# My Toad With Missing Eye Is Secreting Slime And Acting Strange



## Jack Baron (Aug 16, 2018)

Hi, guys. I'm new to this forum, but not very new to keeping toads. I've been doing it for awhile, but I'm not a professional, and my newest toad is doing some strange things I have had no experience with before. 
The toad I'm concerned about is an American toad that is still growing, and I have had her for about four days. I found her outside while I was looking for crickets for the others by mistake, and, she is blind in one eye. I would say it's missing because I cant see it anywhere, but she keeps it shut almost completely and it's very difficult to see if it's there or not. I know she can't see with it because I did some simple stuff like test what she reacts to on each side. I'm really planning on getting her to a herp vet soon but I haven't had the time yet and I am very concerned for her. She started to secrete a very thick mucus from her skin and she seems to be fairly irritated with it, because she keeps trying to rub it off of herself. I'm not sure if she's shedding or what, because she has a water dish for soaking there and she is completely aware of it. I am very concerned for her and am looking for answers on what may be going on with her.


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## el Snappo (Mar 4, 2017)

Jack; This is absolutely Twilight Zone material! :gasp: I swear to god; I was reading about one eyed and blind toads _only this evening!!!_

Honest to god! Would ye believe, I was reading up on Wax worms ~ I'm looking for some toad food myself ~ and, ye know what google's like? Ye get drawn aside and end up god knows where .....

Well, I found myself reading about other peoples experiences with Toads, _loosing eyes._ Being eyeballed, but blind. Tomato Frogs going down with it. All sorts.

_Jack: *Isolate That Toad!!!!!*_ mg: I remember now; One guy had this mysterious issue turn up. He basically lost his whole damn collection!!! Get her the hell out of your place and take what ever measures ye consider best.

Ye couldn't make this up!!! I swear on my Dogs lives, I'm telling the truth. Maybe the guy had been feeding wax worms and wondered if they'd caused it?

What ever. I don't remember slime. Tomato Frogs acted weirdly ~ don't remember how now. That was it! They kept their physical eyeballs. But, went clearly blind! And, he lost the lot. Wiped him out!

I do so hope ye haven't just brought Chernobyl into ye room!

Please do keep us informed.


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## Jack Baron (Aug 16, 2018)

Oh gosh, thank you for telling me that! I have her in a cage with another toad because she wouldn't calm down on her own, but I thought she just became injured outside. I never even considered she could be sick and I feel like a real idiot for not taking that precaution. I guess I just screwed my other toad, but I will separate them immediately.


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## Jack Baron (Aug 16, 2018)

I'll be sure to look into this further. Thank you.


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## Jack Baron (Aug 16, 2018)

UPDATE

I just checked in on her and noticed something that looked like eye goop right underneath her bad eye. I was looking at it and used a Q-tip to try and clean it a little (I was doing that before to make sure it wasn't bleeding or anything) and a kind of stringy disgusting line of crap came out. I don't want to sound ridiculous, but I felt like at first that was a part of her rotting eye I pulled out or something. Then again, I found out she is beginning to shed, and it may have just been a piece of old skin, but I've never heard of a toad's eye shedding off before. I feel really bad for my two toads now because (even though they're a completely different species, and, the male is much bigger than her,) they're kind of heart broken now that they aren't in the same cage and they can't settle down. I hope she'll be alright.


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## el Snappo (Mar 4, 2017)

Found it! Dug into my History!


" *Re: Waxworms causing problems?* 

I have had a very similar experience.

At the time i had a group of 4 wildcaught opacum that were 3years in my care, a toadlet i caught and 2years in my care, and a captive born tomato frog 2 years in my care.

All had similar separate tanks .. mostly coco fiber, cypress mulch, leaf litter. Each had isopods, springtails, small flat and round millipedes i believe not to be poisonous, and earthworms roaming the tanks providing cleanup and prey.

Isopods made up the majority of diet due to abundance but i would always provide crickets like once a month. i'd provide waxworm occasionally but i could never seem to get a good batch at the petstore and never kept well in my fridge often being DOA when i did try to feed. 

Anyway within a 2 month period i lost all animals. The toad and salamanders developed lethargy followed by rear limb paralysis then death. The tomato frog developed blindness making feeding diffucult and causing it trauma hopping madly in tank.

Again this year i lost a captive born 2year in my care t. shanjing and another captiveborn and 2year in my care tomato frog. both went blind, the t. shanjing particularly bad with the eyes rotted away. both my blind tomatos had no rot just blank stare and obvious vision problems in tank.

The only thing i could think caused the deaths

1) bad waxworm batches.. possibly from cross contamination from petstore. i primarily buy my crickets from a small petstore that doesn't keep any herps but the waxworms i buy from petco/petsmart that does

2)other cross contamination from petstore. i think during these time i might have bought crickets from petco/petsmart due to convenience.

