# very sick fire-bellied toad ...please help!



## Baltimore Bryan

i couldn't decide if this should go here, or in the "other amphibians" section, so feel free to move it if it is in the wrong place. 
i offered to take care of my neighbors fbt while they went on vacation. i got him today, and he is very sick. the said he hasn't been eating in the past 2 days, and wouldn't move unless you tried to touch him. he stays crouched under the rock with his head down and doesnt move even when i mist him. his eyes are open somtimes though. i shined the flashlight at him and... he has blood on his head, and the rest of his face is a pale blue/ gray color, not the bright green light the rest of his body. is it some type of fungus or bacterial infection? any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks


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## Dane

Since no one is responding, I'll throw in my uneducated guess. Looks like some serious head trauma. Was the frog really excitable recently? Possibly jumping around the enclosure and/or banging into the glass? I can't get a great look at the tank itself, but it looks pretty inappropriate for housing a semi-aquatic amphibian. As for treatment, you can try a topical cream like silver sulfadiazine, and possibly a Pedialyte soak. I would try to get ahold of a vet soon, that frog looks like it won't last long.


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## Baltimore Bryan

well i can't really say if he had any sort of trauma because he isn't mine, he's my neighbor's. i realize it isn't the best tank for him and i intend to let the owners know some tips to make him happier, but i made sure the tank is nice and most and he has a full water bowl until they get back. i don't actually think it is a injury to the head (althoguh it does look like it in the pics) because he actually doesn't have that much blood on his head, the pics just look like he does. his face/ head is a grayish color, not even close to the color of the rest of him. i really think there is some sort of infection or fungus thing where it is eating or damaging the skin on his head, and some blood came out when the got through his skin. i really don't know though because this has never happened to me though. thanks for the response though. any more advice is greatly appreciated. thanks


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## Baltimore Bryan

alright he moves from one side of the tank to the other occasionally... then i checked a few hours later and i thought he was dead. he wouldn't move when i touched him or misted him. i put him in a small container on a damp paper towel and then he lifted his head up. he is alive still, but doesn't move much at all. and is getting very skinny and his legs ae getting more and more streched out and droopy like he is almost completely out of energy. i got some pedialite but i don't know how to soak him in it. (assuming i should). should i put some in a shallow container and put him in the pedialite, or make a weak mixtre of pedialite with water... if i should mix water in, how much water and pedialte should i use? how long should i soak him? i will refrigerate some 2 week old crickets so he can eat them if the pedialite gives him enough energhy. what else should i do? i really need help. thanks


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## Baltimore Bryan

well i tried a pedialite soak and he hated it... he flipped out of the container, but at least was more active. i put in some refreigerated ff, but he didm't pay any attention to them. he also didn't go after the mealworm i tried. today most of the blood has cleared away, but he still doesn't move much. i'm not trying to be impatient, but he is getting very skinny and this is an emergency! i need some help to get him to eat. please help! thanks


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## vet_boy77

Looks like you have a pretty grim situation.

Step one- keep him alive. This will be the hardest part. The soak is an ok start. Of course with the flipping out- he's spending the little energy he has left. Make sure you get him to an ideal environmental temperature (I'm unsure what a FBT preferrs but I'm guessing low to mid 70s). You can start wityh a more dilute soak of pedialyte, or some LRS (Lactated Ringers solution)

Step 2- the skin- off hand it looks like a pretty nasty infection. Trauma is possible initiatiator, and so is poor husbandry. Could be fungal or bacterial. Silver sulfadiazine cream is an ok guess as it's safe and easy to apply. Get him to a vet if you want to make an honest effort.

Step 3- Correct husbandry- the frog doesn';t stand a chance if it can't have the right home and diet. Th flipping out could also be seizure related- any vitamin supplements being used. Even if you save him, he probably has very few odds of survival after he goes back to your friend.

Best of luck.
John


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## reggorf

I recently acquired a FBT from someone who did not want it anymore. We have him in a small plastic tank about 7 gallons with a plastic top that is well ventilated. It is half water and half gravel with a fake plastic plant. FBT's like to float in the water. The enclosure you have it in does not look suitable for a FBT. The water in our tank is about 3 inches deep. Our frog room stays about 68-74 degreees. The tank does not have a light over it but is sitting next to our terribilis viv which has lights on it. He seems to be pretty happy in here. The only thing I may change is putting some moss on top of the gravel so he does not accidently ingest a peice of gravel. I don't know if changing it's environment will help it at all, but it may. It looks like the tank it is in now has carpet or turf on the bottom with a shallow water dish. Good luck.


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## Baltimore Bryan

thank you very much for the replies. i had planned on keeping him for another couple weeks before giving him back to the owners to make sre he would be fully recovered, and helping them set up a tank the right way ( with about half land- half water).after the pedialite soaks, his head cleared a little and i saw it was grayish and the color of human skin ( kind of a dark peach color). i tried some meal worms but again he really wouldn't even notice them. i left him for a few hours in his small container with a damp paper towel which was inside of his original tank. i got home and saw he had unfortunately died.  he somehow managed to get out of his container, crawled across the tank next to the water bowl, and laid down for the final time...    so i am very uspet, even though he wasn't my frog, but i don't know if there was even a way to save him. he was very skinny and out of energy. i couldn't get him because he was so weak, and i couldn't force feed obviuosly because of his head. thank you all for the help, i will help the owners set up a better tank if they intend to get another one.


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