# took frog to vet...still no diagnosis :(



## Guest (Mar 10, 2006)

I posted a couple weeks ago about a few froglets having blisters on their noses. I took two of them to the vet, as advised. She did fecals and put a tiny needle into one of the blisters and looked at that too. The results were in-conclusive. The fecals were normal (same as a healthy frog's sample which I had also brought in) and the sample from the blister showed nothing. So does anyone have any idea why a bunch of froglets would get blisters on their face? It is not an injury, because I do have one with it next to it's eye, so it's not from nose-rubs or anything. The froglets are 4-6 months old that have it. They are different morphs who grew up in different containers. So I am extremely concerned about whether or not this is something contagious...are all the babies at risk? I'm not sure what else to do if going to the vet didn't help. There are 6-7 froglets in all that have this. But I have 40 or so that I'm having to keep because I'm affraid of what it is.

Some ideas I have are 1. lack of vits. or calcium?...because I recently found out the rep-cal and herptivite I use does expire...which I didn't know. I also have some froglets from certain time periods who can't catch flies because of this.
2. bad substrate...I had been using sphagnum moss from the store and now have switched to clean Chilean moss.
3. temp...could too warm or too cool cause this?
4. mites...I know the mites in fruit flies are harmless to frogs...but there were some in the fecals that were still alive.


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## back2eight (Dec 19, 2005)

what do you mean by bad sphagnum moss, how was it bad?


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

Just wondering, are the "blisters" always on or near the head? Did the vet advise any sort of topical treatment?
In my mantella book, it suggests skin ulcers are result of a secondary bacterial or fungal infection in a wound, and can even be caused by stress alone, and suggests use of a topical antibiotic....the book is aimed at mantellas though, but I don't think it would be that different for darts. 
Are the froglets communal or single? 
Perhaps try oak leaves for you're froglet containers...even the "premium" spagnum has tiny bits that break off, and can irritate the frog's skin. That being said I use spagnum (both wild picked, and "premium") and have never had a problem.
Just my $0.02!


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## elmoisfive (Dec 31, 2004)

back2eight said:


> what do you mean by bad sphagnum moss, how was it bad?


Some sphagnum moss is treated to destroy pests/pathogens and may contain residual chemicals that can cause issues for frogs. There have been reports of people losing frogs, especially froglets, due to what appears to be bad batches of sphagnum. On the other hand, there is no quick test (short of the sphagnum smelling like fumigant) to know whether a batch has issues. I try to play it safe by using long fiber sphagnum from a trusted source.

Bill


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## Dane (Aug 19, 2004)

Are the frogs pretty well established? Could they be nose rubs from escape attempts or running around the perimeter of the tank near the glass?


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## Guest (Mar 11, 2006)

I didn't notice any wounds before the blisters show up. In fact the blister is the color of the skin wherever it is (usually yellow on the nose cause they're tincs). And I doubt it's nose-rubs because they're not always on the end of the nose. One is on the side of it's head. Another had 4 pretty big bumps that look like they would have broken open if they were rubbed on anything. I've had frogs get nose-rubs before and it usually looks grey because the skin color was rubbed off. They are pretty well established. One is about 6 months old and just got one.


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## Guest (Mar 11, 2006)

No, the vet didn't say anything about a topical treatment. If it was bacterial or fungal....wouldn't it have shown up when she took the sample?


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## Guest (Mar 11, 2006)

I'd get a second opinion from another vet.


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