Blind or Partially Blind Gulf Coast Toad Care?

[Sapphire195]

I call the toad 'he' for ease purposes, but it may be a girl.


We have many toads that call the hole under our rain barrel 'home'. Mainly we have one big one that hides under the barrel during the day and comes to the porch to look for bugs at night, but in the late summer I noticed a smaller one that hung around for a couple of days. One of his eyes was always a bit different looking than the other, but I never really thought anything of it. He disappeared for a while, but a couple of days ago I found him by the rain barrel again.


Every toad that I've seen by the rain barrel has accepted moths and such if I waved them in front of their face using a pine needle. In fact, I fed the big one and a young toad some moths a maybe five days ago and they ate them in the blink of an eye. This one wouldn't touch the moth or the cricket that I offered.


The next day he was hanging in kind of a weird spot by the rain barrel. I noticed that he was really thin. He still wouldn't eat. I brought him inside to examine him. One eye is a weird black and blue color with a milky white area in the center, and the other will not open fully. I am 99% sure he is blind in at least one eye. He does not respond to movement in that black and blue eye. The other only opens around 75% of the way.


My parents brought me to get some food for him at the pet store since I still couldn't get him to eat. I got some little red wiggler worms and some crickets, and I did as much research on the internet as I could on what to do if a toad is thin and wouldn't try to eat. I decided the best course of action would be to open up his mouth and put a little worm in. His mouth looks 100% normal inside, fortunately, and he swallowed the worm once it was in his mouth. I have experience with feeding sick reptiles in this manner, so no issues with opening the mouth.


I hope to be able to put him back by the rain barrel and release him if he gets better, but if he is blind and can't hunt in the wild, does anyone know an easier way to get him to eat versus opening his mouth and putting the food in..? I don't think it would be good for me to do this every day for him.




If anyone needs it:


- Temporary enclosure is a Tupperware bin that is around the size of a 10 gallon tank, but I will upgrade him to a bigger home if he is to stay for any extended period of time. The top of the current enclosure is a typical metal wire top for reptile enclosures that I had lying around.


- Bedding is the coconut substrate that I believe is called 'Eco Earth' or something like that. I also have a little sphagnum moss for him to burrow under.


- 'Decor' is an overturned clay terracotta pot for him to hide inside.


- He has a place to submerge himself in de-chlorinated water.


- He has a UVB/UVA bulb as well as a low-power heat lamp (it's pretty warm in my room, so I don't need anything drastic for heat).


-Yes, I keep up humidity for him.




Adding on:

Yesterday he ate one worm. Today I gave him two pre-killed crickets. Both times I had to force feed.
I tried every method I know of before force feeding today. I let the cricket crawl in front of his face a couple of times, I dangled it in front of his face with tweezers, a pine needle, and a small string, I tried wetting it and pressing it against his mouth...no luck. Even a worm got no response.

I gave him a long soak in warm, de-chlorinated sugar water today to make sure he didn't have to poop or anything. No poops.


Does anyone have any advice/suggestions for me? Should I buy him a supplement of some sort? (Any recommended ones for thin toads..?)


Thank you.

(I can try to get some pictures of his eyes if people need them.)

[LilyPad]

Poor guy! I would try tapping his nose with the food on a blunt tweezers a bit, even alive and wiggling a little. Usually that will trigger a bite instinct. If that doesn't, force feeding is about all you can do right now. You may want to try hydrating him with a pedialyte/water mixture. Use a multivitamin dust and also a Calcium dust (I use calcium 3-4 days a week and multivitamin 1-2 days a week). I would say that pieces of night crawlers are the best thing you could give him right now. They are soft, digestible, and high in nutrients. If you want to fatten him up a bit, you could use wax worms but those are pretty deplete of nutrients so it really isn't the best. There is a possibility that he has a disease causing the issues, so make sure you keep him and his equipment separate from everything else.

[Sapphire195]

Thank you! I will see if we can go get some night crawlers. I saw them at the store but I thought that they were too big. I guess I'll have to chop them up. I did try pressing it against his mouth. Worms and crickets. He lowers his head and closes his eyes.
I am watching my friend's turtle, so I have some calcium supplements for reptiles and amphibians. I will have to look for multi-vitamins. Can human multi-vitamins be used, possibly? I know we have some of the human kind.

The pedialyte, it should be flavorless, yes? Do I give it to him in syringe through the mouth, or just let him soak in it? We are going to the grocery today, so I'll keep an eye out for that.

Fortunately, aside from an ADF in my 5 gallon tank, I have no other amphibians, and I always wash my hands and use hand sanitizer when I feed or touch the toad.

[monster]

Hi, i dont think human vitamins would be safe for your frog to consume, Rep-Cal makes a pretty good multivitamin. For the pedialyte you want him to soak in it, you want to make it at 1;10 ratio. So for every ten oz's of water add 1 oz of pedialyte, and ya you want it to be flavorless.

[Sapphire195]

Okay, thanks. We got the clear, flavorless pedialyte today. I'm about to feed him and soak him now.

[Sapphire195]

I fed him a cricket coated with calcium powder and soaked him for one hour, then rinsed the pedialyte off of him.

Should I continue with this pedialyte/water soaking daily? Weekly? I'll try to get some pictures of him soon. My computer's photo storage isn't working, but I can save some from my phone tomorrow I hope.