Help! Sick red-eyed!

[scienceofsleep]

I'm kind of a newer tree frog owner, so forgive me if I don't know all of the lingo or anything. I work at a pet store and we sell green tree frogs, and I'm familiar with their basic needs and also when any of them are ill we do have a vet that we take them to regularly (I've treated quite a few tree frogs with skin diseases). I was never super interested in owning tree frogs so I never cared to learn more than what I needed to about them for my job.

Background:

One night while I was working, a regular customer of mine who always purchases crickets stormed into the store with her little terrarium looking distraught. Her daughter owned two red-eyed tree frogs. Apparently while she was out of the house, the daughter decided she didn't feel like caring for the frogs anymore. She opened the cage and threw both of the frogs out of the window. When her mother came home, she freaked out, and went outside searching for the frogs. She found one but couldn't find the other. Not knowing what to do with them, she brought them to the store hoping someone would adopt them. I quickly plugged in the heat source on her terrarium so the little guy could warm up and misted the enclosure with some luke warm water since the tank was freezing. I'm kind of a big softy and have a tendency to take in abandoned animals, and tree frogs are no exception! I told her I'd take him, and stayed up all night doing research on the little bugger. My roommate's boyfriend named him Speckles. I left the cage at work over night because I figured Speckles had seen enough action for one day and I didn't want to stress him out anymore than needed.

The next day, the woman came back into the store later on in the evening holding her hands out in front of her and looking more spastic than the previous day. She had found the other tree frog, and apparently didn't feel the need to put him into any container for her drive over. -_- She found him up on the roof of her house! He'd spent the whole night outside. I was glad I didn't move Speckles and the terrarium that night so I could quickly place him into the proper habitat. Poor guy was freeeezing! Once he warmed up he seemed to be okay, but obviously both frogs were very stressed out so I wasn't sure about any illnesses at the time. I thought they'd be okay after things settled down.

I gave them another night at the store while I set up a seemingly perfect happy tree frog home. I know they enjoy taller enclosures, but I used an empty 40 gallon breeder cage I had lying around (working at a pet store, you tend to bring home tanks and cages and all kinds of random stuff thinking that you'll one day use it for something). It was the same height as the tank they were in, just way wider.

I set it up with some tropical soil and put a few live plants into the tank, some branches and vines, and a few artificial plants as well. I set up the heat source, made sure I have a good supply of water conditioners, calcium, multivitamins, etc. and brought them home 3 days later.

I noticed that Speckles was doing much better, actively eating at night, and during the day sleeping on the side of the glass. Swag was a little off, however.

And here lies the problem:

I noticed that Swag never really moved around too much. He was always in the same place in the morning as he was the previous evening. It started off that he'd hide in the plants, but then I noticed he was sleeping on the bottom of the cage a lot. It had only been about 5 days since I had them that I noticed this behavior. I haven't even actually watched him eat, but I never really sat and watched the cage for very long.

A week ago I left for vacation. When I came back, my roommate informed me that one of the frogs (Swag) wasn't looking too good. I glanced in the cage and the first thing I thought was that he had died. I cautiously picked him up, breathing a sigh of relief when he moved in my hand. He must have been sleeping. He's quite lethargic right now, and his color is very dark. I tried soaking him in some dechlorinated water. He opened his eyes and gave me a seemingly dirty look for a second, but ever since then he's been sitting half in his water dish in the terrarium with his eyes half open, and he just seems so weak. I'm about to run to my store and get some reptaboost for him (repti-aid I think is what it's called now), to ensure he's getting some sort of food in him.

Anyone know what to do? What it might possibly be? I'm going to take him to our regular veterinarian on Friday, but it's only Tuesday and I want to know if there's any way I can help him before I get him there. The only things I can think of are to keep his humidity and heat perfect and give him the repti-aid if he refuses to take food.

Some pictures for reference:

This is Speckles and Swag. Speckles is the more alert looking one on the side of the dish.

This is Speckles about to jump over onto the branch.

This is Swag, taken only 20 minutes after the first photo. His color got very very dark, very very fast.

Also... do they look too thin? I keep thinking of blue dumpy frogs and it's making me paranoid that these guys are too skinny.

Thank you for any help you guys can give me, and I'm sorry about the novel!

[Sunshine]

I don't know much about red eyes, but the repti-aid sounds like a good idea. Maybe he will get up some energy to be able to eat something. I'm sorry I can't help but I wish you luck and keep us updated.

