Help fresh injury! Missing eye!

[Psychotic]

I have an Exo Terra 18"x18"x24". I'm assuming everyone knows how the front doors work on them. Well today I went to mist my frogs and apparently one was sleeping on the glass right beside the door. When I went to close it after misting, I caught the frog on the side of his face and pretty much scraped one of his eyeballs out!!! I didn't even see him there. I seen him hop across the tank and when I looked up from where he came from I seen his eyeball on the edge of the glass!

I feel sick for hurting my little guy and even worse that he lost an eye because of me! I've never dealt with anything like this before. The eye came out clean and I didn't even see any blood. There was no blood on the socket either. But now it's looking slimy, but not bloody. What should I do? Is there anything I can do to help this heal? I have some baytril left over from a different frog I had that was sick if I need that.

I can take pictures if it is needed. But this just happened and I don't want to torture him more than I have already.

[tameyourself]

OMG I'm so sorry! I have treated eye injuries before in reptiles with terramycin but never an amphibian. Hopefully somebody with more ideas will chime in soon.

[Psychotic]

I just checked on him. He is under my Devil's Ivy sleeping. There is still no blood to be seen. He is still brightly colored and the missing eye is no longer as gooy looking. I'm going to leave him alone until he wakes up himself. Then I'll move him to a hospital tank so that he doesn't get anything in the wound to cause infection.

Hopefully he will live. There isn't really any reason he shouldn't be able to thrive with just one eye. As long as it doesn't get infected and he doesn't go off food because of the pain/stress. But I still feel like a terrible monster for doing that to him. I normally look around the door before opening and closing them. I should have double checked and now my little frog is maimed because of me.

Edit to add: This isn't the first time caring for a sick or injured frog. However this is the first time I have been the cause of an injury.

[Gnag the nameless]

First off, I would get him to an Exotic Vet. I don't know how to treat something like this, but if anyone could help you, it'd be a Vet. I really don't think this is something that should go without any kind of treatment. If there are no vets in the area, contact Dr. Frye. You can ask one of the moderators such as Heather or Lynn how to contact him.

I'm so sorry that this happened, but keep in mind it wasn't your fault. You didn't know he was there, and everything you do and have done for him has always been in his best interest. Don't beat yourself up over it, your little guy needs you more than ever before and blaming yourself will help neither you nor your little guy.

I would recommend picking up some Neosporin WITHOUT painkiller if you don't already have it. You could possibly use it to prevent infection.

Keep us posted.

[Psychotic]

I have Dr. Frye's email. I already purchased all kinds of meds from him a little while back because I took my boyfriend's sick albino bullfrog in (she is mine now and doing very well).

I will call my vet and see if they have any advice. They do not have an exotics vet. But when I asked them if they could treat my reptiles or amphibians they told me that they could treat simple things (like RI, scale rot, mites). For things they don't know how to treat, they could contact other vets with more knowledge.

If they don't know anything I'll contact Dr. Frye again for advice.

[Psychotic]

He just woke up! He's calling like nothing happened. What the heck? I'm happy but still worried. I would think he'd be in to much pain and traumatized to be calling for a mate only a few hours after loosing his eye!

[Lija]

or poor guy, so sorry for your baby ((( you know all kind of things can happen all the time, i can imagine how sad you feel right now.
vet won't help here much unfortunately, but it will never hurt to come in. you need to make sure infection is not spreading. so that is what you need to do:
1. set up hospital set up ASAP!, separate enclosure, 4 walls covered, wet pepertowels on a bottom. assuming we're talking about a tree frog, you better cover all walls from outside of the enclosure. use UVB for a day time. use something for him to hide or climb so it won't feel too miserable. that something should be very clean.
2. get melafix (fish stuff) and soak a frog in chin high solution for 20 min 2-3 time a day ( of course depending if you can do so) but am and pm would do and soak paper towels that are on a bottom of a tank with that solution too. use it for a spray bottle as well, while soaking make sure the solution is getting all over a frog, but don't drown it dilute melafix according to the instructions on a bottle to get a solution you are gonna use.

watch him, how he is feeling, is active, how wound looks like, better or worse?
if it seems that it is getting worse then you have to go to a vet ( or contact dr. Frye) for systemic antibiotics and special eye antibiotic drops.

even if everything will heal well the question is if he would be able to eat, frogs use their eyeballs to swallow food, so I'd do small food items for now and see how it'll go, animals are able to adapt to all kinds of situations, dogs are perfectly capable to run and have a normal life with just 2 legs present, chances are your frog is gonna be ok.

