Emergency toad help needed!!!

[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.