Megophrys nausuta trouble

i came home today to find my second nausuta in a week dead-this time it was one of my adult females. the first one looked a little off since he never went for cover during the day-spent it out sitting-sometimes for long durations in the water - i thought perhaps he was the male that occasionally called at night and was camping out waiting for the females at the water dish. but when i got home today my female was also found dead-aslo floating in the water 'dish' which in no more than 2 inches deep currently -this is lower then her head when sitting! it has been very damp and moderate in temps here -not really getting above 80 outside. the tank has damp soil substrate and layers of dry leaves and cork bark-simulating a temperate forest floor. i am told these are a mountain species and thus should be kept cooler -are the temps too high? it will get down to 60 in here if i leave the window open at night. i can take her in tonight to cut her open to see if there is anything obvious -but any educated ideas on this? anyone know of a good website/care sheet for them?

Hi Paris,
I have kept montana at work and we didn't let them get above 74 F (23 C)

Ed

hey ed-how low can they go and still be eating fine and going about normally?

Hi Paris,
The winter lows were about 55F. I didn't try to get them any cooler.

Ed

Hey Paris,

Sorry to hear about your nasuta death. Unfortunately, I can relate. About a month and a half ago I purchased a group of five (probably all males unfortunately)that looked great when I got them. None of them ate for over a week and one of them died at about week 2. I had a gross necropsy done and it turned out that the animal was completely impacted with hookworms, whipworms and strongyles. No food was in the digestive tract. The fat reserves were completely depleted.

Since then, my other four have started eating pretty regularly. Wax worms are the food item they go for best, though at least one animal is still not eating that well. Also I have not gotten fecals from all of them yet, the ones I have gotten have been huge and full of worms.

I have been keeping the temperatures between 64 and 74 degrees, though 70 is by far the norm.

I am using a paper towel substrate and clay pot hides and magnolia leaf litter. Two of the animals are together and two are kept individually. The separate ones have a shallow water bowl which I occasionally place them in (usually they hop out immediately). The other two have 1:2 water:land with separate hides (they don't seem to like each other and will choose to be apart when all other conditions are equal).

I realize that this may not be what you are looking for but I always like to know what other people are doing with their animals, especially species that are not established yet in the captive bred pet trade. There is a posting about the species by a guy in washington that has bred nasuta in dendroboard's other frogs forum which lays out what he did.

Please post more info as it comes,

Brian

brian said:

Hey Paris,

Sorry to hear about your nasuta death. Unfortunately, I can relate. About a month and a half ago I purchased a group of five (probably all males unfortunately)that looked great when I got them. None of them ate for over a week and one of them died at about week 2. I had a gross necropsy done and it turned out that the animal was completely impacted with hookworms, whipworms and strongyles. No food was in the digestive tract. The fat reserves were completely depleted.


Please post more info as it comes,

Brian

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Here's a bit of a post from years back but it just died yet there is so much to it screaming for attention. I read with great concern about the effect of these internal parasites on this wonderful species of frog yet it could be applied to everything we keep. As a horseman and keeper of poultry, I worm my stock twice a year mainly with Panacure and/or Ivermectin. However, the type of product I use is cycled with other products so that there is no build up of resistance within parasite populations. My daughter is a vet and I put this question to her. So....the first thing she does is reach for her iPad! Very telling. Honey, I say, I can do that! Does anyone on here have some advice re round worms (nematodes), tape worms (Cestoda) and flat worms (liver flukes)? Thank you.

Blackbun said:

Here's a bit of a post from years back but it just died yet there is so much to it screaming for attention. I read with great concern about the effect of these internal parasites on this wonderful species of frog yet it could be applied to everything we keep. As a horseman and keeper of poultry, I worm my stock twice a year mainly with Panacure and/or Ivermectin. However, the type of product I use is cycled with other products so that there is no build up of resistance within parasite populations. My daughter is a vet and I put this question to her. So....the first thing she does is reach for her iPad! Very telling. Honey, I say, I can do that! Does anyone on here have some advice re round worms (nematodes), tape worms (Cestoda) and flat worms (liver flukes)? Thank you.

Click to expand...

Advice would be to get faeces checked on a regular basis. I don't advise routine treatment under most circumstances - you should know or at least suspect there is a problem before treating (no drugs are without risk of side effects). And there is some evidence that some "parasites" are important to the normal gut ecology and even development of the immune system.

When it comes to treatment, discuss with a vet who can check the animals over and assess the situation - if there is a heavy parasite burden it's possible that treatment can kill the amphib as the worms die, setting up a severe pneumonia (lungworms, obviously) or enteritis, or even other organ issue depending on the location of the parasites. Concurrent antibiotics and anti-inflammatories may be advisable.

It seems to be true that many, probably most, wild caught amphibians, plus many captive bred, have a variety of parasites - certainly the vast majority of the ones I get to check do so. If the animals are otherwise healthy then the parasites may not be a problem, of course.

Another piece of general advice would be to get post mortem examinations if at all possible - you can learn a lot about the general health of your animals as well as cause of death (sometimes).

Hope this helps.