# Injured Dart Frog Care...



## marquisshax (Apr 6, 2020)

first things first, don’t worry i’ve been to the vet already! and i will call my vet again tomorrow. however, since he is in another city, and my city is in corona lockdown, i wanted to see if anyone here has had any experience with an injured dart frog. 

after noticing a white lump on my dart frogs leg last week, i immediately took her to the vet. it came back that my dendrobates azureus had injured herself and has a visible wound. my vet found signs of an infection and sent a test back for the lab to check for any bad bacteria, he advised to lower the humidity slightly in the tank and to keep an eye on it. i was later informed that there was no bad bacteria to worry about. 

after a few days of the wound going down, it got much worse. her leg became very swollen and the white spot has also gotten large spots of red and pink.

after another visit, she has been prescribed baytril to be applied once a day. i did this for 7 days per vets instructions, but there’s no change in her condition. 

there’s no information on how to treat this online, and since i’d likely be unable to travel for the foreseeable future i wanted to see if anyone here had some tips or input.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Silver sulfadiazine cream is often recommended in treating our frogs for exterior wounds and infections.
You are looking for Silver Sulfadiazine 1% Cream. Your vet will be familiar with it, but you can buy it yourself. I see listings for it all over the internet. I see it online at Walmart, Petco, Petsmart, chewy.com, and so many other places.


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## Kmc (Jul 26, 2019)

Did you raise the humidity if the tank or keep it lowered as the vet advised? 

Because that recommendation cued to your veterinarian's astuteness. 

We cant always control disease processes. Even human medicine cannot do so, with best doctors and therapies.


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## Kmc (Jul 26, 2019)

I like to make hospital cages that encourage repose hiding, to discourage additional self injury as much as possible.

animals often co opt quiet behaviors instinctively if given the right opportunities. Sometimes these are helped with dark paper and easy to access cavern type shelter.


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## Kmc (Jul 26, 2019)

Dark paper applied Outside corner of container, of course.


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## jtherr (Nov 2, 2017)

Pictures of the wound would be helpful. Silver sulfadiazine is often a good choice. I would let the veterinarian know that Baytril isn't working. This could be a clue that either the bacteria isn't sensitive to it, or there is something else going on i.e fungal infection.


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## macg (Apr 19, 2018)

I'm not a vet, and you should follow the advice of those with more experience, but if you can't implement any other options recommend here for whatever reason, I have used Neosporin (triple antibiotic) externally successfully multiple times, though not on infections as severe as you are describing.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

macg said:


> I'm not a vet, and you should follow the advice of those with more experience, but if you can't implement any other options recommend here for whatever reason, I have used Neosporin (triple antibiotic) externally successfully multiple times, though not on infections as severe as you are describing.


So have I, but it's very important to get one without pain relief.


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## marquisshax (Apr 6, 2020)

Pumilo said:


> Silver sulfadiazine cream is often recommended in treating our frogs for exterior wounds and infections.
> You are looking for Silver Sulfadiazine 1% Cream. Your vet will be familiar with it, but you can buy it yourself. I see listings for it all over the internet. I see it online at Walmart, Petco, Petsmart, chewy.com, and so many other places.


i’ve heard good things about silver sulfadiazine. problem is i live in germany, and it’s harder to get it over the counter here. i can try to talk to my vet again to see if i can get a prescription. thank you!


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## marquisshax (Apr 6, 2020)

Kmc said:


> I like to make hospital cages that encourage repose hiding, to discourage additional self injury as much as possible.
> 
> animals often co opt quiet behaviors instinctively if given the right opportunities. Sometimes these are helped with dark paper and easy to access cavern type shelter.


that’s good to know, thank you! i have a quarantine tank for froglets, and put her in there initially, but she hated it and struggled quite a bit to get out. i’ll try a bigger tank and tape paper around it.


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## marquisshax (Apr 6, 2020)

Kmc said:


> Did you raise the humidity if the tank or keep it lowered as the vet advised?
> 
> Because that recommendation cued to your veterinarian's astuteness.
> 
> We cant always control disease processes. Even human medicine cannot do so, with best doctors and therapies.


i’ve lowered the tank humidity, per the vets instructions. i will call him again however to ask about the baytril and see if i can get something else for my frog.


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## Johanovich (Jan 23, 2017)

+1 on the silver sufadiazine cream. Another good one is chloramphenicol ointment. This is usually sold for eye infections in dogs and cats.

