I have to agree with you here Seth except that I don't think amphibian medicine is in as dire a situation as many may think. I too have lost very few animals over the past 25 or so years and when i do they go suddenly. I certainly wouldn't blame it on stress if they suvived for 3 or more months as you said and I doubt that Kurt, you or myself would blame parasites because that is easily proven and the possibility eliminated with a proper maintenance regime, by this I mean doing your own fecals so you know what is actually going on. I spend many hours reading books like Amphibian Medicine and Captive Husbandry, Understanding Reptile Parasites, and any other medical work I can find. All this combined with experience can give us a great advantage when trying to save our animals. But the truth is as you said, "we are on our own". At least we can share these experiences and learn from each other about what has worked and what hasn't. Your comments on reversing the natural climate for a while rings true in my experience also, I don't know why. Overall I think we are doing pretty good keeping our animals healthy given the lack of vet assistance that we have. Too make a long story even longer, I agree with you.