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Thread: Leg spasms...

  1. #1
    Jace
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    Default Leg spasms...

    The last day or so, I have noticed that one of my brown Fire Belly toads has leg spasms in his right rear leg. It occurs whether he is in the water on on land. I have never experienced this with any of mine before and wonder if I should be concerned? Should I remove and quarantine him?

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  3. #2
    Paul Rust
    Guest

    Default Re: Leg spasms...

    Do you dust the food. Sounds like the beginnings of calcium deficiency. How is your hand?

  4. #3
    Jace
    Guest

    Default Re: Leg spasms...

    I dust both the crickets they get and the once a week mealworms they get. If I take him out and give him one-on-one dusted food, can I reverse the damage??

    The hand is good, thanks, Paul. Almost have full mobility in my thumb again-two thumbs up...well, almost!

  5. #4
    Paul Rust
    Guest

    Default Re: Leg spasms...

    I thought that you did dust. Might just be a temporary thing. In the mean time check all the basics. Temp, humidity, the usual stuff to double check. Do you use an actual calcium supplement like rep-cal? I hope someone else has an idea.

  6. #5
    Jace
    Guest

    Default Re: Leg spasms...

    I use Rep-Cal Ultrafine powder with Vitamin D3 for all my amphibians and geckos. However, I "free feed" them within their set-up, so they may not be getting as much calcium as they need. I will double check everything and remove them from the tank to feed for the next bit just to ensure they are getting enough....

  7. #6
    Kurt
    Guest

    Default Re: Leg spasms...

    Are they getting UVB?

  8. #7
    Jace
    Guest

    Default Re: Leg spasms...

    No....I wasn't aware they needed UVB. The setup is near a window that is opened every day for one of my plants, though. The canopy light is on for 8 hours a day at least, but it is just a standard bulb. Something tells me I might want to invest in a proper bulb....?

  9. #8
    Paul Rust
    Guest

    Default Re: Leg spasms...

    Quote Originally Posted by Jace View Post
    No....I wasn't aware they needed UVB. The setup is near a window that is opened every day for one of my plants, though. The canopy light is on for 8 hours a day at least, but it is just a standard bulb. Something tells me I might want to invest in a proper bulb....?
    They are getting some UVB from the canopy lights. There is research that suggests frogs need more UVB than earlier thought. However, the 3 consecutive papers on this research published in Environmental Science and Technology, a journal of the American Chemical Society, the worlds largest scientific society, determined that UVB is the cause of frog malformations. In the study it was determined that with an incremental increase in UVB there was a corresponding decrease in egg development and tadpole survival and an increase in the presence of malformations. These adverse effects were appearing at 63.5% of the intensity of UVB in natural sunlight! Until something convinces me otherwise and a dosage is determined I am not going to use a UVB bulb with my frogs.
    Last edited by Paul Rust; May 26th, 2010 at 03:46 PM.

  10. #9
    Jace
    Guest

    Default Re: Leg spasms...

    Okay....so then I shouldn't change the bulb? Wow, this can be confusing stuff. Right now, I am going to take them out, give them a bunch of calcium dusted crickets in a separate feeding bin, do a full change on their water, freshen up their moss and go from there. Still just the one frog (out of 7) with a leg spasm, so other than doing the above, I guess I will just have to wait and see.

  11. #10
    Paul Rust
    Guest

    Default Re: Leg spasms...

    I would not use a bulb designed specifically to produce UVB radiation until more conclusive evidence is found. Of course if you have a glass or acrylic top and the lights are shooting throught it this whole converstion is mute because the UVB is being filtered out anyway.

  12. #11
    Jace
    Guest

    Default Re: Leg spasms...

    Yes, actually, the canopy is all plastic and then the bulb cover is placed on top....I specifically got that type of cover so that even if the toads climbed up, they would not get burned by an exposed bulb.

  13. #12
    Jace
    Guest

    Default Re: Leg spasms...

    Well, I did everything above, but the little guy still passed on...the others all look healthy and normal (knock on wood) and each ate a couple of nicely dusted, gut-loaded crickets. So, I will have to continue to monitor them and hopefully whatever it was only affected that one.

  14. #13
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    Default Re: Leg spasms...

    Im so sorry Jace. It might have been a one off thing. Maybe a nerve problem. Anyway it sounds like your other frogs are OK.

  15. #14
    Jace
    Guest

    Default Re: Leg spasms...

    Thank you. With how much energy the others used in first trying to get out of the feeding container and then hopping all over their revamped setup, they look pretty good. My favourtie female, Lichen, even managed to climb all the way to the top of the tank...until the mesh thwarted her escape efforts!!

  16. #15
    Paul Rust
    Guest

    Default Re: Leg spasms...

    I'm sorry Jo-Anna, dang it! I'm glad the others are well. I seriously doubt that it had anything to do with how you care for them, you are an excellent keeper.

  17. #16
    Jace
    Guest

    Default Re: Leg spasms...

    Thank you, Paul. Still bothers me because he was one of the larger, chubbier, males, only about 2 years old, and perfectly healthy up until that point. Just goes to show that one little off thing can make a big difference to them. But my other males were calling tonight and the females were ignoring them which is normal for that group, so I think I can relax a little. Who am I kidding?? No I won't.....

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