Troubled Pacman

[akjelland]

I've had this frog for approx. 1.5 months and he has this weird skin problem. Hoping you guys have seen it before. I took Frogdor to the Vet about 3 weeks ago because I noticed a swelling on his abdomen. Doc thought it might be parasites so he cut it open but was unable to find anything. He's been on antibiotics for almost 3 weeks now and I haven't seen much improvement-in fact he seems to be developing new lumps. I'm wondering if anybody has seen this before and could offer any advise. He is currently housed in a 10g aquarium, coconut fiber substrate which I change every 2 weeks, has a soaking dish that I change daily, a hide and a few fake plants, a heat lamp that I only turn on at night if it's cold. Temp sits at 75-80 Humidity 70-80%. He hasn't eaten for me at all so I started force feeding him a nightcrawler once a week after starting the antibiotics. Any advice would be much appreciated. (Large wound is from his surgery- this pic was taken last week)

[GrifTheGreat]

What antibiotics?
Also are you housing him in a hospital setup?

Are you applying antibiotic ointment to the wound?

[akjelland]

Antibiotic is Amikacin which I apply topically once a day. He's not in a hospital setup- Dr said he would be fine in his tank as is. No ointment on the wound- its almost healed up now.

[Lija]

Well im strongly suggesting to change your vet asap. place your frog in hospital set up and stop using amikacin. Both things gotta be done asap. What form of amikacin are you using? Where are you applying topically? Do you know dosage?

Next - find vet who knows what s/he is doing. While looking get flamazin (silver sulfadiazine) cream, use that for the wound (if it is still there).
i dont see lumps, except the opened one, depending on a location and feel of them it might be lots of different things. Can you describe more? Im assuming hystopathology was never done? Do you know what did came out when vet open the lump?

[GrifTheGreat]

Amikacin is fine, but works best as an injection not a topical application. The cream that Lija mentioned is excellent for topical application. You could also ask if the Vet feels Zosyn as an injection would work because I feel it would.

[akjelland]

The dose is approx 0.37mg once daily. I've been applying it to his lower back. So the big lump that he cut into had been there for a couple days before I became concerned. It was firm but didn't appear red or painful. I took him out to clean the tank and I noticed that it had ruptured? I pressed on it with a moist q-tip and a small amount of white fluid came out. The Dr said that he found a little more of the same fluid but nothing else. The wound is almost healed but it's still a firm lump but no more discharge. The other lumps are on his back legs. They are small with a dark center. Those come and go but recently one has become larger and more white. I've stopped the antibiotics. What do I need for a hospital tank? Just moist paper towels in a critter cage? And no they didn't do histopath.

[akjelland]

These pictures are from today. I circled the little ones on his legs. There's also some strange pocketing above the lump that got cut open which didn't show up until after the antibiotics. A new Dr is in the works. Should hear back on Friday. Will try hospital setup and ointment in the mean time.

[Lija]

It looks like cysts of sorts, perhaps parasitic in nature, but again it is just picture. Hard to say, vet should offer you to do hystopathology, and/or possibly to do a culture, to see what is it exactly if he suspects bacteria. I wonder how old is a frog and if it had any contact with anything from outside, assuming it is cb. If it is in fact parasites ( most likely tapeworms) you most likely wont see it just like that by opening it, you need to do cytology on inside liquid and actually see their heads. They are too small to see without microscope.


amixacin is fine in a form you were using, but it is highly nephrotoxic, i would never suggest using for more then 10-14 days and only with sufficient fluid therapy ( water baths), that is why i suggested you stop using it, besides if antibiotics are working normally you will see it within 3-4 days, sometimes a week. If no better within this time frame it is indicator they are not working for your particular problem.


Yes hospital set up is wet paper towels on a bottom, that are changed every day, i would recommend to cover all 4 sides to minimize stress levels, put inside decor plastic plant to hide under, water bowl. Humidity, temp as usual.
I would also suggest to do a water bath with non flavoured pedyalyte and some diluted reptiboost. There is a specially formulated amphibian physiological solution that i use now, but it is a bit on expensive side to make and you need to order it through the vet, pedyalyte will work well too.
Have long had it been since he ate last?

[akjelland]

How often should I soak in the solution? He's never eaten for me since I've owned him. I thought he was just stressed from the move but obviously something is wrong. I force fed a night crawler 3 days ago.

[Lija]

1,5 month is too long without food, especially given he had meds, you did good, he had to be force fed. At this point his body defences possibly going down because of lack of nutrient intake. So yes i would say you need to carry on force feeding, try to coat nightcrawlers in reptiboost each time. How big is afrog exactly, can you take pic? I think 2-3 nightcrawlers per week should do. With a few days in between each of them.

Bath is for restoring electrolyte balance, you can go from pure pedyalyte to any mix with water ( up to 10 parts), i suggest you go for 1:1 ratio for the first 2 baths and then go for mix 1 part of pedyalyte to 5-7-10 parts of water. you can do it every day for the first week while you are changing his paper towels and bigger intervals for the following week up, monitoring how he is doing.

[akjelland]

He's slightly smaller than the Palm of my hand so maybe 3 or 4 inches. I should rephrase, he's never eaten for me on his own but I've been force feeding him since he started antibiotics(3 wks). He's gets a night crawler every 3 days. Every other one getss dipped in calcium powder. Thanks for all of the advice. I'm gonna start the soaks today. Should hear back from New vet at some point today. Will update with progress.

[akjelland]

Update! I ended up bringing a fecal sample with me to work last week and found a whooooole bunch of parasites. Gave him a dose of dewormer on Monday. No new bumps have developed. Old ones are still there but he seems more lively. He's still in the hospital setup. Still not eating on his own but I'm hopeful that things will change soon. Thanks for all the advice everyone!