sick fire sal

[AllHailRain]

My fire sal I've had for over a year is worrying me.
She's in a 20 gal terrarium with a brick and a half of eco earth, a big water dish and she's usually buried in the dirt.
I feed her earthworms and crickets about once a week.
Well, i lost track of time and i fed her about 3 days late..i felt awful, and even worse when i took her out and she looked extremely thin. i've lost track of things before.. (i got a calendar today to write down so i can get her on a more consistent feeding schedule) but she's never actually looked thinner.
so she ate two worms and three crickets and i gave her .3 cc's of jumpstart. it said it was safe for amphibians and i thought she'd need the boost. i did have to hold her firmly to get it in her mouth, and i think that traumatized her a bit.
i put her back in her tank ( i feed her outside of her tank, her tank is located up high and so i have a separate feeding box for her )
i took her out again today to see if she would eat more, because her losing weight scared me and she looked 100% better. her tummy was plump and she only took 1 cricket. well, when i put her back in the tank i put her back in her water dish and left the house. 9 hours later, i get back home and she's still in the dish! i washed my hands and moved her back onto land..i really don't think she moved the whole time. she crawled into a hide after she got on land, but she was limp when i picked her up..as where she usually situates her feet on my fingers when i pick her up. i mean, i know all she does is sleep and eat, but normally she would have climbed out of her water dish..and she could have and gotten back in, but i just think she was in the same position, so i'm unsure.

i'm worried because i know where she's at is too hot for her, i have 2 fans on her tank and it's probably in the low 70's, but it's been getting colder every day and she did fine all summer when she was in mid 70's. in fact, the recent temp drops have made her more personable, like coming out to see me when i'm in the room, then this happened.

I'm gonna take a fecal into my vet when i can get one..i'll probably have to put her on paper towels, she always poops underground so i can't find them in the damp dirt. the getting dramatically thinner and lethargy would signal parasites to me, but lemme know what you guys think.

 

[Jennewt]

I'm a bit leery of the Jump-start product, as there is no information available regarding its composition (I tried googling). Animal products don't have to comply with the rules we have for human products - they don't have to tell you ingredients, or substantiate their claims of effectiveness. I really wonder what's in it.

If you are going to keep her on a paper towels setup, is it possible to keep this setup in a cooler place? Cooler temperatures will help by reducing metabolism. No salamander becomes thin due to a 3-day delay in feeding. They become thin over time, and this process is much more likely during periods of warm temperatures, because they burn more calories. It's quite possible that she was thinner than she should have been when you got her last year (due to stress and lack of feeding during import/sale), and never got quite back up to full weight. And then summertime wore down her reserves. Parasites may be part of the equation, but probably not the single explanation.

I'm a bit concerned over the use of fans over the tank. It does keep temps down, but it also tends to dry out salamander skin. If she is too weak right now to dig under the soil, it's really important to stop the fans from drying her out.

I'm tempted to suggest putting her in the refrigerator, but this much of a temperature change so quickly isn't ideal. Is it possible to keep one room of your house colder and keep her there? Or rig up a fridge or wine cooler to keep her a nice steady 60F?

I'd recommend daily feeding until her entire body is plump. It's hard to say if the lethargy was just a single bad day, or really serious. If she continues to eat, that's a good sign.

 

[AllHailRain]

Thank you for responding!

I have insectivore repti-aid but i wasn't sure of that for 'phibs..i just figured jumpstart couldn't be too bad, and the extra calories would help.
it lists all the ingredients on the side along with different vitamin minimum amounts, it's apparently mostly corn syrup.

I live in florida and my mom started not putting the a/c below 76 for cost reasons. We don't have a basement.
My room is a steady 85 degrees with no fans here in the summer, so i have a ceiling and large box fan which brings it down considerably. Her fans are one 1-foot walmart one, and one azoo tank cooling one.
She was originally at my boyfriend's house, which is cooler but he's not home enough to give her the attention so she moved to mine.

So she's always been warmer than usual, but the fans are do more good than harm. I put about a half gallon of water throughout the dirt in the tank daily to keep it moist, because it's about 3 inches deep, and 2 feet across. I use spring drinking water from walmart.
I used to put a tray of ice in her and my newt's tank every a.m., but i stopped because i was doubtful of the actual effectiveness.
I will definitely look into mini fridge/wine coolor. I wouldn't mind keeping her in one full time, it would stop my headache of always knowing she's too warm.
It's just weird she shows stress now, when the weather is getting colder and her tank is probably right around 70 (her therm. broke, I need to get a new one), maybe even lower and so i would think she'd be relieved. She was fine all summer when I know it was around 75 degrees.

Here she is a couple months after i first got her:

<a href="http://s42.photobucket.com/albums/e316/chinatownmidget/Herps%20I%20mother/?action=view&current=DSCF5333.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e316/chinatownmidget/Herps%20I%20mother/DSCF5333.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

She's consistently stayed the same size in thickness, but she's gotten a little longer and grew an extra inch or so on her tail.
I've always fed her 1-2x times a week, when i first got her she was ravenous every feeding, but now she won't eat more than 3 earthworms or so a week.

I'm definitely keeping a close eye on her..I love her to pieces.