Food refusal becoming serious

[Allthingswithscales]

I've had my pacman frog Button since November of 2014 and I'm not sure how old he was when I got him but he couldn't have been particularly old. His species is a chacoan/cranwell's horned frog or ceratophrys cranwelli and he's roughly the size of a baseball if that helps. I'm not exactly worried yet but my concern is growing. I know pacmans can go a very long time without eating, especially when they sometimes start brumating when it gets cooler which I originally thought was the problem because he was at room temperature at 73 degrees and I got him a better heating pad not too long ago but he has barely eaten all summer and is still refusing food which is starting to get alarming real quick. He's pretty much outgrown crickets but will still take them sometimes. Otherwise he eats nightcrawlers, roaches, sometimes canned grasshoppers and occasionally thawed mice. He usually reacts to movement pretty well and sometimes he'll cooperate with forceps and even when he doesn't you might be able to force him to open his mouth but even that isn't working. With the heating pad and space heater now the tank is usually about 80-85 degrees and 73 degrees+ at night yet he still refuses food even though he seems to be getting more active. In our house we keep the air conditioning on when it's warm and I have the space heater in winter, usually with the house heat on so to him summer is probably more like winter and winter more like summer. He's still looking pretty good and hasn't lost too much weight but I still wish I could find out what's wrong. I wish someone would just take a look at him but it seems like most veterinarians won't do their job and see anything other than dogs and cats. I've seen terrarium animals refuse food until they starved despite everything before and I don't want to watch that happen again. I don't know though, maybe it's just his time, pacmans can live up to 15 years but sometimes as little as 5 and I still don't know exactly how old he was when I got him. Despite still being pretty round, two meals in 5 months is unacceptable even for an animal that can slow it's metabolism down considerably for very long periods. Here's a picture of him I just took a couple minutes ago.

[daybr4ke]

That is pretty serious. Has he pooped in that time frame? If so, how much? You can try a bath in warm(80f water) with 1 part UNFLAVORED pedialyte to 9 parts of the warm water. This will give the frog some electrolytes and hopefully some energy. This may help get your frog eating again.

[Allthingswithscales]

That is pretty serious. Has he pooped in that time frame? If so, how much? You can try a bath in warm(80f water) with 1 part UNFLAVORED pedialyte to 9 parts of the warm water. This will give the frog some electrolytes and hopefully some energy. This may help get your frog eating again.

I think I've found some droppings from time to time but I'm not sure exactly how long ago. I haven't seen anything recently. A nightcrawler did get loose in there and is now living somewhere deep in the soil so I have some hope maybe he got hungry and ate it at some point. Otherwise the pedialyte bath does sound like the way to go. I'm going to try that. Thanks so much daybr4ke!

[froghub]

How humid is the cage? Maybe some bacteria is messing him up to? I can see a lot of humidity in the substrate in there? How often do you change him?
About the heating pad is it in the sides or under the tank? Does him borrows often to cool down or not? And the heat pad should be on the side, not under if it's not like that already...
Try the pedialyte as Bryce said, a honey bath with warm water(some drops of honey, water at 85-87F, 5 days in a row, you leave the frog in there for about 10/15 minutes) is fine for getting him pooping and getting rid of bacterias if that's the case, that helped mine to get back in track and this also relaxes the frog.
You might consider putting him in a side container and try to offer him live food there so you can have a better idea if he's going to at least try to eat or not, you can leave him wonder in there for about one hour with some crickets running around without any substrate.
Also, what kind of light cycle do you use? This had a major impact on my frog. He got better when the light is exactly 12H/D

[monster]

If your frog hasn’t eaten in that long and your not sure about the age you should really bring him to the vet, if he has an internal bacteria infection cranking up the heat will not cure it he will need medication. And you shouldn’t put his heat over 85f for to long of a period of time because if he doesn’t go to his dish or burrow he could dehydrate. Even big time breeders suggest to not keep your frog over 85f, this is usually the max temp for these guys. Another possible problem is he may have contracted a parasite from a bad feeder because this another big reason frogs will stop eating. I really think it’s something inside because from the picture of your frog he doesn’t really look like anything’s wrong, without being a professional sometimes it’s really hard to diagnose a frog over the internet. I don’t know what else to suggest because again he doesn’t look sick from the photo, I wish you the best of the luck and hope he turns around and starts eating for you.

[Allthingswithscales]

Thanks cory! Bacterial infection is what I've been worried about the most and there's still some vets I could call. I'm about an hours drive from Chicago and if I can't find one here I'm sure there will be a reptile/amphibian/arachnid vet there.

[monster]

You should really change out the substrate, that could be part of the problem. You should really not go any longer then a month without changing it. For the light if the bulb over head isn't to bright it is totally fine, but if the room is lit up enough that his tank is lit up that is also usually enough. When I just had my albino I would just keep the room light on for the 12 hrs of day she needed and she would burrow during the day and then come back out night when the light went off like they are supposed to so I know that way works if you want to try that for some extra lighting. And this was actually suggested to me from a lot of the long time pacman keepers that used to come on here all the time back in the day, lots of people have seemed to have left the forum. If you try the 2 baths suggested I would do the honey bath first, make sure its pure honey like the good Billy Bee stuff. Then do the pedialyte bath because you can use that bath to rinse the honey off. Hope some of the suggestions through out the thread help.

[Allthingswithscales]

Excellent! Thanks again Cory! I'll be doing all of this!

[Allthingswithscales]

Yep the heating pad is on the side! I do mist the tank regularly and I even have some plastic wrap loosely on top of the lid to trap moisture and slow down evaporation. I haven't changed the substrate in a while, maybe 2 months. I usually don't wait that long but since he hasn't been eating he hasn't really produced much waste to dirty it up and breed too much bacteria I would think. I did just get some new soil though and I'm strongly considering doing a change within the week. He doesn't have any artificial lighting right now. He used to for a brief period when I got him but then based on my research apparently they don't really need it and an overhead light can actually hurt their eyes. So I read at the time. However I'm in the room often and I'm always flipping on the light and there's a big window in the room for some natural sunlight plus the residual light from my bearded dragon and garter snake tanks across the room. And yes for sure I'm going to give him the pedialyte bath now and I think a little honey is a nice touch!