Illness/Sickness: **urgent help needed***

[Julianashepp]

I am currently in contact with a pet store that doesn't know anything about axolotls. My friend works there and I am helping them with a very sick axolotl that I discovered there. It's tail is very short due to what looks to be a fungus infection, it's gills are almost non existent and it has red stripes on its body. It's foot also looks to be bitten off. Please help. This is very urgent as it is very lethargic already and I fear it's life. Thank you. Please recommend treatments.

 

[rachel1]

I would move them into their own containers with no substrate, and 100% water changes once or twice daily depending on container size. They need to be kept in a cool location. Feed live blackworms and chopped blanched earthworm 2-3x per day. It looks mostly healthy but malnourished and nipped to me. If you are worried about fungus, I would do a 10 minute soak in cool tap water that has not been treated with dechlorinator. I don't see fungus, that looks more like they are starving and eating each other to me. The red on the left side is its heart, that is normal anatomy. I think with good water quality, no gravel, frequent feelings, and getting rid of the tank mates they could potentially still turn around.

 

[Julianashepp]

I am aware they they are very malnourished looking. I've already addressed that. It is not the red on its side I am referring to, it's not easy to see because the picture has a high saturation but there are red (what look to be stress stripes) on its back legs and tail. It has already been removed from the tank and they're treating it with melafix though I told them to be careful with the dosing of it.

 

[Julianashepp]

The "fungus" I was referring to is at the top of its tail where it looks to be fuzzy. It is hard to see in the picture

 

[rachel1]

I would proceed with caution with the melafix. I would not use it if it were my animal. Just soaking in tap water that still has chlorine in it is often sufficient to knock off fungus. I would try that first before more harsh medications. Red stripes can be a symptom of systemic infection, so antibiotics may be advisable. Injected antibiotics administered by a vet are the most effective, but antibiotics in the water might work. Caudata culture has a page on amphibian safe medications. Ambystoma.org is also a good resource, and I believe they talk about a couple antibiotic protocols there.