Red Eye Tree Frog - Eye problem

[Madeve]

Hello all,

I've recently acquired a red eye tree frog, I keep it in a 10 gal tank with sphagnum moss, a water dish, a few branches, a half log hiding place and a couple plastic plants. I mist her twice a day to keep up the humidity.

I've had her about a week now and she has been eating crickets well.

This morning when I checked on her for the morning misting I noticed she kept one of her eyes closed. I'm not sure what if anything I should do.

I've added 2 pictures, the first one is the frog a couple days ago and the other was taken a little while ago.

Please help me figure out what is wrong with her eye.

Eve

[bshmerlie]

If you pick her up ...does she open the eye.

[Kisa]

Oh no...I'm sos sorry to see your frog has turned ill. She looked so happy and lively in the first picture it's kind of a shock to see her so down in the second...

I wouldn't know anything about this ailment as I've never encountered it before and don't keep these kinds of frogs, but one of our Moderator's Cheri owns five Red Eyes and I think she may be able to help you.

If you can't find any possible ailments online I suggest you take her to a vet if it doesn't seem like she's healing...

I wish you the best of luck and hope it's just a passing irritation.

[Madeve]

If you pick her up ...does she open the eye.

no, she doesn't but she opens the other one just fine. I have seen her rub her fingers over the eye like it is bothering. The slight swelling under the eye seems to have lessen since this morning.

If you can't find any possible ailments online I suggest you take her to a vet if it doesn't seem like she's healing...

I wish you the best of luck and hope it's just a passing irritation.

I will definitely take her to the vet if I cannot get it better any other way. Thank you and I too hope it is just a little irritation.

[Kisa]

It's a good sign that the swelling has gone down, she may have just gotten a piece of something stuck under the eye lid that is irritating her. Don't take my word on this but I believe you can treat eye irritation with a very mild saline solution if you mix it yourself, avoid using anything store bought as this is mixed for human use and can be harmful to frogs. You should look around though before using it in the eye and try to find a good mixture, I've never done this before myself but my vet said I could use that in the eye if I felt it necessary when my frog was sick. But look it up before you do it, I'm not an expert I just want to help in any way I can.

Is she still eating...? D: That could be a big indication of the problem. We just have to hope it's a minor problem and not an infection, that could become a bigger problem.

But remember, the eye is one of the quicker healing tissues in the body, at least for humans, so if it is a minor irritation, it should clear up within a couple of days.

Good information would also be what kind of substrate you have her on, the plants/decorations in her tank, her temp and humidity, and what you feed her and when, this will give us all a better list of problems this could relate to.

I'll keep my fingers crossed that she gets better. ><

[bshmerlie]

I would take her to a vet as soon as you can. Do you know if your frog is wild caught or captive bred? The only things I can think of would be a bite from a cricket which isn't that common but possible. Is there anything in the tank she could have poked herself on.?They do lunge pretty haphazardly as the go for the crickets. If she's wild caught then it opens up options of parasites or other issues. When you get a chance could you post a picture of the enclosure. And post temps and humidity that you are keeping her at.

[Madeve]

I am unsure whether she is WC or CB, the shop I bought her from was unable to tell me. I do not feed her in her enclosure, I remove her and put her in a plastic container and drop a couple crickets at a time until she seems full (about 5 or 6 small crickets) every day. I do this in the early evening while I mist the tank.

The temp is around 80°F during the day (I use a ceramic heater) and around 75°F at night, I do not have a humidity gauge in her tank but I do mist her twice a day.

I did notice when I checked on her tonight that she was shedding so I left her alone, that would explain why she was rubbing at her face. When my geckos or my beardie shed I leave them alone and skip the feeding that day because they will not be bothered.

I will try to get a picture of her enclosure later tomorrow.

[Leefrogs]

You do need a humidity dial in there. My 10 gal lost hummidity like crazy, I'd mist every 3 hours, it swung from 90 to 40 in such a short time. I just decided to plant a false bottom. As it has stabalized hummidity. I had 5 plants in there in pots, and it didn't help, till I planted bottom. Just showing an example of why u need one.

[Kisa]

You do need a humidity dial in there. My 10 gal lost hummidity like crazy, I'd mist every 3 hours, it swung from 90 to 40 in such a short time. I just decided to plant a false bottom. As it has stabalized hummidity. I had 5 plants in there in pots, and it didn't help, till I planted bottom. Just showing an example of why u need one.

Good point Ginger, I think you're right. You almost always need a humidity gauge in there, appearances can be really misleading when it comes to stuff like that. Especially for a sick frog, humidity is important because if the level in the tank is high enough to breed bacteria you'll never know and it's much easier to get an infection that way. D: The best thing to do right now is to keep her kind of hot and dry, to help kill off infection. Once the eye problems are gone for good you can return her to normal temp and humidity, but I do suggest getting a hygrometer, they're very helpful, for you and your frog.

[Madeve]

I have dug up a humidity gauge from one of my extra tanks and have cleaned it and installed it. With my regular misting the tank keeps a 75 to 80 % humidity. Otherwise the frog has been active in the evening and has eaten a few crickets tonight. She has been trying to open the eye today.

[Kisa]

I have dug up a humidity gauge from one of my extra tanks and have cleaned it and installed it. With my regular misting the tank keeps a 75 to 80 % humidity. Otherwise the frog has been active in the evening and has eaten a few crickets tonight. She has been trying to open the eye today.

It's good that's she's eating and attempting to open the eye, this is a sign that she is starting to recover. I'm not sure about the requirements for Red Eyes, but lowering the humidity just a bit would probably help her to recover. Always remember that if they need water they'll go to the water bowl you've provided them. And I don;'t mean for you to keep it super dry in there, I'm just saying dropping it a few percent could help fend off infection. Other than that just keep up what you're doing, at this point it sounds like she just got something stuck in her eye.

[Madeve]

All better now, like nothing ever happened !!!

[Leefrogs]

that's super!! Did u make any changes, or do u think it was just a fluke?

[Kisa]

Great news! I'm glad to see she's all better and her eye is back to normal.

She probably just had something stuck in there and it was irritating her eye. Glad to hear the good news! <3

[Dog Shrink]

Glad to hear she is all better. Given the fact this resolved immediately after a shed does anyone else speculate this might just have been her shed bothering her eye. Maybe the ready to be shed skin had detached a bit on that eye/eye area and it was irritating her. Or if there was a foreign irritant maybe it was dislodged when she shed. Either way... glad she's better.

Just an FYI on the saline rinse... you could also use just regular spring water to flush the eye if you have a syringe/eye dropper.Avoid flushing the nostrils accidentally in the process.