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]

Thanks Ebony... stayed up with Chester all night and he's not worse at least. The one doctor in Vegas who accepts exotics is out of the office today so he has an appt. for tomorrow morning. I went to the pet store and purchased the rep-cal and the staff also suggested amoxicillin, 1/2 capsule in his water dish every 2 days. I got some of their special dusted crickets and a few dusted wax worms. He hopped this morning so that's better than last night... and he scooped one wax worm into his mouth but only when it was right on front of him. Where his fingers looked fat and healthy only 30 hours ago now look shriveled. His eyes look gaunt too... they aren't as pronounced as before.

Edit: Just called another doctor and they see exotics, we have an appt for 3:20.

[Ebony]

Hey, You hang in there and you are doing all you can do. It's show a sparkle of hope that Chester is still keen to eat.

[jtay]

Good luck, does sound rather bad - I hope all goes well.
If there was a smell in the terrarium it could be fungal or bacterial?

[daziladi]

Back from the vet and it turns out not to be calcium deficiency (thank goodness!) but he has a bacterial infection that had effected him neurologically, causing the shakes. The vet explained that the infection stays in the bloodstream and can effect them in many ways. I took a video of the shaking he had, I'll upload that here very soon. The doctor gave him a topical medicine called Baytril/Enrofloxacin for a period of 10 days. Jtay you're right about the vivarium and the smell.. it was horrid when I cleaned it out last night. Can't find a happy balance in the substrate without it staying a sopping wet mess or too dry for his required humidification levels. Bet Chester hates breaking in a new owner like me, lol... he about gave me a heart attack when I saw him in such distress. He's also on rep-cal now... nothing like a sick friend to help you get what they need -before- payday. Thanks for all the help with him everyone.

[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.

[hyla]

Dare I ask how Chester is today? That video was hard to watch.

[Kurt]

I think he will be fine.

[daziladi]

I so hope so Kurt, thanks! This morning he moved to the top of the log, back down again and then went 1/2 way into his hiding spot so that was on the plus side. His heartbeat is regular, the movement he makes below his chin is regular too (breathing?) and I don't see any muscle spasms. He stayed still and slept all day after that. Just checked a few minutes ago and he's making his way to his water dish, slowly. He's definitely still sluggish so I'll breath another hooray when he has more energy and catches a cricket.

The vet told me to get UVA, UVB bulbs and a heating mat but the forums here say not to. From the discussions I've determined that the heat should come from above the mesh lid, but which type of bulb should I get? Since I took out the substrate and replaced it with paper towels for his healing the humidity dipped too low, read on another frog board that adding a fish tank pump tube to a glass of water would increase it. I filled the glass with smooth rocks so he won't get stuck in there... seems to be working as long as I mist 4-5 times a day too. Chester's coming along, will just take time and some old-fashioned froggie-luck. Keeping an amphibian is like having children again!

[Kurt]

Well you can put a large glass jar with an aquarium heater and water in it. This would provide heat and humidity. UVB bulbs are generally fluorescent so they shouldn't heat the tank up. Generally the consensus is that they don't need it, and I agree with that, but it couldn't hurt to use it.

And you're welcome. Just want to make sure I didn't forget to say that.

[daziladi]

Great idea Kurt, I'm going that route along with a very simple liner for the bottom until I decide on a permanent setup for him that won't create this sort of illness. I never could get the balance of water to heat to humidity right and I'm sure that's why he got sick. Update: his color is wonderful and he's all over the tank during his waking hours. He actually sat on his log in an upright, non-resting position so that's a first too. I haven't seen him catch a cricket yet, and he's avoided climbing so hopefully that will come back soon too. Will let you know when all is back to normal, hopefully sooner rather than later but I'm just glad he made it. Will post a photo soon too!