[Psychotic]

I have a hospital tank waiting for him. Was just waiting to see if he would wake up and come out on his own. I didn't want to go digging for him (I knew where he was hiding) and freak him, possibly causing more damage.

Yes he is a tree frog. One of my little Leptopelis Uluguruensis. From my avatar you can see how buggy their eyes are and probably can figure out how it was so easy to get in the way of the door.

I'll pick up some melafix for him.

My males are only around an inch long. I already feed them pin head crickets and newborn roaches. They eat several in one sitting. But don't seem to like bigger prey anyway. So tiny food won't be a problem.

They were just fed yesterday so he will have some time to heal before he is fed again. He is currently calling as I type. So that gives me hope.

[Lija]

lol men.... sorry i meant frog males lol well... if he is calling for a girls then probably he doesn't mind much being with one eye

[UncleChester]

So sorry that this happen to you and your little frog. Despite our best intentions and no matter how careful we are, accidents will happen so try not to be too hard on yourself.

I've no advice to give on the healing, but I will tell you that I've seen a few frogs in the wild that appeared blind in one eye and a couple with missing eyes. Yours has the advantage of a loving owner to give it medical care and a predator free environment. As you've also discovered, he is also willing to carry on his usual daily activities and not huddle in a corner sulking or carrying a grudge, so I'd say the outlook is hopeful. Best of luck!

[Psychotic]

It's past 4:30am and I have stayed up all night. My little frog doesn't seem phased at all by missing an eye. So, I decided to see if he would eat. He jump around and hunted the crickets. However after a few hours he hasn't got one. I got out the tweezers and tried hand feeding. He has never took to hand feeding before. However this time he ate from the tweezers without hesitation!

Hopefully he will get better at hunting with just one eye. But if not I will continue hand feeding. I own him that much.

I had a cat with one eye. She had cancer and the eye had to be removed. It took her less than a week to stop bumping into things and walking off the edge of furniture. So hope my frog will adapt as well.

[tameyourself]

Great news!

[Heatheranne]

Hi Ashley,

Sorry I missed your post.

How does the eye socket look today? Has it dried up and shoveled down a bit? Is it swollen or does it appear more reddened?

I think he'll be fine so long as no infection starts. Him not acting stressed is a great thing. This will help his recovery. I'm not sure if the tear ducts will continue to secrete moisture or not. In this case, hopefully not. Hopefully it will dry up. You'll have to monitor and see. He might not feel pain if the nerve was severed. This also would be a good thing in this case.

Have you reached Dr. Frye? Do you have a photo of the area? I am not sure what is normally used for eye infections in frogs, which would be the safe choice. I have not encountered that in my time caring for frogs. A vet should surely know. A weeks worth of eye drops should protect him if started soon. It is possible that he may also heal fine with no treatment, but I'd be cautious to chance it, though....it's been 3 days and if he has an infection started any bacteria would have started their colonization and you'd likely see the start of the infection in 24 to 48 hrs, so you might be lucky. I'd contact Dr.Frye before starting any treatment just to be safe.

Good luck! Please keep us updated.

[Heatheranne]

How's he doing?

[Psychotic]

He is still doing good. He pooped the next night after eating and he still calls. He has always been my loudest male and he is still the loudest.

I will try and get you a picture of him. I took one with my phone yesterday as it's easier to get my phone close to him inside the tank than it is to get my big camera in there. I don't have a telephoto or macro lens, so I have to do close up pictures. But as always my phone takes terrible pictures and you can't see the injury at all. Well he was asleep and you can't tell which side he's missing the eye on unless he has his other eye open. It's nothing gory looking.

It's no longer gooy. It was only gooy right after loosing the eye and by night time it was dried up.
It's not red or have any funny looking color, discharge or smell. So, I think he is going to be fine.

And for the record again. It never bled. Does anyone find it strange it did not bleed at all? Do frogs not have much blood flow to their eyes or something?

[Lija]

lol he seems to don't mind at all, i bet he is like whatever, eye, no eye who cares lol
from your description he will be just fine, he is already fine, i'd continue for a few more days with melafix to be on a safe side, but it seems no bacterial infection whatsoever as of now and the only problem he has is that no girls around.

[Psychotic]

I still feel pretty terrible for hurting him in the first place. However I am so relieved that he is doing so well.

[Lija]

don't be so hard on yourself, that could have happened to anyone, you didn't do it on purpose, you dealt with it very well and the guy obviously couldn't care less

[Heatheranne]

Glad to hear he's doing well . Truly, don't torture yourself. They move quickly.

[Greenclover43]

I want to know the answer to the blood thing that just sounds really strange to me but i have never had a frog before so i wouldnt know lol