WTF has Red Leg

[Herpvet]

Thankyou for responding. He is already in quarantine. I believe the cause of the red leg is because he was with another species at the pet store and that with the stress of bringing him home. No open sores thankfully. I believe it is 1mg per 5 grams.

I would back up strongly the suggestion that you should get him to the vet. Forgive me if I'm misinterpreting what you said, but a couple of points;

First off, are you sure it is "red leg" as in bacterial dermatosepticaemia? Erythema (skin reddening) can result from various things such as direct irritation, heat, toxins from other species, chemical irritants, stress. And as a pretty good general rule, if a frog is still alive 3 weeks with "red leg", it probably wasn't red leg. Untreated bacterial dermatosepticaemia usually kills fairly quickly.

1 mg per 5 g implies 200 mg/kg - significantly over most dosage ranges published for tetracycline for amphibians (I assume it was the tetracycline you were talking about). A vet would be able to advise on suitable doses.

tetracyclines are generally a poor choice for bacterial problems in amphibians - they are basically bacteriostatic (i.e. they do not kill bacteria, they only stop it reproducing, and hence rely on the animal's immune system to eliminate the bacteria. Ill and stressed amphibians probably have a reduced immune system. Again, a vet would be able to advise on suitable drug.

Hope you can get him sorted.

Bruce.