What more should I do?

[Enkil]

I recently got a salamander girl. She came to me late Sunday. I am concerned for her. She has been treated with ES. I have fasted her since Sunday. I am just wondering if I should do anything else for her. She is currently in a hospital tank in about 2 gal of water. Heated, of course. She has a hiding place and java moss but no substrate. Attaching pictures. I just did a water change. Have been changing her water every day.

[Enkil]

Any thoughts or suggestions would be very welcome.

[Bladezero]

I don't see whats wrong with..

She is full of eggs I think

[Sakura8]

How much epsom salt did you use? She does look a little bloated. It could be just eggs but usually the scales don't rise. Have you seen any off-whitish stringy poo from her? If she was eggy, she would be pooing that stuff constantly.

If you haven't already, bump up the epsom salt to 3 tsps per gallon. See if she'll eat something like brine shrimp. In addition, if you have Indian Almond Leaf or oak leaves, those would be beneficial as well. If she hasn't improved at all in a day or two, we can consider a medication.

[lvandert]

+1 I'd watch her carefully, and continue ES treatments (if you haven't surpassed 10 days). If she starts to pinecone more she may have dropsy :(

[Enkil]

I'll have to do that then. I've never had to use ES before. How exactly do I go about using it with her? How frequent do I change her water? I've been doing it every day currently.

She hasn't been going to the bathroom really, but I was fasting her the last couple days.

On hand I have frozen blood worms and mosquito larva. Would either of them work for feeding her? If not, I can definitely go get her the brine shrimp. From what I was told, the pine coning was worse before and is better now. She looks ok today, still big. She's active and not clamped.

[lvandert]

alright. As long as the pineconing is going down.

[Sakura8]

If you have the energy, changing her water every day is great. If not, every other day works fine too because it's 2 gallons.

For epsom salt, it's pretty easy. Just get some at your local pharmacy or drug store (make sure it has no scents or colors). 3 tsps per gallon, so 6 tsps total. It helps to predissolve it in a bit of tank water first and then pour it in but epsom salt doesn't burn like AQ salt does so you CAN add it straight to the water if you want. When you do a 100% change, just redose. If you do a partial change, replace the amount of salt you took out. So if you take out 50%, replace 3 tsps with the new water.

Either food would be fine for her. I'm mostly curious to see if she'll eat. Sometimes a loss of appetite is a good indicator of what may be wrong. If she wasn't hungry but she was pooping eggy poo, then that tells me she ate her eggs or is reabsorbing them and getting nutrients from them. But if she isn't pooping AND she's not hungry, then I would guess she has an internal bacterial infection.

[Enkil]

Ok. I'll go ahead and see if she'll eat then. I have both and three different pellets on hand, so I should be set on trying to get her to eat.

I'll get the ES and start treatment with that to help her out. I'm fine with doing the water changes every day. Since the tank is only 2 gallons, the water is easy for me to carry upstairs.

[Sakura8]

Good luck. I'll be thinking about her.