# Frogs & Toads > Toads >  Toad leg amputation (lawnmower)

## Christy

Hi, my husband and I run a state permitted wildlife rehabilitation and rescue facility for turtles.  We can save turtles all day long, but this little injured toad is a new one for us, so I'm hoping for some help.  My husband was mowing today and didn't see the little toad until it was too late.  He had seen a snake, and was headed toward the snake to move it out of harm's way when he accidentally ran over the leg of this little toad.  It is a complete and clean amputation of the front left leg (at what I would call the elbow).  He brought the toad home and we'd like to help it.  I'm hoping for some advice about the best way to house him while he's healing.  We have a fantastic reptile vet, although I'm not really sure if he has much experience with frogs.  It's an option we can look into if vet care is recommended.  I'd also like to know if the little guy will be able to survive in the wild with a missing leg, or will we need to keep him as a pet (or find a home for him) once he's healed.

At the moment, we've placed him in a clean plastic shoebox (with air holes) and I've covered him with a towel to help keep his stress level down.  Any help you can offer regarding habitat, heat, lighting, diet, and appropriate first aid for his injury would be very appreciated.  We love our local wildlife, and absolutely hate that this has happened.

----------


## Carlos

Hello and welcome to FF Christy!  A handicapped toad will have a hard time surviving in the wild  :Frown:  .  First thing to do is to get toad some antibiotics to prevent an infection.  Your vet can prescribe those or you can try with plain (no analgesics) Neosporin or silver based antibiotic applied topically with Q-tip on wound twice daily.  Would keep in clean plastic box for time being.  Only need a water dish filled with dechlorinated tap to chin level) and a hide (cork or plastic).  Once toad heals, you can add some shredded coco substrate and plants if desired.

Try feeding him not dyed night crawlers from Walmart or local bait shops.  Can cut them mouth size for babies and body length for 2-3 in. juveniles.  Toads in captivity need supplements, more info in here:  http://www.frogforum.net/food-feeder...schedules.html. If using crickets, gut load them.  Good luck  :Smile:  !

----------


## Christy

Thank you, Carlos.  We have plenty of silvadene here, so we will use that on his injury.  I hate to hear that he won't be able to be released.  :Frown:   As rehabbers, we always try to return them to their natural environment whenever possible.  My husband feels awful that this happened.  

There is no active bleeding and he seems to be acting normal when we check on him.  We will leave him in the plastic box for now.  I guess we'll need some tips on how to properly set up a permanent enclosure for him once he's healed up, since it looks like he'll be a permanent resident here.  I'll do some searching here on the forum for tips on how to properly house him, but if anyone here has anything specific you think I should know, I'm all ears.  We've never kept toads or frogs before, so I'm unsure what they need.  

Thank you again for your help.  Hopefully we can get this little one healed and give him a comfortable habitat.

----------


## Lynn

Hello Christy,
Yes .... Welcome to Frog Forum.
Carlos has you covered  :Smile: 

I'm so sorry..
You are wonderful to take such good care of him.

Please keep us posted, Lynn

----------


## Carlos

> ... I guess we'll need some tips on how to properly set up a permanent enclosure for him once he's healed up, since it looks like he'll be a permanent resident here.  I'll do some searching here on the forum for tips on how to properly house him, but if anyone here has anything specific you think I should know, I'm all ears.  We've never kept toads or frogs before, so I'm unsure what they need...


There you go:  Frog Forum - Toad Basics - Keeping ground-dwelling Toads. A care sheet for Bufo, Anaxyrus, Spea, Scaphiopus, Ollotis, Alytes, Pelobates.

----------


## Gail

Can I ask where you are located and what kind of toad this is.  I keep a few toads and they are very easy to tend to.  You don't need extra heating, normal house temps are fine, just make sure you mist him a little once a day since I don't know if he should soak in a dish while the injury is fresh.  I feed mine mainly turkish roaches, but the also like crickets, pill bugs, beattles, moths and nighcrawlers.  If you can post some pics that would be great, and who knows, maybe someone local will take him/her into their loving home.

