Hi!

[Greg M]

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to say "Hi!" and introduce myself! My name is Greg and I live in Oklahoma with my wife and son. I grew up in Canada, and spent much of my youth collecting frogs, toads and salamanders. Eventually, my interest in animals led me to a career as a research scientist. I have recently returned to keeping amphibians, an interest I share now with my son. I am amazed how much this hobby has changed in the last 20 years or so. On the positive side, so much more is known about amphibian care/husbandry, and so many interesting morphs are available! On the negative side, the hobby is complicated, to put it mildly, by the chytrid epidemic. I definitely consider myself a newbie, despite about 15 years of experience with amphibians, because chytrid, and changes in amphibian husbandry have changed things so much. I hope to learn a lot from y'all" and maybe make some friends!

Cheers!
Greg

[1beataway]

Hey Greg! Welcome to the forum.

We're neighbors. I live in Missouri! I use to live close to Oklahoma City.

[Jace]

Welcome Greg. Sounds like we will be able to learn from you as well as you from us. Glad to hear your son is interested as well. Do you own any amphibians currently? Always great to have another wonderful person join!

[Greg M]

Hi 1Beataway and Jace!

Thanks for the welcome messages!

1Beataway - I love MO, just came back from a lovely vacation in Branson!

Jace - I have a very modest collection right now - two Woodhouse's toads and a putative Dwarf American toad. One of the Woodhouse's toads has been with me for a while and has grown into quite the beast. I really want to expand a bit - I love native toads and treefrogs, and I must admit a fascination with Pixie's and horned frogs, but I have already dealt with chytrid once, and I'm a bit unsure how to safely expand...

[1beataway]

I've been to Branson during labor day weekend quite a few times. Actually, it was more usually Silver Dollar City.
I don't live that far from there.

How did you handle chytrid?

[Greg M]

Hi Jace,

In my case, I had a newly acquired toad die with symptoms suggestive of chytrid. Although the toad had been quarantined, I was concerned that I had not been rigorous enough in my attention to the possibility of cross-contamination, so I decided to treat the other toads prophylactically with 0.01% itraconazole in 0.6% NaCl (5 min. baths every day for 11 days, with sterilization of their cages every day). The toads were not impressed and it was a lot of work, but they came through fine. I did not have a chance to get PCR testing done, so I suppose this is just a presumed case of chytrid. I went with itraconazole rather than terbinafine because I was concerned that Lamasil AT has a number of additional ingredients that I feared might harm the toads, although I understand that Lamasil has become the first line treatment for chytrid...