[CrazyCat]

Backstory: clutch of eggs, two went bad, two hatched into tadpoles. One morphed into a perfectly healthy frog. This was the third clutch of eggs from the pair of frogs, previous and later clutches were culled so I have nothing to compare too.

The other tadpole was a puffy tadpole. Swam and moved fine, didn't lay sideways or float. Tried various things from this forum about how to help the tadpole; frequent water changes, fewer water changes, stop feeding, stabilize the temperatures with heat mat nearby but not touching the tank. Nothing helped. Also read that sometimes puffy tads morph out into perfectly fine frogs so I gave him a chance.

Morphed into froglet about a week after his healthy sibling. Two issues I see. One is he has a protrusion of skin on his chest. Second is his back legs look deflated. Sort of like he has extra skin.

Front legs look fine. All legs are functional. He hops around his little quarantine tank just fine. (I moved him to a plastic cup for photos but he's in a quarantine tank with paper towels/moss for helping with humidity and leaf litter). He climbed out of his plastic morphing cup on his own. He eats dusted fruit flies.

I was giving him time to see if he would grow into his loose skin but he's not. But he also doesn't seem to be getting worse. He came out of the water mid December. I bought some Oragel as I read that was the best way to euthanize frogs but I want to make sure I'm doing the right thing. Is it sls if his limbs are still functional? Something else?

First two photos show the skin on his chest. Last 4 various shots where you can see his back legs

 

[Amphibicast]

Ultimately the decision for euthanasia is up to you. Quality of life is an important concern but it isn’t always black and white. Of the thousands of frogs produced in captivity every year we are bound to come across some anomalies from time to time and as long as they aren’t reproducing or morphing out deformed consistently I wouldn’t worry per se. If it’s feeding and behaving normally, it may live a normal life. If not, it may fail to thrive. Monitor it closely and do what you think is best for it.
The Protrusion looks like a stunted limb -and that is interesting since it happens in wild frogs as a result of parasites. Check out the parents and keep us posted

 

[CrazyCat]

Ultimately the decision for euthanasia is up to you. Quality of life is an important concern but it isn’t always black and white. Of the thousands of frogs produced in captivity every year we are bound to come across some anomalies from time to time and as long as they aren’t reproducing or morphing out deformed consistently I wouldn’t worry per se. If it’s feeding and behaving normally, it may live a normal life. If not, it may fail to thrive. Monitor it closely and do what you think is best for it.
The Protrusion looks like a stunted limb -and that is interesting since it happens in wild frogs as a result of parasites. Check out the parents and keep us posted

Thanks. I was hoping the frog would go in one direction or another so it would make the choice more obvious. He doesn't look in pain or unhappy, but how do you tell with a frog, ha.

Interesting about the parasites. The parents were captive bread from a reputable breeder, at least from what I can tell. So no clue where they or the frog would have picked up parasites. Parents look fine, although they have gotten more shy this winter and the male stopped calling which I assumed was due to the lower temps.