Hi gang-its a long post but info I think would be useful in an emergancy:

One of the Vets that JohnGibeau recommended geeting a consult from, Dr. Brad Wilson, DVM, wrote back and helped rule out what might be ailing my Adult Male CB Tinctorius. I felt the information that he wrote to me could be of help to the rest of the community, and in an emergancy like the one that I had(see below post 911), you may find that the info will come to your aid and be able to save a frog that is declining. You can read his replies to me here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/frognet/message/36163

and get a sense as to the ways he came to some diagnosis or at least see what the symptoms told him as to the cause.

As a follow up for those of you who knew about 911, I have now an alert, well postured, normal motor skilled Tinc. back. However, he stopped eating and producing stools this past monday. As Dr. Wilson said, an obstruction in a frog this size is more uncommon(and more common with ranids, bufonids, and leptodactylids feeding on larger food items), and the sudden decline of health that was observed would suggest that a calcium deficiency was not the culprit; he felt that dehydration was suggested with the symptoms noted(icoordination, pressing body to ground, inactivity) and suspicions of this was further confirmed by Frog's improvement to soaking and a temporary increase of humidity(placed in a deli cup with very wet paper towels).

The info I felt was of great use is his detailed description of what I might do now for a visually normal frog but one that is not eating. I have no vets nearby with sufficient knowlege of frogs and more so Darts and the info allowed me to nurse this frog to hopefully sustain him. I was instructed to force feed the Tinc. with the consideration that this treatment is stressfull and could result in death and if the frog has an unlikely obstruction than more harm may come to the frog as a result of the forced feeding. With all considered, I decided to force feed. If he doesn't begin eating then he will not survive anyways. If he has an obstruction the prognosis is not favorable, and if he has problem other then that, Dr. Wilson has seen quite a few frogs begin to eat voluntarily anywhere's from 1 week to 3 weeks after such treatment. Lets hope he begins to defecate within 24-36 hours as this would most likely indicate no obstruction.

It was quite an experience to make him into a frog mummy using a small peice of wet paper towel. The fly mash I made for him was hard to deliver to the back of the mouth, but he took it in after 2 tries and swallowed(did not choke) the 20 fly mash meal. He looks alert, unstressed and still right now. With a mouth that could hold 20 flies, you'd think that these guys could eat something bigger then the flies. I suppose the mashing made the difference.

Weather he lives or not, perhaps we can learn more about the veteranarian care of our precious, sensitive, and unique Darts.

Maggie