Sudden death of two tiger salamanders

[Hecait]

*Disturbing content warning* Also, lengthy content warning*

(Sorry for the dramatic title)

I wanted to ask a question or two about an issue I'm currently dealing with. I'm not sure of this is Chytrid or Ranavirus, or something else entirely. I just recieved a test kit today, and sent it out to test for both. Any additional insight is appreciated...please bear with me.

Two of my young terrestrial tiger salamanders that I recieved together back in early January of 2021 have both suddenly passed within a week. Both were kept in their own enclosure, on a mix of coco coir and organic topsoil with a thriving colony of springtails, a shallow water dish and a couple of hides, in a plastic tote, separate from my other salamanders. They were doing well, eating (nightcrawler chunks, superworms, the occasional pinky mouse), acting fine until just recently. I've had them for 5 months.

I came home after being away for the weekend to find one dead with an odd sore/ulcer on it's lower side/abdomen area. I quickly removed the body, substrate, cleaned the enclosure out, disinfected. The other salamander that was in with him was buried under the substrate. This one didn't have any sores, but was acting a bit "laggy" and refused food when offered.

After another day past he was more lethargic and I noticed he was thinner, shedding and not burying, hanging out in mostly the same spot at the surface. His skin seemed dry, so I soaked him in shallow water for 30 minutes. This didn't seem to help at all. He was already being kept on damp paper towels, a basic setup for observation. I had already ordered a kit for testing.

I work early mornings. I took a quick peek at him before leaving yesterday, he was hidden in his hide so I didn't want to bother him. But when I got home in the late evening his condition was far, far worse. The skin on his limbs appeared to have melted away from them and exposed muscles and bone. Large ulcers. The skin on his underside from his jaw down his tail was reddened (sepcis?), his eyes as well, with random, smaller ulcers present as on his body. He was thin, hind limbs were splayed, and his right hind leg was fixed in a curled angle. He moved weakly with a fixed, arched gait. He succumbed to these injuries into the night, and I can absolutely confirm that these weren't present before.

I'm devastated (and paranoid) by this. Very concerned about the safety of my other amphibians. After the three months in quarantine, since nothing was abnormal, there were a couple of occasions where they were put together during in-depth enclosure cleanouts, or shared feeding tongs. Then of course, this happened.

For the test, I swabbed my eldest (living) female 5 times on each side of her body (with two swabs). Sent out to test for Chytrid and Nidovirus.

I'm not sure what to expect, but I've tried researching without much success, and it's honestly just making me more anxious.

I wanted to post this in the meantime in case anyone can provide insight or has seen this before, whether it's fungal, viral, bacterial, etc. What the cause may be.
I have pictures of the salamander if needed, but I hesitate because they're a bit disturbing. I apologize for the length of this post...and thank you for any input you give.

 

[JoshBA]

I'm sorry that you had to experience such a sudden and shocking loss of your animals. It does sound like some kind of disease, given the fast onset. I'm not too familiar with disease symptoms in captive salamanders, and the literature on the subject is somewhat scarce. All I know is that Tiger sals can be asymptomatic carriers of some of the more lethal fish/amphibian diseases. So I hesitate to guess a diagnosis. But the Caudata culture articles on common diseases may be helpful for you:

Caudata Culture Articles - Illness Part 1

I'm glad you were able to swiftly send samples in to get tested. And if anything your 3-month quarantine regime was well justified by this event.

 

[Hecait]

I'm sorry that you had to experience such a sudden and shocking loss of your animals. It does sound like some kind of disease, given the fast onset. I'm not too familiar with disease symptoms in captive salamanders, and the literature on the subject is somewhat scarce. All I know is that Tiger sals can be asymptomatic carriers of some of the more lethal fish/amphibian diseases. So I hesitate to guess a diagnosis. But the Caudata culture articles on common diseases may be helpful for you:

Caudata Culture Articles - Illness Part 1

I'm glad you were able to swiftly send samples in to get tested. And if anything your 3-month quarantine regime was well justified by this event.

Thank you for your response

I do find it odd that they were fine during the colder months (eating, active). It's still spring, but now that we're starting to get some warmer days into the low 70s (I live in New England) it suddenly started up? Before temps in the room were 55-65 F. Not sure if there's a correlation there, but it's honestly the only change I can think of, both succumbed within days of one another of the same thing.

I will say that about 2 years ago around summer/fall, a female in one of my sibling pairs randomly developed some odd small black dots around her armpits and sides, as well as a deep absess on her side. Sibling was unaffected, she had been buried for 2 weeks and noticed after I dug her up. She didn't lose any weight at all and continued to eat.

I resolved that quickly by isolating her in a quarantine time tank on paper towels, with daily Melafix soaks and silver gel ointment. Spots disappeared within 2 days after a shed, and the wound healed completely in a week. Kept her in quarantine with soaks for an additional 3 weeks with daily soaking (also did this with her tankmate as a precaution). Haven't had an issue with her or any of my others until now. But this seemed different?

I'm hoping this is treatable, or at the very least manageable. I have no qualms meeting with an exotic vet for more testing either, just to be sure.

 

[LittleGreenFrog]

Oh my goodness. first of all, I'm so sorry for your loss. Also, I've lost some Salamanders that I was very Close with to something out of my control, and one of the most important things to remember in a situation like this is that it is not your fault. it sounds like you were doing everything right, but temperature changes when it gets warmer are often very hard on terrestrial Salamanders and warmer weather often causes fungal and bacterial problems. Once again, I'm so sorry that you had to go through that.