----------


## Christy

We're in central Mississippi.  I'm actually unsure what species of toad this is.  I assume American Toad, but I'm sure that's broad.  If anyone can tell from the pics what he is, I'd love to know.  I assume he's male, based on his dark-colored chin, but I'm really clueless on how to sex them.  And, sorry the photos aren't better.  I snapped these while we took him out to tend to his wounds.  It appears that the mower blade also clipped one of his back toes, but that looks minor.  In these photos, it looks like the area is very bloody, but there is no active bleeding (meaning, there is no pooling of blood - or even any smears of blood - in the shoe box we have him in.)  We rinsed the areas off with some saline wound solution and applied silvadene.  We put a plastic hide in the box with him (a large to-go cup, cut in half) and I placed a small terra cotta plant base in there for a shallow bit of water.  We're keeping him in our reptile room, which stays in the 65 (night) -80 (day) degree range.  If this is too warm, we can move him to a cooler area. 

And, Carlos, thank you for the link!

----------


## Gail

I would go with either American or Southern. Really can't tell unless you see the cranial crest & dark throat indicates male. Also if he vibrates or chirps while you're handling him, male. I just wan to thank you for tending to this little guys needs and the location sounds perfect.  If you were closer to NC I would take him.

----------


## Christy

Thanks, Gail.  When he's feeling a bit better, I'll post some more photos so perhaps we can get a positive ID.  We haven't heard any chirping, but he definitely has a dark colored throat.

In an update to his condition, this morning when we woke up, we noticed his belly was a bit bloody.  Apparently, the wound had started bleeding overnight.  It wasn't a whole lot of blood, but enough to concern me.  (It could also be that he was trying to hop, so he may have made it start bleeding by doing so.)  We keep a room full of first aid items here for our rescue, so we got the bleeding stopped with a stiptic pencil.  He seems to be doing alright now.  No more bleeding.  I dropped a couple of small crickets in for him, and he ate one.  He gave the second one a short chase, but gave up.  I'll leave it in there a little while longer with him, but will remove it before bed so that it doesn't try to bite him.

So, all is well for now.  With any wild animal, I always worry about shock and infection, more so than the injury. Crossing my fingers he can overcome any shock he's suffered, and that we can keep infection at bay.

----------


## Gail

You might want to try to tong feed him.  Most of my frogs and toads, total of 11, take to tong feeding.  This way I know for sure they are getting their calcium and vitamin dose.

----------


## Christy

Day 4 and he's still doing well.  He seems to be a bit more alert and active today.  He still hasn't eaten.  We've offered small crickets and tiny super worms. Our feeding methods have been to just drop them in with him and we have also tried feeding with tongs.  How long is too long for them to go without food?  With turtles, they can actually go several weeks (and in some cases, months) without eating.  I realize frogs/toads likely have a faster metabolism, however.  I'm going to forage in the yard after dark tonight and see if I can find him some "natural" bugs.  (And no worries about chemicals or pesticides...we keep our yard turtle-friendly.  The local wild toads come to our house by the hundreds, and we leave our outdoor lights on for them, to attract more bugs for them to eat.)

The arm is looking good.  No signs of infection.  We're cleaning it daily and applying silvadene.  No redness, no unusual swelling (there is very slight swelling at the amputation site, but I suspect that's normal with any injured tissue), no pus, and no outward indications of septicemia.  We're still being diligent with it though.

Here are a few more pictures of him.  We moved him from the plastic shoe box into a 20 gallon aquarium.  We've provided several hides, a shallow water dish, and have covered the sides of the glass with brown paper to help him feel more secure.  My hope is that the larger environment will trigger his appetite.  We've left the bottom of the tank bare for now, and will add substrate when we're sure his wounds have healed completely.

If anyone has further information about his exact species, I'd love as much information about him as I can get.

----------


## nicodimus22

Looks like an American toad to me (Bufo americanus.) Toads are pretty easy to take care of. If you're not up for it long-term, see if there are any nature centers nearby. Sometimes places like that take in injured animals for educational purposes. 

The most common mistakes I hear about are people who use heat lamps/heat pads, don't use dechlorinated water, or have things in the habitat that can cause impaction. I do recommend feeding in a bowl rather than the habitat so that you can monitor how much the toad is actually eating, and to make sure no crickets are chewing on it.

