Sick red-eyed tree frog

[douggottschlich]

Hi,

I have 3 young red-eyed tree frogs (captive bred, less than 1 yr, ~ 1.5" long). One has gotten very skinny.Also, his insides seem to be turning to liquid? When he sits on the glass or leaf vertically, his rear looks like a small water balloon, swollen and soft as if filled with liquid.

The other two frogs look fine. Ive had them for about 6 months. They are in a planted terrarium kept at about 70 °F and 90% humidity. Fed on crickets, with weekly calcium dusting.

Anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks,
Doug

[SethD]

Haven't seen anything quite like that before, what ever it is the frog has a serious problem, surprised it isn't dead already as bad as it looks.

[poison beauties]

I would start with soaking it... Has the frog had a sore lately anywhere around the area? Is it an impaction issue? I would seperate it from the others and I would have it tested. 90% humidity is a bit high and these treefrogs do better with air circulation. It may bee too late for that frog and to be honest I would have culled it off as it clearly is suffering. But test it or I advise you to get a necropsy done to be sure your other two are not in danger.

Michael

[Herpvet]

Hi,

I would strongly suggest getting him to as vet, which should give the best chance for diagnosis and appropriate treatment, although I would agree that the outlook may well be poor.

Good luck with him, hope you can get him sorted out.

Bruce.

Hi,

I have 3 young red-eyed tree frogs (captive bred, less than 1 yr, ~ 1.5" long). One has gotten very skinny.Also, his insides seem to be turning to liquid? When he sits on the glass or leaf vertically, his rear looks like a small water balloon, swollen and soft as if filled with liquid.

The other two frogs look fine. Ive had them for about 6 months. They are in a planted terrarium kept at about 70 °F and 90% humidity. Fed on crickets, with weekly calcium dusting.

Anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks,
Doug

[bshmerlie]

I think everyone agrees his best chance for survival would be to take him to the vet asap if its not too late already. I also think you should lower the humidity and make sure you have good ventilation. Not saying that caused his current problem but it could cause other problems. Either way he needs to be immediately separated from the others.

[VividSNow]

What kind of substrate are you using? because to me it looks as though he has a constipation issue. That would explain his not eating anymore and swelling...if your' not using moss I would highly suggest to have a live/ spaghnum moss top layer over soil. If your' using coconut husk substrate or a similar substrate he could be ingesting bits of coco husk when he hunts the crickets and not passing the husk through his system.

[douggottschlich]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Substrate is coconut, but mostly covered with moss.

As will not surprise anyone, the frog did not survive the weekend, and so I could not get him to a vet. At least now I have figured out a local herp vet.