Whats up?

Kim - Maybe if you took information about what antibiotics your axolotl may need injected with to a new vet they could help you?

from IU:
The Axolotl Colony has used enrofloxacin (Baytril), amikacin, and gentamicin. All of these are powerful, broad-spectrum antibiotics. Amikacin and gentamicin are aminoglycosides, and enrofloxacin is a quinolone. In our experience, all are well tolerated by axolotls. We recommend that Tetracycline and related antibiotics be avoided because it is a strong skin irritant.

We give antibiotics by injection usually. We do not have good data on the efficaciousness of antibiotics added to the water. We use a dose of 5mg/kg body weight. We use a solution of 5mg/ml antibiotic in physiological saline and give a volume of .1 cc. The animal should get 3 shots of amikacin or gentamicin, each separated by 48 hours or 5-7 shots of enrofloxacin, each separated by 24 hours. We inject with a tuberculin, 25-gauge needle intraperitoneally, just in front of a hind leg, approximately parallel to the body and about midway between the dorsal and ventral surfaces: that is, dorsal to the bladder and ventral to the kidneys and too caudal to hit the liver or spleen.

It is possible that other antibiotics could be used, or that some antibiotics could be administered in water, but we do not have enough experience to recommend dosages of other antibiotics or other methods of delivery.

-------------------

Aside from very young larvae, we have found that axolotls about one year old that are just becoming sexually mature are most prone to illness. Prompt treatment with antibiotics will often help. We use amikacin diluted with physiological saline to 5 mg/ml. We give the axolotls three intraperitoneal injections (5 mg/kg body weight) 48 hours apart. The injections are best given at the first sign of illness (Duhon, 1989a; 1989b).
 
Thanks Cynthia... just a very quick reply as im off to bed.. i have emailed them all and im waiting for a reply.. whats the normal urn around time on them replying?
 
Cynthia,

Ive not heard a thing from IU. She not got too worse but if u knock her she has problems standing herself back up..

Im going to start salt baths tonight.

I have considered going to the vet but 2 problems.. £30 each time you just go and see the vet and the other is i have alot of work on at the moment.. so its not really fesable to leave work in the middle of the day.

The other worry i have is that the journey to the vet could stress her out that much, she could die.. I dont want to upset her too much.

At the end of last week i called someone that has kept axolotls for years... I sent some photos to him and a link to this thread for him to take a look at it. He agrees that it could be a cloaca prolapse.

I've change her water last night and tried her with a worm.. but no luck.. so ive left the worm in there with her. i turned her over... she was not impressd! and her cloaca seem normal.. no large opening etc.

In the time she has been in the container she has not passed a thing..

Im running out of things to try.. at this stage im just going with the salt baths and leave her to see how she goes..
 
I hope you hear from them soon.

You might try finding some antibiotics for the water.
 
Maybe it's claocal prolapse but that wouldn't necessarily cause the animal to bloat. My guesses would be overfed, intestinal blockage, or organ damage. Overfeeding, intestinal parasites, and blockage could cause prolapse. I really didn't clearly see prolapse in the picture. With prolapse the biggest thing is to try to identify a cause and treat the cause.
I'd just take the shotgun approach and cool it down, feed it moderately,and treat with Furan 2. Then I would take a step back and analyze my husbandry techniques. What I would look at most closely is food and frequency of meals.
 
Thanks Michael for your reply.

I only feed them every 3-4 days and they get 2-3 worms each normally (depending on size). I alternate every so often with pellets and blood worms.. and only every 3-4 months or if that they get meat as a treat.

They havnt been exposed to any new animals and the last axolotl that was put in with her was in quarntine for some time.

On a side note, she hasnt passed anything since being in the tub in the fridge.

Thanks again for your replys
 
While i'm looking at posts i thought i'd update people..

I have a appointment with a vet tomorrow.. im going to take the info that cynthia posted with me.. They said thay arnt famliar with them, but they would really like to help.. fingers crossed..
 
I'm weighing in here because Kim just sent me an email to bring this to my attention. It's not "prolapse". The animal is bloated (a gravid axolotl doesn't look like that). The axolotl does not appear to be bloated in the head region, or the legs. This probably means it's not a system-wide fluid build-up. I think the force is strong with Mike's appraisal but I will say I don't think it's caused by over-feeding or parasites. It appears to be a swelling of the intestinal tract in general (hence the slight protrusion from the cloaca, not really a prolapse). I am 80-90% certain that it's not directly a bacterial problem. It's far more likely to be a physiological problem - organ malfunction or damage, as Mike suggested.

I don't think treating it with antibiotics will do it any good (I would think it'll last 2-3 days after intravenous treatment, instead of the 2-3 weeks it would last without the needle).

In any case, it surely won't recover spontaneously. Treating it with antibiotics is highly unlikely to help, as I have said, it's more likely to cause its own problems. However, since the animal is destined to die soon enough, treating it with antibiotics might be worth a try.
 
Well ive taken her to the vet friday, saturday, sunday and tonight, then tomorrow.. I believe she's been given something with enrofloxacin in it. But the name excapes me right now..

She actually seem to have come down in size a bit.. i'll have to post a picture tonight.

The vet i saw on saturday did some research and found the worms can also caus this type of problem... so they also treated her for that.. they took her out the back to do it.. she said they had to tub her ... poor thing!! but shes still with us and still in the fridge.

They have also only charged me for each injection.. £3.30 each time.. And no consultaion fee! But im so glad ive found somewhere that will at least try.. tho one of the vets comments was 'last time i saw on of these was in school biology class!' She was a star too.. everyone wanted to see her!
 
Right 7 day update...

Kish has had a 7 day treatment of batryl (I bet my axie is the most ever travelled!) she has reduced in size but still hasnt passed any poo or eaten anything...
sad.gif
because she is beeing handled so much she has a case of the flaky skin..

It was the last vist to the vet last night.. she open her mouth again just to be sure, gave her the injection and had a feels of her belly.. nothing unusual she said.. the other option would be to x-ray her... im not too keen on the idea but if nothing improves in a week...
a friend has offered to ask work (she works in a&e) if they can x ray her free of charge.. i should find out by the weekend..

But truly i dont hold any hope out for her, as she still isnt eating.. she will at least now bite a worm, but lets go straight away...
 
So i think the time has come to make a choice... do i put her down or do i leave her... She has still not eaten.. even with force feeding her she just spits it all back out..

Would it be the right thing to do?
 
Sadly i put Kish down today, She haddn't improved and haddn't eaten even though I was trying to force feed her.. I felt so horrible there was nothing I could do for her.. But thats what happens when you know more about an animal than a vet does.

RIP Kish
 
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