Tree frog shivering = lack of calcium?

[daziladi]

When I got home tonight Chester was moving strangely and I saw his muscles twitching. Wasn't sure what was wrong but Kelly looked on Google and it says shivering in tree frogs is related to lack of calcium. The pet stores are closed, so I went to walmart and got some meal worms out of the sporting dept and some calcium tablets, then used a fine grater to dust them. Chester wants nothing to do with the meal worms (ugh!) so is there a way I can get some calcium in him quickly? The pet store is open in 10 hours and I'm worried that will be too long. Any suggestions?

[jtay]

Have you ever seen Chester shedding his skin before? Could be that...
Lack of calcium would have sluggish behaviour prior to spasms i believe. Have you noticed that?
If it is a lack of calcium then aside from waiting for the pet store to open you could try an emergency vet clinic if there is one in your area that deals with amphibians. Vets can administer a calcium injection if required.

[Ebony]

Get him to the vet asap. Good luck daziladi and Chester.

[daziladi]

The exotic pet hospital opens in less than three hours, going to see what they can do for him. I don't even know if its calcium deficiency or not, its just what came up when we did the google search. His legs aren't working right and his "fingers" aren't resting under his chin like usual either. I can see little twitching in his muscles that I have never seen before. I sit and watch him for hours every day, so I knew something was wrong when I came home. I transferred him out of his vivarium and cleaned it out, even though I had just finished redoing it six days ago there was an acidic odor when I lifted the top layer of moss away. Hoping the Dr will be able to fix things... will let you guys know as soon as I do. :\

[John]

Good luck. It doesn't sound very hopeful though .

[Ebony]

Hi daziladi, Hows Chester today? Been thinking of you two.

[daziladi]

Chester is looking better today but still very quiet, not climbing or eating much. Will probably take a while for him to feeling chipper again! Here's the video of his shivering that freaked me out so bad, kinda hard to see with the video shot from my phone. If you look closely you'll see the twitching, usually he has been very still when resting so it was immediately noticeable when I got in that night.

YouTube - ChesterShaking

[jtay]

Wow, that would be very alarming to see

[John]

I'm not very optimistic he'll get better. Good luck though.

[daziladi]

I'm optimistic he'll make it through given time and medicine. Will be my pleasure to prove you wrong, but keeping my fingers/toes crossed too just in case. I'll post when something changes but until then I'm keeping his cage clean, the humidity/temp up and giving medicine on a regular schedule. On the bottom of his cage I'm keeping a triple layer of clean paper towels so it's easier to swap it out when it gets spotted. Sure would make me feel better if you said that only having a few months experience instead of a lifetime, but thankfully miracles can happen.

[Ebony]

Well Im hoping for that miracle and keeping my fingers,toes, crossed too.

[Kurt]

I think he will be fine.

[daziladi]

Chester ate a cricket today! Still three days to go on his medicine but he looks just perfect. Thanks for everyone's help and advice to save him, I really didn't know what to do that night and I'm glad you all were here to help him survive. This photo is from a few minutes ago <g>

[hyla]

[John]

That's excellent news!

[Kurt]

That's great news.

[Ebony]

Way to go daziladi & Chester.