starving gtf

[jody]

I gave a neet little frog away as a gift. she has a tiny mate too. the first pictur is her now second picture the night before went to her new home. her owner claims to feed her every other day. I took them back for two weeks. The male, Eddie, is a nice agressive eater. she used to be. I began with a clean tank, removed the stones, in case the crickets were hiding in the stones, and some tank ornaments. I started with gut loaded small cricks. 8. and offered more every day. eddie seems to be filling out. enid is just not as interested in eating as eddie. Im wondering if anyone has ever rehabed a starving frog, and what I can do to get her interested in food.
their are no herp vets in our area, but our regular pet vet though he would not see her did do a poop screen. she seems healthy. she once ejected her stomache when she swallowed a pine needle. I poured declor steril water which I have ready, over it while removing the pine needle. and gently pushed her tummy back in. she was very weak, but regained health, and months later went to her new home. she will no longer eat dusted cricks. eddie also had visible pelvic bones, but he is growing and no bones now. I vistit her several times a week. she is definatly pooping, but it isnt often she is seen eating. should she be force fed. I hate to. its been years since Iv done that, and that frog died. thank you for any advice.

[tylototriton]

Try hand feeding high fat foods like wax worms. Its not a long term solution but it could work to put some weight on her. Force feeding is really not effective in frogs for the most part.

[Kurt]

[quote=jody;457]I began with a clean tank, removed the stones, in case the crickets were hiding in the stonesquote]

Could it be possible that you are dealing with an impacted bowel? If the frog has accidentally ingested gravel it could very well have an impacted bowel, to which only surgery can fix. An x-ray will show any impaction.

Also, what are the temperatures they have been kept at? That may also be a factor in this situation.

[jody]

yes I think it was an impaction. I suspect cricket gel. Rip enid.

[jody]

she had a heated tank. though they did not clean it as much I would have. she was a small frog, the vet I called said he could do nothing. im considering not keeping exotics because of the lack of reliable herp vets. their is one vet who will charge me an extra 25.00 to see my phib or reptile, but I have found she knows nothing about them at all. just charges more to see them and advertises that she see exotics. she did not know how to handle the leopard gecko I took in. why charge an extra 25-30.00 then? I would have been grateful at that point for any vet. and why would a herp vet charge more? with the shortage in herp vets, wouldnt you think buisiness would be booming?

[tylototriton]

There are very few herp vets. When they advertise "exotics" they are really talking about mammals, not reptiles. There really isn't much in the way of "herp veterinary science." In most places your better off figuring out what's wrong, and if you need any medications ask the vet to prescribe them. And I understand your thinking about how there is a shortage but the reality is that most herp keepers don't bring their pets to the vet. Not to sound callous, but most people will not spend hundreds of dollars to have a frog that they paid $5 for checked out. As for the cricket gel, i doubt thats what caused the impaction. The only way I could possibly see that is if they swallowed dry crystals and the crystals expanded, but if that had happened the frog probably would have "blown up." I doubt a frog would have any trouble passing small amounts of the gel.

[Kurt]

I have a great vet, Greg Mertz DVM. He is the vet for the Museum of Science in Boston and former vet for former NEHS member Jeff Corwin. (I am a current member of NEHS, have been for about 10 years now.) He doesn't charge that much and he knows herps very well, it is his speciality. So I guess I am lucky that way.

[Herpvet]

she had a heated tank. though they did not clean it as much I would have. she was a small frog, the vet I called said he could do nothing. im considering not keeping exotics because of the lack of reliable herp vets. their is one vet who will charge me an extra 25.00 to see my phib or reptile, but I have found she knows nothing about them at all. just charges more to see them and advertises that she see exotics. she did not know how to handle the leopard gecko I took in. why charge an extra 25-30.00 then? I would have been grateful at that point for any vet. and why would a herp vet charge more? with the shortage in herp vets, wouldnt you think buisiness would be booming?

Hi,

Just a comment here, from a herp vet. Amphibian consults should be longer than dog or cat consults, as the husbandry needs to be fully assessed as well as the animal. Thus in a purely business sense (and vets are businesses), they should be charged for appropriately. Financial realities unfortunately prevent this in most cases for amphibians, so often the vet(s) don't see many amphibians, so don't get much experience with them, so owners who do visit them are unsatisfied, so less visits, so....

Obviously I don't condone charging extra if the vet isn't keeping up with advances in husbandry and medicine of amphibians, but doing so takes time, and professional veterinary time is mainly what vets are (or should be) charging for. In almost any field, minority/specialist services will tend to cost more to provide (in terms of learning time for the specialist at least).

See http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=58659 for a more complete discussion (can I be lazy and copy and paste my reply on that thread here John?)

Bruce.

[Kurt]

Hi,

Obviously I don't condone charging extra if the vet isn't keeping up with advances in husbandry and medicine of amphibians, but doing so takes time, and professional veterinary time is mainly what vets are (or should be) charging for. In almost any field, minority/specialist services will tend to cost more to provide (in terms of learning time for the specialist at least).

Bruce.

I guess I am really lucky then. My vet is affordable, sometimes he doesn't even charge me. Of course I have brought A LOT of animals his way. Every new animal goes in for deworming. Again I feel lucky that he is my vet and friend.

[justin shockey]

i got lucky with my white she got impacted but it came out with some guts but the guts whent back in and shes fine