# Injury on frog



## alikat85 (Jul 18, 2014)

Hi everyone! I've had dart frogs for almost 6 years now. I recently revamped my terrarium when I noticed one of my beautiful frogs had some sort of injury on its leg. It appears to be round and its leg is swollen at the site of injury. Can anyone help me identify what this is? Is it an injury, fungus, or bacterial infection? 

Right now I have a 36x18x36 exo terra terrarium. It's (currently) 75% humidity and 76 degrees Fahrenheit. I have all live plants & moss in there, a drip waterfall, fogger (on a timer that goes about 6 hours a day), and a MistKing misting system that goes off 3 times a day for 1 minute each time. 

I have 7 Dendrobates tinctorius 'Azureus' living in there. However, I put this little guy in an 8x8x8 Zoo Med quarantine tank with damp paper towels for the bottom, a fake fern, a little rounded wood thing for a hiding spot, and a clean water bowl. I don't currently have STATS on the 8x8x8 as far as humidity and temp. I keep my house around 75 degrees though so I would imagine the temp would be around the same. 

The injured frog is not moving around as much as it usually does (but still moves around a decent amount). However, it is eating normally. The injuries seem to only be on the left leg.


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## alikat85 (Jul 18, 2014)

Okay, I obviously don't know how to post a pic on here....

Lets see if this works:

file:///Users/agatti85/Pictures/iPhoto%20Library/Previews/2016/06/13/20160613-200542/IMG_0468.jpg


file:///Users/agatti85/Pictures/iPhoto%20Library/Previews/2016/06/13/20160613-200542/IMG_0464.jpg


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## Blueper (Feb 27, 2016)

alikat85 said:


> a drip waterfall, fogger (on a timer that goes about 6 hours a day), and a MistKing misting system that goes off 3 times a day for 1 minute each time.


A waterfall, a fogger on for 6 hrs p/day, and a mister going off for a whole minute.......3 times p/day.
That is quite an excessive amount of water and moisture for an enclosure, for a 24 hr cycle. My guess is that your hygrometer is grossly inaccurate, or you have it next to a fan or vent. Either way, I find it hard to believe that your humidity is actually 75%.
To be honest, I can't say for sure what is on the frog's leg. However, it doesn't look like a laceration and considering the excessive amount of moisture in the tank, I have to assume it's some type of fungal or bacterial infection. 
I would: cut off the fogger, drop misting to (1) 30-60 sec interval in the morning and (1) 10-15 sec interval in the early evening. Put down a bunch of fresh leaf litter so the frogs can get off the wet substrate.
Take the frog to a vet and see if you can get some type of medication. Someone here may have seen that before and be able to guide you better on how to treat the frog. But definitely cut back on how wet the tank is.


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## alikat85 (Jul 18, 2014)

Thank you, Blueper. I will definitely make some adjustments. Perhaps my humidity thermometer is running out of batteries? I'll see if I can pick up another one of those as well as follow your other recommendations. I really appreciate your feedback.


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## Blueper (Feb 27, 2016)

No problem. 
However, it's just an educated guess, based on my level of experience.
It may be that your tank is very well ventilated and drained and moisture retention is not the cause.
Can you post pics of your setup? A few good pics and better description of the enclosure should help some of the more experienced members more accurately diagnose the problem and potential cause.
From the initial description, I would say way too much water. But some pics would help a lot.


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## alikat85 (Jul 18, 2014)

Absolutely! 

Unfortunately, this set up has only been up 3 days and I have already tore down the other set up. I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that the injury was there when he was in the old set up. It was so overgrown with pothos that it was hard to even see the frogs anymore (hence the new set up). 

I do have a computer fan at the top of the tank. And the top of the tank is the original exo terra screen, so it's not closed in by glass or acrylic. I was hoping they would get plenty of air-flow by doing that. 

The fogger was not on 6 hours straight. It was on for about 2 hours a time 3 times a day. I've already turned those off and will probably only have them on when company is over (they do look cool!). I still have the drip waterfall (it's only at the bottom cause I purchased a small pump that can't go up that high). I think that would still be okay to have on don't ya think? I've already reset the misting system to only go off twice a day at 30 seconds. 

The pictures are from the first day I had the tank set up. One of the pictures shows the MistKing going. It's two nozzles only (I use to have 4 going and thought that was overkill).


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## Blueper (Feb 27, 2016)

Being that it's a newly set up tank, the plants probably do need a little extra water until they are established. And seeing how the top of the new tank is open and there's a fan, I can see how the hygrometer is reading 75% relative humidity, even with that much misting and fogging. So, I'm pretty sure that happened to the frog in the last tank. 
Once the plants are established, seeing how you have a water feature, you could probably block off some of the top and cut the misting way back and it will hold a comfortable humidity range. It takes a while of tinkering with everything to get it just right. Every tank is a little different. 
As far as the frog, I still think it's a fungal or bacterial infection, but I would wait until some of the more experienced members see this. Or, see what a vet says.
Any vets near you that deal with amphibians?


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## Gibbs.JP (Feb 16, 2016)

I'd be careful with the spanish moss... I've read multiple times that it can be harmful to frogs.



Ed said:


> http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/plants/12327-does-spanish-moss-work-vivs.html#post106510
> 
> Some comments
> 
> Ed


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## alikat85 (Jul 18, 2014)

Gibbs. JP - Wow! I was unaware that Spanish Moss would be a problem. Thank you for that information!


Blueper - I bought a different hygrometer and it currently states 80%. It's now located right in the middle of the tank on the opposite side of the fan. Still not sure if the digital one was running out of batteries or if it was the location (it was on the side of the fan, but much lower down on the tank). Anyway, I'm really happy you gave me the suggestions about cutting out some of the watering. I'll try to just spot-treat some plants that look a little dry while they are being established. 

There is an exotic pet vet 30 miles from my home that I use for my parrot. However, they seem to have more experience with reptiles, birds, and mammals (other than cats and dogs) than amphibians. This was just my observation when I last saw them. I'm going to give them a call and explain my situation. I'm a little hesitant to use them though, they accidentally broke my bird's toe while they were grooming him and then denied anything had happened (I didn't notice that his toe was at a 90 degree angle until I got him home. And I can't think of any way he could have done something like that on the way home. He's a little guy with fragile toes and I could hear him screaming in the other room while they were trimming his nails. Called them, took him back, and then paid another $75 vet bill just for them to look at what they did). But that's the only Exotic Pet place I know of, so I guess I have no choice.


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