WTF Skin Infection

[Bynny Ribbit]

Hey everyone! Since late January, I have had some troubles with my 9 year-old WTF Moochy. It started off with some cloudiness in her left eye. I took her in to the vet, got some oflaxacin eye drops, and used them as prescribed by the vet. After the regiment, her eye didn't look any worse or better, so I decided to wait it out and see how she progressed from there. Her eye is still the same, but this prior Sunday (six days ago), I noticed her back was getting bumpy. By Tuesday, there were more bumps and some even started to look like little whitehead pimples. I got into the vet on Wednesday (three days ago) and was prescribed silver sulfadiazine cream. The vet tried to get a scraping of one of the bumps to look at it (under a microscope, I think?), but he couldn't make any direct conclusion and kindly didn't charge me for that part. I was also unable to grab a good fecal sample to get analyzed; they were always too dry to be useful by the time I found them, but they were a concern since they were runnier than normal.

I'm not sure how fast results usually are when using this cream, but I feel there are more little white bumps than when I brought her in. Is it a case of getting worse before getting better? It's really hard for me to tell because Moochy has been seemingly unaffected by her current state. Her weight hasn't changed, she's still eating, displaying her usual little behaviors. She is downright feisty when I've applied the cream, swiping her little hands at the cotton swab and even kicking her legs at it. It's been the silver lining in all this and the only assurance she could make a full recovery.

If anyone has any advice for how to proceed, I would really appreciate it. I'll be continuing the silver sulfadiazine cream as told by the vet, but I may call in on Monday to request proceeding to oral antibiotics, which was going to be the next step if the cream was ineffective. Part of the trouble is not knowing if what she has is fungal or bacterial in origin and my searching on the internet seemed fruitless.

I should also note Moochy has a 9 year-old tankmate named Fatty. She has shown zero signs of infection and will hopefully remain that way since they're now in separate tanks and the prior one has been thoroughly cleaned.

[Bynny Ribbit]

I just did a treatment of the cream and a good portion of the white bumps have appeared to "pop" leaving little brown indents. Hopefully it's a sign of progress. I will try to grab a picture tomorrow during her next treatment. She's still behaving normally and ate half a worm tonight.

[Bynny Ribbit]

I'm glad to be seeing some more of her old color, but it does make it more difficult to find those lighter spots, lol. The routine is putting her in the critter keeper to apply the cream, but she inevitably always figures out she can climb out and I end up holding her while dabbing some of the sneakier bumps on her back legs, sides, and face. She has shown some improvement and continues to behave normally, so I'm optimistic.

I also got some shots of her face and captured the irregularity in her left eye pretty well. I'm starting to think it was either an injury, hence why eye drops didn't make it go away, or my vet said it could simply be a lipid buildup. I have read that older frogs can get these simply due to age, too. Considering she's about 9 years-old, it wouldn't be too far-fetched.






I'll continue to keep track of Moochy's condition not only for my own benefit, but for others who may eventually face a similar issue.

[Bynny Ribbit]

There hasn't been any direct improvement with the cream and I feel there are actually more dots now than before. Moochy also seemed to really dislike the cream and show signs of discomfort after it was applied. I have an appointment scheduled with the vet on Wednesday. In the meantime, I'm no longer using the cream and instead making a strong saline solution to put her in briefly to see if that helps. She is still eating normally, though she seems a little less active and more prone to long soaks. This makes sense since I don't know when she last shed, hopefully the saline solution benefits her.

It's been hard seeing her like this but it helps that she is still voracious and behaving mostly like herself. Hopefully this means it's more of an external issue.

[Bynny Ribbit]

Moochy is still soaking a lot and hasn't pooped in over a week. I took her into the vet this morning and he said she was looking better and not to worry about her lack of poop since he didn't feel any impaction when examining her. She received an antibiotic injection of ceftazidime in case what's causing her skin lesions is systemic. Some of the bumps near her face have morphed into little, hard red dots. They could be scabs? I decided to dab some of the silver sulfadiazine cream on some of the worst areas, especially where wounds seem to have opened. If the dots turn out to be scabs, it may be worth doing another saline soak. It has the added benefit of encouraging a shed. Vet said if there is improvement with the shot, he recommends another at the end of this week or early next week.

Moochy is becoming one of the most expensive pets I've ever owned, lmao. But! She ate four whole crickets yesterday with a lot of vigor! It's very nice to see...and very confusing. What's with your skin, girly?

[elly]

I have no idea what those bumps could be, but I hope the cream works, whatever they are. Maybe there's some skin irritation from the cream? I had a frog treated for protozoa and he reacted badly to the medicine for a little while, being lethargic, but he perked up. Maybe your frog will improve in the long run.