Bloated beyond belief

[mattbeck]

I believe this is a Albino African Clawed water frog (wife's frog). It has been this way for 2 years. I can not let this poor thing stay like this. It is about 10 years old. Feeding it floating food sticks. We have tried the epsom salt water bath for an hour a day for 2 weeks now. It is not floating, still swims around. Have no idea what to do.

[GrifTheGreat]

It is possible it is Dropsy. It causes extreme bloating. But I have never seen anything like this. It really needs vet attention ASAP. I am shocked that it has survived that long regardless of the cause. Poor frog.

[rodsboys]

Man, these frogs are tough. That looks horrible. I would take the above advice and find a vet. In the mean time though I would continue the salt baths and reduce feeding to about half the frequency.

[mattbeck]

I have decided to take the frog to a pet store and the owner is going to adopt and treat the poor thing. I only found one vet in my area that would see the frog, but at a high cost. Thanks for all your help

[tgampper]

Wow! Basically there are two forms of bloating: hard and soft. The hard is caused by a bacterial infection and is treated with an antibacterial. Generally hard bloats are fatal due to kidney failure.

Your frog has a soft bloat, sometimes referred to as the "Michelin-man" syndrome. The only treatment is immerse the frog in a salt bath. It is caused by an accumulation of fluids in the body due to an osmotic imbalance. These imbalances are generally caused by poor maintenance of the tank or inadequate diet. Feeding freeze-dried foods are a main cause of this type of bloating. Aquatic frogs are known to live in this state for quite sometime - they are without doubt a tough frog. But eventually if the swelling doesn't go down, kidney damage will result and it is 100% fatal. It is a good idea to give the frog to someone that has experience in treating this condition.

As a side note - these frogs are quite salt tolerant and can live in brackish water (40-60% seawater) and water that is highly acidic.