[Guest]

I don't have a picture of the condition, but the right leg of the dart frog becomes inflamed and probably almost doubles in size. The frog then can not bend the leg that well. Later, in about 3-4 days, a lesion develops on the leg, then it becomes almost blister like, then the frog dies about 24 hours later. This has happened to two of my darts in seperate tanks. Any idea on what may have caused it? So far I came up with an infection from a scrape, and a broken leg that was not well taken care of. Please let me know what you guys think.

 

[Scott]

I have no idea... but if this has happened in two tank, you've got big problems.

You need to get fecals done on the occupants in the two tanks. ASAP.

s

 

[melissa68]

Sounds like your frogs have developed some type of infection.

Infections in frogs tend to move to the legs and develop like you mention below. What is causing the infection is the issue.

Can you give us some more information on diet, what you are dusting their food with, setup of the tank, how old the frogs are, how long you have had them, etc...

Melis

I don't have a picture of the condition, but the right leg of the dart frog becomes inflamed and probably almost doubles in size. The frog then can not bend the leg that well. Later, in about 3-4 days, a lesion develops on the leg, then it becomes almost blister like, then the frog dies about 24 hours later. This has happened to two of my darts in seperate tanks. Any idea on what may have caused it? So far I came up with an infection from a scrape, and a broken leg that was not well taken care of. Please let me know what you guys think.

 

[Guest]

Melissa

The first one this happened to was a baby leuc that was probably around 1-2 months old. The other happened to an azureus about 8-9 months old. The leuc was kept in a 10 gallon with another baby leuc around its same age. It was a very simple set up with leaves spread on top of some coco bedding and some curled pieces of cork for hiding. The leaves were gathered from the UT field lab here in austin (it's a place sectioned off where ecology students study the environment). I put the leaves in mostly for some microfauna for the leucs to munch on. Once i noticed the first leuc, I removed both. One died and the other was just fine and is happy and healthy today.

The azureus was kept with 2 others in a 46 gallon. The tank was heavily planted with tree fern root background and coco bedding. Pieces of cypress wood were in the tank as well. Again when I noticed the azureus, I took him out and took him to a vet here in austin, but the vet didn't know what exactly to give of do. The other frogs in the tank were fine.

 

[melissa68]

Drainage..

Do you have any rocks or drainage in the tank?

 

[Guest]

O yeah,

I feed them springtails, melanogaster, hydei, and pinheads. The flies and the crickets are dusted with herpvite and rep cal. This is done at everyfeeding.

None of my frogs have this condition at the moment, I just remembered having this problem and wanted to know what to do just incase any of this happened again.

Thanks for helping guys!

 

[Scott]

The vet you went to should at least know how to run a fecal. It wouldn't hurt to do that even now.

s

 

[Guest]

Melissa

Yes, I use the clay pellets for drainage.

 

[melissa68]

plants...

Were all the plants rinsed well? What about your tree fern panel, etc.?

 

[melissa68]

sorry for all the questions...

it might refresh someone's memory to a similar situation they had.

 

[Guest]

yes, the plants were rinsed before putting them into the viv. An i boiled the wood, rinsed the background, rinsed the pellets, cleaned the tank, and used boiling water for the cocobedding. Anything i placed into the tank, I tried to clean.

 

[melissa68]

Substrate...

Did you use anything for your substrate besides coco bedding?

 

[Guest]

I mixed in some orchid bark and peat moss. I think the ratio was 3 parts coco, 1 part orchid, 1 part peat moss.

 

[Guest]

Jay check the floor temperature of the tank, and the amount of ventilation in the tank as well.

What you are seeing, is the effects of harmful bacteria being in contact with the frogs skin for an extremely long period of time, and a fecal is not going to show this - a skin test would; this is done by simply swabbing the lesion and taking it to your vet. This often occurs in tanks where the temp is up due to lighting or a misguided attempt to heat the tank, and a lack of ventilation.

Try moving the animal onto a dryer substrate of dead oak leaves or something like that - It has a natural anti-bacteria substance it secretes when you mist it. The lesions will heal on their own, and while the frog is recovering, you can correct the problem in the animals original enclosure.

 

[melissa68]

I was thinking about a bacterial infection too. Adding a larger quantity of long fiber spaghum moss and or ground spaghum moss will also provide natural anti-bacterial protection for the frogs as well. A little known fact is that spaghum moss has been used as a wound dressing in WW1 and other wars.

...John - good point about the temperature.

Melis

Jay check the floor temperature of the tank, and the amount of ventilation in the tank as well.

What you are seeing, is the effects of harmful bacteria being in contact with the frogs skin for an extremely long period of time, and a fecal is not going to show this - a skin test would; this is done by simply swabbing the lesion and taking it to your vet. This often occurs in tanks where the temp is up due to lighting or a misguided attempt to heat the tank, and a lack of ventilation.

Try moving the animal onto a dryer substrate of dead oak leaves or something like that - It has a natural anti-bacteria substance it secretes when you mist it. The lesions will heal on their own, and while the frog is recovering, you can correct the problem in the animals original enclosure.

 

[Guest]

I have had this happen to a couple of azureus in the past. According to a necropsy done by a local herp vet, it was discerned that it was an infection due to liver failure. The livers in both frogs were severly damaged and it is suspected that vitaminosis A was the cause here. This was back when I was using a supplement which contained Vit A and I have long since switch to a supplement sans VitA.

-Bill J.

 

[Guest]

Thanks alots for your help and input guys. I know what to do now if something like this happens and to prevent it from happening.