Melafix? American Green with skin issues

[Maui]

(Hi everyone! I've lurked on the forums here for a long while but I'm finally making an account to get some advice. Apologies in advance for the wall of text)


I have a sick American Green that's currently undergoing treatment for what appears to be a bacterial skin problem, and I wanted to ask some more experienced frog keepers about Melafix. Everywhere I've looked instructs 4 ounces of water, then a toothpick dipped in Melafix twice and stirred into the water.
I've only just completed her 4th dip but I'm worried that this solution isn't strong enough. I know this amount works well for sores or wounds, but is this a strong enough dose for a bacterial or fungal skin infection? She's made visible improvements, but much more slowly than I expected. I'm a paranoid parent and find myself wondering if the people who wrote these had a smaller frog, or used a plastic toothpick, and maybe mine are absorbing too much of the solution because they're wooden. I measure my distilled water out by mls, so maybe it's just how vague the amount of Melafix seems in comparison.
Could I use a higher dosage safely, or am I just being impatient?


I'll clarify her situation a little, as well, because you guys may have some advice on that I could use.
She started having some trouble when she took a tumble and got a small abrasion on her tailbone. Because I had a gauge that was attached 2/3 of the way up the wall, I didn't realize that the humidity was extremely high on the bottom of the tank (around 80%, yikes). She started having some discoloration on her back shortly after and spent a lot of time soaking. I used polysporin on her for a bit before realizing that as the wound healed the discoloration was getting worse. When I finally realized it was probably a bacterial infection from the humidity, I removed her and her two tankmates from their enclosure and deep cleaned the entire thing. (I was alarmed to find the substrate was actually sopping wet underneath, and I've since invested in a digital readout instead).

I scrubbed everything with boiling water, ammonia free aquarium cleaner and vinegar, the old wood was all removed and discarded and replaced with new branches from a tree I recently cut down. All the silk plants were washed in Dawn and hot water, and set out in the rain for a day. Her two tankmates seem to be perfectly well, very energetic and both have huge appetites and beautiful color.


She was moved into a quarantine tank and has been there for 4 days. It's one of those Exo-Terras for cresties, I believe the measurements are 12"x12"x18". I'm keeping the temperature at 80-85f, 20-30% humidity. Damp paper towels for substrate, her water dish is changed daily, and a silk plant over her favorite little rock to sit on. She doesn't have any interest in climbing to the top currently, and is going instead between sitting on the paper towels under the plants, the top of her rock, and her water dish.

She's currently getting a 1 minute (is this the right length of time, as well? It seems so short) Melafix dip once a day, and after shes dried off I apply polysporin to her tailbone and a raw looking spot on her inner leg. During the day, I brew weak chamomile tea and we apply that to her gently with a dropper 2-3 times throughout the day. (I was told chamomile can help and is gentle) I'm offering food daily, and on days when she doesn't want food or seems listless she gets a 20 minute Pedialyte soak, which seems to perk her right up.


I can get photos of her later, but I'll describe it best I can until then. She went from green to a translucent, pale brown at her worst. She's since started regaining her color slowly, and her legs have become green again, but her back and top of her head are still brownish and patchy.
She also has a tendency to become 'dry' often; Her skin doesn't have that slightly wet velvety texture of most American Greens. It seems to dry out much more easily. She's also noticably less sticky in the feet than her tankmates, and while she can climb alright, she goes more slowly than them. She was shedding extremely often before, but it's since become more regular.

The good news is that she's an extremely tolerant frog and doesn't often stress, because she's a wild caught 'rescue'. She somehow survived what appears to have been an attack from a local cat, and had some pretty visible scars and only one eye. She was entirely healed when I found her, but because she has very poor depth perception she was VERY skinny. Her stomach sucked in and she just kept lunging at moths when she noticed movement without ever getting near them, it was really sad. Because of that she's always been hand fed, and is accustom to humans bothering her. She'll crawl right onto your hand if you present it so she target your face and demand crickets, which she'll take from tweezers or by hand.
Because of that she's still eating well, (she had a large calcium dusted cricket yesterday), she just did a poo this morning and it was totally normal, and she's shedding more easily, though she isn't getting it all off in one go. She tends to get most of it off in her pedialyte soaks, and what's left we help her remove with a qtip dipped in the water.



I have a suspicion that she's possibly a little vitamin deficient, as well, so I'll be ordering some liquid vitamins to make sure. Winter was rough on her food variety because they often get wild caught (I don't use any pesticides or chemicals at all, because I have the wild frogs haha) and because she won't take nightcrawlers (after a red wiggler incident) so she got mostly crickets.


Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. I'll add some photos tomorrow of both enclosures and her, I know this sort of thing is hard to give advice on without seeing it. Thanks in advance for your help, guys. Without the existing advice on these forums I don't think we would've made it this far.

[irThumper]

Hi there, I'm wondering if somehow her ability to secrete slime coat has been effected since treatment... Do you treat the water? I'd use Reptisafe as it promotes healthy slime coat in 'Phibs. The raw spots sound suspicious... I'd look into asking a herp vet about this. Have you thought about inquiring with Dr. Frye? http://www.frogforum.net/tree-frogs/...-prepared.html

Looking forward to seeing pics of what's going on with the poor froggy.