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I live in south Mississippi and this type of toad is very common. I did a bit of research in an online field guide, and I think it is a male Southern Toad. Anyway, I just found him when I came home from dinner with my fiancé, and he was covered in dust and animal fur. He was very easy to catch and struggled very little. I noticed his eyes were stuck closed from being dirty, and I couldn't just put him outside like that! I didn't know what to do, so I put him in my bathroom sink and gently ran the water at a comfortable-to-the-touch temperature. He didn't try to get out of the sink, and I slowly removed the wet gunk stuck all over him. We recently had an incident where plastic was melted on the stove and soot from that got all over the house. I've yet to clean it all up, and as the little toad was sitting in the sink I could see black stuff running from underneath him. When I picked him up, black stuff was all over my hands. I've never experienced this picking up these toads, so my only thought was it must have been dust from the melted plastic. After a little cleaning, he opened his right eye. The left was still closed, and I noticed a small strand of fur and a bit of gunky stuff stuck in it/on it so I pulled it out/away. After this he opened his eye a little and at first I thought he didn't have an eye there. After rinsing with a little bit of water, he opened his eye only slightly more to reveal a not-so-normal eye. It doesn't have a pupil, and looks kind of like gold crinkled up foil. I can't stand the thought of what might happen to a toad out in the wild who can only see with one eye!
Help!! What can I do??
I've already set him up in a big box with a paint tray to give him a slope to water. I lined the box with aluminum foil and filled the area surrounding the paint tray with what I believe to be sandy, loamy dirt. I dug it up from under an oak and in an area of my yard that has a sandy topsoil but a dark one underneath. This is not pictured: I tried to mimic the original soil condition as best as I could including a tiny plant that was dug up with it. I added some rocks from an area of the yard these toads are known to frequent, and I added a bit of dirt to the water because it just seemed more natural.
I tried feeding him an earwig; it was the only thing I could find. He acted like it wasn't even there, and it ended up crawling all over him (scaring me half to death!) I have yet to see him open his mouth. I don't know if that's normal or not, but I'm so scared he's been injured from the soot.
I apologize if my sentence structure is wack. I just want to make sure this toad will be alright!
I will try to get a better picture of his eye in the morning. I don't want to traumatize him by messing with him too much, and he was chirping quite a bit the last time I was holding him.