My dealings with lungworms (Rhabdias sp.) signs and symptoms

[illadelfyaEAGLE]

Hello all,

I wanted to share this with you because I didn't find a lot of info my self when searching and hopefully it can prevent any problems in the future...

About a month ago I purchased a Whites tree frog from petco. The lil guy had nice green/blue colors and white spots, and seemed to be a lil on the chubby side but hey, they're called dumpy frogs for a reason right? He was also slightly smaller than the other whites in the tank. I brought him home, fed him with dusted crickets and he ate like a monster. I had him quarantined for about a week so far, and his stool looked solid, although it had a strong smell. I figured he was healthy and I wanted to see both my whites interact so instead of waiting a month in quarantine like your supposed to, I waited only a week and put him in a vivarium with my other whites (big mistake). After observing the two together, I began to notice some things. 1. While breathing, he would inflate himself with 3 consecutive breathes and then defalte himself, sort of like wheezing. 2. He looked slightly bloated (not fat though, skin was tight around the rib area) as compared to my other male whites. 3. He was not nearly as active as my other whites, however he did move around some and even croaked. 4. Stool was solid for the most part, and had stools here and there that were runny. The stool smelled very strongly. 5. He did not seem to want to soak. He would sit at the corner of the water bowl and stare at the water, but not go in. 6. His skin look slightly dry or granular. I decided to re-quarantine him. I did some literature research. I learned about the genus Rhabdias, a parasitic nematode which parasitizes the lung tissue. If young frogs get infected, they can be stunted and show signs of failure to thrive (hence my frogs smaller size compared to other whites?) I began to get worried. Could this be why he's wheezing, along with all the other unusual behavior. I am not a vet, but I have my MS in biology, and had taken a medical parasitology course in my grad program. I purchased a microscope ( I wanted one for a while anyway) and did a fecal exam. Sure enough I saw juvenile lungworms. He is now being treated with fenbendazole. I now have to sterilize a well established vivarium and also treat my other whites. The moral of the story is... quarantine all new frogs for 30 days prior to introducing them to another population, and get a fecal exam done. With a lil reading on microscope operation, you dont have to spend money on a vet visit. You can ask a local high school or university to use their microscope an i'm sure they'd oblige. Also you can purchase a realtively good but cheap microscope for under $50. I noticed the lungworms on only 40x power and they were quite visible.

[DonLisk]

Sorry to hear about your frogs condition, but your posting does ring so true with the need to quarantine and do fecal exams. It is common for people to believe that their new acquisition is fine and and then rush to move it/them in with their already established tank and frogs.

Thanks for sharing and here is a link to information on doing fecal exams: Frog Forum - How to do Fecal Exams

Hope all works out for our little one.

Don

[illadelfyaEAGLE]

Yep I will post an up date in a few days on how he is doing. Today will be the third consecutive day of fenbendazole treatment. I have already noticed a reduction in his wheezing. My fear now is that the dead lungworms will decompose in the lung tissue and cause sepsis. I'm going to increase temps and bathe him in pedialyte. Hopefully that will flush his system out.