Illness/Sickness: Visible bone (?)

[loublue]

Hi. Long time ago that I've been on here because everything has been well with my newt. But today I saw something that does look like an injury, like the skin on one of her toes is gone, possibly. I have no idea how this happened, I looked for sharp edges where she lives and removed one thing just to be on the safe side from now on.

I read on the illness page and figured it will grow back, and I also read that they cleaned the wound. I almost never handle her because she wiggles like crazy and I think most times it does more bad than good in her case, because of how stressed out she gets.

I figured it will heal by itself, but just to make sure I would really appreciate for someone here to look at the picture and tell me what you think.

Thanks

 

[loublue]

Update: Now one of her eyes are closed most of the time as well, and the few times it is open it looks like something white(ish) is in the middle of it. Any clue what this could be?

(Also important, I don't have a good vet in the near, otherwise I would have taken her to one at once. The few times I've called to a good one they are very reluctant to give me any advice over the phone because they don't want to give the wrong advice, which I understand)

Sorry for the low quality picture.

 

[DSaxolotl]

Hello

Best thing would be vet! But if that was not an option, I would treat that with some antibiotics just to minimize chances of infections.

Btw what are your water parameters like? Ammonia, nitrite, nitrates?

 

[loublue]

Hello

Best thing would be vet! But if that was not an option, I would treat that with some antibiotics just to minimize chances of infections.

Btw what are your water parameters like? Ammonia, nitrite, nitrates?

I suspect it'll be hard to get antibiotics prescribed without them looking at her condition IRL, but I could give it a try... Antibiotics are strong though, it always scares me a little to have to use it because of the risks. She's kind of old too. I think I will call that vet that's far away again as well and see what she says.

I can't say for sure how my water quality is because I have no water test at home at the moment, but the only thing that has changed from my regular ''routine'' or the circumstances in the tank lately is the temperature outside. Pretty drastically too, but I've managed to keep the tank pretty cold most of the time.
Would those stick tests be enough? I've read they aren't reliable.

Thank you so much for the response, btw!

 

[loublue]

Update: Just called the vet that's far away and they said they won't prescribe antibiotics over the phone. She said I could maybe bring the newt to a vet close to me while they have a knowledgeable vet in the phone meanwhile. Would you trust doing this? Someone that has no knowledge of amphibians possibly handling my newt scares me, but maybe I'm just too paranoid. (It's late now so I can't really check with the local vet until tomorrow).

 

[loublue]

Sorry for so many posts at once. Another thing worth mentioning is that the closest good vet (good with other animals, not amphibians or reptiles) in the near is 30-40 minutes away. I could imagine this added stress is not good either + the possible handling from the vet. I'm just sharing my thoughts right now, wondering what does the most harm to her but at the same time there might not be any other options.

 

[loublue]

In this article the newt seemed to regrow the leg, and another member said it took a year for it to start regrowing. They also mention cleaning the leg. https://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=55788

How would I go about keeping the leg clean with an aquatic newt? Feeling very worried.

(Called a vet with knowledge, for some reason she could not let my local vet consult her via phone while looking at my newt, no idea why but it was disappointing. Looking at other options now. Could wait and hope it'll get better but don't want to risk limb rot (?))

 

[Otterwoman]

I've never tried this, but there are fish antibiotics you can get to treat the water. I was just reading about it here. I'm going to get some to try next time I don't know what to do.

 

[loublue]

I've never tried this, but there are fish antibiotics you can get to treat the water. I was just reading about it here. I'm going to get some to try next time I don't know what to do.

Thank you Otterwoman! I will save that post for the future.
I was actually just gonna update the thread in case someone finds it later on.

I made sure to keep the aquarium as clean as possible (since she's completely aquatic it's difficult to clean specific parts of her body, I think), made a recent water change, made sure to keep the tank as cold as possible and also made sure she's well fed. Of course I tried to avoid anything that could stress her out too. She always has a little bit of land to climb up on, which she has used more than usual so I believe that's important as well.
The bone part fell off one day ago, which I read is supposed to happen when it's healing (?), and she looks and behaves very normal so I think so far so good. Hoping it will heal completely as fast as possible. It hasn't grown back out yet, but might be too soon to tell. I'll put another update when I find out if the toe grows out or not, or if anything else happens/ what I do about it.

 

[DSaxolotl]

Hello,

Furan 2, Kanaplex, EM Erythromycin from API etc i am not saying you should or if they work on your pet, but I will defiantly research them if no vet is avaliable for professional help at all..