Hi there,
My beloved Alfred died today. She was an African Clawed Frog and only 8-9 months of age. My husband and I named her Alfred before we even knew the sex, but decided to stick with the name anyway.

Here's how it started. 3 days ago Alfred started having this strange spasm. I thought I spooked her while walking past and this brought on some sort of shock. Next 2 days it happened again for no reason when I was trying to feed her. First she would tense up all over, tremble and then contort, sort of bowing the head down and sideways. I was so scared because I thought she was in extreme pain. This would last for about 10 seconds. She would then just go limp in my hand and just breathe for about a minute, then swim away. I read on a site it may have been a stroke, but I don't know. There didn't seem to be any signs of red leg or bloating.

After the first spasm she sort of lost control over her right leg. Yesterday after the last spasm she lost control of her feet (but not thighs) and had a lot of trouble surfacing for air. I reduced the amount of water in the tank so she wouldn't stress out. Her appetite was gradually decreasing, on the day of the first spasm she was hungry, tried to get food but had the spasm and didn't eat after that. Next day she ate 1 shrimp, yesterday she ate 2 but I have a feeling those were regurgitated later. Yesterday I also saw her trying to eat her own shedded skin. It seems to me also that lately she was shedding more than usual.

After the spasm yesterday I was resolved to take her to a vet this morning, I had an appointment ready at 10 40 am but when I woke up she was at the bottom of her tank, belly up. I picked her up and brought her to the surface but she wasn't breathing anymore.

This was a very sad loss for me, I grew very attached to her, and she was so young and I can't help but feel I failed her.

Here's some info about the tank setup. The tank itself is about 60 litres in size, temperature was set to about 21-22 Celsius, I did a 40% water change twice a week with a gravel pump. She had about 5 elodea densa plants, one anubias and one moss ball. I also had water wisteria, but it didn't live very long after purchase. I bought those plants about 2 months ago and noticed some snails in the tank. I wonder if the plants or the snails carried some sort of infection with them to my little Alfred. I fed her freeze-dried river shrimp, gammarus, tubifex, sometimes bloodworms for about 10-15 minutes each day.

This is all very baffling as I am the type of person who takes pet care seriously. Before purchasing Alfred I made sure to read any info I could find on ACFs and aquatic frogs. I knew what I was getting into and was meticulous about water changes, keeping my hands clean and making sure not to contaminate any of Alfred's things with soaps etc.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
(may all your froggies live long and happy lives)