How to Care for a Sick Frog with Red Leg Disease?

[Crazy Frog]

Frogs can be interesting, exciting, and loveable pets. Unfortunately, they are also extremely susceptible to diseases. While most diseases are fatal, there are several steps that you can take to ensure your pet's comfort, and possibly save its life. This article is designed especially for tree frogs with red-leg disease, but many of the below steps are universal for all sick frogs.

1. Look at your frog's symptoms. Is it lethargic and unwilling to eat? Is it sitting on the ground rather than the walls or plants? Most importantly, is its stomach tinged with red or orange? If most or all of these criteria are true, then your tree frog most likely has red leg. This disease is generally fatal, unless caught in the early stages. Red Leg Disease is a bacterial infection in amphibians. It is called "Red Leg Disease" because it causes hemorrhages of the leg.
2. If the sick frog shares a cage with other animals, remove the sick frog IMMEDIATELY as red leg is very contagious.
3. Create an incredibly clean habitat. Clean a small aquarium, or a very large tupperware (preferably with high sides) and cover with a screen or hole-punched lid. Line the bottom with wet paper towels, and add a small water dish filled with dechlorinated water. You will change the towels and the water every day.
4. Put the tank in a relatively warm, safe area and cover halfway with a towel, being sure to leave air holes unobstructed.
5. At this point, wait a day or so to monitor the frog. If it starts to perk up (e.g. climbs the walls, redness goes away, hops around), place one cricket in the cage. If the frog eats it, then you are good to go! Keep the frog in quarantine until it looks completely better (plus one more day), feeding every day.
6. In the more likely event that your frog is not perking up and/or refuses to eat, you may consider going to a veterinarian (there are many that specialize in exotic pets). They will probably give the frog antibiotics, which may help. Unfortunately, there is an equal if not better chance that they will not do anything, and this treatment is very expensive.
7. Decide whether to force feed it, or not? Redleg disease often impacts the intestines, so the frog physically cannot handle food (the blood vessels on its underside also burst, causing the red color). On the other hand, if this is not the problem and the frog is simply unwilling to eat, then the frog will grow weak and die if not fed. For most cases I would recommend a force-feeding formula, such as Carnivore Care. This can be mixed with water and fed to the frog with a syringe, with moderate to high success. This decision really depends on your own discretion. A cricket or worm can also be used as force feeding food; simply kill the bug, slide the edge of a credit card (CLEAN!) into the frog's mouth and turn (this should open its mouth), and stuff in the bug.
8. Watch and wait. As I said above, most illnesses are fatal, but the above steps will ensure your pet's comfort and possibly save its life.

In some early cases red leg can be treated by bathing the frog in a Sulfamethiazine bath (15 ml for every 10 l water) daily for 2 weeks, or a 2% solution of copper sulfate or potassium permanganate for the same period.

If possible, keep a thermometer and hygrometer in the quarantine tank to monitor these things. Also keep a spray bottle nearby, loaded with dechlorinated water to moisten the frog.

If the frog pukes, sheds its skin, breathes irregularly (watch its throat), convulses, or makes yawning motions, these are all very bad signs. Frogs exhibiting these symptoms probably cannot be saved, so it is especially important to keep them isolated.

• DO NOT moisten the frog before force-feeding it; wet frogs are extremely slippery...
• DO NOT handle the frog more than absolutely necessary, and when it is necessary, always be sure that your hands are clean.

[Crazy Frog]

Hope this will help ...as i have loss some of my frog to red leg before.

[nat31]

this is off subject but what is the scientific name of the frogs in your icon

[Kurt]

Gastrotheca cornuta, the horned marsupial frog.

[Herpvet]

Hi CrazyFrog,

I hope you don't mind a few comments on this sheet? Just some suggestions that spring to mind?

1. A minor quibble first; "Red leg" isn't necessarily bacterial, by some definitions (it seems variable) - it's septicaemia, which may also be caused by (amongst other things) ranavirus.

3. Even in a hospital cage, I would say the frog should have hiding places and as reasonably a wide a range of microhabitats as feasible.

4. Perhaps it would be better to clarify this statement on "warm place"? Very dependant on species of frog, and even within a species I would suggest that you need to give an actual temperature range rather than rely on someone's idea of a warm temp (no doubt people from Scandinavia or similar would have a different idea of a "warm place" to people from warm Asian countries!).
Temperature manipulation in ill amphibians depends on the specific disease and the condition of the animal.

7. Obviously as a vet, I would tend to say that you should take it to the vet; red-leg is often a poor outlook, but the frog usually has a better chance with appropriate specific treatment than without. Costs will obviously vary, but medication itself shouldn't be very expensive for a frog. Also a vet experienced with amphibians will be in a better position to advise on specific care, including force-feeding.

If writing these notes for inexperienced owners, as I assume they are, I would suggest that taking to the vet should always be recommended; more experienced keepers may be a different case, but inexperienced owners should always seek expert advice.

I would be interested in other thoughts on this, just my opinion. Hope this helps,

Bruce.