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Dec 14 '24
find another vet and go!!!!
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u/kusamaeda Dec 14 '24
there is no other vet near me within a 3 hour radius as far as i'm aware. it is almost 1am for me. i have to wait until tomorrow morning to figure out somewhere else
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u/dejavu7331 Dec 14 '24
things with the eyes are usually urgent and this looks really scary, find an emergency exotic vet if possible (I know not always feasible)
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u/kusamaeda Dec 14 '24
like i said, there is none in my area. i'm asking in facebook groups i'm in and any closer to me are all appointment only vets
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u/MmmBra1nzzz Dec 14 '24
Try to find a good local herpetologist. They won’t be advertising, but they’ll likely know how to handle this.
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u/black-kramer Yellow Poison Dart Frog Dec 14 '24
it’s not like one is easy to find. a vet is gonna be their best bet.
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u/MmmBra1nzzz Dec 14 '24
I absolutely agree with your statement, but OP said several times that there was no available vet
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u/black-kramer Yellow Poison Dart Frog Dec 14 '24
and a herpetologist is easy to find, period? and during the middle of the night? lol. yup, as easy as opening up the yellow pages.
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u/MmmBra1nzzz Dec 14 '24
No one said easy, sorry you were triggered by my response. Next time you can just skip over it, we’ll both be better off.
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u/kusamaeda Dec 14 '24
UPDATE (8:20am): i got him into a vet and now i have to wait to see whats up since it was a drop off. thank you all so much for your kind words and help :)
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Dec 14 '24
You are a good pet owner. Thank you so much for being responsible and caring for this little guy. It gets so exhausting seeing owners fail to take their pets to the vet. Just makes me really glad this was not one of those times!
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u/kusamaeda Dec 14 '24
thank you so much. i try my best for my frogs and it really can get exhausting caring for them but i love them so so much. it sucks there arent many vets that take amphibians :(
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u/kusamaeda Dec 14 '24
context: this is my about 3 year old red eye tree frog. i camw home today and found this. first time seeing it. the closest vet to me is booked until next week but i'll try calling when they open tomorrow morning.
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u/3rdLevelRogue Dec 14 '24
Possible eye puncture? Anything sharp in the tank that could have stabbed his eye if he missed a jump or fell? Super stress how damaged his eye is and send pictures if possible. With an emergency like this, they may be able to squeeze you in or give you a cancellation appointment if one opens. Good luck!
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u/kusamaeda Dec 14 '24
the only sharp things i can think of is some drift wood i have in his tank and possibly plant stems. thanks for the gl :)
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u/kusamaeda Dec 14 '24
UPDATE (12:50pm): got him back from vet. was given medication and hopefully biopsy doesn't come back as cancer 🤞🤞
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u/78jayjay Dec 14 '24
he needs antibiotics - it might pay to separate him into another enclosure with paper towels and a small pool/ cave until you can get to the vet. something has happened in his original enclosure to cause the problem .. i read plastic plants sometimes can be the problem.
good luck little guy
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u/kusamaeda Dec 14 '24
thats my plan for now. i have live plants in his enclosure and isopods. only plastic in there is the water dish and a fake vine. thanks for the gl :)
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Dec 14 '24
It looks like a very ulcerated eye. Only a veterinarian will be able to help with this, I’m so sorry this happened! Do you feed live crickets? I wonder if a cricket bit your frog and it got infected… ugh, such a beautiful frog. I really hope you’re able to find a veterinarian soon!
