Please HELP my African Clawed Frog!!!!!

[AlbinoFroggy]

Im sure there are some people on here how will be able to give you a full detailed explaination, however im no expert with these things. I use this site alot i find it very helpful and they have alot of information of illness and disease in african clawed frogs and how to treat.

http://www.clawedfrogs.com/id20.html (illnesses)

http://www.clawedfrogs.com/id33.html (illness and disease)

hope it helps and i hope bibbit gets well soon.

[tgampper]

Based on your description, your frog probably has bloat. There are two kins of bloating disease. Here is an explaination, you may have to consult a vet.

Sorry to hear about your frog. Bloated frogs seem to be very common these days. Xenopus (African clawed frogs) experience two kinds of "bloat".

1) "Hard" bloated frog appears all of a sudden at the surface of the water. If this is the case, you will need to quarantine yor frog. This condition is usually caused by an internal bacterial infection and in nearly all cases it is fatal. There is some success using a product called Maracyn along with a salt bath. Maracyn is a gram-positive antibiotic found in stores that sell tropical fish supplies. Your vet will be able to advise you on a treatment plan.

2) "Soft, squishy bloat", sometimes known as the "Michelin man syndrome" or hydrops in older amphibian literature, is caused by an excessive amount of fluid accumulation in the body and limbs. Untreated, this can cause liver and kidney damage. Although, frogs can live a long period of time with this condition, it will eventually lead to death. This condition is not associated with any particular pathogen, but it does occur with poor husbandry conditions. Since aquatic frogs live in water, their skin acts as an way for fluids to enter and exit the body (osmosis). When this process is interrupted, the frog begins to swell. The two leading causes of this swelling is poor water conditions and poor diet. Repto-Min is a perfect diet for your clawed frogs. ACFs are both predator and scavenger, so they do not require live foods like other frogs. I have been keeping clawed frogs for over 30 years and only feed Repto-Min. The only other problem could be the water. Make sure you use a good water conditioner, I recommend Stress-Coat. Keep the water clean and siphon any uneaten particles or waste. I would talk to the vet again about draining the fluid, the frog will probably recover without the additional stress. Also, continue the salt bath, ACFs are very salt tolerant and this would reduce the bloat.

Treatment: The easiest way to treat the frog is to put him in a plastic container (like Rubbermaid) about 3 gallons in size. Put a gallon of conditioned water with about a half-teaspoon of epsom salts. Water temperature should be about 72 degrees. Dissolve the salt before putting the frog in. Don't put anything else in the container. Punch some small holes in the lid for ventilation. Leave the frog in the bath for 1 hour each day until the bloat is clear. Replace fresh water and salts each day. If the bloat isn't cleared within 10 days, then there isn't much more you can do. Don't feed live food. I suggest Tetra's Repto-Min frog pellets.

Watch for any unusual skin discoloration which could be as sign of bacterial or fungal infection. Usually the salt bath will take care of this problem too.

I understand your frustration. Be patient and most likely things will go well for your frog.

[Dejavudoo]

He doesn't look bloated. If anything he looks a little skinnier than normal. He had also been shedding his skin a lot lately. I don't know if that's related or not. I checked my water and everything seems fine except that the water hardness is at about 150 ppm. I feed my frogs a variety of things to try to avoid a poor diet. Tubifex worms, blood worms, meal worms, and occasionally beef heart.

I found this on a website:
Stroke: This is when blood flow to the brain is decreased due to a blocked vessel or burst small vessel. Symptoms of this may include Lethargic behaviour, not eating, unable to move back or front legs/arms, continuous trembling of a limb or unable to regulate balance in the water. Strokes can caused by stress caused by handling or movement of the tank, they can also be caused by feeding too much fatty foods like bacon fat etc., and temperature fluctuations can also be a cause.
This seems to describe him pretty well. If this is what is wrong, is there anything I can do?

[Dejavudoo]

I'm afraid that the excessive skin shedding may be where this all began. By excessive, I mean more than once a week. Perhaps twice or even more. My other frog Freckles has been shedding his skin a lot too. If this is where this whole terrible mess began, I would like to start treating my other frog as soon as possible before it gets as bad as Bibbit did. What could the excessive skin shedding be? Bibbit was eating perfectly fine until his incident. Freckles continues to eat normally for now.

I found a video of exactly what my frog is doing. Bibbit is doing what that frog does at the 14 second mark.

YouTube - Sick Albino African Clawed Frog

Thanks in advance for your help guys.

[tgampper]

Sorry, I jumped to conclusions about bloat, your frog seemed to have the same symptoms. But, I wouldn't start a treatment program without first identifying a cause. Red leg is a definate possibility though. I would take the frog to the vet. There are several diseases of Xenopus that have some or all of these symptoms or behaviors:

• hanging at the water's surface
• stifness or lethergy
• loss of appitite
• vomiting
• tumbling
• excessive skin shedding
• skin discoloration - red, brown, gray, black
• growths or tumors on skin
• skin hemorrages
• sticky or rough skin
• anorexia

Another possibility could be a secondary nematode infection caused by Pseudocapillaria xenopodi. Good luck!

[Dejavudoo]

There aren't any vets in my area that deal with amphibians though.

I don't see any reddening or swelling in his legs. So I hope its not that since red leg (from what I've read) seems pretty hopeless.

[tgampper]

I'll try to do the best I can to help. Do you have any pictures of the frog you can post? Hopefully its not red leg. These are really tough frogs and there is a possibility it will pull through.