Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had my tiger sal for like 2 years..
a week ago i changed his tank by putting in a plastic divider for the land/water area... then i went on vacation, after giving him a good feed.

when i got back, the silicone had leaked and made the soil all muddy. My sal seemed sort of lethargic and i had noticed that he sort of had a brown foam or something at his mouth.

I gave him a worm and 48 hours later i noticed he was dead, still in a position from like 24 hours ago! i examined him sort of and his mouth was wide open with like this big bubble film thing sticking out, and he was all slimy and smelling and what-not. his body was layed out straight sort of like he died while walking.

does anyone have ideas on why he might of died? i think it may have to do with the water getting in the dirt and making him sick some how, is this a good reason?

Oh, he was like 8 or so inches long, and i got him at around 5 inches, if that can hint to his age any.

Without a necropsy it is very difficult to identify the cause of death of the animal.
If I was to give you a guess I would guess a bacterial (or possibly a viral) infection another possibility would be a toxicity. When you redid the tank, the aquatic section would have begun to cycle like an aquarium and the water section would have experienced a spike in ammonia and nitrite both of which are toxic to the salamander. Another possiblility would be anaerobic growth in the mud liberated a toxin and stressed the animal allowing an infection to set in.

The symptoms do fit red leg (a type of bacterial infection) as the digorging of the stomach contents fits along with the bloating.
As I said these are possibilities and without the necropsy it is very difficult to give you a cause of death.

Ed