Help! Our Axolotl is bloated and won't eat!

AJ3k

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Hello,

Apologies if I am posting this wrong or in the wrong place, I have never used a forum before.

My partner and I need help with our Axoltl Wesley, who appears to be sick!

He has a bloated belly, but isn't floating and the tip of he's tail is curved indicating he's stressed. He won't eat anything and hasn't for about 2 weeks.

He has a large tank, and we keep his water clean; we use sand and not pebbles or gravel and mainly feed him frozen blood worm anywhere from once a day to once every couple of days.
We got him about 3 years ago and he is about 8 years old now.

We did a bit of research and tried some things, none of which worked and there aren't any specialist vets in our area that can look at him.
We had that horrible heat wave and at first thought he was heat stressed, so we did what we could to keep his tank and room cool; we covered his tank to keep him in the shade and kept the blinds down and the ceiling fan on during the day so he didn't overheat. The temp has dropped now and he's no better.
We tried fridging him, and kept him in there for a week (he came out only a couple of days ago); we followed instructions on this very carefully, but he is still bloated and still won't eat. He doesn't seem to have pooed but if he hasn't eaten, will he poo? And if he had food stuck in him, wouldn't a week of fridging help him to pass/vomit that?
We also read that he might be bloated due to only eating bloodworm and not getting a more diverse diet, so we got him chicken liver and was going to get other things but he simply refuses to eat.

We're really quite worried at this point and are not sure what to do next, if anyone can offer advice on this, we would be very grateful.

Following this, I will post some pictures of poor Wesley.
 
Attached are 2 pics of Wesley.

He is in his little tank in these pics while we clean his big tank.

He looks perhaps a touch more bloated now than he did in these pics, but it's hard to tell.
 

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