3)the waxworms themselves causing high fat/vitamin a levels in my pets causing liver issues. i don't think they ever ate enough for this too happen though

4)earthworm deaths causing toxic decomposition gasses. my tanks are pretty self sustaining, usually all i do is mist, stir up the substrate and add more isopods. large worms would occasionally die at the surface and even the isopods seem to avoid them."


:eek4:


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## el Snappo (Mar 4, 2017)

Just posted my quoted story, then saw ye update, Jack.

_This_ is how we strengthen the knowledge bank, my friend! :no1: Exchanging notes. Brain storming. _Sharing!_ God bless the internet!

Skin shedding? Dunno. I've had a fair bit of experience with toads too. Like toads. Honestly never, personally, experienced any eye trouble with them.

Nor can I really see a process as natural as skin shedding impinging, to ye stated degree, on an eye. (It's not made any easier, by the fact that we can't be there, to see this exact situation for ourselves).

Thinking: What sort of medicines have ye available, out there? I'd be thinking of some sort of mild, all round Bath or Wash. Couldn't hurt to get some sort of medicated deal on that eye.

Cleaning it up best ye can may reveal something more too? Sod toads feelings of loneliness though. I'd still be isolating and sanitising.

Maybe she got pecked by a bird. May be she's got some god awful disease. Time will tell. But, I'd err on the side of the rest of my collection.


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## Jack Baron (Aug 16, 2018)

el Snappo said:


> Just posted my quoted story, then saw ye update, Jack.
> 
> _This_ is how we strengthen the knowledge bank, my friend! :no1: Exchanging notes. Brain storming. _Sharing!_ God bless the internet!
> 
> ...


Sir, thank you so much for helping me with this! I never thought anyone would reply so fast, lol. I can't thank you enough for telling me this, and I shall keep her eye as clean as possible and take her to a herp vet as soon as I can. I really hope she doesn't have any diseases  but only God and some experts know now, I guess. That story you sent me was terrifying to read, and I feel really bad for the guy that happened to. I do appreciate you sending it to me though :3 knowledge bank. Again, thank you very much!


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## Shellsfeathers&fur (Jan 18, 2009)

From the photos you've posted presumably you have them still in the same enclosure?

I can't really believe you would take an animal from the wild and put it straight in with one of your own. Given what you are saying about her state of health, you must separate them. I would also give the original enclosure a thorough clean.


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## Jack Baron (Aug 16, 2018)

No, don't worry, they were separated. Also, every pet I have was wild. I apologize for the confusion, yes, they were separated before I found out this was an injury, and she has no other medical problems or diseases. She is okay, and so are is the other toad. Sorry again, I appreciate the concern, though.


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## Shellsfeathers&fur (Jan 18, 2009)

Ah ok. Presumably it is legal in your area to take them out of the wild?


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## Jack Baron (Aug 16, 2018)

Yeah, there's no law against it, unless they're endangered of course, then you aren't supposed to touch them. But yes, all my toads came from outside. I was told that my toad's eye was severed a while ago by some sort of injury outside, and everything is fine. I'm actually really surprised that there was no infection or anything on her, but I really do feel dumb for putting in the same cage when I got her. I don't think before I do, and I really have to be more careful. I'm really lucky that I didn't screw my other toad with some terrible disease or something.


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## Shellsfeathers&fur (Jan 18, 2009)

Jack Baron said:


> Yeah, there's no law against it, unless they're endangered of course, then you aren't supposed to touch them. But yes, all my toads came from outside. I was told that my toad's eye was severed a while ago by some sort of injury outside, and everything is fine. I'm actually really surprised that there was no infection or anything on her, but I really do feel dumb for putting in the same cage when I got her. I don't think before I do, and I really have to be more careful. I'm really lucky that I didn't screw my other toad with some terrible disease or something.


How would you know the eye was severed by a previous injury outside?


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## Jack Baron (Aug 16, 2018)

I wouldn't, but I was talking to a friend of mine and I let her have the toad for awhile because she wanted to look at her eye, and she said something either damaged it and caused the blindness or it was very underdeveloped, but she said the chances of it being underdeveloped were a lot lower. She told me that my toad has no visible infection, and no other damage done except for her eye, but her dad was a herp vet, and he knows a lot more than the both of us, so I'm going to give him the toad to look at when he has time. 

I'm really surprised on how well she can get around, lol, because when I went blind in my left eye three years ago I hit a wall every other minute. I guess she's smarter than me .~.


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## Shellsfeathers&fur (Jan 18, 2009)

Eh?

I thought you'd only had the toad for four days and didn't have time to take her to a vet. Now you're saying a friend has had her and given her opinion, but her father, a vet, hasn't time to look at her?


