Hello,
Some of you may know that on Feb 8 I purchased a baby whites tree frog from a large chain petstore.
After about a week of having her home, I noticed she had severely slimy stool. I had her stool tested and discovered she had hook worms, pin worms, and a severe protazoan intestinal infection.
I wanted to write about the steps I took, and what I learned.
This is what I did to nurse her back to health:
After discovering her runny stool, I had it tested as soon as was possible, by a reputable vet familiar with treating amphibians. I also tested my adult white's and my solo Red Eye (all in separate enclosures). Though my new frog was in quarantine, I learned that it was possible I cross contaminated to my healthy frogs via not using gloves when doing frog chores.
I did in fact infect my healthy frogs, and they were also treated with the same medications.
I happened to use Dr. Frye at the Milan Animal hospital in Milan, Michigan. I overnighted feces (yes, was kind of wierd) to his office, and he sent me the medications with correct dosages.
medications used:
Metronidozale (dropped on frog's backs for 15 consecutive days)
Panacur (powdered form, dusted feeders once per week for 4 weeks), though my baby needed to be treated for a total of 9 weeks before I got a clean fecal.
I was instructed to completely sanitize my enclosures (all three of them), replace plants, dirt. I was able to soak my fake plants and ornamental items in a bleach solution in buckets, and then rinsed in a bucket with clean water and extra amounts of de-chlorinators.
I kept my baby in a hospital tank, artificial plant and paper towel substrate. This made it easier to clean her enclosure every night (yes, every night!) with very hot water and paper towels. What a work out! And my family was less than pleased to have one hour of my time every night occupied by my sick frog.
I kept up with normal calcium dusting and multi vitamin dusting all during the treatment.
And now I am happy to say, I just got a clean bill of health for all three of my frogs, I couldn't be happier!
Here she is today:
And here is her enclosure, no more paper towels!
(shoot, can't figure out how to rotate it!)
Anyway, I guess I just wanted to share with everyone, that when you do have a sick frog, it really can take 3 months foor them to get better!
Patience is a virtue, cleanliness is necessary, and the right meds and vet is crucial!