23 Aug 03

Matt,

I'm not aware of baytril coming in any strength other than the normal prescription solution. When I've had it prescribed for me it came in a little injector bottle that requires a syringe to remove. I looked it up and you mix the baytril 1:20 with water. In order to not waste the stuff I would find as narrow and short a receptacle that would hold the frog. Figure out how much water it will take to cover the frog about half to three quarters up. Almost all of my abrasion infections have been on the ventral half of the frog which aside from the obvious problems of complete submersion should be sufficient to get the coverage you need. I have found in my receptacles that it would take about 30ml of water. This then gets 1.5ml of baytril mixed in then the frog. The frogs tend not to sit still and will climb the receptacle so I occassionally swirl the water to keep the frog wet. Let the frog soak for about 5 minutes each day then return him to his quarantine shoebox. This is done for 7 days. This has all been under the direction of my vet who is well versed in herps (along with my experience and assistance). This has worked everytime I have had an open wound in a frog. I have cultured several frogs and all have turned positive for bacterial infections when they were sick.

I returned from IAD when we had the chytrid lectures and found some galacts with identical symptoms. I was panicked that chytrid was going to sweep my collection. I showed my vet chytrid articles and treatment plans - the whole 9 yards. He was impressed but still concerned about bacterial as a secondary if not primary infection so we went the baytril and antifungal double hit while he cultured belly impression slides. It turns out that it was bacterial and not fungal. The treated frogs all recovered. 1 or 2 died before I was able to notice and treat the problem (it was a quick killer). I now swear by baytril when used properly.

I did have a leuc years ago that had a nasty swelling on the side of his head. It appeared to be a cyst but was not weeping. I took him in and a cell culture was done. the results came back negative for any infection and the vet supposed it was a reaction from a splinter or something. I then thought of my own skin reactions to bromeliad spines when I scratched my arms cleaning tanks. I figured the leuc poked his face on a spine and had a reaction. The swelling went down in a week or two and the frog recovered completely. It was my first frog I bought from Chuck Powell back at the second(?) FD and I still have it.

Tim