. I'm getting tired of how tough it is to clean and being afraid of Kip swallowing a rock, so I'm going to switch to black aquarium sand while he's in a clean Rubbermaid today. I feed him 8-10 HBH newt and salamander pellets every four days as that's how his previous owner fed him, although he'll gladly sit in his food dish and look up when it's not feeding time! Generally, he has not been acting like a sick or stressed animal, his tail has never been curled at the end, and his gills move about freely as he lumbers and swims.

I am not sure what caused the prolapse - perhaps the stress of being moved in a car for two hours in a small amount of very dirty water? Throughout his lifetime, Kip has been moved from Pennsylvania to Oregon to Washington and now back to Oregon again, all in a car, and that's AFTER he was shipped to his first home in Pennsylvania as a little guy!

Is there anything else I should be doing? I would hate to fridge the poor little guy or drag him to the local herp vet if there are less drastic measures I can take to help him with his issue. Thank you so much!

 

[jeromeetabuzo]

Hello everyone, I'll see to introducing myself properly once this is resolved. My friends recently gave me their gfp axolotl, Mr. Kipper, because they are moving across the country and needed to re-home them. However, I noticed an odd protrusion coming from his cloaca about a week ago, and at first I wasn't sure if it was a prolapse or if it was something that naturally occurred in males that are ready to breed. It has not retracted or protruded any more since I first noticed it. Now that I am looking at pictures of normal male axolotl cloaca, I believe his cloaca was somewhat inflamed when I first got him as I was a bit shocked as to its size. However, I did not notice the prolapse until about a week ago. There is occasionally a bit of redness around the cloaca as seen in the second photo, but this seems to come and go.

I tested his water parameters yesterday afternoon and they are as follows:

Temperature: 68F
pH: 7.0
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: between 0 and 5ppm

In addition, he is a two and a half year old male, about eight inches long, living in a standard 10 gallon tank with large river rock substrate and a couple of small plants. The tank has a baffled HoB filter that produces very little current, and I siphon under the river rock as best as I can every four days or so. I'm getting tired of how tough it is to clean and being afraid of Kip swallowing a rock, so I'm going to switch to black aquarium sand while he's in a clean Rubbermaid today. I feed him 8-10 HBH newt and salamander pellets every four days as that's how his previous owner fed him, although he'll gladly sit in his food dish and look up when it's not feeding time! Generally, he has not been acting like a sick or stressed animal, his tail has never been curled at the end, and his gills move about freely as he lumbers and swims.

I am not sure what caused the prolapse - perhaps the stress of being moved in a car for two hours in a small amount of very dirty water? Throughout his lifetime, Kip has been moved from Pennsylvania to Oregon to Washington and now back to Oregon again, all in a car, and that's AFTER he was shipped to his first home in Pennsylvania as a little guy!

Is there anything else I should be doing? I would hate to fridge the poor little guy or drag him to the local herp vet if there are less drastic measures I can take to help him with his issue. Thank you so much!

Im not quite sure , to be sure is he eating ?? is he pooping fine? but i saw the cloaca its enlarged , and also what did your friend or you feeding it? does he have gravel in his tank? the test are fine though, and also did you see it poop a red stuff??? if it pooped a red stuff then its a prolapse , and also i suggest you sending your axie to a vet ...

 

[exrocketsled]

Yes, he is eating. I feed him HBH newt/salamander pellets every four days, about 8-10 pellets per feeding, and that's also what my friends fed him before. He eats them enthusiastically, and while I have not actually witnessed him pooping I have seen bits of axie poo dust appearing throughout his tank.

Since I made my first post, I put Kip in the clean rubbermaid while the new aquarium sand loses its air bubbles. He hasn't seemed too thrilled about the change in scenery, and he's been swimming about the temporary enclosure in protest whenever I enter the room. His tail has turned slightly pink and veiny, but that may simply be due to stress and an increase in activity. I'm going to leave him in the container overnight (I checked ammonia levels and pH and temp, it seems fine for the time being) and see how the sand looks in the morning, though I may just add him anyway so he can de-stress on the sand. To calm him and hopefully get him to poop for me by morning, I gave him a few pellets and he swam up to gobble them right out of my fingers before I could finish dropping them! I guess that means HE thinks everything is all right, aside from his feeding schedule.

