Bloated Amazon Milk Frog - Can anyone help?

[dart frog dawn]

Are you sure its a male and not a gravid female?


Dawn

[flybyferns]

Hi,
He may have swallowed substrate or could have an intestinal obstruction?
What kind of substrate(s) do you have in the enclosure?
Have you found any poop in the past day or 2?
What are you feeding the frog?
What size is the feeder ?

If you suspect this could be possible, get him into a de-chlorinated water to soak --- try to get him to stay there for quite some time, even if you have to cover the soaking dish to keep him in the water. 30 minutes ( temped water --not cold / not hot...comfortable on when dribbled on your wrist)

Provide a - clean- shallow soaking dish (water should not be above his chin)
Not tap water !
If you do not have amphibian safe water de-chlorinator-get it as soon as you can.
In the meantime use bottled 100% spring water from the market.

Do not feed him until he poops.

Please ..........Keep us posted.

[flybyferns]

kipling,
How's he doing?

[kipling]

Hi Lynn,

Thanks for the reply. Sorry I didn't respond until now, we're in different time zones and I've only just seen this!

I have put the frog in some de-chlorinated shallow water in a separate tub to soak now. It is covered so he can't get out.

I originally had coconut husk as a substrate but the frogs were so tiny and weren't finding their food so I now just have them on layered paper towels until they've grown a bit (I read online somewhere that this was ok whilst they are small - if this is a terrible idea let me know and I'll change it as I have coconut husk).

It is hard to tell if the sick frog is pooping because there are 2 in there. I have found poop but it could well be the other frog who is looking and acting totally normal. They are both around an inch long and I feed them size 2 silent crickets (4-6mm) at the moment.

Dawn - I refer to the frog as 'he' loosely out of habit, because I actually have no idea what sex the frogs are. The only clue I have is that they are both from the same batch of frogs and the sick one has always been slightly smaller than the other one. I only got them 4 months ago and they are my first frogs so I'm still quite new to all this and would not know how to tell if they are male or female! Thanks for the reply though

I'll update later, after the frog has had a soak and is back in the terrarium and relaxed.

[Mentat]

Hello and welcome to FF! You could move the "bloated frog" to a quarantine enclosure by itself to better monitor feeding and pooping. The unprinted paper towels as substrate are fine as long as you get them damp with dechlorinated tap water. Crickets should be sized same as distance between frog eyes or smaller.

If frogs are tiny; then it's not a gravid female. Could be impaction, one thing you can do, is very carefully palp the belly area. Does it feels hard (impaction); soft and squishy (gas); or jelly like (fluid)? Although you have no substrate, too large a cricket or a piece of paper towel could get frog impacted. Let us know what you find and we will go from there. Thank you !

[kipling]

Thanks Carlos! I wasn't able to palp the swollen area as the frog was very stressed, I've taken him out the water soak now and noticed that he has pooped but I'm not sure the poop looks normal. Instead of being the usual brown colour it was a bit brown but the rest lighter and cloudy. I can provide a picture if necessary! Is that a sign of anything? I have to say the frog looks like his belly is more squishy when he's moving around rather than hard. I can't quarantine him right now as I have to thoroughly clean another enclosure for him, but I will do soon.

[kipling]

The latest update is that the frog went back into the terrarium yesterday, and then last night when I checked on them he seemed to have completely deflated. Along with that his sides looked like they'd caved in a bit from being stretched so much and then shrinking again. He still seemed ok and was jumping around the glass and leaves as usual. But this morning when I checked on him he seemed to have puffed out again. I'm not sure whether to try and give him another soak for an hour or so in a separate water dish again? Can anyone help further having read this new information?