----------


## Christy

Thank you very much for the ID, the information, and the advice!  What types of items cause impactions?  The care sheet recommended top soil as a substrate, but the kind we get around here (that is chemical free) is comprised of a lot of mulch pieces (they call it "forest floor".)  Would I do better with the coconut bark, or some other type of substrate?

----------


## Gail

Eco earth would do best since if they do swallow some it's okay. But the bowl method is still the best.  Just sink it to ground level.

----------


## nicodimus22

> Thank you very much for the ID, the information, and the advice!  What types of items cause impactions?  The care sheet recommended top soil as a substrate, but the kind we get around here (that is chemical free) is comprised of a lot of mulch pieces (they call it "forest floor".)  Would I do better with the coconut bark, or some other type of substrate?


Well, I find that toads tend to miss a lot with their tongues, and yours may miss even more because of only having the one front leg. This leads to them accidentally swallowing other things sometimes. What causes impaction is when a toad accidentally swallows something that gets stuck in the gut. Pebbles, sand, bits of wood, pieces of moss, and things like that get hung up in the narrow parts of the digestive tract. Eco Earth is your safest bet, although top soil should be fine as long as there aren't pebbles and whatnot in it.

----------


## nicodimus22

> But the bowl method is still the best.  Just sink it to ground level.


Huh. I actually take the toad out, set her in a bowl, and drop the dusted crickets in with her. She snaps them up, and then I put her back. I'm just paranoid about rogue crickets chewing on her in the habitat, I guess.

----------


## Christy

Thanks for the help, everyone!

Our little guy is healing really well, so we decided it was time to give him some real substrate.  We used a mixture of eco earth and moss.  We also got him a log hide to use in addition to the plastic one, so he'll have multiple hides.  We made a slightly larger water dish (but still shallow).  I didn't want to get anything too deep until we see how well he does with the missing arm.  The food bowl we have is also quite shallow.  It won't work for crickets, but small worms stay contained to the dish.  I'm looking for a good, deeper bowl that I can bury like Gail suggested.  For now, he seems uninterested in crickets, but he did finally eat a wax worm for us, so I'm happy he's at least eating something.  Hopefully as he gets more acclimated to his new captive environment, his appetite will increase.  Here are some pictures of his new digs.  It's a 20-gallon long aquarium, and we're keeping it in a corner of our kitchen for now (where there's little foot traffic and less noise.)

----------


## nicodimus22

Nice roomy tank! Mine is in a 20-long too. A couple of quick suggestions:

-Watch to make sure your toad isn't pushing up against/walking/jumping against the glass all the time. Toads don't understand the concept of a clear material. If you see this happening, you may need to make 3 sides of the tank appear solid by taping up some paper on the outside of it.

-This may just be my opinion, but I would just use plain Eco-Earth, deep enough to burrow in if he wants to. Moss is an impaction risk. If he goes for a cricket and swallows some moss by accident, it could get twisted up and stuck in his digestive system. Don't be too worried about making the substrate moist...toads soak instinctively in the water bowl if they get too dry. I've had mine for nearly 3 years on plain Eco-Earth (with a hide, some flat rocks, and fake leaves for ground cover) and she's doing great. Just make sure there is always dechlorinated water to soak in, and he'll be fine. My two cents.

----------


## Christy

Thanks, Pete!  About the glass, we've had the two open sides wrapped with brown paper since we got him so he wouldn't stress.  You just can't tell it from the pics.  One side, and the back side, are against a wall and cabinet.

I will remove the moss if that's an impaction risk.  We definitely don't want to cause any more problems than the poor fella already has.  :Smile: 

Thanks again!

----------


## Gail

Pete pretty much has got you covered in this.  Please keep us posted on the healing..........love a happy ending.

----------


## Stolzieren

I'm so glad you've taken him in and treated his wound! he's in good care, would love to hear an update on how he's doing

----------


## Christy

He's doing wonderfully!  We removed all the moss from his enclosure and put in a few large leaves and a fake plant to make it look more natural.  He seemed to really like that change, as he's now come out of his hide and is burrowed down in the substrate with just his nose poking out.  He's eating crickets.  And his nub is still looking to be healing just fine. 

Thank you all again for all of your help with this little guy!

----------

