I'm scared to force feed my pac man frog

[GrifTheGreat]

Probably not a great idea to wash him down (stress and any frog being washed down would be irritated), unless what you're talking about is just putting him in a bowl? The smell seems to me like some sort of bacterial disease (infectious) would be my guess. I'm sorry if I missed one of your comments about you changing his tank regularly, but how often do you change it? Just try to keep everything clean and sanitary in his tank for now. Smell the booster content and then smell him - that's easy to determine.

Good that you notice signs of him being better. Howcome you take him out of his water dish? How often do you check up on him? Do you place any type of screen covering to keep moisture from evaporating quickly? Heaters will reduce some relative humidity, but not by much.

Mark is right about washing the frog down. That would stress him. You shouldn't take him in and out of his water dish all the time. You already have to handle him while force feeding. If he gets out of the water then he doesn't want to be in there anymore and that is fine. Keep the substrate moist and he will not dehydrate. Definetly cover part of the top of the enclosure with a damp cloth to help maintain humidity levels within the enclosure. Try not to handle him more than is necissary otherwise you risk stressing him more and he will take longer to recover. Do as Mark said and smell the booster. If the smells are similar then it is more than likely the booster. I've noticed that Grif smells like the Hornworm food when she eats Hornworms so it is very possible that the frog is secreting some of the booster when producing mucus(the frogs slime layer).

Also as Mark said cleanliness is a huge factor in your frogs recovery. I would change the substrate every 2 weeks and disinfect the enclosure until he fully recovers.