Please help. I think it's dropsy. :(

[Rorschach]

I called my regular vet this morning and as I suspected, he doesn't see frogs. There's one exotic vet I've found, but it's expensive and not close, which means I would have to take off work to take him, and I have not been able to do so. Not to mention the expense in just getting there, plus just an exam is $55, any treatment will be well beyond that, and I'd lose wages by not working for at least half a day. I simply don't have a couple hundred bucks to spend. As stated originally, a vet just isn't an option.

He was still alive this morning but didn't look any less swollen. He's pretty firm like a full water balloon, as you describe. Did your ADF pull through? Were there things you tried to treat it that worked/didn't work?

Thanks so much for your input. I'll look forward to hearing what your vet says.

[FrogFriend]

Well, just as you have done, I isolated him from the rest of the tank because if I remember correctly it can pass to other members of your tank. When we had an infection in one of our fish tanks we emptied the tank, sterilized everything (sat in hot water with white vinegar, once water cooled we took tongs and DIPPED everything into a large pot of boiling water and left everything out to dry) left the fish in the tank and treated with Ick that covers a few different things, and then scrubbed down the tank. You have to be careful what you dip into the hot water, we dipped our gravel hose in there and it messed up the shape of the hose because the plastic is thinner there. Once everything had cooled we reassembled the tank and everyone has been doing great. When I did my search for Dropsy, it was for ADFs. I just did a search now for "care for Dropsy in amphibians" and got this:How to Cure Frog Dropsy | eHow.com I would say give it a shot. If it is Dropsy it's not going to make anything worse. As for my ADF, he died within a couple of days because he couldn't eat. I cut up the food into tiny little pieces and used a chopstick to get it down to Fabi to eat, but like I said, he got to a point where he was so swollen he couldn't even open his mouth. He also got VERY pale and turned from a nice tan/brown color to creamish white. Do you have any pictures of your toad that you can post? That might help for those of us who have seen it. You might also consider searching for images of dropsy in FBT. I hope this helps! I really hope that it isn't Dropsy or that you can do one of these home remedies to help him! Keep us posted!

[FrogFriend]

Another question...what are you feeding your FBTs? Are you putting the supplements on the food? Has his color changed at all? Also, what is at the bottom of your tank? When I first got my FBTs the people I got her from had gravel. Any time my toads leapt for food they also got a mouth full of gravel that they swallowed. I was so concerned about them and whether it was going to kill them or not. I changed the tank right away. A few days later I found pieces of gravel around the tank so I knew that they had gotten passed some how. Maybe your toad has a blockage from food or something in your habitat. Just throwing out ideas, if your toad is still eating and active- like I said, it isn't a rush to the emergency room but it is important to start trying things to help him out.

[Rorschach]

Here is a photo of my poor Rorschach. He is no better since I added the Maracyn 2 to his water along with some honey last night, but I guess one can't expect immediate results, necessarily. He is currently in his epsom salts bath. I do hope there is enough and I few times he looked to be drinking it! I hope that's not dangerous and the poor bugger also has a couple whitish spots that have appeared on his face. I've not tried to wipe it off yet or anything. He is not a fan of being moved around so with giving him the bath, it's one thing at a time.

I saw the link you posted and actually ordered the metromed just this morning, given its rave reviews. However, I'm concerned as to how to get it in him. He eats live food, and this being a fish food, I suppose I would have to force feed it to him, which I hate the thought of, but whatever will save him I am willing to try. What's troublesome is that they only offered one shipping method on the site and I have no way to know when to expect it. Hope he holds out long enough and I can successfully get him to eat it.

Regarding what I feed him...always crickets. I have the calcium powder and an orange Flukers cricket food that I gutload them with. His habitat (prior to quarantine) was large rock platforms and water. Nothing small enough he is likely to have digested. Once he is well again (fingers crossed) I will probably keep him in a smaller tank since obviously I'm not cleaning the 55 gallon take well enough and I feel I can better manage a 10-15 gallon. Today there are still live crickets in the quarantine tank with him which makes me concerned that he is not eating. He is still active as he hops furiously while trying to evade me and the bath! He at least has some fight, I just hope he doesn't use it on me instead of the real threat.

