Re: Please help me. My toad has not eaten in months.
Another update!
It has been a few weeks since we had our trip to the vets. Toad had an X-ray and an ultrasound.. we ended up discovering more about her than we came in to. Murphy has a bone disease common in cane toad, this means that her bone density is very low and leaves her weak. Luckily, this disease can be managed with calcium in her water/sprinkled on her food and a vitamin supplement (sadly it is not curable, but can be lived with easily with treatment) This, however, was not why she was not eating. There was a large lump in her belly, unable to be properly identified on her scans, although clearly visible. To counter this, the vet decided that a diagnostic of infection was most likely and gave me pain killers and antibiotics to be administered for the next week and a half. Toad was incredibly thin under the harsh lights in the vet office, fortunately this vet in particular has a keen interest in cane toads and I feel very confident with her decisions! We were also given a powder to be mixed with water as a liquid food substitute for the time being so as to give her the required nutrients without agitating the infection too much.
Skip to 10 days later, Toad has been off the pain killers for 5 days now and has finished her round of antibiotics. She has improved greatly and is much more lively, though still painfully thin. Over the next few days she begins to deteriorate in liveliness, although she went into shed (what we took to be a good sign) Another trip to the vets. Toads lump has decreased in size and a lump I noticed in her mouth was the infection spreading to a cut on her tongue from initial force feeds using a card (I now only use the blunt syringe) This is the likely reason for her sudden deterioration. All puss cleared from her mouth with a cotton bud and she seems to be feeling much better. Another round of antibiotics for the next two weeks and some more painkillers for the painful sore left by the infection in her mouth. She had lost weight again between visits, making her feeds more frequent as of today. I shall start weighing her myself soon so as to check progress. Although the weight loss is affected by the reduced size of the infection in her stomach (the lump was about the size of a little finger initially)
Fingers crossed, lets hope she gains weight. The antibiotics seem to be doing the job very well. I can't stress enough that I wish I had taken her far sooner.. very concerned that the huge weightless may be the reason she is less likely to pull through. I shall update again in a few weeks. Thank you all again.
Alex.
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