Urgent Tiger Salamander skin problem!

[LauraMartin]

hello, im cutting a long story short here:

got 2 barred tiger salamanders
lived together for 2 yrs
one got bad skin infection, open sores and skin not shedding, took to vets, got baytril, quarantined for 2 weeks, he was better after about 6 days of batrill and quarantine, so put him back in a cleaned out tank with the other one.

now about 2 month later the other salamander has it bad, covered in dark spots and sores like the other one, and i can see one or 2 spots appearing on the other, seperated and quarantined and they are both on baytrill in a clean environment.

vivs have clean towels as substrate, damp and they use it to rub the skin off which seems to work well, they have a hide and a water dish.

I will upload some pics soon.

what i want to know is:
what this infection could be?
am i doing the right things?
is baytrill and quarantine the only option or should i seek 2nd opinion from another vet?

when i said i put them both back into a clean sterile viv, the only thing i left was the viv background that was stuck in, since sal number 2 got ill i took everything out, noticed down the back of the background there was a damp smell from the moisture, i assume there was some kind of fungus/bacteria growing here thats most likely caused it.

any help/advice will be really appreciated.

Thanks, Laura.

[LauraMartin]

I'm on my phone here so not sure how to get pics going. See if this link works, it's a link to my flickr page with the salamader pics there.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/organize/?start_tab=one_set72157622653698551

[Barney_M]

might be too damp?

[spend_day]

your link doesn't work this one does tho Flickr: LauraMartin's Photostream

baytril seems a good treatment choice as if the cause is bacterial it should kill it and if not it will fight any infection that may get into the wound.

I assume you've ruled out an environmental cause (changed anything recently) even if you have doing a PH test on things like soil, water etc might be a idea either a fancy ph kit one but a simple litmus paper test should at least give u an idea if anythings up use water squeezed from the substrate as well as what u use from spraying/water bowls and litmus papers pretty cheap or if u know anyone who works at a school or lab (or even goes to school) they can ask for/steal some for you


apart from maybe a longer quarantine and disinfecting everything (which i guess you've already done) I don't really know what to suggest

hope he/she gets better

[Saedcantas]

Did the vet you visited take any swabs? I suspect there might be something particularly nasty at work here, a bacterial infection of the skin.(Pseudomonas or Aeromonas).

Baytril is an overused "cureall", it can be used in the meantime while you wait for test results to reveal the true cause of a problem and therefore know the best drug to use, which may or may not be Baytril.

You haven't purchased any new amphibians recently or since buying these two have you?

[LauraMartin]

Thanks for the advice and for posting the right link. There were tests done the vet took swabs and wiped them on slides and checked under the microscope and confirmed with me to keep using the baytril as there was a lot of bacteria on the skin.

My younger sister steals litmus from college for me so I always test the ph and have never had anythig unusual. I keep a clean tank but as mentioned before behind the viv background was some smell and that was the one thing I didn't change after sal 1 got poorly so it can only be that. Got no new pets and changed nothing so it has to be the background harbouring some bacteria. I'm pretty sure I'm doing the right thing as my other sal got better in less than a week. I just feel a bit useless u know when they are poorly and there's nothig u can do to relieve the pain.

I am rinsing him in distiller water every day and he is always rubbing him self off on the towels as susstrate seems to be working well. Poor boy I just feel sorry for him he looks so pathetic he used to be hard as nails! I hope he is back to his old self soon. X

[Saedcantas]

Originally Posted by LauraMartin

Thanks for the advice and for posting the right link. There were tests done the vet took swabs and wiped them on slides and checked under the microscope and confirmed with me to keep using the baytril as there was a lot of bacteria on the skin.

Your vet has simply confirmed that there are "bacteria" present, in order to treat the problem most efficiently (reducing further skin damage) he needs to send the swabs for bacteriology, where the bacteria present can be cultured on antibiotic inocculated agar plates. This not only means you can determine the kind of bacteria you are dealing with, but it also tells you about any antibiotic resistance of the particular bacterial strain.

It may turn out that Baytril has a dampening effect on the bacteria but perhaps won't kill it off completely, or it may take a comparatively long time, allowing secondary infections in the meantime.

[LauraMartin]

Ok thanks for that. I am gonna Take him a different vet iv heard of one about 25 miles from me that specialises In Amphibs so would be best bet I think. This vet I went to is a reptile vet but rather basic, corn snake, bearded dragons and that sorta stuff I'm not sure they know much about salamanders.

[Saedcantas]

Good luck with the new vet, I hope you get the treatment they need