WTF Skin Infection

[Bynny Ribbit]

Hello again! Moochy's condition has been slowly, but surely, improving. My vet was supportive of her saline soaks and recommended doing the ceftazidime injections along with the soaks more consistently. What's nice about the injections is I only had to buy the bottle of ceftazidime once and all injections after the first one haven't cost me anything else (not sure if this is the same for every vet clinic). She just had one last Thursday, then on Monday, and she'll have another on Thursday. The vet recommended calling on Saturday with progress.

I think this is the best she's looked in a while save for her poor pimple face.

[elly]

Thank you for documenting this, I hope to learn something. And I hope Moochy feels better. I'd never heard of frogs getting lipid buildup before.

[Bynny Ribbit]

Thank you for documenting this, I hope to learn something. And I hope Moochy feels better. I'd never heard of frogs getting lipid buildup before.

No problem! I'm actually super thankful I stumbled upon the Frog Forum months ago when I first got my Pacman frog, it's been a great resource and I'm glad I can contribute so others may benefit in the future. Yeah, they can get a lipid build-up in their lenses, though the biggest cause I've read is a very fatty diet fed long term (which Moochy hasn't had at all). My vet mentioned it can also be due to metabolism changes, and I've read online that it sometimes happens to older frogs.

Thanks for your concern, I hope she feels better soon, too.

[Lija]

Glad Moochy is better and you have good vet nearby! I must say for 9y frog he looks great!
Yes, lipid build ups are very common in overweight frogs, or older frogs. Very often these build ups are the cause of death, very much similar to overweight humans, dogs, etc

[Bynny Ribbit]

Glad Moochy is better and you have good vet nearby! I must say for 9y frog he looks great!
Yes, lipid build ups are very common in overweight frogs, or older frogs. Very often these build ups are the cause of death, very much similar to overweight humans, dogs, etc

Thank you! She and her tankmate are a couple of oldies, I hope to have them for many more years.

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to conclude the saline soaks or figure out a different method. Her legs/belly have gotten awful pink and I'm 95% sure it's from these strong minute-long dips. Her behavior is completely normal and she is still heartily eating what I give her, so I don't believe it's bacterial. Many or most of the bumps/blisters are gone, though there is a new accumulation near her head that generally sits above the waterline of the dips, so I'm dabbed some of the silver sulfadiazine cream on them in hopes of keeping them controlled until her next vet visit. Hopefully we'll be able to visit tomorrow or Tuesday and discuss a new approach.

[Bynny Ribbit]

Moochy continues to wonder why she is in her boring quarantine tank and why I handle her so much, lol. She's had a fun week hunting down crickets and croaking at me when she hears running water (she is set up in a warm, spare bathroom away from the other froggies).

I haven't been doing full saline soaks, instead dipping a cotton round pad into the saline solution and dabbing her with it. It worked okay, but my vet suggested putting it into a spray bottle instead and I wondered why I didn't think of it! Most of this week has been using the cotton rounds, but yesterday I began using the spray bottle and decided to up the treatment to every 12 hours instead of 24 hours. I'll keep an eye on her to see if this stresses her too much, but she's been very tolerant of everything (except the cream) so far. Her underside is far less irritated looking now so I'm happy about that. I did take her back into the vet because a biopsy had been on the table, but the estimation for it was $450 which was far too costly for me. A culture is also an option and is $150, but it doesn't cover everything so it could ultimately be inconclusive. He recommended to continue what I've been doing and check back in two weeks since she is still alert and eating.

Moochy decided she wanted to be brown today to really show off those gross blisters. The first picture is before being sprayed and the second picture is after...I have to imagine all of it coming to the surface is a good thing? I always feel sad when I treat her because it seems like it's worse, but then I check on her later before bed and she looks better, so I can sleep soundly, lol. I'm glad I'm documenting all of this with pictures, it's really been helping me see her progress and that things were far worse before, so she is slowly getting better.

[Bynny Ribbit]

I'm back with a happy update!

I ended up moving Moochy back into the frog room because I don't think what she has is airborn. The lighting and air circulation has also been better for her, which encouraged me in her treatment. However, as I continued spraying Moochy with the saline solution, I ultimately realized that progress with it had plateaued, so I went looking for another way to try and help my girl. On the same site I found the saline mixture, I had also found the "heat treatment". You essentially induce a "fever" in the frog by raising the temperature in the tank. Even with the risks, I decided to try it and put a higher temperature basking spot in her tank. It averages between 85ºF and 88º as the day goes by, but there are cooler areas of her tank where she can retreat to (such as her water dish). At any time when I'm checking on her, she is generally either hiding under her plastic container or actually basking in the warmest spot, probably a 75% hiding/25% basking ratio. As I write this, it is actually a bit past the third full day of doing this and not using any of the saline and I'm very pleased with the results.







Sorry for the picture quality, there was so much light and Moochy is quite shiny after a shed, lol. She was also in the midst of changing color since I sprayed her tank down not too long before, for the most part she's been very green lately (I'll have to try and grab a pic later!). A lot of the marks have started the healing process and there are much less of the tiny "pimples". As always, no change in behavior and eating habits, but I'm super excited about the improvement this past week! She's really looking like her old self. Don't get me wrong, she still has to go back to the herp vet to get looked over, especially since her left eye is still has that foggy line through it. However, it's been so long and tiring, and to finally be possibly coming out the other side soon? It's awesome.

Raising the heat in her tank has helped her so much, but I don't want to overwhelm her, so I may lower it to more comfortable levels and see how things go from there and retry the treatment if her skin starts looking rough again.