One of the small exotic animals that we see most in our homes lately are frogs. Although many of us as children already played with them and their tadpoles, now we have more information to be able to offer them the best care at home.
Among many of the things we should know about these amphibians before taking one home, are the most common diseases of frogs. If you are interested in offering the good attention to your jumping partner, keep reading.
Frog Basics
Frogs are amphibians and the word amphibian comes from the Greek and its meaning is “both lives” This name is due to the fact that these Animals can live both outside and inside the water, depending on the species and the stage of their life they will live longer in one medium or the other. For this reason we must have a suitable terrarium for each species, but always with a part of water and another of earth or stone with vegetation.
Some species of frogs secrete some highly toxic substancesthrough their skin as a defense against potential predators. Due to this, it will be of great importance that we know what species we welcome in our house and how we should handle it, a non-poisonous specimen always being the best.
The food we must offer them is based on vegetables during the larval stage and on arthropods (insects) and worms during the adult stage. They mainly feed on beetles, including beetles, flies, mosquitoes, bees, wasps and ants. In addition, they also eat other invertebrates such as butterfly caterpillars, earthworms and spiders.
So that you can provide your anuro (group that includes frogs and toads) a good quality of life, we inform you of the most common diseases they suffer from.
Most common diseases of frogs
We must bear in mind that the knowledge we have about the diseases and treatments of frogs is still not very extensive. For this reason, it is of vital importance that you contact an amphibian specialist and never medicate your partner on your own, as amphibians are very sensitive to medication and which are very small and can easily get worse and even die if we do not do it as an expert tells us.
Below we discuss the most common diseases and conditions:
- Gas blister disease: This pathology is caused by a deficiency in water changes and generally occurs in farms of breeding grounds for frogs and other amphibians, where the water is underground, unaerated and supersaturated. The main symptom is that the tadpoles have a clear liquid in the abdomen and the abdomen is swollen. There is no known treatment for this disease, so we must pay special attention to preventing the possibility of our tadpoles contracting it, simply the groundwater that we use must have been aerated for at least one day before using it.
- White spot disease: This is a bacterial disease caused by Flexibacter columnaris that is found mainly in ponds and terrariums with water of poor quality. It is very easy to recognize since white spots are observed throughout the body of the animal. In the case of tadpoles, strong infections can occur that mobilize them and remain floating at the bottom of the water. It is easy to treat with a simple change of water and adding s alt at a concentration of 0.5%.
- Red leg disease: Better known by the English term “red leg”, this disease is caused by stress that usually occurs due to pond overcrowding and poor water quality. Symptoms are loss of appetite, ascites or fluid in the abdomen, loss of strength, and bleeding lesions on the hind legs and abdomen. In addition, inside the animal there are hemorrhages in most organs and there is blood and yellowish liquid in the abdomen. In addition, to reduce stress in our frogs by offering them more space and therefore reducing overpopulation, we must go to the exotics specialist who will indicate a treatment based on reducing feeding, adding 0.5% s alt in the water and use Oxytetracycline and nitrofuran in proportions of 3 to 5 gr/kg of food for a period of one to two weeks.
- Intestinal decomposition: It usually occurs in frogs that have consumed some food contaminated, generally with chicken or fish in poor condition. The frogs' abdomen bulges and they lose their appetite and stop moving. The intestine becomes inflamed and filled with undigested food as the digestion process is not working properly. Due to the amount of diarrhea, intestinal prolapse from the cloaca may occur. In these cases we should always go to our expert in exotic animals. The treatment is usually to stop feeding the animal for 3 or 5 days, change half the water in its terrarium and add 0.1% s alt. Surely the specialist will tell us a more suitable food and some medication for our sick frog.
- Indigestion: It is usually caused by parasites such as ciliated protozoa that are found in the digestive tract of sick tadpoles and attack when they are weakened. It can occur in specimens of any age, who lose their appetite and in severe cases the digestive tract bulges due to high inflammation. The treatment that is usually applied is Metronidazole in a proportion of 2 to 3 gr/kg of food. We must give it to our amphibian for a week and above all we must change the water daily.
- Paralysis: There are many different causes of paralysis in amphibians. The impossibility of movement in the hind legs usually occurs, which end up atrophying due to the lack of movement, the liver degenerates and the weight decreases significantly. It can be fatal if not treated in time. The treatment most followed by experts, and which is possibly very similar to what your trusted specialist tells you, is to add B complex vitamins to our frog's diet in a proportion of 1 g/kg of food daily for 1 or 2 weeks., according to evolution.
- Pale skin: This problem is caused by poor water quality. The frogs show a paler color than usual, lose their appetite and greatly reduce their physical activity. If we do not act quickly, the most frequent thing is that the affected specimens die within a week. It is usually treated by adding lime to the pond or terrarium water to raise its pH. Once the pH is regulated, our frog will recover.
- Infectious hydrops: This is a symptom of Aeromonas hydrophila infection. This disease has a symptom in common with gas blister disease and that is that the abdomen of the tadpoles presents a clear or yellowish liquid. In addition, hemorrhagic lesions occur throughout the body of the frog or tadpole. It is very aggressive and death can occur within 24 hours. A possible treatment is the immediate change of water and the application of antibiotics such as Oxytetracycline or some nitrofurans in the pond or terrarium in the doses and duration indicated by our expert exotics veterinarian.
- Trichodiniasis: This disease is caused by a related protozoan belonging to the Trichodina group. After infection, death usually occurs in a short time, so if we do not treat the problem, all the frogs and tadpoles in the pond or terrarium will die in a short time. The symptoms are a thin layer of whitish and opaque mucus, in addition to hemorrhagic petechiae on the surface of the entire body. In extreme cases, tadpoles have pale gills and their fins decompose. The treatment that our specialist will surely indicate will be formalin for three consecutive days in the dose indicated and change 10% of the water.