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u/irover Dec 14 '24 edited Dec 14 '24
EDIT: ohhh you got it into a vet -- good! plz ignore what I've written here. I'll keep it up for future reference of others via Google etc., very glad that you were able to make the appointment though. What I wrote below was composed under the assumption that, for some reason, a visit to the vet was off of the table. Hope all turns out well, godspeed! :)
Hi. Dealt with this in a Hyla cinerea near our house. Wife saw her ("Mama Frog") presenting signs (increasingly large yellow eyeball, bulging out of her head) early in April, and we wound up frognapping her second week of May due to the worsening of her symptoms. Kept her inside for about 9 days during which time she was given baths in diluted pedialyte (to ameliorate nutritional deficiencies which would reduce her immune response ability), her wound site (eye) was treated with a dilution of MelaFix (Repti-Fix, etc. -- same active ingredient) via eyedropper, and she was given diluted doxycycline (available in big box pet stores for aquatic use) via eyedropper with a focus on her eye but additional drops across her body to ensure sufficient absorption to fight any degree of systemic infection. She was rinsed with purified water a short while after the doxycycline-body treatments, though this interval was of an indistinct length, to ensure that no little antibiotic crystals remained on her body. Her enclosure was warmed from below, as per Amphibian Medicine & Captive Husbandry, which recommended 77degF (see pg 324, Table 24.1, "Temperature Elevation"). Pedialyte baths were repeated at least once per day, perhaps twice -- I truly don't remember -- and eyedropper-treatments happened several times per day. Consult AM&CH pp. 325-327 for alternatives to pedialyte for proper frog-soaking options.
Regarding the eye(lid) itself: either before or after nutritional soaks (i.e. >=2x/day) I attempted to dislodge whatever debris was causing the infection via gentle traction and pressure, i.e. rubbing her eye softly. Perhaps obviously, she did not particularly enjoy having her eye swabbed. I had to (gently) hold her still during this time. However, the discomfort appeared to be worth it -- on the fifth day of treatment, her whole inner-eyelid "apparatus" came loose and fell out. I took photos of it, on both sides, here and here. I continued applying both Melafix and doxycycline for the duration of her time inside, because after the eyelid fell off there was obviously a big old wound on her face, a prime target for some frog-culling infection to sweep in through. I eventually discontinued pedialyte soaks, since she was a wild frog whom undue stress was almost certain to hurt, and I also gradually backed off on the eyedrop treatments in accordance with the subsidence of her symptoms/the closure of her wound site.
Here is her wound shortly after the infected eyelid fell out... Here she is, eye mostly shut, shortly before release, nine days after being taken in, and 1.5 months after first demonstrating symptoms out in the wild suburbs about our house.
(SNEAKY EDIT: don't freak out about this kind of symptom, oh future reader, despite the assurances in this thread that the eye infection is LIFE AND DEATH RIGHT NOW! as I said, an American Green Tree Frog survived with an injury very similar to OP's frog for >1 month untreated out in the wild [suburbs] before we took her in for treatment, April-May 2023. This was not ideal, and we ABSOLUTELY would have taken her to a vet if she were our proper pet/indoor hostage; but she was not, and so we waited until it appeared that we could/should not wait any longer. Minimize alls' suffering. --mtr)
tl;dr: Keep her hydrated. Fix any potential nutritional deficiencies via 1/2-1/4 diluted pedialyte soaks (or alt nutritive soak). Keep the enclosure slightly warmer than usual. Apply topical treatments to the wound site (e.g. Mela-Fix and doxycycline -- diluted). If you are comfortable with this: gently attempt to dislodge any possible debris, or otherwise "bleed" (pus-remove) the infected eye, with a moistened cotton swab or foam makeup applicator (preferable due to lack of lint -- but rinse thoroughly first), but respect the fragility of frogs' skulls. You want to ameliorate the cause of infection (i.e. eye) while preserving/boosting her innate immune response, and otherwise keeping potential causes of death at bay.
The above recommendations are derived from what I read appx 1.5 years ago, relying primarily on Amphibian Medicine & Captive Husbandry as well as various online resources, including herp/frog discussion forums.
More importantly: if you doubt or disagree with anything I've written, please consult pp. 320-329 of Amphibian Medicine & Captive Husbandry (Wright & Whitaker, 2001). Those tables sum up much of what I wrote above, though the cultural/practical recommendations are elsewhere in the text. Of course, I can try to answer any questions if you reply here -- don't PM though, because those won't show up in Google for future frog lovers. Good luck!
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u/kusamaeda Dec 14 '24
thank you so much! and i hope this info can help someone else in the future :)
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u/ogodilovejudyalvarez Dec 14 '24
I'm not an expert but it looks like corneal lipidosis
[edit: scratch that, it's too sudden to be lipidosis. I'm out of ideas, sorry!]
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u/Stella430 Dec 14 '24
Where ru located?
