Spanish Ribbed Newts eating, but starving to death

[Justcat12]

I had 4 Spanish Newts, 2 females and males. My one female, who I named Midgie, because when she was full grown was only 4 inches, but feisty thing. She survived a fungal/bacterial infection that her two other newt tank mates didn’t last November, but last Tuesday, she succumbed to whatever this is. My son found her floating on top of the tank.

I was purposely over feeding her, thinking that since she was smaller than the others that she was being bullied and not getting enough food, but apparently that wasn’t the case. Because the night before she died, she was behaving normally and ate all the food I gave her, black worms. Before the black worms, it was frozen brine shrimp from Hikari Brine Shrimp.
I did notice on her body, for a scientific detail, that from the top of her left side of her head down around her side of her face around her eye and mouth, a spot mid way on her neck and right front arm was white. The rest of her body was normal. My water was all normal. I do normal water changes.
Now, my one male is showing the same signs, he is eating and his ribs is starting to show. I can’t lose another newt. I can’t. I lost my female bearded dragon of 7 years out of the blue from Egg Yolk Peritonitis on November 9, after taking her to the vet finding out she was full of eggs. Oh, he was devastated, he did a necropsy for free for me, because he wanted to find out why she died and that’s how we found out. My 19 year old has Asperger’s, she discovered our beloved Beardie and isn’t over her and is petrified of losing Chill ( our male). My vet is helping with him, but he did a year with amphibians, but his more Reptilian vet. I have to get a stool sample from him. I did get one, but he only gave me a tiny bit, but it apparently wasn’t enough, because there wasn’t any eggs in it. I had to place him on a cold wet paper towel, then Lukewarm paper towel and then shallow water to get him to just give me a tiny puffball of poop.

What can this be? Or how can I get a stool sample without stressing him? I need to save him and the other two. My 19 year old and I also have a 16, who can’t have more trauma.

 

[Newthanial]

Hey sry to hear about your losses. I hope you can figure out what's is causing your newts to get sick. I think you're doing as much as you can to make them thrive and survive. If you haven't tried making a small quarantine enclosure and try separating them from each other I would suggest that. Unfortunately if it is citrid or a fungal disease there's only so much you can do. Keep up with weekly water changes and try to make them as happy as possible with different foods and I like to change my newts set up every few months to give them something new obstacles or plants and it adds a little enrichment. What's the temperature in the tank and how many gallons are the newts in?

 

[Justcat12]

Hey sry to hear about your losses. I hope you can figure out what's is causing your newts to get sick. I think you're doing as much as you can to make them thrive and survive. If you haven't tried making a small quarantine enclosure and try separating them from each other I would suggest that. Unfortunately if it is citrid or a fungal disease there's only so much you can do. Keep up with weekly water changes and try to make them as happy as possible with different foods and I like to change my newts set up every few months to give them something new obstacles or plants and it adds a little enrichment. What's the temperature in the tank and how many gallons are the newts in?

Sorry, I didn’t mean to ignore you. Total chaos here.

I have a 30 gallon tank and the temperature is 68 degrees.

My vet just gave me Flagyl to give him. I thought giving my cats medicine was a challenge, ah…I was wrong! Giving this boy his medication is a challenge. My vet wants me to give it to him for 3 straight days and then once every 2 weeks. He refuses to open his mouth for me, so any suggestions on how I can get .002ml drop in his mouth? I feed him live black worms. My vet suggested I place the medicine on some of the worms and see if he would eat the medicated worms or inject the medication into another food he would eat.
The challenge with this, he only eats underwater. The worms can’t get wet once they have the medication on them, so I don’t know how I am going to do this.

 

[apoplast]

Can you inject the small volume into a cut earthworm section and then feed it to the newt?

 

[Newthanial]

Can you inject the small volume into a cut earthworm section and then feed it to the newt?

I think that's the best option! If possible see if you can gently stimulate your newts lips with a syringe of the meds to see if they would open up enough for a dose or two if possible. I thought about the bathing technique and let their skin absorb meds but I wouldn't recommend that because it's too hard to dose properly

 

[apoplast]

If possible see if you can gently stimulate your newts lips with a syringe of the meds to see if they would open up enough for a dose or two if possible.

This is probably obvious, but if I was going to go that route, I would be sure to get a "blunt fill tip" syringe. Just out of an abundance of caution.

 

[Taipan]

Have you checked the ammonia levels in their tank? If the water has been in an established setup for a while the ammonia levels from their doings might have built up to dangerous levels. Same with the Nitrites or Nitrates. Just a thought
Good luck