Sick and swollen Oriental fire bellied toad

[GP]

I thought I had already updated this thread; I certainly wrote out a long response before now and it seems to have vanished into the aether. Here it is again, approximately.

After a conversation with and then appointment at the the vet on New Year's Eve, the patient is now on a daily oral dose of ½ml each of both:
a diuretic (frusol solution - 50mg/5ml per ml), and
antibiotics (metronidazole suspension 200mg/5ml per ml)

The vet couldn't feel any solid masses indicative of digestive impaction, but said the swelling could be an infection or a trouble with the kidneys/liver. The diuretic should stimulate the kidneys to sort out the balance of internal fluids; no improvement after a few days might mean a more serious renal failure. The eye he reckoned is infected, so antibiotics are in order.

On the way home from the veterinary surgery, having had the first dose of diuretic, the little thing managed its first bowel movement for some time. I will start feeding again after a couple of rounds of doses. The bad eye is already looking clearer, though the swelling has not much reduced.

[BossFrog]

Awesome to see some improvement!! Going to the vet was the right decision. Fingers are crossed that this toad will make a full recovery.

[GP]

Awesome to see some improvement!! Going to the vet was the right decision. Fingers are crossed that this toad will make a full recovery.

Thanks for your concern, and yes, I hope there is good improvement. Alas I think a full recovery is a little unlikely. I've had these three toads since 2005 and I think they'll never be their younger selves again, but I just hope they can live out their days pain free and able to swim.

Hopefully, the struggle to force open the creature's mouth to syringe these two drugs down the frog's throat every day for a week will be less stressful overall than the swelling and blindness it's been living with, but I'm not sure yet.

Unfortunately, while the eye is looking better after three days, (a little less cloudy, but still non-functional AFAIK) the swelling hasn't yet gone down at all, and the toad took some persuading to eat the small, recently moulted locust offered. It still turns in circles when it gets the chance.

I'm leaving as much detail on this thread as possible so anyone with a similar predicament can make their own choices, if for whatever reason a veterinary surgeon's advice is out of reach.

[GP]

Update: after seven days' treatment with metronidazole and frusol daily, there's no improvement. Eye is still cloudy, frog still swollen up, still swimming in circles (maybe a little less). There's still three more days of frusol treatment to go, but my hope for a recovery is fading. The one mercy is that toad's condition has not worsened significantly, but I wonder whether all that stress has been for naught. I will return to the vet soon but I doubt much good news will come of it. I suppose we can now rule out certain bacteria and protozoa as culprits, since they should have been cleared out by the metronidazole, but other infections might be to blame.

[BossFrog]

Poor thing, I’m so sorry... you’ve been doing all you can.

[Kylie]

I’m sorry, I hope they make a recovery!

[Darwin333]

Hello, in the end how is your toad? I hope all is well

[cwebster]

Our old female has the same sxs. After a month on antibiotics, i found a small swimming mm parasite, kind of like a small hair. Am trying to figure out how to get the parasite to the vet for dx identification.