# Sick or injured Ranitomeya amazonica



## holtz015 (Apr 26, 2013)

I have a female Ranitomeya amazonica that is behaving very unusually and I think something is very wrong. This evening she was at the bottom of the vivarium, with a lot of dirt on her back, and when she tried to move, her hops were uncontrolled (usually resulting in a nose-plant type move) and somewhat circular. I thought something might be wrong with her front left limb, or almost like a stroke-victim would be on one side, as she is leaning heavily towards one side, but I'm not sure that is it.

This morning she appeared fine, she was up on the glass. And a couple days ago she laid 4 eggs. So this change happened within a period of 8 hrs or so. We have 2 male frogs in there with her. I don't know what to do. Do I remove her?? Can I treat her??? 

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!


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## frogface (Feb 20, 2010)

Could she have a dislocated shoulder? Can you post some pics of her?


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## holtz015 (Apr 26, 2013)

Here are some images of her. They aren't great pictures; she is in a difficult place to take pictures of her. 

With her difficulty in moving she is getting dirt all over her back and it seems to irritate her further. We are thinking of moving her to another container without substrate (maybe moist unbleached paper towels) but are worried that would increase her stress.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


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## frogface (Feb 20, 2010)

Would you be able to catch her? It looks to me like her left shoulder is out of joint. Is that the side she topples over to? I've had this happen with a tinc. Easy to fix but she is a large frog. I think it might be a little trickier with your frog. Anyway, here's what I did:

I held the frog tightly in one hand and held the foot of the dislocated joint between my thumb and finger with the other hand. Slightly loosened my grip on the hand that was holding her, allowing her to squirm a little, while holding the foot tight. She squirmed her joint back into place. This took only a couple seconds and I could feel it snap back into joint.


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## holtz015 (Apr 26, 2013)

I feel hesitant to pop her shoulder back into place due to her small size (thumbnail frog). I am contemplating to transferring her into an enclosure that she can hide and feel less stressed; seeing if the shoulder will pop back into place spontaneously. Do joints pop back in on their own in these frogs? If so, how long does it take?


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## frogface (Feb 20, 2010)

I certainly understand your concern. However, with this method, you are not doing the maneuvering. It's the frog that pops her own joint into place. She doesn't have the means to hold her own arm down so I don't know if it will move back into joint on its own. 

Really, with the tinc, it was very fast and the frog was back to normal immediately.


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## holtz015 (Apr 26, 2013)

Hey all,
The Ranitomeya with the arm problem was brought to a vet today that specializes in herps. He suggested that the arm may have a hairline fracture as the arm is still mobile (wouldn't be if it was a dislocated from the shoulder). He suggested for a treatment using a UVB light source even though the FF have been dusted with calcium /vitamin D3 supplements as proper absorption still requires natural UVB light (310nm). I am currently using a white light led light source. Do any light suppliers sell leds in the 310nm spectra? Seems a little harsh on the eyes if the leds are emitting only this spectra; does anyone know if mixed leds with multiple led spectra are sold? Thank you to everyone for the helpful suggestions!


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## frogface (Feb 20, 2010)

I don't know the answers to your questions but good for you for taking her to the vet! Thank you


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