R.I.P. lucio

[Whitestree frog]

Yesterday morning 11-16-17 at 10:20 am lucio the frog died. He died of red leg disease. we were bringing him in to the doctor later that day to get anti biotics. If you do know anything that would help for a frog with red leg or the cause i would like to know because i think my first frog died of it too. I had lucio for 8 months and he was very cute and I loved him. I hope that he Lives well in the frog afterlife.

[Whitestree frog]

and i dont need people to ask questions about the frog too find out the cause of the red leg just say all causes and how i couldve prevented them with specific chemicals/medicines and how I couldve seen it coming. thanks. even if you know the slightest bit of info please do. i just want to know why because thinking helps me work against depression.

[elly]

It sounds like you need to ask this for your peace of mind? An anti-fungal from the vet would be by far the best thing to help, so you were trying to do what you needed to. A far, far distant second treatment miiiight be raising the frog's temperature a certain amount for a certain time. (I can go look it up if you want.) That's an experimental cure some conservationists were using because the fungus thrives in dark and cool environments. It didn't save all the frogs treated though, maybe half or less.

Also I'm sorry.

[daybr4ke]

First off, before anything else, I'm sorry for your loss. Red Leg is a very deadly disease. It is caused by a bacteria called Aeromonas hydrophila. This bacteria breeds in unclean conditions. Prevention is fairly easy; keeping the water dish clean, keeping good spot cleaning(removing poop and stuff), changing out the substrate(unless it is a bioactive/living vivarium) every 2 weeks or so. A good time frame for keeping the dish clean is to replace the water every day. Every other day at the most. You should remove it and wash it with a frog safe cleaner every 2-3 days, sooner if it gets gets dirty and/or they poop in it. Cleaning the tank after switching the subatrate is also a good idea.
Again, I'm sorry for your loss. Even with good care, it is always possible for things to go wrong. A piece of poo may sit unseen under a leaf or behind a tank decoration.
If you need treatment in the future, it is possible to use fish antibiotics on frogs. I heave heard many uses of Maracyn 2 on Red leg and other bacterial infections. I would say across all my reading there is about a very good chance if caught early(which in some cases may have been irritation or a more mild infection of some sort) to a low chance if caught late. This can be tricky, since irritation to the underbelly can be mistaken for Red Leg. Other infections can have a similar effect, as well. I found it at petclub, while a respectable reptile store had only tetracycline. I figured at the time that whatever they had was the best I was going to get. API T.C. Tetracycline would be my second recommendation. If you CANNOT find Maracyn or get to a vet for prescription antibiotics(not gonna lie, I know nothing about prescription frog medication) then API T.C. Tetracycline may help.
I hope this helps.

[elly]

Bryce, can you recommend a good frog-safe cleaner? Vinegar? I'm paranoid about not washing the bowl out well enough after using something in it.


I thought red leg was caused by a fungus, not a bacteria because I'd gotten it confused with chytrid, but you're right. It is hard to separate redness caused by bacteria from other causes though and if something's fungal or viral it might not always be treatable with medication for bacteria. That's why I keep recommending people get their frogs checked out even if they think they know it's red leg. Of course that's not always possible so it might be worth it to give fish antibiotics a try.

[daybr4ke]

I know vinegar is used for glass when cleaning tanks, it may and appropriate for the dish as well. ZooMed makes a cleaner called wipe out that works pretty well. I sometimes use watered down alcohol to disinfect mine, with very good rinsing. I'll look more into it to see about finding some alternatives.

[Whitestree frog]

what about no substrate because that would make it a glass cage? maybe paper towels to soak up pee but just disinfected and drying the cage every once in a while because its hard to dump out all the substrate and fill it back up after completely cleaning it. I did change it to see if that was what was wrong, but it was extremely hard and i hurt myself and i definitely don't want to do that again.

[elly]

Paper towels could work. Only problem is you'd have to change them a lot since they grow bacteria easily. Some people use reptile carpets that are sold in pet stores. They can be removed and cleaned off. You'd need to make sure they weren't the kind with the loops though. Those have been known to trap frog feet.

[Whitestree frog]

that sounds like a really good idea thank you so much