Sick Whites Dumpy Tree Frog, any hope?

[Mentat]

Hello and welcome to FF! Your White's is suffering from TOS "Toxic Out Syndrome" because of chloramines in tap water. Frog stopped going to water dish because it's poisoning it. You need to get a dechlorinator like Seachem's Prime or ExoTerra Aquatize and use it to treat his water now. Once you treat water fill dish to frogs chin and place it there so it can detox. Also, change water daily even if clean.

The enclosure you have does not work well for tree frogs where a vertical disposition with more height than floor space is preferred. Also, White's are large frogs and the minimum height recommended is 24 inches. IRT temperature Whites need 85F daytime with around a 10F drop at night. Ventilation is more important that humidity and they can handle 65-70%. Need to get gauges in there so you can monitor properly and a dual digital model is the way to go.

Crickets should not be thrown into enclosure until all are eaten. They need to be fed or "gut loaded" with carrots, oats, lettuce, and veggie fish flakes for 24-48 hours and then fed to frog. All uneaten crickets should be removed from cage early the next day as they will loose their nutritious value and even could pester and bite frog causing more stress or even an infection. Crickets should be sized same as distance between frogs eyes and dusted with CA/D3 2X and vitamins 1X weekly on different days with skip day in between.

That substrate should be replaced with damp shredded coco mixed with dechlorinated water, damp unprinted paper towels or even damp clean rags. If your frog accidentally ingests a piece of bark while catching a cricket, it could get impacted and get sick or die. Also, the substrate was sprayed with chloramines in tap so it has to go now as part of frog's detox.

Take care of water and food issues now and then start planing on new enclosure soon. Hope we are on time to turn health issues around and good luck !

[smashley]

Thanks for the advice, I had no idea the tap water would be harmful. Will fix that immediately. We also have a larger tank but have been waiting for him to get better to set it up, but I will do that today. I'm off to the pet store for water conditioner and food supplements. I'll update if things get better or worse.

Thanks again

[smashley]

Frog seems to be doing a little better. Hes been in a temporary enclosure with clean coco and water for a couple of days. Now he is much more active!
We gave him a few crickets yesterday and he immediately went after them! We were so relieved to see that! However, he hasn't been able to catch anything. We took the crickets out after a few hours and we are trying again today (so far its been the same thing, hunting but no kill). It sort of looks like he is jumping for the crickets but not opening his mouth. Should I be concerned about this? Or just give him more time? I'm worried that he was being poisoned for so long that now he might be blind or brain damaged or something. Anyone ever heard of a frog that can't/won't open its mouth?

He is definitely improving so hopefully he will continue to do so

[Mentat]

Glad frog is doing better for you! Well, step two is getting it to eat and nothing better than to keep trying. Not sure why it won't open it's mouth; but doubt it's brain damage.

Could try and perk up a bit before feeding. To do that, need to get some unflavored Pedialyte or similar baby electrolyte. Make a solution with 10% Pedialyte and 90% dechlorinated 80F water after frog wakes up. Add enough solution in a holding container (small critter keeper or bowl) so it will get to frogs chin depth. Gently transfer frog to solution and let soak for 20 minutes. Afterwards move frog back to it's cage, place in it's water bath, and offer some crickets then.

Once it starts eating for a couple days can start dusting it's food again. Good luck !

[smashley]

Thanks so much! We will try the electrolyte bath today!

[kueluck]

If you can get some wax worms or butter worms try to tong feed him them, or put then in a bowl with him to see if he'll go for that. Gently rub the worm on the lip line and see if he'll take it. Mine can't resist a nice fat wax or butter worm.

[BlueKiwiOca]

You can also try pulling the back legs off the crickets to make them easier to catch.