Emergency toad help needed!!!

[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]

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.

[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.