# Please help my firebellied toad (seizures, milky eye)



## Dragonette (Jan 13, 2007)

I hope I am posting this in the correct section. I am concerned about a recent worsening of my frog's condition.
Her name is Jungle, and I got her from a local petstore about 14-15 months ago with one other firebelly and a floating frog. Initially at the petstore I was attracted to her because she was very fat, having an almost round torso. When the petstore dude caught her for me, he said that he thought she was pregnant, and, to show me, he squeezed her about the middle rather roughly between his fingers. Anyways the petstore guy was right that she was pregnant; after a short quarantine period I put her in with my other frogs and the morning after my tank was covered in eggs. I do not think it was her first batch, since she laid well over 200 eggs. Sixteen I still have now, small froglets. However, Jungle still had some problems. Right after she ate her stomach would distend oddly to one side; it seemed like her stomach was out of place or something. Unfortunately I do not remember which side it was that would distend. Gradually (after a few months) that problem seemed to get better; I don't notice her stomach streching anymore. However, she started having seizure-like episodes. During these, which vary in legnth and intensity, she spins herself in violent clockwise circles, sometimes arching her back so she almost goes end-over-end, but more sideways... it's hard to describe. Also, sometimes during these seizures she opens her mouth and just leaves it gaping as she circles/backflips. Sometimes when she is not seizing she will sort of swim in a much larger circle, for example she will swim off a log but then slowly circle back to it, sort of like she just has a tendency to go that way and didn't really intend to circle back. Also sometimes when she is not seizing she will do strange things with her head, for example sort of lift it up, or rock it side to side, or almost nod. Her body does not seem as straight as it should be, it almost seems like her spine is curved slightly sideways. This curvature is sometimes quite obvious and at others almost unnoticible. I feel all these problems may be because of some internal injury, perhaps from when the petstore guy squeezed her, since I'm sure it is very traumatic to be squeezed when you're that pregnant. She does still eat, even though it takes her longer than the other frogs, but sometimes she begins spinning/seizing when she is eating... she still gets the cricket, though. 
For the last few months I blocked her off into her own little section of the tank, because one of my males is unusually large, and it was mating season. I did not feel the extra stress would be good for her. Her condition seemed fairly stable for that time. Perhaps slowly deteriorating? It's hard to say, I guess no major changes during those months. There was still some frog-to-frog contact during this time, as several of my frogs could scale the barrier. It just kept the hanky-panky to a minimum. Yesterday, I took down the barrier in the tank to do redecorating, and mating season is apparently over anyways (at least the males are calling less). I noticed that she was not really moving very much. She's never been a particularly energetic frog, she seems content to just sit wherever she is, usually: she will usually sit on my palm for 10-15 seconds just because she doesn't move around that much. This time when I picked her up she sat in my hand for almost a minute, and I noticed that her left eye is a transparent milky white. I know that this is not a good sign and I am worried it is some sort of an infection. I am not sure if I should remove her from the main tank. I do not want her to give it to my other frogs, but any temp enclosure I could set up for her would be much less nice and perhaps more stressful.
Here's some info about the tank Jungle lives in: it is a 75 gallon aquarium/paludarium with about 4" of water. Right now it is running a Tetrafauna Reptofilter, although in the recent past it has also had periods of no filtration and periods of Fluval plus-2 filtration. There is an incandescent bulb above the tank, on a 12 hour cycle. The tank is about room temperature, which right now is about 70 (that is the temperature of the water in the tank). Five other firebellied toads live in this tank. They are all 100% healthy (well, one gal is missing a hind foot from some previous injury before I got her, but she does just fine). They have all lived together over a year. I feed them adult crickets or blatta lateralis roaches about once to twice a week. I try and dust them every time with Rep-Cal Herpivite and Calcium, but it usually just washes off before the frogs get them due to the paludarium style of the tank.
I would like to try and treat Jungle with antibiotics (or something) for her eye. I have read references to Baytril but I don't want to just be giving my frog drugs she doesn't need without consultation. I believe her other issues are probably due to an internal injury, so there is probably less that can be done for them, especially over the internet, but I wanted to explain the situation as best I can. Any comments, advice, etc. are appreciated.


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