sick CFB newt...help please

[clairet]

Hi
I have 5 CFB and they have all been fine for months...i recently took in 2 more from elsewhere, and these 2 have since died. They never looked well and had feet missing and white patches on them, now one of my original 5 has a couple of white patches on his leg and by his head (they look like ulcers) and appears in pain. i have isolated him but would like to know if there is anything i can do, and can i treat him with anything, also should i treat the original tank? last partial water change was 4 days ago.

 

[Azhael]

What your newt has is a flesh eating infection. The standard procedure is to give it salt baths(you can find several threads on the forum describing the exact quantities and times). Keeping it cool will be of help as it will slow down the infection and give it´s inmune system a fighting chance.

This kind of infections are very common in Cynops orientalis bought in shops because they are wild caught in China, and suffer an importation in bad and crowded conditions. By the time they arrive at the shop they are usualy in poor health, and as you can imagine, most pet-shops don´t do anything to improve that, in fact they usually make it worse.
That´s why quarantine is very important. All animals should be quarantined, but WC ones should be given special attention.

 

[Jennewt]

The problem with trying to treat skin ulcers is that there are so many possible causes: bacteria, viruses, fungi... all can cause these symptoms. You can try a "shotgun" approach, using antibiotics and hope for the best. A veterinarian is the best approach, assuming that you can find one willing and knowledgable. If that's not possible, then I'm not sure what products you have available there.

Try to keep all the newts as cool as possible in temperature. This is probably a situation where you should truly sterilize the whole tank. There is clearly something infectious that has transferred from the new newts to the old ones. Of course you can't sterilize the newts themselves, but everything else in the tank can be boiled, baked, or treated with a dilute solution of chlorine bleach (or other critter-safe disinfectant). In the meantime, the newts will have to live in a temporary setup. Of course, it's possible that the stress of living in a temporary tank may be more stressful than the exposure to the germs... that's a difficult choice.