Tiger Salamander

[shanazzle47]

I have a tiger salamander that I adopted from people who were moving, and I believe that he was wild caught. He never was a good eater, but he has been refusing food for many months now. I've had to start force feeding him because his skin has become loose around his spine and he has a sallow look to him. I've also noticed that he gets black markings around his nostrils, they arent his patterning, they get shed off when he looses his skin but always seem to come back. It cant be removed by wiping away, I was wondering if anyone had ever seen something like this? it could just be what happens when they age, i've never had a salamander before, but i've been taking care of this one for more then 2 years now and this has only just started happening. If it is parasitic it might be related to his eating problems, so any advice or information would be greatly appreciated!

 

[henslowsparrow]

Is there any chance that you could post a picture? What is his tank set up like? What kind of substrate do you use? Is there any lighting on the tank? If something is off with his environment, it could be affecting his appetite. If I were you, I would be inclined to look for an exotic veterinarian in your area who has worked with herps. A tiger salamander with no appetite is bad news. As far as his skin goes, there has been one post of a tiger sal with black spots on his face that I believe turned out to be a bacterial infection. I don't really remember, you'll have to check. You can find it by using the search button on this site, just type in "tiger black spots" and one of the threads that comes up has pics of a little guy with black all over his face.