
Originally Posted by
Kurt
The red-eye, barred tiger, and cave salamanders were all surprises that died rather suddenly. They were all some what long term captives.
The red-eye was always quite strange and was smaller than the others. I am thinking it may have had a genetic defect. I did hit his roommates with an anti-biotic just to be on the safe side. My two male red-eyes came in together in April 2008, the female the year before. The one that died was one of the males.
The barred tiger looked a lot like my other tiger which I am now treating. Sadly it died before I could get it to a vet. The blotched tiger is much more luckier in this respect. In the case of both tigers I suspect it may have something to do with substrate. I believe it needed cleaning, I know that was definitely the case with the blotched tiger. Yes- the substrate has been replaced. Last night's bath in a terbinafine hydrochloride bath loosened up a lot of dead skin. It kind of reminded me of when you soak a snake for a bad shed. It just came off in pieces. The barred tiger came into the collection last year sometime.
The cave salamanders died suddenly one after another over a period of three days. Even in death they looked fine. John, at the time, thought it may have to do with high temperatures, but checking thermometers in the room the average temperature was 70 F. I am not sure that was warm enough to kill them. I could be wrong. They came into the collection last June and been thriving up to that point.
The tomato frog that died was much smaller than the others. It stopped feeding and was separated from the others. It was on the weak side and I treated it with antibiotics, but still died. The next smallest tomato has become ill and was taken to the vet. It is now being treated with antibiotics and is being force fed. It has also started feeding on its own again. The other three tomatoes are fine, but I hit them with an antibiotic to be on the safe side.
The fire-bellies were long term captives. One of them became weak and felt soft, like it had no muscle tone. It was still eating at that point, but not as aggressively as the others. I treated it with an antibiotic but three days later it was dead. Then about a month or two goes by and I find the fire-belly I had since 2005 dead. No visible reason why. The other three seem fine at this point.
The Colorado River toad came down with edema and was brought to the vet immediately. The vet put it on an aggressive regiment using two antibiotics, SMZ and Batryl. The swelling went away and he was beginning to regain his energy and mobility. Then he suddenly died. I am wondering if it was all too much. The vet had never prescribed two antibiotics at the same time, nor to the frequency he told me to give them to the toad.
Right now, besides the blotched tiger (who is a very long term resident here) and the tomato frog, I am also treating and force feeding my western green toad, who has really thinned out. It's being treated with SMZ. I did put in fruit flies in the other night and when I went to treat him last night, they were gone. So maybe he has started to feed on his own once again.
My most recent acquisitions are a trio of bumble bee toads and a pair of red-backed rubber frogs, that I got a week ago last Sunday from LLL Reptile. They are in quarantine in the other room. Before that, the last animals to come into the collection came into the collection last October, they were a female blue-webbed flying frog and a barred tiger-salamander. Both of whom are doing fine. And before that it was a trio of northern two-lined salamanders, who are also fine.