Toad leg amputation (lawnmower)

[Christy]

Day 4 and he's still doing well. He seems to be a bit more alert and active today. He still hasn't eaten. We've offered small crickets and tiny super worms. Our feeding methods have been to just drop them in with him and we have also tried feeding with tongs. How long is too long for them to go without food? With turtles, they can actually go several weeks (and in some cases, months) without eating. I realize frogs/toads likely have a faster metabolism, however. I'm going to forage in the yard after dark tonight and see if I can find him some "natural" bugs. (And no worries about chemicals or pesticides...we keep our yard turtle-friendly. The local wild toads come to our house by the hundreds, and we leave our outdoor lights on for them, to attract more bugs for them to eat.)

The arm is looking good. No signs of infection. We're cleaning it daily and applying silvadene. No redness, no unusual swelling (there is very slight swelling at the amputation site, but I suspect that's normal with any injured tissue), no pus, and no outward indications of septicemia. We're still being diligent with it though.

Here are a few more pictures of him. We moved him from the plastic shoe box into a 20 gallon aquarium. We've provided several hides, a shallow water dish, and have covered the sides of the glass with brown paper to help him feel more secure. My hope is that the larger environment will trigger his appetite. We've left the bottom of the tank bare for now, and will add substrate when we're sure his wounds have healed completely.

If anyone has further information about his exact species, I'd love as much information about him as I can get.

[nicodimus22]

Looks like an American toad to me (Bufo americanus.) Toads are pretty easy to take care of. If you're not up for it long-term, see if there are any nature centers nearby. Sometimes places like that take in injured animals for educational purposes.

The most common mistakes I hear about are people who use heat lamps/heat pads, don't use dechlorinated water, or have things in the habitat that can cause impaction. I do recommend feeding in a bowl rather than the habitat so that you can monitor how much the toad is actually eating, and to make sure no crickets are chewing on it.

[Christy]

Thank you very much for the ID, the information, and the advice! What types of items cause impactions? The care sheet recommended top soil as a substrate, but the kind we get around here (that is chemical free) is comprised of a lot of mulch pieces (they call it "forest floor".) Would I do better with the coconut bark, or some other type of substrate?

[kueluck]

Eco earth would do best since if they do swallow some it's okay. But the bowl method is still the best. Just sink it to ground level.

[nicodimus22]

But the bowl method is still the best. Just sink it to ground level.

Huh. I actually take the toad out, set her in a bowl, and drop the dusted crickets in with her. She snaps them up, and then I put her back. I'm just paranoid about rogue crickets chewing on her in the habitat, I guess.

[Christy]

Thanks for the help, everyone!

Our little guy is healing really well, so we decided it was time to give him some real substrate. We used a mixture of eco earth and moss. We also got him a log hide to use in addition to the plastic one, so he'll have multiple hides. We made a slightly larger water dish (but still shallow). I didn't want to get anything too deep until we see how well he does with the missing arm. The food bowl we have is also quite shallow. It won't work for crickets, but small worms stay contained to the dish. I'm looking for a good, deeper bowl that I can bury like Gail suggested. For now, he seems uninterested in crickets, but he did finally eat a wax worm for us, so I'm happy he's at least eating something. Hopefully as he gets more acclimated to his new captive environment, his appetite will increase. Here are some pictures of his new digs. It's a 20-gallon long aquarium, and we're keeping it in a corner of our kitchen for now (where there's little foot traffic and less noise.)

[nicodimus22]

Nice roomy tank! Mine is in a 20-long too. A couple of quick suggestions:

-Watch to make sure your toad isn't pushing up against/walking/jumping against the glass all the time. Toads don't understand the concept of a clear material. If you see this happening, you may need to make 3 sides of the tank appear solid by taping up some paper on the outside of it.

-This may just be my opinion, but I would just use plain Eco-Earth, deep enough to burrow in if he wants to. Moss is an impaction risk. If he goes for a cricket and swallows some moss by accident, it could get twisted up and stuck in his digestive system. Don't be too worried about making the substrate moist...toads soak instinctively in the water bowl if they get too dry. I've had mine for nearly 3 years on plain Eco-Earth (with a hide, some flat rocks, and fake leaves for ground cover) and she's doing great. Just make sure there is always dechlorinated water to soak in, and he'll be fine. My two cents.

[nicodimus22]

Thank you very much for the ID, the information, and the advice! What types of items cause impactions? The care sheet recommended top soil as a substrate, but the kind we get around here (that is chemical free) is comprised of a lot of mulch pieces (they call it "forest floor".) Would I do better with the coconut bark, or some other type of substrate?

Well, I find that toads tend to miss a lot with their tongues, and yours may miss even more because of only having the one front leg. This leads to them accidentally swallowing other things sometimes. What causes impaction is when a toad accidentally swallows something that gets stuck in the gut. Pebbles, sand, bits of wood, pieces of moss, and things like that get hung up in the narrow parts of the digestive tract. Eco Earth is your safest bet, although top soil should be fine as long as there aren't pebbles and whatnot in it.