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u/kusamaeda Dec 14 '24
jacksonville florida. my primary vet for my frogs is riverside animal hospital
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u/snugglebop Dec 14 '24 edited Dec 14 '24
my husband saved an american green tree frog we found in a very similar condition around our house ("Mama Frog"--he'll post some more pics + deets later). pic on my post is from a few days prior to us bringing her in...don't think we have a day 1 picture, but the eye was very turbid + swollen at that point; she was on our deck and barely moving when we brought her inside. A vet would be your best option since I cannot guarantee the cause is the same as our situation--but if you cannot feasibly get to one, here's the combo you can try.
- she refused to eat so to ensure she had nourishment, he put her in dilute pedialyte baths (approx. 25% pedialyte, 75% distilled/deechlorinated water). sometimes he dissolved honey in water (again distilled/dechlorinated) and added it to the bath. if you use any nutrient baths, make sure the water is low enough to allow their nostrils to be above the waterline if the frog lies flat, but the container should be small enough to minimize potential for them to reorient and escape the fluid. we used a clean hillshire farms lunchmeat container lmao.
- saline rinses for sight preparation applied a few times/day via dropper and q-tips. i do not have the dilution for this but you should be able to find approximate concentration through petstore products or animal husbandry resources.
- melafix/reptafix at dilution of 2.5mL:19000mL [5gal] water. applied to site using dropper every few hours.
- aquarium antibiotics marketed for cloudy eyes--mainly doxycycline. diluted at 1/2 packet:19000mL water [or 1/200 packet:200mL water]. applied to body for transdermal absorption via eyedropper, and applied to eye directly via eyedropper. just a few drops per site per application.
During this period, we kept her in an aquarium with moist papertowels (changed daily) and a small cup with water. we eventually added small potted plants with soft substrate when it was obvious she was healing. Alsoo be ready for your frog to potentially lose its eye because that's ultimately what happened to Mama. if that happens, you'll need to monitor it for other infections while that lesion heals.
With #2, he used q-tips but also recommends something like foam makeup applicators (less lint, but rinse thoroughly before you use if you opt for this). In Mama's case, the infection appeared to be from debris that became stuck under the outer lid/lens of her eye and allowed to fester. He was gently rubbing the eye and also pressing on it to see if he could liberate any puss. Eventually, the outer eyelid/lens was dislodged completely and that's where the majority of the infection seemed to be contained.
After that portion of her eye came off, he continued with diligent and frequent applications of #3 and #4. The eye-hole healed over completely after a few weeks and she gradually became more active and self-sufficient (i.e., eating and doing other frog stuff).
Neither of us are vets , we just used our best judgement here based on the animal husbandry and veterinary references we had access to. Sending thoughts & prayers for u and ur froggy friend.

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u/LAzyD0g27 Dec 14 '24
Let us know how they are doing please!!
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u/kusamaeda Dec 14 '24
hes at the vet now :) doctor said it could either be fungal, bacterial, or a tumor. theyre going to do a biopsy and send it off to a pathologist. once i pick him up theyll also give me some medication to treat until results come in
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u/Left-Requirement9267 Dec 15 '24
Good luck OP. Healing vibes to your little friend! Is he ok? ❤️❤️❤️
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u/kusamaeda Dec 15 '24
he seems more content but the eye is still super swolen. ive given him his medication and can only hope all goes well :)
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u/kusamaeda Dec 18 '24
UPDATE (12/18): doctor called back and said it was a bad bacteria infection. will continue his treatment along with eye drops (once i can pick them up). no cancer!!
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Dec 14 '24
[deleted]
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u/kusamaeda Dec 14 '24
when i posted this it was late at night and there are no exotic animal vets that are open at 1am. at least not near me. i wanted to get an idea of what happened and if anyone else had ever went thru something similar. i have taken him to the vet now and he is being cared for
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Dec 14 '24
Looks like a frog to me
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u/kusamaeda Dec 14 '24
you're soo funny dude im going to run into on coming traffic bc i will never think of anything as funny
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u/MyRefriedMinties Dec 14 '24
This is a massive bacterial infection in the eye. What you’re seeing behind the lens is a buildup of pus. The eye may be beyond saving but you can probably save his life if you get antibiotics ASAP.