I had 3 White's tree frogs, 2 were 7 years plus old (both purchased as under-one-year-old from captive breeders at the Reptile Expo)



My female, Beep, died earlier this year, she had always been sickly, but she succumbed to congestive heart failure in January and apparently had fatty liver disease due to the heart condition. Really wrecked me.



My male, Sparky, has always been hale and hearty. On Thursday, I fed Sparky and my remaining female (Pibbo) their earthworms, and didn't check on them on Friday (my husband checked them.) On Saturday morning, I turned on the light and Sparky was sitting on a bagful of blood. It was his own translucent skin just filling up, mostly under his jawline. I raced him to the exotic vet just before 8 AM, met up with his vet, and was panicking. She extracted a balled up earthworm that had settled under his tongue. She was sure he had tried to dislodge it and had exhausted himself trying to get it to swallow normally. She gave me metcam for inflammation, cipro to help with any infection, and she administered a shot of vitamin K to help him stop bleeding internally.



I got home, put him in a warm room to rest, took my daughter to a birthday party, and when I got home he had passed away.



I have never heard of an earthworm doing so much damage. I opened his mouth post mortem and saw the hole under his tongue where his mouth had been ravaged. Not sure if it was all from the worm, or from his desperate attempts to dislodge. I have no idea how long he was in distress, as he was fed on Thursday late at night after the Olympics, and I went to work on Friday. I feel terrible. I still can't believe my gorgeous frog is dead. He was my first and favorite frog, and I am just devastated.



Once he climbed out and got lost, and I found him by croaking and he answered. He also liked to climb up and sit on you, and if you were in the room, he would watch for you. When Beep was sick, he sat next to her a lot, and they never fought over worms (he fought with Pibbo a lot, she's kind of a dud as far as frogs go, very shy personality and really she only came out of her 'shell' once Beep had passed.) He was an interactive frog.



I seriously am hurting. At least Beep was expected, and she held on a month longer than they expected with supportive care.



I don't know how bad it's going to be when I lose my dog and cats, but I suspect I'll need meds.



Anyone else ever have a freak accident like this with an earthworm?



I am including picture links because it was so horrifying. Both were taken after the vet visit and worm extraction, and he was expected to survive. Also, the bleeding had subsided and was clearing up. I am still just shocked that he has died.



http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3005/2768013111_5dd6d5d74d_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3288/2768011829_aa904e7df7_b.jpg

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