Tongue issue?

[LG89]

1. Size of enclosure -currently in a small tub around 6" x 4" as he didnt seem to eat in the large faunarium I bought for him.
2. # of inhabitants - specifically other frogs and size differences - 1
3. Humidity - high 80's
4. Temperature - between 77-80
5. Water - type - for both misting and soaking dish - only has moist paper towel substrate (bottled)
6. Materials used for substrate - moist paper towel
7. Enclosure set up i.e. plants (live or artificial), wood, bark and other materials.
- How were things prepared prior to being put into the viv. - n/a
8. Main food source - roaches and pinks
9. Vitamins and calcium? (how often) - every other feeding
10. Lighting - daylight in a well lit room
11. What is being used to maintain the temperature of the enclosure - heat mat.
12. When is the last time he/she ate - yesterday night, still eating as normal though
13. Have you found poop lately - no poop since last couple of feeds but within the last week..
14. A pic would be helpful including frog and enclosure (any including cell phone pic is fine)
15. How old is the frog - juvenile around 3-4 inches in size so around 6 months
16. How long have you owned him/her 4 months
17. Is the frog wild caught or captive bred - cb
18. Frog food- how often and if it is diverse, what other feeders are used as treats - mainly eats dubias and occasional pink, but has eaten morio worms, wax worms, crickets in the past.
19. How often the frog is handled - more often now since I have been worrying about the issue in question but prior to that only when enclosure needed cleaning.
20. Is the enclosure kept in a high or low traffic area - low traffic
21. Describe enclosure maintenance (water changes, cleaning, etc) - cleaned each time he defecated as only a small enclosure. water added if necessary in between cleaning.

[Mentat]

Not sure what could cause a swollen tongue, but imagine a parasite or bacteria could do that or some internal organ malfunction. Will wait until Colleen/Jerrod or Lija reply; hopefully they got an answer.

In the meantime, following are general tips, it appears to me the enclosure is a tad small for your frog. At that size (3-4 in.) recommend a square foot area or so with standard shredded coco substrate and a water dish for soaking. Also, the humidity is high (keep between 70-80%) and the temperature could be higher (82-85F daytime with a 5 degree drop at night). Would not do pinkies more than one a month and would add night crawlers to diet. Good luck !

[GrifTheGreat]

Carlos is correct about the surface area for the frog's enclosure.

As for a swollen tongue. That can be caused from the frog biting its own tongue while feeding. If you are offering only crickets then that is only good as a staple, but is not a very nutritious diet even if you use supplements. Night Crawlers are far more nutritious and are easily digested.

If the tongue is swollen then it is possibly infected and would need antibiotic treatments from a Herp Vet. I'm not sure if a few antibiotic baths would treat an oral infection like this.

[Lija]

remove a heat pad under your tank immediately! and stop using all supplements until we'll figure things out.

before advising on anything else i want to clarify a few things :
- diet- you are saying roaches and pinkies- please describe that, how often he is eating roaches and how often pinks
- supplements - what and how exactly are you using?
- maintenance- do you do substrate changes and how often
as well i'd like to see a few more clear pics: frog from a top, from a side and front (eye level)

[LG89]

Having had the frog looked at by some experienced keepers of amphibians at my local reptile and amphibian pet shop. They have told me that it definitely doesn't look like an infection - no sign of any sort or residue or smell coming from the tongue doesn't look "swollen" just sticks out more than normal...in answer to the enclosure size - I have a faunarium which has a surface area recommended by Carlos above rectangle instead of square but same surface area roughly which was filled with cocoa substrate and he just didn't seem to eat in there so I moved him back to a smaller tub. Will slightly increase the temperature, reduce the humidity and also get my hands on some nightcrawlers. His stale diet is dubia roaches dusted every other feeding with calc d3 and every third dusting I while use nutrbol vitamin supplement instead. Only introduced pinks recently to give him a bit more fat and calcium due to being worried about the tongue issue. For Lija - I feed dubias whenever he's hungry really so every couple of days at the most I don't leave them in with him longer than a night so if he hasn't eaten by the morning which isn't usually the case I know he probably isn't hungry and like I said the pinks have only been a couple recently due to being worried. Unfortunately I can't take away the heat source as the room temperature wouldn't be high enough where I live to keep him happy. I change the substrate regularly every time I see that he defecates I change the substrate as its only paper towels at the moment. I can get him back in the large enclosure with the cocoa substrate if you think that would help at all. Ill go and take some pictures like you requested and post up shortly.


Thanks for all of the helpful responses guys. Great welcoming to the forum to get so much support and concern for the frog that matches my own.


Luke

[Namio]

Hi Luke,

How long have you had the frog and when did you first started to dust its food with Calcium? The dropping of the jaw may be caused by the lack of Calcium during the frogs developmental period also known as Metabolic Bone Disease. If this is the case, you need to provide and incorporate additional Calcium to your frog.

[GrifTheGreat]

This is MBD(Metabolic Bone Disease). The frog is not recieving a well balanced diet. Calcium+D3 will halt the progression of the disease, but the jaw may never fully close if the frog has stopped growing.

Drooping lower jaw is the first sign. The excessive droop appears that this frog has been suffering from MBD for a while. If not MBD then this frog has previously suffered from a jaw injury.

You need to start feeding this frog every other day and dust the feeders with Calcium+D3 every other feeding. Use multivitamins no more than once per week and not on the same day as a calcium dusting.

[LG89]

Hi Luke,

How long have you had the frog and when did you first started to dust its food with Calcium? The dropping of the jaw may be caused by the lack of Calcium during the frogs developmental period also known as Metabolic Bone Disease. If this is the case, you need to provide and incorporate additional Calcium to your frog.

Hi Namio,

As i said in my first post MBD was my initial thought but it seemed to happen all of a sudden and like I have said I have always dusted with the Cal D3 and Nutrobol. Since then I have upped the amount I have been providing but I think like others have said its probably a balance issue. I really hope I can address this as it really does break my heart to know that I have caused this despite following what I was made aware were the right practices.

Luke