Deseases

Here I´d like to provide information about deseases I had to deal with in my own toads.

This is no advice how to treat your ill toads yourself without contacting a veterinary.

Overdosing or applying medication too often may cause death or serious damage. If a therapy needs to be repeated dosages given below may not be applicable.

The following information represents my knowledge in the year 2002. Possibly meanwhile there are better suitable medications available.

As damages by medication always may be possible, besides worm infections, I only apply these in heavy cases. Negligible disorders usually disappear without medication if keeping conditions are fine.

I am no veterinary! Please contact a vet if your toad is ill!

>> Administering medicine
>> Nematodes
>> Dermosporidium
>> Bacterial infection
>> Inflammation of the eyes
>> Wounds
>> Intestinal prolapse



Administering medicine

Oral:

Giving medicine directly in the mouth is difficult or even impossible if the toad is very small, but can be realized in middle sized and larger toads without bigger problems.

The left hand takes the toad holding it's head at the sides with tumb and middlefinger and the pinky shores up the toads rear part. Then the right hand slightly presses down the lower jaw with a paper clip (the perfect instrument!!!) and that way opens the mouth. An assistant then can give the medicine for example by use of a syringe through a soft rubber tube (insert paper clip and rubber tube only a short way in the mouth). Many toads suddenly open their mouth wide.

You certainly still need to be very careful to prevent injuries.

For correct dosing of the medicine you need to determine the the weight of the patient. For this purpose a normal letter scale is suitable. During the procedure you should keep the toad in a plastic box whose weight you determined before.

Transdermal:

Another possibility to treat an ill toad is to drop certain medicine on the toads back or to give it a medicine bath for absobtion through the skin.

This method sounds good but it is unclear how much of the substances get absorbed. You only should consider to try this if the toad is too small to give the medicine orally. Ask your vet about that.

Ivermectin (for treating nematodes) and Enrofloxacin (in case of bacterial infections) also should be active if absorbed through the skin (transdermal). A veterinary should know the right dosage of these substances.



Nematodes

Possibly the most common desease in amphibians (mostly wild caught) is infection by nematodes.

Some nematode species need other anmimal species as an intermediate host for reproduction. Other nematodes reproduce directly in the infected amphibium. Especially the latter can be serious, but can be treated successfully with cheap medicine even if the toad already is heavily infected.

Examiniation of excrements by a veterinary or an institute definitely informs about nematode or other kind of infection.

In the wild nematodes are no big problem because the toads do not stay at the same place for a long time. In the terrarium nematode species which do not need other animals as an intermediate host, can permanently reinfect the toads as these regulary get in contact with defecated worm eggs. This results in the nematodes developping to large amounts as time goes by.

If the terrarium is cleaned regulary and the terrarium is big in some cases the amount of nematodes grows such slowly that the toads have no ill effects for years.

But if conditions get unfaivourable the toads suddenly may get worse and die within only a few weeks.

Symptoms:

In contrast to other anurans infected toads do not prefer to sit in water but burry themselves and get lethargic which additionally may result in drying out. Such toads have a very smooth thin looking skin with nearly no warts and thin parotoides.

If the infection has progressed the toads also rapidly loose weight, which can be determined best if viewing at the diameter of the lower legs and underarms.

The nematodes attack all organs. If these get damaged too much there is nothing to do anymore.

In some cases the worms "only" bar the way the food takes through the body, which may result in regurgitation of the food items. This also may occur days after feeding and the regurgitated food often is shaped like normal excrements but eventually consists of completely undigested food items.

This was the case in one of my toads:

Therapy:

Today (2002) common active agents for treatment of nematode infection are Fenbendazol (one common product name "Panacur") or Ivermectin (one common product name "Ivomec").

Both substances are sold in different forms: liquid, as a paste or tablets and in this form and dose are ready to use products for cattle, pigs, cats, dogs aso. The vet dilutes the medicine to get it suitable for amphibians.

Common dosages of Fenbendazol for amphibians:
10-30 mg/kg/day, 3 days long (Zwart 1998b) or
30-50 mg/kg/day, 2 days long (Courtney 1995)

I made good experiences with 20 mg/kg/day, 3 days long, and repeating this treatment 14 days later.

The medicine must be given orally, means directly in the mouth. The amount of medicine therefore should not be too large for to ensure that the toad does not need to swallow more than once.
Toads with a size of 8-10 cm have no problems to take 0,15-0,2 ml of medicine.

Calculation example:
An 8 cm big toad has a weight of approx. 60-90 g,
one with a size of 10 cm weighs approx. 80-110 g.

