Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This morning, when we went out into the garage, my sister found an American toad caught in a mousetrap. After examining it, we found it had a broken leg, but the trap had caught about a 1/4" of its lower body, so I don't know if any organs were crushed. How do you heal a toad with a broken leg? At first, I put it in a tank with my frog/toad crossbreed Dory, but I moved to a small container so it couldn't move much. Please help. (My sister already named him Dusty.)

what on earth is your frog/toad hybrid/ more detail please/as for the trapped toad if he dies he dies.don't prolong his agony if he looks in pain.

I agree, and if your sister has her heart set on it that much. Do what my neighbors did. Put a new one in before she notices.

They ordered a terrirum and some tadpole eggs for their youngest last christmas. Welp the tadpoles died. So they got him new ones. He's never known.

I agree that if an animal is suffering and has little to no hope of living a decent life, it should be euthanized.But, if an animal seems like it can be saved and can live a decent life, I always try to do what I can. Can the toad move at all? Is the leg just dragging? Does it have any movement, extending or retracting? You know those two little pointy bones that are visible toward the lower part of the toad's back...are they normal looking and uniform, or were they crushed, too? This will help you determine possibilities for the toad's future. If none of these bones were broken, you may only have the broken leg to deal with, which would give him a better outlook. If the toad can move, is he attempting to be active? Does he respond when you try to touch him, or is he acting very dull? If he seems active, and doesn't seem to have any crushed bones in his body, see if he will eat any slow-moving prey, such as mealworms or very small earthworms. If he does survive and the leg is manageable, he will have to be kept on a soft substrate and fed very carefully, because he won't be able to hunt. I have heard of people saving toads who have had both of their back legs removed by dogs and lawnmowers and similar, and it has worked for them. I would try keeping your toad in similar conditions, soft, moist(not wet, too sticky) substrate like Bed-A-Beast, a small container so he doesn't have to move far to eat and bathe, and a very low-sided, smooth-edged water dish. If he cannot move, you may have to pick him up and put him in the water dish and remove him after he soaks for a bit. I have a baby box-turtle who can't move his back legs, and I have to put him in his water dish for a while everyday, and take him out after a bit.
Frogs and toads can sometimes be very resillient, he may surprise you. I saved a tree frog two years ago the my cat had in her mouth. It was almost dead, covered in dirt and hair, and had a huge puncture wound in it's side from the cat's tooth. A piece of tissue was hanging out of it's side, and it became necrotic, so I had to remove it, or else it would've rotted and killed the frog. After that, I kept the wound covered with antibiotic ointment and took very good care of the frog, and it survived all winter in my care, and healed with only a little scar on it's side. The next year, when it became warm enough that the other frogs were emerging, I released it, and I saw it every so often all year. I even saw it the next spring, it had been strong enough to survive the winter for yet another year. It was such a neat thing to do, to help a little wild creature like that, and watch it thrive. I hope you try to help your toad in whatever way you can, good luck with it!