Hey,
So unfortunately one of my Northern leopard frogs died all of a sudden. I've been keeping a pair in a 20 gallon long tank for about 3 years now. They had been doing well, the tank was well maintained but all of a sudden one of them expired. I didn't have any warning signs like redness/bloating/lethargy but I did notice that it's abdomen was looking a little weird/bulging the last week or so. When it passed unexpectedly, I did what any herp collector with a medical background would do: I performed an autopsy. On gross exam, the abdomen was a little full but instead of the usual edema I would expect (most deaths are due to infection), I felt a really hard, large mass. When I opened him up, it was a firm, rubbery, nodular mass about 30mm in diameter and it was kidney shaped. I did a little lit search and I came across Lucke's tumor which is a kidney cancer that affects N. leopard frogs caused by a (nonhuman) herpesvirus. I'm no pathologist or vet but the mass looked awfully similar to the images I saw in the papers I looked at. Has anyone else ever encountered this or heard of this? I'll let you know if the tank mate succumbs to this as well. Thanks!
did some more reading...apparently it is not that common and the good thing is that those post metamorphosis specimens are usually immune to the virus and therefore can't get the infection->tumor
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