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Hi !

Chance the frog has lived in a 6 gal Eclipse all by himself since I bought him. I didn't like the current from the biowheel unit that came with it, so I got a Duetto 50 and use it at its lowest setting. Most of Chance's diet has been frozen brine shrimp. He always turned up his nose at Reptomin and the very few times I have fed him frozen bloodworms, he always seemed sluggish the day after, so I never made those a regular item.
His bloat developed very, very slowly, so I thought he was just getting fat. One weekend I noted that he was really starting to balloon a bit and was getting lethargic and floating a lot. I was sure he was on his way out. That was about 3 months ago. I checked his water but didn't find anything off, but I started very frequent water changes anyway. In about a week, he started swimming again and "walking the gravel".
After seeing that he had to really struggle to get air, I lowered his water level. He adapted to those quick jumps for air very quickly and I have no doubt that took a load off him. Of course, now he is in just a little over 2 gallons. I am changing 50% of his water every other night. He eats on the other nights. I vacuum all his leftovers out during the water changes.
The first med I tried was a product called OmniPur from SERA. I had read at pipidae.net that a girl cured her frog of dropsy with it. Unfortunately, it appears to not be sold here, so I got some from the UK. After all that, I stopped using it after 3 days because he seemed to be getting sluggish again. I was nervous about the med because it had Malachite Green in it. After some water changes with fresh carbon, I tried the Maracyn 1 and 2 combo (1/4 of a tablet each) to cover gram positve and gram negative potential. I did that treatment for a week.
I learned a lot about vets using fluid therapy (in conjunction with meds) from caudata.org. That is what got me interested in the saline treatments. There's more to Ringer's Solution than what we had to do with it in ye olde biology classes. Check out www.caudata.org/cc/articles/bloatEDK.shtml
Also review this
www.provet.co.uk/health/diseases/amphibianrehydration.htm
Anyway, Chance is now slightly better that that pic I attached. He is a little less ballooned with some wrinkled skin.
About 2 weeks ago I went through the Maracyn Plus treatment. The bottle calls for 1 ml per gallon for treatment, but I cautiously used only 1 ml for his 2 gallons. I thought that was a good med to use, because Martin T, who runs pipidae.net, had noted that a vet had dealt successfully with some "balloon frogs" with the 2 meds I found in Maracyn Plus. (basically a sulfa combo). I've also been adding vitamins and some calcium supplements to Chance's food in the last month.

That's a basic summary of what I have studied about bloat, amphibian antibiotics, and fluid therapy since I started trying to help Chance. I have bought syringes and even some potassium permanganate, but I want more advice from you guys before I attempt aspiration. (BTW - I tried to email that Georg guy that wrote the article but he never answered - language may be a problem. I found that site myself some time ago, but this is the only site I found where anyone talked about doing the procedure.)

I'm sure this post has gotten long enough : )
Let me know what you folks think and if you have any questions. I'd like to get Chance back down to normal if I can. I'm sure you can tell he means a lot to me : )

...Mac

Thanks for the feedback !

Sound like I need to definitely be looking at his diet.

BTW, I use tap water that has sat and I use Prime water treatment. Should I add any other additives ?

I am putting in 1 teaspoon of Epsom at water change. (He's currently in 2 gals.) Is that too much ???

I really appreciate the advice

...Mac

On the water, I was letting it sit for 24 hrs when I was changing weekly. With the smaller water amount I am now changing several nights per week. It sits for at least 6 hrs to get to same temp as the tank water. (and it is treated with Prime)

Todley, the Hikari biopure line is what I have used primarily. As I have indicated, he has had a lot of shrimp. My store usually has some krill, daphnia, and beefheart (all frozen).
I have never felt good about freeze dried stuff. I have gotten him to eat some "baby" reptomin in the last few weeks by soaking it in tank water and mashing it up. I've thought of putting some HBH bites on a small lab watch glass so they won't go in the gravel. The watchglass is nice and smooth. I don't know if he will be in shape for any live food, but what are good worms to look for ???

Thanks
Mac

Thanks everyone !

I have some 25g syringes coming in, and I plan on doing the aspiration. I have reviewed the Microgravity link thoroughly and Dr. Barb's instructions. I'd really like to see a good visual on that entry point if possible. I certainly don't want to injure my little guy's leg.
Thanks,
Mac