Cat bacteria harmful to frogs?

[Lija]

I am confused and it doesn't happen often lol
what exactly is in question? what do you mean by cat bacteria exactly? cat sitting on a top of the cage can not cause frogs death, unless he was hunting them and scratched, it went unnoticed + additional stress. but since he is declawed ( poor guy) he can't scratch, so that is out of question.
let's take one step at a time. if you are wondering what might caused frogs death we need more information and as Carlos said distilled water is a big big red flag here.
so far that is what i have from your post:
-both frogs lived together for a 2 years and are WC, good job on saving them by the way!
have you ever done fecal tests for them and got them treated?
-you used distilled water - always, both everything?
how exactly everything happened? were they just fine, eating and looking healthy and happy one day and dead the next?

[GrnTreeFrg]

Sorry about the confusion of the water. It is dechlorinated. I just have a tendency to say/write distilled. I found them in FL when I stayed there a semester with family as at the time I was interning at a zoo. My family had well water and the vet I had taken them to said that was fine. So I didn't switch to dechlorinated till I went back home. I honestly have no clue what was done to them at the vet as this was a few years back and I was new to frogs (I have always preferred inverts). All I know was that the vet was recommended to me by the zoo vet and was apparently some frog guru; that and it cost me an arm and a leg each time I brought a frog in (brought a total of 5). Where I am now, the vets either won't see frogs at all or they don't know much.
The cat does have back claws but I know from experience that they don't have to scratch to spread certain things. Don't get me wrong, I love cats, but they have some nasty feet. I was worried about the possibility of germ shedding from the feet after say using the litter box and into my tank or on my frogs considering the delicacy and permeability of their skin; I did find litter in the actual tank as the cat tends to track it around. Maybe I am just grasping at straws though as I am sure it could be any number of things.
They were just fine one day and then I noticed the next that one was on the ground dead (my Buddah boy). The other (Frank) was still hanging out and acting normal. I did remove him from the tank though and put him in one I use for quarantine just in case. He ate fine but I did call a knowledgeable vet that is 3 hours away. I was told to keep an eye on him and that he was most likely fine but we did make an appointment just in case for a few days away (the earliest I could get in). The next day he was dead. I just find it so bizarre. Maybe someone more knowledgeable about frogs would have seen some sort of sign that I perhaps missed.
This has reminded me though that I need to cancel the vet appointment.

[UncleChester]

Sorry for your losses.

Not that it completely rules it out, but my cats have been sleeping on my frog cages for years with no issues. You had an appointment with a knowledgeable vet? Would they be able to perform a necropsy for you? This might have the best chance of a definitive answer.

[GrnTreeFrg]

Ah, I see. Well I guess it doesn't rule it out but it is pretty good evidence that maybe it's not the cause of their death. I am so anal about keeping the cats off my tanks but I guess it's not that big of a deal. I wish I knew why the died and have been wracking my head.
Now that I think of it, the only thing I have changed is where I get their crickets from.
Poor little guys.
I did not think about the necropsy but that would have been a possibility but I have already buried them down by the creek. I could dig them back up but with the heat here, I think they may be a bit decomposed. I keep a few preserved specimens (I'm a zoology student) but since I considered them pets, I buried them instead.

[Mentat]

Not much to go with; unless new cricket source was contaminated. Did you feed the same crickets to other animals? If so, are they OK or showed any signs of problems?

[GrnTreeFrg]

It could be a possibility. The inverts don't eat as much. My tarantula ate only two from my most recent batch, the frogs ate the rest.
My tarantula seems fine but it is even harder to see if they are sick than frogs. I will keep an eye on her though. I've never heard of crickets being contaminated but now that I think about it I see how it could happen.
Thanks for everyone's help. I think I just wanted some bit of closure. For some people they may just be frogs but I really cared about them. Them dying wasn't as bad as loosing my 17 yo cat last year but it definitely made my day awful.
I'm thinking no more frogs for me for awhile, rescue or not.

[Lija]

at any rate a cat has absolutely nothing to do with both frogs death other adding some stress. I have 3 cats, 2 of them constantly sleeping on tanks, one is too stupid to figure out that it is warm and nice up there the only problem with that is when a cat is big and fat and mesh on top weak.
so many things could have gone wrong with frogs, it seems you gave them nice home and did everything right, but they are from a wild, you don't know their age, may be time just come, may be something else, too hard to say now.
i don't think to anyone on here frogs are just frogs, we care very deeply for them, most of us experienced loss too, and know first hand how hard that is.
so sorry for your loss.