[bbrock]

This is a vitamin A defficiency. Go to your pet store and buy whatever reptile vitamin supplement they have. Herptivite is good. Since they seem to still be able to eat, hopefully that is all you will need to do. If they couldn't eat, you might have to administer oral supplement but I wouldn't stress them if they can get some dusted flies down.

 

[bbrock]

Yes, the seizure takes the symptoms out of vitamin A defficiency and puts it into calcium deficiency. A loss of tongue "stickiness" is usually vitamin A deficiency but as others have said, loss of motor function can make a malfunctioning tongue look like its not sticky.

A better treatment soak is calcium gluconate available from a vet. If I recall, it gets diluted 10:1 from how it is packaged for cattle.

 

[bbrock]

I have a frog that is trying to eat but either its tongue isn't stick or it isn't using its tongue! I can't really tell. Anyway, its not able to eat because of this and its been losing weight steadily. Is there a vitamin soak that I can give this frog? Will pedialyte provide any vitamins? I don't want to lose this frog

If it's a calcium problem, it is easily treatable. I'm not sure how much calcium pedialyte provides but I did once mix some calcium powder in pedialyte to soak a frog and it recoverd. But the best stuff is calcium gluconate that you can get from a vet for about $5 for a huge bottle. You need to dilute it 10 to 1 I believe and then you can use that as a soak. I'm not sure about soaks to supply other vitamins. There are some spray on vitamin supplements (I think by T-Rex) but I've heard really bad things about them. Might work for a quick stopgap to get the frog eating again. And get some good vitamin and mineral supplements to dust the food with in the future.

Good luck.

 

[bbrock]

And just an FYI, inability to feed due to calcium deficiency may not be caused by loss of motor functions but by the bones that control the tongue beginning to deform due to lack of calcium.

Ed

Ed, I've learned never to doubt your wisdom regarding nutrition so am sure this is true. However, the 3 or so cases of calcium deficiency I've seen indicate that moter function was the issue. Two of the cases involved lack of coordination and spasms/seizures which resolved within hours of soaking in calcium gluconate. There were no visible signs of bone deformity in these frogs and obviously tongue muscles can't recalcify that quickly. The third case was a frog with obvious signs of decalcification in it's hind legs (the legs were floppy). This frog also recovered completely following Ca gluconate treatment.

BTW, all of these frogs were pumilio, either females actively laying eggs or juveniles in development and they were all getting calcium supplementation that has been adequate for all of my other frogs. These experiences plus one other have led me to provide UVB for all of my pumilio.

 

[bbrock]

I am interested in the report of lack of coordination as this is different from what I have seen (as indicated above) and I do not think it has been documented in the literature as of yet. What were the exact symptoms with respect to the feeding. Ed

The frogs that showed lack of coordination were overall clumsy, spent more time than usual on the ground, and fumbled a bit when trying to climb up into the vegetation. Problems with feeding were more associated with aim I would say. A somewhat wobbly frog taking aim on an insect with frequent misses. When they did make contact, they were able to eat okay. I would say the symptoms would have been subtle to unnoticed by the casual observer but for anyone who knew the animal's individual behavior, it was pretty easy to spot.

 

[bbrock]

Thanks Brent.
Do you think the wobbliness could have been due to the beginning of bone deformation reducing mobility?
Ed

It's been awhile so I'm going on memory but my impression at the time was more of lack of muscle control. You've heard stories of our wolf but in his last days when acute kidney failure set in, his serum electrolyte levels crashed and his lack of muscle control prior to seizure was similar to the frogs. In all cases, both wolf and frog, recovery was almost immediate (within minutes to an hour) following therapy to restore electrolyte levels. I remember the first adult frog I treated was hopping around normally and appeared perfectly healthy within 2 hours following the first treatment. I continued the nightly soaks plus Ca dusted ff for a week before returning her to her viv and resuming normal feeding following an increased frequency of plain Ca dusting (following your advice at the time BTW - and thanks again).

 

[bbrock]

Hi Brent,

After some pondering about it, I think what was occuring (pure supposition here), is that the lack of available calcium was preventing the muscles from relaxing at a more normal rate resulting in the wobbly and uncoordinated gait but the normal activity requirements were not sufficient to cause the animal to (constantly) seizure. I have not seen this in an anuran (but that doesn't really mean anything) but I will add it to the list of things to watch out for.

Thanks

Ed

I would say that's a pretty good supposition.