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Thread: wild american toad with broken femur - try to splint or not?

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    Unhappy wild american toad with broken femur - try to splint or not?

    Greetings,

    I managed to save an american toad from one of my chickens last week. he (or she) is perfectly healthy, except for an injury to the back leg, which seems to be a closed femur fracture, now that the swelling is down. I have experience with toads and their husbandry and am happy to keep the little guy until healed. the current setup is a 10 gal tank w/ moist moss, a shallow bowl, and plenty of hiding places, beside the window in my garage. the toad is eating vitamin-coated mealworms and crickets like a champ...

    Now that I have an idea of what seems to be the problem, what should I do? Should I try and configure some sort of splint for the femur, or just keep the little guy comfortable, not mess with him, and see if he heals on his own? The toad pretty much stays in one preferred spot where he can hunt from easily, so it's not super mobile...also, since this happened a week ago, have I missed the window to splint?

    I feel awful for the toad and I don't want to quit on it since it seems to have a drive to live....

    Thank you for your time! Any advice is appreciated!
    Tyler

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    100+ Post Member Larry Wardog's Avatar
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    Default Re: wild american toad with broken femur - try to splint or not?

    Quote Originally Posted by tyronethecat View Post
    Greetings,

    I managed to save an american toad from one of my chickens last week. he (or she) is perfectly healthy, except for an injury to the back leg, which seems to be a closed femur fracture, now that the swelling is down. I have experience with toads and their husbandry and am happy to keep the little guy until healed. the current setup is a 10 gal tank w/ moist moss, a shallow bowl, and plenty of hiding places, beside the window in my garage. the toad is eating vitamin-coated mealworms and crickets like a champ...

    Now that I have an idea of what seems to be the problem, what should I do? Should I try and configure some sort of splint for the femur, or just keep the little guy comfortable, not mess with him, and see if he heals on his own? The toad pretty much stays in one preferred spot where he can hunt from easily, so it's not super mobile...also, since this happened a week ago, have I missed the window to splint?

    I feel awful for the toad and I don't want to quit on it since it seems to have a drive to live....

    Thank you for your time! Any advice is appreciated!
    Tyler
    Would you just consider keeping the toad in your care? Maybe you would want to consult a vet near you to see if they can find the best measure to take with the injury?

    Sent from my BLN-L24 using Tapatalk

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    Default Re: wild american toad with broken femur - try to splint or not?

    Quote Originally Posted by Larry Wardog View Post
    Would you just consider keeping the toad in your care? Maybe you would want to consult a vet near you to see if they can find the best measure to take with the injury?

    Sent from my BLN-L24 using Tapatalk
    thank you for your response, Larry.

    I will definitely keep the toad if it ends up being unreleasable - but I'd much prefer it to go back into the wild (in a location far from my chicken pen) if at all possible. We're pretty rural, and there aren't any local vets around that are willing to see a toad. There's a traveling vet I used once for an injured chicken, but she's several hours away right now. I'm in the process of getting certified as a mammalian wildlife rehabber, but none of my mentors have any experience with amphibians.

    It doesn't seem like the nerves or blood supply to the distal leg has been compromised, just an obvious break across the mid-femur. The toad can jump (I'm trying to limit that), but his back foot ends up getting caught on things. I can try can take a picture later, if it would be helpful - I'm just trying to limit my handling of the little guy.

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    Default Re: wild american toad with broken femur - try to splint or not?

    Quote Originally Posted by tyronethecat View Post
    Greetings,

    I managed to save an american toad from one of my chickens last week. he (or she) is perfectly healthy, except for an injury to the back leg, which seems to be a closed femur fracture, now that the swelling is down. I have experience with toads and their husbandry and am happy to keep the little guy until healed. the current setup is a 10 gal tank w/ moist moss, a shallow bowl, and plenty of hiding places, beside the window in my garage. the toad is eating vitamin-coated mealworms and crickets like a champ...

    Now that I have an idea of what seems to be the problem, what should I do? Should I try and configure some sort of splint for the femur, or just keep the little guy comfortable, not mess with him, and see if he heals on his own? The toad pretty much stays in one preferred spot where he can hunt from easily, so it's not super mobile...also, since this happened a week ago, have I missed the window to splint?

    I feel awful for the toad and I don't want to quit on it since it seems to have a drive to live....

    Thank you for your time! Any advice is appreciated!
    Tyler
    Hi there,

    I think that if you keep the toad comfortable , monitor its health very closely and provide the necessary care ie (feeding, supplements,clean habitat and water) there no reason for the little guy to not recover ( this would be how I would approach the situation). That being said if you feel like bringing it to a vet then by all means do so. Good luck with your toad

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    Default Re: wild american toad with broken femur - try to splint or not?

    Hi Troy,
    Thank you for your response! If I find an opportunity to take him to a vet, I'll do so. I think the toad is pretty comfortable, he seems alert and has an appetite, so I'll just keep an eye one him. Just to confirm, you're suggesting not to try and splint/immobilize the leg? It should be able to heal without intervention?
    Tyler

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    Default Re: wild american toad with broken femur - try to splint or not?

    Hi there

    Its entirely up to you if you wish to proceed with creating a splint for the toad I am sure you could find an online source on how to to immobilize the leg of an amphibian. It really depends on how serious the injury is. For now I would reduce external stresses such as being located in a room that receives constant movement and loud sounds from people and from other pets such as dogs. This would ensure that it does not attempt to jump and further injure itself You could also cover the sides of the tank to make it feel secured. Also ensure that you feed it slower moving prey such as mealworms, earthworms and hornworms. This would reduce the toads effort to chase down the prey items. I once owned a frog that did injure its leg and was walking around dragging its leg around the tank. The frog eventually healed on it's own without intervention from vet or the use of a splint . Your situation and injury may be different tho. If you could provide some photos of the toad then it would be easier to understand it's injury

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    Default Re: wild american toad with broken femur - try to splint or not?

    Be careful about earthworms because they can make the toad I'll with parasites. Pull back legs of crickets off and waxworms work. Small Hornworms I wouldn't use any bigger the 1.5 inches. Hope this helps

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    Default Re: wild american toad with broken femur - try to splint or not?

    hi everyone! just wanted to give an update, since it's a good one.

    we got Pete (as my husband has been calling him) out for the first time in a while a few days ago, and he's able to hop, crawl, and hunt on his own again. his legs look a little atrophied from inactivity (or maybe just because he's gotten so fat, lol), but otherwise his deformed leg appears normal again. we're letting him hop around our driveway and eat bugs under the garage light for a few hours every night to so that he can get his strength back up, and we hope to release him soon. he's a very active and alert little guy, and I think he'll do just fine.

    my new question is this - would it do more harm than good to let him go in a new environment? I'm afraid of him getting hit with a lawnmower or re-attacked by the chickens if we let him go in our neighborhood. there are some nice wooded ponds a few miles away we were thinking about...but I know that some types of critters don't fair well when removed from their home range.

    thanks again for all of your help and compassion : )

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    Default Re: wild american toad with broken femur - try to splint or not?

    Nevermind - he ended up going free last night - closer to our house and in our front garden where we often see toads. he just started hoping with a purpose and we let him keep going. It had just rained and seemed to be ideal conditions.

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    Default Re: wild american toad with broken femur - try to splint or not?

    Hey I ran over a toad with a lawn mower and he lost all of his left side limbs. He is in a plastic container with holes and paper towel. What should i do?

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