Help Request: Western Chorus Frog bloated red vocal sac

[Xantraun]

I'm updating this in hopes that someone out there can give me some guidance through this...

Lil' guy still doesn't want anything to do with food. If you drop a cricket in with him he just acts like it's not even there. The swelling has come down a bit but the vocal sac area has darkened some and his tympanium is now reddish as well but only on the left side. Almost like a dark bruising now... New development is what is coming out of him. I tried to snap some decent pics of his current state and show the two slime balls it left in the hospital tank today. Looks like flecks of cocoa husk substrate in one of them. I'm continuing the Pedialyte soaks every night and have yet to try any actual medications. He's still moving quite strong and isn't acting very distressed.

Photo Album - Imgur

I have completely torn their enclosure down for a sanitization/rebuild. I've quarantined the 5 other frogs in a seperate hospital setup for monitoring just in case. None of the others are exhibiting any signs of injury or sickness. I also followed a guide on a sanitizing salt dip on the 5 healthy frogs before transferring to the quarantine in case something got in to the tank and was living on their skin. (1 teaspoon of salt to 1 cup of distilled water. Soak for 1 minute then transfer between two clean treated water soaking dishes for a rinse.) They really didn't like the high salt concentration but they appear to be doing just fine now.

Have any of you ever dealt with a bacterial/fungal issue before? I'm a little shocked no one has chimed in on this yet. Still worried about trying Baytril and possibly doing more harm than good. Does anyone know of a broad spectrum remedy that has no side effects and is a sort of "can't hurt so might as well" treatment? Some posts I recently found seem like Lamisil is worth a shot. Also, if I can part with my grocery money for the rest of the month and make it to the vet and they prescribe Baytril, what is the shelf life on that stuff? If it's already too late for this guy, will I be able to keep that for a few years in case I run into something like this down the road again or is it a one time use drug?

Would really appreciate any help you guys can offer.

[NetworkLabs]

I was reading up infection treatment for my frogs to prevent infections, and found something that might match your case. It seems like a Fungal Infection. I think this because fungal infections usually take place in soft white tissue. Go to this we page, it may help - The Frog Doctor

Just look under Fungal Infections

[Xantraun]

Thanks for chiming in!

Finally found a specialty fish store that has a few of the anti-fungal solutions I've read about. I picked up Melafix & Methylene Blue which are two treatments I've seen pop up across the forums. The site you linked to recommends Malachite Green which seems to be pretty widely used for this sort of case but the only solution I could find had equal parts Malachite Green & Sodium Chloride. I didn't buy it because my brain said "Chloride ...must be Chlorine. That's bad!" but after getting back to a computer and looking it up I now realize that's just salt. Grr... so frustrated. Seems like the Methylene Blue and Malachite Green are used in the same way, do you think I should go back out and get the Malachite Green instead? Stuck at the office another couple hours and then planning to head home and try this stuff out unless someone thinks the Methylene Blue is a bad idea.

So stressed about this.

[Xantraun]

So after having found the supplies to try and treat the lil' guy at home, I was having a really hard time digging up a consistent method of treatment. Dosing on some forums was saying to apply a drop of the Methylene Blue right on the affected area, some were saying dilute a drop in two gallons of water. In all my frustrations and trying to dig in to legitimate write-ups on herp treatments, I stumbled across a site that had a listing of herpetologists by zip code. Found one within a half hour's drive that let me bring him in for $45 and gave me an hour of his time to chat about things.

He said it's definitely not a fungal or bacterial infection but more likely an injury from a fall in the tank or an abscess behind the tongue. We couldn't get a safe look inside but his instructions were to keep doing what I'm doing. Sterile hospital environment to monitor excrement, keep up the Pedialyte soaks, and if possible try to get a cricket in its mouth and see if it can manage to swallow.

The swelling in its throat is nearly gone now and it cooperated enough for me to work a tiny cricket in to its mouth. Didn't reject it right away so here's hoping it actually went down. Going to keep doing what I'm doing and listen to the vet. Sometimes it's best not to treat anything at all and let it work things out on it's own.