# Expired vitamins = Bloated froglets ???



## C.A.Caron (Apr 30, 2004)

Hi everyone, here is my story. I'm a complete beginner in that hobby. I had geckos in natural setups for several years but received my first frogs (4 leucs) less than a month ago.

At the beginning everyone seemed healthy and they were all eating. Then two weeks later one suddently got bloated and died. Of course I checked everything and thought of the possible cause with my vendor. We first thought that this could be due to impaction. But last week I lost another frog in much the same ways and impaction is simply not possible this time. 

As far as I know right now the two left are eating well and are very active. The temperature, humidity are both alright. Plus they have plenty of food(but not too much to stress them either). I do not think the problem is worms either. They were all born in captivity and the four I got would not be the only one with this problem.

At this point, there is only one possible cause that I think could be the answerthis is a portion of the E-mail I sent to my vendor)

The frog was a bit bloated like the other and I'm pretty sure they died from the same thing...but what?? I once again checked everything and may have found something. Reading on dendroboard about this kind of problem I learned that it could be due to vitamin A toxicity. Now, I am dusting with herptivite and repcal who are suppose to be Vitamin A free so there should be no problem. Only thing is that for my geckos I was using only a little bit of those products and I saw today that my vitamins are expired since september 2003. My questions now is how time affect those products?? Is beta carotene converted in vitamin A over time?

I guess the final question is do you think this could be the reason for my frogs deaths??

If anyone reading this have any other ideas of what could be the problem, I am open to any ideas. 

Thanks,

Charles


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## bbrock (May 20, 2004)

Vitamin A is not the only vitamin that can cause bloating in overdose but is a major one. Although there are lots of things that can cause bloating, liver damage due to over vitamin supplmentation seems to be a leading cause. I had a cb pumilio go down that way once. I cut back to dusting with vitamins 3-4 days a week and dusting with plain calcium on the other days. I haven't had a repeat problem over the several years since. However, I think I would try to work with a vet on this one. Having two frogs go down with the same symptoms would make it worth trying to get to the bottom of things rather than second guessing.

Good luck.


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