[Bolisnide]

Hi,
Wow, this is quite the story! And what an adventure for these two frogs, Swag and Speckles!
I'm fairly new at owning Red-eyes, but I'll do my best to help out....
I recently treated an injured Red-eye, so have learned a lot in the last 2 months.
In addition to what you're already doing (I believe you're on the right track), I would suggest a pedialyte soak for Swag, and maybe for Speckles as well.
Use 10 parts treated water (or 100% spring water) to one part unflavored pedialyte.
Make the water somewhat warm, but not hot. Soak for about 10-15 minutes or until the water begins to cool.
I have found that a tupperware type container with a lid works great so they don't jump out of the soak. Drill holes in the lid and file the sharp points so they can't injure themselves in the tub.
Soak them separately with fresh solution each time. do this once per day.
You can even add a scoop of the repti-boost to the solution, I've heard this works wonders. After the soak, soak in a clean (plain treated water, warm) to rinse off the repti-boost.
This soak will help Swag get nutrients and electrolytes, it will give him some much needed energy to catch crickets.
You can use the glass bowl feeding method to monitor the intake of crickets. Use a small glass bowl, believe it or not, the crickets will not jump out! This is a great way to be absolutely certain the frogs are eating.
I would also recomend changing your substrate out to plain paper towels. This will allow you to monitor waste. Poop is a great sign things are moving along, and that they are eating.
If Swags is not eating, you may be able to catch him while shedding (mine sheds right after lights out). When he's shedding, drop a cricket into his mouth. Dust the cricket in the rept-boost. I had to do this with my frog for 2 days.... Use a very dim light so not to disturb his shedding.
If the drop method doesn't work, then you will have to force feed. HOpefully it won't come to that. Heatheranne (moderator on frog forum) can help you with force feeding as I've never done that before.
Good luck, and if I think of anything else, I'll let you know.

Forgot to add that you should be sure the soak is no deeper than the chin of the frog when sitting.... duh!

[scienceofsleep]

Thanks for much for the helpful information! I had heard about the pedialyte soaks but I wasn't sure what the ratio wasn't supposed to be. I'll be going to the store shortly to get some of that! On a good note, when I went to sleep last night he wasn't very active at all, but this morning when I looked into the cage he was perched up on one of the branches and looking around for food and I did get to see him eat. He's still wobbly and still pretty dark, but just over night has shown major improvement which makes me feel so much better. He should certainly make it to the vet at this rate.

How big does the glass dish need to be for the crickets to be unable to escape? I'm kind of surprised to hear they won't jump out of that-- they escape at work all the time lol.

[Bolisnide]

So happy to hear he ate for you!
That's a great sign!


I use a small glass bowl, about 2.5 inches high and 3 inches in diameter.
It may take a couple nights for the frogs to get used to it.
And, yes, they do not jump out, nor can they climb out.
It's so strange, but it works!

[scienceofsleep]

It is a great sign indeed! He seems to be doing much better now, and he should certainly be able to make it to the vet.

It makes sense that they can't climb out; I've always lined the top of my cricket keepers with packing tape because they can't grip it, but I'm so mind blown that they don't jump out haha. I'll have to get a glass dish tomorrow and try this out! Thanks again for your help.

[Heatheranne]

Hi Shlee, it's nice to meet you.

Bolisnide has given you excellent advice. I believe your little guy was dehydrated and hypothermic. By getting him into the proper housing with a temp around 78 degrees F, with a humidity level of 70 to 80%, and adding the soaks he should come around. You may want to cover the back and two sides of their home to give them a sense of safety. They will likely explore their home more which will lead them to the food . Follow Bolisnides advice, as above and then monitor how they eat, if they poop, and their skin.

I'm glad you took them in. They were lucky the lady brought them to you . Great job so far!

[scienceofsleep]

I already had the sides and back covered as I was originally going to use the cage for snakes, and they seem to be pretty happy with that. I just got home from work today and took a look in the cage and found Speckles happily resting on the back of the cage and Swag was sleeping on one of the plant leaves. His colors are bright and happy looking today, and while they were both a little angry that I took them out to soak, they both seemed quite happy to crawl and jump around the cage a bit before settling back down.

Also, I bought a small glass dish, and you guys were right-- the crickets don't jump out! Mind blown. Seriously, I sat for like ten minutes staring at crickets in a glass dish haha. Even my coworkers were impressed; none of us knew they wouldn't jump out.

I'll be keeping a watchful eye on their skin and waste. Thank you guys for all of your help!

[Heatheranne]

Excellent! Sounds like he may come around. I'll be crossing my fingers for you.

[scienceofsleep]

Just an update:
By the time they got to see the vet, there wasn't anything too noticeably wrong with them. They're receiving .01cc of a low grade baytril once a day for 10 days, after which I have to bring them back for a check up. I'm continuing the pedialyte soaks, and also we noticed that the skin on Swag's nose seemed a little dark and it might be the possible start of a skin infection, so after the pedialyte soaks he's getting an extremely diluted nolvasan applied to the area with a q-tip.

The outlook is good! As long as the skin infection was caught in time, that is, which I think it was because the spot is very small and I've seen much worse. They're both active during the night and have been eating crickets.

[Bolisnide]

That's great Shlee! Keep up the good work!
The skin infection may take a few weeks to completely clear up, keep up the meds and Swag will be just perfect in no time

[Heatheranne]

Great to hear .