Given his current super-bloat state, I plan to try lancing him tomorrow. I have a friend who is a RN that is experienced with needles and such who is going to help me. If she weren't working tonight we would be doing it now. I am so worried about him and really hope he will make it until I at least can try everything to make him better.

Thank you for your feedback.

*Note- Following bath, the whitish spots are gone. Whew! Glad there's not something else going wrong. Now if we can just make it through tomorrow when we can try to drain the fluid.

[FrogFriend]

He definitely looks swollen. The white patches that you saw and then they went away were probably salt residue. As for your flake medicine, I would treat it like your calcium supplement. Shake the flakes with the crickets inside so that it gets on the cricket. Then hand feed the cricket to your toad. Make sure you count how many crickets you put into the tank- that will help you know if he's eating. And of course check for left overs floating around or hiding somewhere. Have your friend bring over a Tuberculin syringe or an insulin syringe. These are both very thin needles, the longer the needle the better. i can't remember which one has the longer needle. Find out toad's anatomy for her and realize that with swelling like this- things can be pushed around so she'll want to go in a spot that has less chance of organ shift. Otherwise, his color still looks good- bright green! Good luck! I will still give a heads up when I chat with my vet.

[Rorschach]

Update - We performed the paracentesis today. As suggested by FrogFriend, we printed off some frog anatomy photos and went in, but not very deepy, slightly left of the center of his lower abdomen with a small, subcutaneous needle. We drained almost .60 cc's of fluid with the needle, and some was also leaking out of the hole while the needle was in. We then put some antibiotic ointment on the pinhole, which was very hard to do as his belly is so slippery. I then put him back into his tank.

He is still quite swollen, but I'm hoping he will get a little better in the next 24 hours. If he his swelling isn't reduced more tomorrow, we will do a second paracentesis to drain off more of the fluid. I felt it wasn't wise to drain too much at one time. The liquid that came out was mostly clear, a little cloudy, and there was a tiny bit of blood coming out of the pinhole, but it stopped bleeding right away.

I feel like he already appears somewhat relieved. I haven't seen him eat, but I can't find any crickets in the tank, so I'm assuming he ate them. I hope so!! Anyway, I plan to do another epsom salt bath tonight, but wanted to give him some time to rest after the procedure first.

I'm posting all of this in case someone else encounters the same issue and needs to know how it can be treated. I know I searched for several hours trying to find sufficient information and it's just not available. Of course it's too soon to tell if it's successful, but I will continue to update with any new deelopments. Also, still waiting on the metro-med but I contacted the company and they said it would be here within 3 business days. I'm hoping for sooner!

[FrogFriend]

0.6 cc is quite a bit for such a small little guy! The cloudiness (which I am sure your RN friend told you) is infection so it's good you put something on it. If you do it tomorrow as well, I would make sure that when you put him back in his Iso tank that there isn't a huge amount of water in his pool/tank (however your set up is- sorry can't remember) because if you put some kind of antibiotic ointment on him and then he gets in water it just will wash off defeating the purpose. Doing the epsom salt bath later I would say is still a good idea and as long as the ointment has a little time to do its job. Also, to avoid the slipperiness tomorrow, have enough water in his tank so he can get fluids/stay hydrated, and keep your basking light on- this will make him a bit drier for you so that he doesn't slide away while trying to drain fluids (or use a white paper towel with no coloring to dab at him to get some moisture off)- plus, it might make the risk of infection from himself (toxins he produces) lower. Again, I am NOT a vet, I do have medical knowledge and I am making assumptions based on what I know about animals, amphibians and humans. I hope the toad anatomy helped. I read someone elses post about lancing fluids from her frog and she went in at a bad spot and now her toad (as of last post) could not move his back legs. Also, as your RN friend will tell you, knicking the bowel will cause all kinds of damage to your little guy! Anyway, I hope what I had to say was helpful and on the right track- always have to take suggestions from nonvets on care of animals with a grain of salt. In fact, I have heard disagreements on how to handle certain medical treatments from vets as well...so, I guess it's do your research and make a decision fitting best with the info received and gut feeling. I hope your little guy does ok! Keep me posted!