Something else you can do to lower the bacterial load and combat skin infections is to use a fogger and mix the water with F10sc. This treatment is one of the few treatments successful in curing chytrid and red leg disease. Here is a link to an article of it being used for red leg disease in tomate frogs: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/44583302_Disinfectant_F10SC_nebulisation_in_the_treatment_of_'red_leg_syndrome'_in_amphibians

Is the frog eating well? I've lost a frog to a similar infection that got out of hand when I started keeping frogs three years ago. The infection started from a small wound in the back leg and made its way to the bone despite treatment. The frog stopped eating, deteriorated quickly and died.


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## marquisshax (Apr 6, 2020)

jtherr said:


> Pictures of the wound would be helpful. Silver sulfadiazine is often a good choice. I would let the veterinarian know that Baytril isn't working. This could be a clue that either the bacteria isn't sensitive to it, or there is something else going on i.e fungal infection.


https://imgur.com/a/ZM1ZzjD

here’s a small album of images.


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## marquisshax (Apr 6, 2020)

Johanovich said:


> +1 on the silver sufadiazine cream. Another good one is chloramphenicol ointment. This is usually sold for eye infections in dogs and cats.
> 
> Something else you can do to lower the bacterial load and combat skin infections is to use a fogger and mix the water with F10sc. This treatment is one of the few treatments successful in curing chytrid and red leg disease. Here is a link to an article of it being used for red leg disease in tomate frogs: https://www.researchgate.net/public...treatment_of_'red_leg_syndrome'_in_amphibians
> 
> Is the frog eating well? I've lost a frog to a similar infection that got out of hand when I started keeping frogs three years ago. The infection started from a small wound in the back leg and made its way to the bone despite treatment. The frog stopped eating, deteriorated quickly and died.


i will look into that and see if i can get F10sc. that sounds unfortunately a lot like the infection i’m dealing with, but my frog is eating very well and is surprisingly agile despite her condition. i will ask my vet for silver sulfadiazine. thank you for the recommendation!


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## Kmc (Jul 26, 2019)

Although I have not been shy to troubleshoot out of necessity with animals at-hand, I refrain from suggesting all but the most basic wound care irrigants and topical bacterial that could lead to agent incompatibilities, superinfections and toxicities. 

I looked at the photo. It would be a good idea, if you can do so without causing undo stress, to rinse the cork under a vigorous flow of water and new scrubber brush to clear its surfaces of all particulates. I could say take it out and discuss an alternative soft Q artifact, but Stress is influential, however particulates like the cork crumbs, and anything else like adhering sub bits on an area that is sure to receive repeated contact against surfaces, is not good.

Dry the cork by pressing it with pads of paper towel. Look at the towel to make sure its clean. 

Well scrubbed, heat sanitized pieces of cork can make good H artifact. Hope there isnt a "next time" just saying. Also* No need to _carbonize_ wood artifact by baking it an hour in a hyperbole of fiery temperatures. 140 - 160 F for 10 minutes is enough for an item that will be quickly turned to a non sterile item the moment its touched by the animal, the fruit flies, etc. But it should be as clean as possible going in. 

I have found that a stress reductive, very clean format of an H environment increases the success of the therapies. Especially if they are still eating.


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## Kmc (Jul 26, 2019)

Put a small, stable square of cork that you keep Dry, in a darkened warm (75 - 78) corner and watch her - she'll go there.

A wet injured frog becomes a bone exposed sick frog.


I think there is a good possibility that your frog caught that joint somewhere, and abraded the skin, it started to infect, there was pos response to the baytril and then the site was re abraded by her activities. Its in a very troublesome location.


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## Kmc (Jul 26, 2019)

There is no evidence that the "baytril isnt working" just because it hasnt healed yet.

There is just as much potential for the medication to have prevented it from becoming much, much worse.

I have no criticisms for topical antiseptics being used in combination with her prescribed treatment, but I would stick with the treatment plan and use what your vet okays. 

The comment about lowered humidity is a nuanced clue that your vet knows what he/she is doing. 

Almost everyone thinks its the other way around - and some vets focus on the meds and pathology alone, and not therapeutic husbandry details, because they dont teach that in classic curriculum.


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## Amagaeru (May 6, 2015)

marquisshax said:


> http://imgur.com/a/ZM1ZzjD
> 
> 
> here’s a small album of images.


How did the Azureus fair? Were you able to treat it and get it back into health?


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