If you intend to apply a dosage of 20 mg/kg the amount of active agent per 10 g body mass = 0,2 mg Fenbendazol. If 0,02 ml contain 0,2 mg Fenbendazol the following amounts of medicine need to be given:

10 g body mass: 0,02 ml (= 0,2 mg Fenbendazol)

60 g-toad: 0,12 ml
70 g-toad: 0,14 ml
80 g-toad: 0,16 ml
90 g-toad: 0,18 ml
100 g-toad: 0,20 ml
110 g-toad: 0,22 ml

During and the weeks after the treatment the terrarium should be cleaned daily for removing defecated worm eggs and preventing new infection.

Infection:

Nematodes can infect nearly every animal and also humans.
But for preventing spreading of the desease to other terrariums or even infecting youself normal hygienics like washing your hands seems to be sufficient already (own experience).

Also spawn and tadpoles of infected toads can be completey free of nematodes.

Addendum: I had to treat all my adult toads and I did not have much hope that this would have a long lasting success. Now, 2 years later, I sent excrements for examination to an institute again and was happy to get informed that my toads are still clean.



Dermosporidium

Dermosporidium is a parasite which occurs in the skin of amphibians where it forms cysts. It is impossible to recognize a Dermosporidium infection with the naked eye. Examination of swabs may show if yes or not.

If conditions are fine infected toads can live with Dermosporidium without problems, but if conditions get unfaivorable (like many toads in one place, poor or wrong feeding, wrong temperature or climate, sudden change of temperature, stress) Dermosporidium may lead to inflammations and drying out. In serious cases this may be lethal.

Amphibians which survive infection with Dermosporidium, under faivourable conditions may live with it without getting ill again, but they carry Dermosporidium for their lifetime.

Symptoms:

Inflammations. If Dermosporidium infection gets acute the ill amphibian is weak and other illnesses with different symptoms may occur as a complication.

Therapy:

Up to now there is no possibility to get rid of Dermosporidium. But complications like bacterial infections can be treated successfully.



Bacterial infection

Symptoms:

Symptoms of bacterial infections which my first own captive bred toadlets (Bufo speciosus, carrying Dermosporidium) suddenly showed 4 weeks after start of winter dormancy:

Reddened areas and red spots at the belly skin, inflammation of the eyes (swollen eyelids, red areas within the eye ball, even turbidity of the eyes), "water" in the nose, irregular breathing, cracking or whistling breathing sound, apathy, tensing up.

The symptoms were different in every toad and also differing in how severe. Some even did not show any inflammations but died first.

After occuring of the symptoms the toads got worse rapidly. But immediate start of treatment with antibiotics was successful even in more severe cases.

Unfortunately in my case the bacterial infections occured as a result of Dermosporidium and infections occurred repeatedly over a period of a several months. In the end I was not able to save the toad´s lifes.

Therapy:

The following treatment worked for my toads:

Treatment with the active ingredient Enrofloxacin (product name: "Baytril"). This antibiotic has to be given orally, Dosing: 10 mg/kg body mass, once per day for about 5-10 days.

If you intend to apply a dosage of 10 mg/kg the amount of active agent per 10 g body mass = 0,1 mg Enrofloxacin. If 0,02 ml contain 0,1 mg Enrofloxacin the following amounts of medicine need to be given:

10 g body mass: 0,02 ml (= 0,1 mg Enrofloxacin)

30 g-toad: 0,06 ml
60 g-toad: 0,12 ml
100 g-toad: 0,20 ml

The right diluted medicine is available at the vet and is extremely cheap.

I treated red spots at the belly skin with Nebacetin ointment (antibiotic) once per day for approx 4 days. An American ointment with similar active agents is Bacitracin.

For treating inflammation of the eyes see Inflammation of the eyes.



Inflammation of the eyes:

Gentamicin-eye drops (Gentamicin as the active indigredient, eventually also Kanamycin, no cortisone). If inflammation of the eyes occurs as a complication of a more severe illness, only treating with eye drops is not working and additional treatment is necessary (for example see Bacterial infection).

Giving one eye drop two times per day my toads showed good progress up from the 5th day of treatment.



Wounds

Small open wounds can be treated by dabbing with Nebacetin-ointment (antibiotic). An American ointment with similar active agents is Bacitracin. Keeping conditions should be dry as then wounds heal sooner. But a water bowl must be available all the time.

If a toad gets fat in a very short period of time (for example after successful nematode treatment) it may occur that the skin gets open at the areas where toads usually have fat folds, means in the area upper arms-breast and hind legs/back.

These wounds heal within a few weeks after sporadic treatment as mentioned before.



Intestinal prolapse

Intestinal prolapses are quite common in treefrog species, in toads it is quite unusual.

Searching the internet I repeatedly found the advice to give sugar on the out sticking intestinal as sugar extracts water from the intestinal. This makes the swelling in the intestinal going down which supports going back of the intestinal to its right place.

For better adhesion you may give the toad a shower before treatment.

In the case I treated (a juvenile) the intestinal prolapse was over only approx. 30 minutes after giving sugar on the intestinal.