By the way, despite the water test being mostly okay, there was a LOT of built-up axie poop under all of those rocks. There must have been two inches of big river rock that I wasn't able to clean under, and I doubt my friend could do it either - hopefully Kip will be happy in a cleaner enclosure once this is all said and done!

Truth be told, this whole ordeal seems to be stressing me out more than it's stressing him. The water parameters for the tank seem to be pretty much the same as they were before minus the nitrates, and I did not touch the filter media at all while performing the substrate change so the cycle should be intact.

Any more advice is welcome, and thank you so much for your input.

 

[jeromeetabuzo]

Yes, he is eating. I feed him HBH newt/salamander pellets every four days, about 8-10 pellets per feeding, and that's also what my friends fed him before. He eats them enthusiastically, and while I have not actually witnessed him pooping I have seen bits of axie poo dust appearing throughout his tank.

Since I made my first post, I put Kip in the clean rubbermaid while the new aquarium sand loses its air bubbles. He hasn't seemed too thrilled about the change in scenery, and he's been swimming about the temporary enclosure in protest whenever I enter the room. His tail has turned slightly pink and veiny, but that may simply be due to stress and an increase in activity. I'm going to leave him in the container overnight (I checked ammonia levels and pH and temp, it seems fine for the time being) and see how the sand looks in the morning, though I may just add him anyway so he can de-stress on the sand. To calm him and hopefully get him to poop for me by morning, I gave him a few pellets and he swam up to gobble them right out of my fingers before I could finish dropping them! I guess that means HE thinks everything is all right, aside from his feeding schedule.

By the way, despite the water test being mostly okay, there was a LOT of built-up axie poop under all of those rocks. There must have been two inches of big river rock that I wasn't able to clean under, and I doubt my friend could do it either - hopefully Kip will be happy in a cleaner enclosure once this is all said and done!

Truth be told, this whole ordeal seems to be stressing me out more than it's stressing him. The water parameters for the tank seem to be pretty much the same as they were before minus the nitrates, and I did not touch the filter media at all while performing the substrate change so the cycle should be intact.

Any more advice is welcome, and thank you so much for your input.

As you have said , I see that your axolotl is probably stressed either in the transport or in the tank, If you saw a poop what was the color was it pinkish-red with brown things?If your not quite sure , feel free to post the picture of the poop here and people can help you out

 

[exrocketsled]

Kip pooped in the box overnight. It hasn't dissolved into dust yet and it's most definitely a dark brown color, like I would expect. There are no red flecks, no blood, and nothing strange. His cloaca is a bit pink and swollen, but that protrusion I saw has apparently resolved itself. He seems to be straining to poop a bit more and is swimming all around the box with a bit of it, um, trailing behind him, but I'll see if the rest comes out on its own soon before I panic.

Is it possible that he was simply constipated? Should I change my feeding routine? The sand has settled aside from some air bubbles, should I reintroduce him to the tank to reduce stress?

EDIT: I looked more closely at some of the "dissolved" poo, and it looks a bit like the long-leafed plant (it's a bit like a fern) that my friends had in the tank before. It was not in very good health, and neither were any of the other plants, so I tossed it out with the river rock. It was always shedding whole leaves into the water and making a mess! Is it possible that he ate one of those shed leaves and that made him a bit...um, uncomfortable for awhile?

 

[Bellabelloo]

It certainly is possible, I have an axolotl that eats the duck weed.

 

[exrocketsled]

He is still straining to finish his business. Should I put him back in his tank or do something else?

The tank has lots of little air bubbles on the surface of the sand and a few more in various parts of the tank, by the way. Is it safe to put him back in yet or should I clean the bin and add more fresh water?

 

[jeromeetabuzo]

He is still straining to finish his business. Should I put him back in his tank or do something else?

The tank has lots of little air bubbles on the surface of the sand and a few more in various parts of the tank, by the way. Is it safe to put him back in yet or should I clean the bin and add more fresh water?

I dont see anything as sign of a prolapsed in your axolotl , maybe it's a birth deformity? if you want it checked then , i suggest bring it to a vet