Can a Toad become poisoned with Toad Venom?

[Lockman789]

I saw an american toad acting injured or poisoned, but with no physical injuries visible but it's poison glands had leaked and wondered if it was possible that the American Toad had somehow ingested American Toad Venom.

I'm sure a toad wouldn't be effected if the venom was to get on it's own skin, since that is where it comes from, but I am wondering if it got in it's mouth or swallowed some, if it would have bad effects for a few hours.

Picture of suffering toad (which recovered later)
http://i.imgur.com/M9VvkXD.png

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Full Details:

Can (an American) toad suffer the effects of "toad venom" if it gets some in it's mouth and/or swallows it? (story with happy ending, so far) I saw a male american toad with the milky toad venom that leaked from his glands that was on his back and occasionally moving his legs and seemed to ignore ALL visual and physical interactions and when put upright, would have muscle movements that would cause it to pull in and then straighten out his back legs, while keeping his front legs near his belly and eventually end up on his back again.

His mid section also was puffed up. I have never seen a toad ever act like this and I was worried. I warmed up some distilled water and mixed it with room temp distilled water and put him in it and kept an eye on him to make sure his nose never went under water for more than a fraction of a second.

I rinsed off his toad venom and hoped that if he had an energy, that the water may relieve pressure from an injury (which appears he didn't have). It didn't seem to make a difference. His eyes were partially closed most of the time too. Later, i saw bubbles coming out of his nose a few times. He also would occasionally open his mouth for a fraction of a second, which may be a breathing problem.

I kept him upright most of the time, letting him be on his back occasionally for short periods of time (in case he needed to, although I believe any creature doing this is having a CNS problem and is going to die).

After 2 or so hours, he seemed to calm down a bit and was keeping his eyes open all the way and for long periods of time, but still had zero interest in eating. Today he seems to be doing much much better and buried himself in dirt, but not acting 100% well and not eating.

I made a few depressing video clips, where I expected to be documenting him dying, but I think it turned out I was documenting his survival. I prefer to not upload these videos, but I took a few pictures and put them together into a single picture and uploaded them to share.

Note that these pictures were all taken while he was suffering, no pictures were taken when he seemed much better.

[tgampper]

Glad your toad is OK. I have not heard of a toad being effected by its own toxin. The poison secreted by another species may have an adverse effect on a toad.

[Cliygh and Mia 2]

Like has already been stated, I doubt they can be adversely affected by their own toxins, but the toxins of another species could harm it. Have you fed any strange feeder insects recently?

[Lockman789]

Also, what I meant was, if the toad got another toad's toxin in his mouth of the same species, sort of like if a rattlesnake bit another rattlesnake, but I guess it is unlikely to be related to the toad ingesting toad toxin.

The wild toad was found suffering outside on the cement driveway upside down on his back, 1 night ago, so I'm not sure I would call it "my toad" (to be overly technical).

I haven't been able to get it to eat yet (standard store-bought brown crickets or mealworms).
I let him sit in some water for a 30-60 minutes and then let him bury himself again.
Once it eats, I will re-release it, so it can live a normal life, along with the other local toads.

I might take it out and try to feed it again today, but I really think it might be best to just keep letting him rest buried until tomorrow night.

I am now suspecting a seizure, or that he eat something toxic or that it ate something too big and it got stuck and was partially blocking his airway.

There ARE outdoor cats around here, and it IS possible it got messed with by a cat, but I didn't see a single mark to indicate any physical damage, other than the poison glands having leaked some.

Toads are my favorite creature for tons of reasons. If I could get a job working with ONLY terrestrial true Bufo toads, I would have the perfect job. I am not saying that I don't like frogs, but frogs are more like escape artists and staying moist is critical to their survival. Bufo Toads are far easier to care for than other toad or frog species, which is why they rank #1 for me, even though some of the most colorful and unique looking species, are non-bufo frogs.

[Lockman789]

I let him go last night, he still wouldn't eat, but seemed fine enough. Also, human interaction could be stressing him, while being free could relax him, so I felt letting him go was a good idea.
http://i.imgur.com/YQ9Kk31.jpg

(I tried attaching the picture, but it says it's and invalid file. I tried jpg and png).