African Clawed Frog Injured... Need Help

I have an African clawed frog that was mishandled by a young child that got a hold of him. He was basically taken out of the tank and thrown back in several times and was floating sideways when I caught what was happening. Immediately he was given froggy CPR, removed the room and the tank (which was a mess and needs to be redone), and placed in a bucket while I got together a 5 gallon tank and cycled filter to temporarily house him so I can redo his tank (a 20 long). Anyway, he's been doing better and moving around some today, no issues going for air, though he has no appetite. When the incident happened his eyes looked very red as well as the area around them (I assume capillary damage) but today he's looking much much better, except that he has some discoloration on the top of his head. When I initially got him into some clean water I temp matched it and put prime and stress gaurd in it, but the discoloration had me wondering whether he needs to be medicated to prevent infection or fungal growth, and I'm concerned that the discoloration on the top of his head is fungal. I was going to treat with paragaurd to be safe, but I cannot find any info at all as to whether it's safe for frogs or not. What do I do here?

 

I would not treat him unless you’re certain that a medication is frog-safe, and you may not need to treat him at all. That doesn’t look like fungus to me, usually fungus is “fluffier”. It could just be a patch of dead skin. If he’s improving I wouldn’t risk stressing him out with medication.

Not really important to the subject, but “he” looks more like a “She” to me, based on how chubby he is.

 

Well she it is then. Lol. There's also a lump on her back. Kind of visible in the photo. Looks like there's a pea under her skin. And the discoloration on her head looks like it could be getting a fluffy build up on it. I'll have to keep an eye on her.

 

I’d recommend you just watch and see what happens, if the patch starts growing or changing texture try to find a frog-safe anti-fungal. And I’m not sure what the lump would be, hopefully it’s just a swollen area and it’ll go away. I have five ACFs and have never needed to treat them with medication, so I can’t give you advice on what to use. I hope she gets better, and I’m glad she seems to be improving already!

 

Figured I'd give an update... the discoloration on her head her is gone and she's moving around much better. The bump on her back is still there. She's very hand-shy now and that presents a problem... She's always been hand fed and now she won't eat. She hasn't had an appetite at all since the incident. I can't just leave food floating around so I'm at a loss. I know she's got some heft to her and isn't going to die from a week without food but I'm starting to get worried cause she needs to eat soon. Any ideas? She usually eats dried mealworms and has a voracious appetite for them. Lately she won't go near food.

 

Have you tried tweezers? That’s a good way to hand-feed without the “hand” part of the equation. It might take a while for her to get used to the new thing being put near her face, but when she figures out it has food hopefully she’ll warm up to it.

 

Well we tried the hand again, then the tweezers an hour later. She starts to freak out whenever we even get near the tank. I see her twitching like she's breathing fast but fully under water so I know that's not it. But there's some rapid movement from her sides and throat when we get close and she just tries to escape us. I'm going to try and feed her with some hemostats I have and hopefully the extra long distance means she won't freak out. If that fails I'm probably just going to toss some cheap feeder gold fish from Wal-Mart in the tank and let her eat when she feels comfortable, probably at night. I hope to wake up and see them all gone. Lol. Don't really know what else to try. She may also be reacting to the new tank she's in because it's smaller as well. I haven't been able to get her original tank ready for her return yet.

 

I highly recommend against feeder goldfish, they have a serrated spine that can tear up a frog’s insides and contain an enzyme that prevents the frog from being able to absorb certain vitamins. All in all, not a good snack. Could you try Reptomin floating pellets? They’re fairly easy to clean out if she doesn’t eat them.