Toad leg amputation (lawnmower)

[Christy]

Thank you, Carlos. We have plenty of silvadene here, so we will use that on his injury. I hate to hear that he won't be able to be released. As rehabbers, we always try to return them to their natural environment whenever possible. My husband feels awful that this happened.

There is no active bleeding and he seems to be acting normal when we check on him. We will leave him in the plastic box for now. I guess we'll need some tips on how to properly set up a permanent enclosure for him once he's healed up, since it looks like he'll be a permanent resident here. I'll do some searching here on the forum for tips on how to properly house him, but if anyone here has anything specific you think I should know, I'm all ears. We've never kept toads or frogs before, so I'm unsure what they need.

Thank you again for your help. Hopefully we can get this little one healed and give him a comfortable habitat.

[flybyferns]

Hello Christy,
Yes .... Welcome to Frog Forum.
Carlos has you covered

I'm so sorry..
You are wonderful to take such good care of him.

Please keep us posted, Lynn

[Mentat]

... I guess we'll need some tips on how to properly set up a permanent enclosure for him once he's healed up, since it looks like he'll be a permanent resident here. I'll do some searching here on the forum for tips on how to properly house him, but if anyone here has anything specific you think I should know, I'm all ears. We've never kept toads or frogs before, so I'm unsure what they need...

There you go: Frog Forum - Toad Basics - Keeping ground-dwelling Toads. A care sheet for Bufo, Anaxyrus, Spea, Scaphiopus, Ollotis, Alytes, Pelobates.

[kueluck]

Can I ask where you are located and what kind of toad this is. I keep a few toads and they are very easy to tend to. You don't need extra heating, normal house temps are fine, just make sure you mist him a little once a day since I don't know if he should soak in a dish while the injury is fresh. I feed mine mainly turkish roaches, but the also like crickets, pill bugs, beattles, moths and nighcrawlers. If you can post some pics that would be great, and who knows, maybe someone local will take him/her into their loving home.

[Christy]

We're in central Mississippi. I'm actually unsure what species of toad this is. I assume American Toad, but I'm sure that's broad. If anyone can tell from the pics what he is, I'd love to know. I assume he's male, based on his dark-colored chin, but I'm really clueless on how to sex them. And, sorry the photos aren't better. I snapped these while we took him out to tend to his wounds. It appears that the mower blade also clipped one of his back toes, but that looks minor. In these photos, it looks like the area is very bloody, but there is no active bleeding (meaning, there is no pooling of blood - or even any smears of blood - in the shoe box we have him in.) We rinsed the areas off with some saline wound solution and applied silvadene. We put a plastic hide in the box with him (a large to-go cup, cut in half) and I placed a small terra cotta plant base in there for a shallow bit of water. We're keeping him in our reptile room, which stays in the 65 (night) -80 (day) degree range. If this is too warm, we can move him to a cooler area.

And, Carlos, thank you for the link!

[kueluck]

I would go with either American or Southern. Really can't tell unless you see the cranial crest & dark throat indicates male. Also if he vibrates or chirps while you're handling him, male. I just wan to thank you for tending to this little guys needs and the location sounds perfect. If you were closer to NC I would take him.

[Christy]

Thanks, Gail. When he's feeling a bit better, I'll post some more photos so perhaps we can get a positive ID. We haven't heard any chirping, but he definitely has a dark colored throat.

In an update to his condition, this morning when we woke up, we noticed his belly was a bit bloody. Apparently, the wound had started bleeding overnight. It wasn't a whole lot of blood, but enough to concern me. (It could also be that he was trying to hop, so he may have made it start bleeding by doing so.) We keep a room full of first aid items here for our rescue, so we got the bleeding stopped with a stiptic pencil. He seems to be doing alright now. No more bleeding. I dropped a couple of small crickets in for him, and he ate one. He gave the second one a short chase, but gave up. I'll leave it in there a little while longer with him, but will remove it before bed so that it doesn't try to bite him.

So, all is well for now. With any wild animal, I always worry about shock and infection, more so than the injury. Crossing my fingers he can overcome any shock he's suffered, and that we can keep infection at bay.

[kueluck]

You might want to try to tong feed him. Most of my frogs and toads, total of 11, take to tong feeding. This way I know for sure they are getting their calcium and vitamin dose.