Emergency toad help needed!!!

[Carl I]

I have an injured toad here at my house and would love to help the critter as much as I can. Toads and squirrels are easily my fave critters, so no matter what I intend to help the poor guy out. I need to know if there is any chance of his survival.

If I had to make a guess, he was the victim of a crow attack. I am thinking a crow got hold of him, and since he was found at a school bus stop, once the kids showed up the bird got scared away, leaving behind an injured toad. Basically he appears to be blinded. One eye is literally out of the socket, and the other looks seal over (possibly pulled out). I figure blind is not a good thing for an animal who's eating is triggered by movement.

Right now he is in my backyard in a toad house. He has been there for 24 hours now, and is still alive. This is the other reason I think he is blinded, as he doesn't move until touched. Then he makes a break for it, but doesn't seem to know where to go.

Any ideas?

[LazyEyedFroggie]

I feel so sorry for it! Sadly, I do believe that it would be unfair and cruel to keep a blind toad alive. He won't be able to eat and he will be completely oblivious to everything around him. It would be terrifying for him to be picked up and force fed... I see no solution :'( He should be put down as humanely as possible, unless there is a way to get at least one eye functional.

[Carl I]

So I am correct in that he needs his eye site to be able to eat? I know a blind dog can act in smell to find the food, but these guys need that movement, right?

I was thinking of getting an aquarium to put him into while I tried to get him back to health. My only thought is to try and get the eye that it popped out back into his head and hope there is some vision there. I tell ya, I have always wanted a pet toad, but not by this way.

[GrifTheGreat]

You needs to seek advice from a vet that specilizes in herps. Perhaps a vet can save the other eye and give him a chance. You cannot provide the care needed until he is checked to make sure atleast one eye is functional and can be saved. I see no other way. If you cannot get help from a vet then you will have to euthanize him humainly. You can do this by buying Neosporine that contains PAIN KILLER in it. The pain killer will humainly euthanize him. Just rub some on his back and he should slowly and calmly slip away. I wish there were more help we could provide other than this.

I hope you can get help for the poor Toad. If not you will need to Euthanize him

[LazyEyedFroggie]

I had a Wood frog with only one eye and she couldn't hunt properly. Her aim was way off virtually all of the time. She rarely caught her own meals and when she did it was a miracle. Part of the time I had to force feed her. Eventually she got a little bit better at hunting, so I released her and hoped for the best. My point is that if the toads eye can be saved he will likely need a lot of attention and be virtually surrounded by bugs just to catch one. He may get the hang of it eventually though, but he will be harder to care for than your standard toad. Good luck, and I hope he will be able to live a fairly good life. Congratulations on being so determined to help him!

[Carl I]

Unfortunately finding a vet might be out of the question. I have searched for vets to help standard critters in the area, but they only seem to take dogs/cats/and maybe birds. The standard pet-fare. Plus, I am not so sure my wife would support a vet bill for a toad I am trying to rescue. I am more than willing to turn over a bunch of time to try and nurse him back to health, but financially I am not so sure that is possible. Plus, this being a Saturday, I expect I won't be able to find one until Monday. I do intend to look, though.

Trying to help injured animals is just something I have done since I was a little kid. I learned from my mom. She had a thing for bringing home injured birds. Sadly, to this day, only one of my rescues has resulted in a success. This is my first toad, and this is probably the hardest for me since they have always been my favorite critter.

[LazyEyedFroggie]

Can you get pics of the "sealed-over" eye? It may just be some kind of discharge that can be wiped out, with any luck. I also certainly understand the difficulty of finding an exotic animal vet that doesn't cost loads too... I greatly admire you for doing your best to help injured animals.

[Carl I]

Yeah, I can get pictures. I'll post in a few minutes.

[GrifTheGreat]

If the other eye is fine and he just can't open it due to a discharge like Robin stated there may. Be hope. The other eye is a huge issue. Even if you were able to get it back in the risk of infection is extremely high and without antibiotics he may still pass. I am also proud of you for your efforts to save him

[Carl I]

Hopefully this site works with pics like this.

I know picking him up is not the right thing to do at this point, but he was in an awkward position. Plus, right now I think my gently picking him up is the lesser of his problems.



Popped out eye on the left, possible missing eye on the right.



The possibly missing eye.

[LazyEyedFroggie]

According to me, it doesn't look like his one eye is actually missing. There isn't really a definite way to tell though. Could you try gently wiping at his possibly sealed eye with a cotton swab? Make sure you hold him quite firmly while you do that so as not to cause him any more harm if he moves.

As for the eye that is out of its socket, I doubt it will ever be able to function again. :/ You could try cleaning up around it to prevent infection.

[Carl I]

My wife, a nurse, told me to clean him up with saline solution. Would this be safe with a toad?

[LazyEyedFroggie]

I'm not sure if that would be safe or not. I just googled it. I found a paragraph that may hold the answer, but I can't fully understand it. Maybe you could make sense of it yourself?