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## Jack Baron (Aug 16, 2018)

Her father has been really busy, I guess. He couldn't take me before, and he probably won't even be able to see me until next week or so. When I told my friend about the toad she came over to see it yesterday. The reason I posted on the forum about my toad was because she started getting agitated and slimey, but I didn't know she was shedding.


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## el Snappo (Mar 4, 2017)

Jack; I was looking at ye photo's, earlier. That toads face is visibly asymmetrical, isn't it? I mean, the dodgy eye side actually looks like it's suffered blunt force trauma. Notice that?

No way of ever knowing what happened there, of course. But. as long as she's survived and is over it, I guess she'll be fine now.

What type's ye other toad, by the way?

I've kept eight types of toad, that I can remember off the top of my head. Never had any North American ones though. Was offered Gulf Toads, one time. And I once came That close to grabbing a pair of Colorado River's at a massive expo I attended.

Like I say; I like toads! :mrgreen:


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## Jack Baron (Aug 16, 2018)

Hi, Snappo! The other kind of toad in the cage with her I can't frickin' identify certainly, ugh. I'm terrible at identifying toads, but my friend thinks it's an American toad. I'm so terrible at identifying toads, I apologize. I have a frog I can't identify either, ugh! I always try, though. Now that there's a forum site I can probably get some other opinions, which is good. I haven't had these toads awhile, and God help me I'm no expert, but I love taking care of them. I'm still a learner, lol, so when you responded to me about my toad at first I got hyped. xD thank you again, Snappo.


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## el Snappo (Mar 4, 2017)

Jack Baron said:


> The other kind of toad in the cage with her I can't frickin' identify certainly .....



​ 
​​:2thumb: Get some clear photo's of him up! Top. Side. Underside. 


Also, where, in the US, are ye? What state?

I love doing this. I identify American birds too, on a birding site. I just happen to have a better North American Field Guide than most novice birders in the states would have.

For ye toad, I'll just trawl Google, using my eye for detail and sheer, bloody mindedness to track it down. It's amusing and tends to teach me more about toads too.

Right now though, I'm about to watch something on Netflix


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## Jack Baron (Aug 16, 2018)

Oh my gosh, really?! Wow, that's amazing! Thank you so much for helping me with this! I'm still fairly new at all this stuff, and you've been here for awhile so I was expecting something like "you don't even know what kind of toad you have? Evil, evil.." Thank you so much again, dude. I'll be sure to get those pictures as soon as I have a camera again .~. I don't have a phone, ffff, and I borrowed someone to take those pictures. I will definitely try to get them for you. Thanks again! I'm in Pennsylvania, sir. 

btw ur my new best friend X3


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## victorsgrace (Oct 26, 2013)

Hey man  Thought I'd drop my 2 cents here and hope it helps.

From the data you've posted above, and per my own experience, some data here are important to keep in mind.

1) Wild caught animals (as a stable datum) can be expected to have parasites of one kind of another. In the wild, most of them survive OK with it, becuause they freely roam around and aren't contained in a smaller area all the time.

- For this reason, you should always quarantene any new animals for 30 days, to keep tabs on it, before introducing it to any of your other animals. (also with captive bred, new animals) (*and in her case, especially when you can see she's already injured).

2) Based on your discription, I can't determine if she's been shedding or not. However, when a toad sheds normally, it isn't stressed out about it.

Stating that you can't determine her eye injury, it could be caused by a foreign objects in the eye, parasitic infestation or a bacterial infestation.

- Again, *quanrantene*! <3


Otherwise also keep in mind that stress itself is very harmful to toads and can strain their immune system. To let her settle in, it would be best of you to put her in her own tank in an area where she isn't disturbed much and just feed her a few gut-fed crickets she can catch (pref. with not too much vegetation in the tank to help out her one-eyed state) and just let her be for a while.

- If you aren't dealing with an overwhelm of parasites or severe bacterial infection, you could be in luck and she'll calm down. <3


Regarding substrate, I never recommend coconut fiber, unless dealing with tiny toadlings. Coconut fiber stays very damp when moist, you can risk your toad digesting some by mistake when catching prey (if you don't feed them out of the tank) and (for my liking) there are too many cases out there where coconut fiber's been a carrier for paraistes or just seems to be a better breeding ground for bacterial batches.

- Instead, I recommend you go to a plant store and buy some *chemical free* and *maneur free* mulch. This keeps moisture more naturally, your toadie can more easily burry a little and there's no risk of it eating anything unplanned.


Regarding feeders, waxworms and mealworms should only be considered snacks. They aren't much else than fat and protein, not much nutrition.

- Instead, go for some gut-fed crickets, nightcrawlers or dubia roaches. And feed and water them yourself on chemical-free veggies so you know what your toadie gets inboards.



Good luck with her <3


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## Jack Baron (Aug 16, 2018)

Thank you very much! This is all very helpful for me. <3 I'll be sure to keep all of these in mind. Thanks again!


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