# Internal Paracites?



## Harlequin (Jul 9, 2007)

I am new to DendroBoard and to dart frogs. I have done a considerable amount of research, but I now have a situation with one of my new Tincs ~ I am reasonably certain that it is a female about 1 inch long. I have her in a 20g terrarium with a male. She ate well for about a month after buying her, but now she is eating very little and is growing very thin. She seems like she is spending a lot of time sleeping. I have noticed that she kicks at her abdomen fairly often, and I have checked her thoroughly to make sure she doesn't have a fiber or hair stuck on her somewhere. I am wondering if she may have internal paracites, but I've never seen the symptoms of paracites. 

Does this sound familiar to anyone?


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## rozdaboff (Feb 27, 2005)

Internal parasites are a distinct possibility. I would recommend having a fecal checked. If there aren't any vets in your area experienced in treating amphibians (or exotics for that matter) - there are places where you can send a fecal (Dr. Frye being one possibility).


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## Quaz (Nov 13, 2005)

You need to act immediately to save your frog. I've lost too many frogs this way hoping they'll get better. Or just not doing anything because I didn't know what was wrong.

The problem is most likely parasites. The treatment for this is metronidazole you can obtain it from a local vet or from Dr. Frye. 

Frogs that have shown signs like this before that I've had have died in as little as three days after noticing symptoms.


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## Harlequin (Jul 9, 2007)

I lost the frog, and I examined its GI and found no visible paracites, although I have no means to examine microscopically. Now I have noticed another frog acting abnormally. As I posted before, I noticed the first frog kicking at its abdomen, but with the second, it looks more like it is trying to kick at something on its back. Are there any kind of skin irritants that are commonly encountered in a terrarium? I am using spring water as a still water feature and mist with ionically filtered water. My substrate is aquarium stone, and I have areas of live moss with two broadleafed dumbcanes. I am feeding wingless fruit flies with RepCal powder. I have noticed in the past that if the frogs get the RepCal on their skin, they act irritated. The first frog just would not eat the flies. I noticed that it would try to eat some of the tiny insects that were in the moss, so I tried to feed it some terrestrial termites. It quickly acted like it wanted to eat them, but seemed to lose interest once it licked one of them. Anyone have any ideas?

I have searched the site for Dr. Frye and cannot find any links to him. 
How do I contact him?


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## Curt61 (Jan 16, 2007)

Hey, I know he goes on Dartden.com, (I hope I can say another website on here, I'm not sure, then please take it off)
I believe he also owns the website, fryebrotherfrogs.com, I have met Dr Frye in person and I have never heard a bad thing about him, so I would recomend him.

Curt.


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## Harlequin (Jul 9, 2007)

Thanks for all the help. 
Since I've had time to read some back-posts, I've realized that flukes are not the only GI paracite that these frogs get. When I did the examination on my dead frog, I didn't notice any flukes (which was what I was looking for), but the GI tract was severely edemic, and I didn't know why. Having a fecal run is not really an option here because I'm so isolated and vets who are close enough to get it done speedily are basically livestock vets. I could run the fecal myself (I'm a med science student), but I don't have my own Brightfield and I don't currently have access to the university labs. 
Due to the edemic GI tract of the first frog, the fact that all three frogs have had watery feces since shortly after I bought them, and the way this illness is behaving, I'm assuming it is in fact intestinal paracites. I've contacted Dr. Frye with the symptoms but haven't received an answer yet. Since I will probably lose the frogs anyway, I've decided treat with metronidazole. I can get it locally, and since it's a broad-spectrum anti-microbial, it may save my frogs before it's too late.
Thanks again for the help!


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