Toads (Bufo arenarum) were exposed to pairings between immersion in a neutral saline solution (i.e., one
that caused no significant variation in fluid balance), followed by immersion in a highly hypertonic saline
solution (i.e., one that caused water loss). In Experiment 1, solutions were presented in a Pavlovian
conditioning arrangement. A group receiving a single neutral-highly hypertonic pairing per day exhibited
a greater conditioned increase in heart rate than groups receiving either the same solutions in an explicitly
unpaired fashion, or just the neutral solution. Paired toads also showed a greater ability to compensate
for water loss across trials than that of the explicitly unpaired group. Using the same reinforcers and a
similar apparatus, Experiment 2 demonstrated that toads learn a one-way avoidance response motivated
by immersion in the highly hypertonic solution. Cardiac and avoidance conditioning are elements of an
adaptive system for confronting aversive situations involving loss of water balance.

[Carl I]

Looking at that bottom picture, sorry it didn't come out clearer. My macro feature on my camera doesn't like to work as it should, it would seem.

If I do any medical attention to him, it is going to have to wait a little bit longer. I am about to run out for the night for a dinner with my father-in-law, which I am sure will include jokes and ridicule about me trying to save a toad.

[Carl I]

I'm not sure if that would be safe or not. I just googled it. I found a paragraph that may hold the answer, but I can't fully understand it. Maybe you could make sense of it yourself?

Toads (Bufo arenarum) were exposed to pairings between immersion in a neutral saline solution (i.e., one
that caused no significant variation in fluid balance), followed by immersion in a highly hypertonic saline
solution (i.e., one that caused water loss). In Experiment 1, solutions were presented in a Pavlovian
conditioning arrangement. A group receiving a single neutral-highly hypertonic pairing per day exhibited
a greater conditioned increase in heart rate than groups receiving either the same solutions in an explicitly
unpaired fashion, or just the neutral solution. Paired toads also showed a greater ability to compensate
for water loss across trials than that of the explicitly unpaired group. Using the same reinforcers and a
similar apparatus, Experiment 2 demonstrated that toads learn a one-way avoidance response motivated
by immersion in the highly hypertonic solution. Cardiac and avoidance conditioning are elements of an
adaptive system for confronting aversive situations involving loss of water balance.

By it being Pavlovian would indicate that they were seeing what kind of classical conditioning the saline solution would occur, I guess. It seems like they are saying that the hyper solution caused an increase in heart rate, or that was the result of those frogs being brought back to the situation. This leads me to think that the normal saline had no effect on the frogs at all, but the hyper version might have caused pain. Thereby when the frogs were brought back to immersion, they panicked. The ones in the natural, when brought back to immersion, had no reaction due to the natural saline having no effect on them when first introduced.

Just a guess, though. I love psychology.

[LazyEyedFroggie]

It's fine, the bottom picture is clear enough. Have fun with your father in law and don't let him bug you too much. :P If you could throw some bugs near him in whatever enclosure you choose to hold him in, you may be lucky enough to find he does have some vision, enough to snatch a meal. Also, I've heard that Neosporin WITHOUT painkiller is safe for toads.

[Carl I]

So if I decide to clean him up, neosporin w/o is something I might want to look into?

Right now he is just sitting in my backyard in a "toad house" my sister got me for Christmas. It is just a terra cotta dome that says "Toad" on top. Supposedly it will hold some moisture and give toads a safer place to hang out instead of under gutter splashes. Since he is injured, he sure doesn't seem like going for many walks and stays in there. I have him there to also help protect him from wildlife. Would it be OK to place him in a bucket with dirt, and just mist him for the time being? I could drop some bugs in there for him. I am hoping that the feel of a bug on his snout might get an attack.

[LazyEyedFroggie]

For now, that should be alright since he's injured. How big is the bucket? And, just for insurance, it would probably be a good idea to get a make-shift lid for it, as long as it allows for ventilation.

In the future though, if he pulls through and you keep him, he will need an actual home. Just message me for tips on housing him when need be. Or you could use care sheets, quite easily found online. Some aren't so great though.

[GrifTheGreat]

Good luck with him. I hope he pulls through.

[Carl I]

My daughter just checked him as she let our dog out. She says he is OK, but it is cold, so we need to get him inside. IMO the early warm-up we are having is to blame for his situation. I found another toad just before finding him, and I am pretty sure it is too early for them to be coming out. Then the temp dropped and caused them all to get lazy and end up sitting right out in the open trying to stay warm on the blacktop. This lead to a bird easily getting him.

The bucket I will be using will be a good sized bucket. I am only going to use it tonight to get him out of the cold. My daughter wants to get a fish, but doesn't have the money yet. I think I will get him an aquarium, and if he doesn't make it she can take it over for the fish she will eventually get. Ah, yes, I have plans. I am really hoping to end up with a new little buddy here, though.