Chytrid in Southern Alberta.

[Dakhota]

Alright . . .I'm hoping someone on here can direct me. I've been having some serious problems with one of my white's tree frogs and my American friends on another forum are truly believing that it's chytrid.

I am in Lethbridge. My vet had never heard of chytrid and the American treatment requires lamisil AT spray which is not approved for use in Canada.

Here's the links to the two posts which have described everything I've been through step by step. As you will discover, it's only gotten worse.

Anyone here had any chytrid problems in their White's Tree Frogs?

Here's the links:
http://talkto.thefrog.org/index.php?...=3&topic=19361
http://talkto.thefrog.org/index.php?...=4&topic=19424

[FrogO_Oeyes]

I've heat-treated chytrid before. White's are a good candidate for that. The treatment requires sustained temperatures above 80F and skin rinses with Betadine and peroxide. Cage sterilization is also required. Reinfection is likely, as the first introduced case of chytrid was acttually recorded from Canada in the 1950's, so it's widespread now. However, maintenance temperatures for tropical lowland frogs should prevent recurring problems.

I'd have to dig to find the exact treatment, but suffice to say Lamisil isn't the only option, by far. It's just convenient for some.

[Dakhota]

My vet gave me fluconazole. I have to carefully spray it. Any experience with this?

[FrogO_Oeyes]

Sorry, no. Haven't had significant issues with chytrid in years, and heat treatment worked well for heat tolerant species. That's why the die-offs are mainly highland species - chytrid does best where it's cool and damp [which, fortunately, doesn't describe White's habitat].

[FrogO_Oeyes]

Having observed some amphibians with potential chytrid symptoms, thought I should bring this up again.

Multiple treatments:
http://www.fdrproject.org.au/pages/disease/CHYtreat.htm

Diagnosis, sampling, treatment [itraconazole bath]:
http://www.amphibianark.org/chytrid.htm

Treatment:
http://www.open.ac.uk/daptf/froglog/FROGLOG-46-1.html

Symptoms:
http://www.fdrproject.org.au/pages/disease/CHYrecog.htm

Chytrid thrives up to about 23c, and can be killed at 35c. Heat treatment involves 4 hours exposure to 35c. Some species can't handle that much heat or that length of time, so look into the habitats and heat tolerance before treating. Most won't handle temps higher than that, so make sure your heating system is stable before using it. Rather than dedicating a room, a submersible aquarium heater can be used in an aquarium or plastic bin, with the animals kept in containers on the water surface [nested].

Chytrid is not a wild-caught issue. The first infected specimens I saw came from a country which still has no recorded wild infections, and animals are infected sometime after capture. Additionally, the fungus is spread in water, soil, and plants. A few species tolerate infection and may show no symptoms, allowing them to spread it. This includes bullfrogs [Lithobates catesbeianus], clawed frogs [Silurana and Xenopus], and marine toads [Chaunus marinus]. Tolerance may be due to natural antifungal agents, lack of suitable keratin as a food source, tolerant and durable skin structure, or habitat and climate unfavorable to the fungus.

[FrogO_Oeyes]

More on treatments. A number of compounds are recommended for cleaning equipment. All of the following cause 100% death of spores:
70% ethanol for 20s
1mg Virkon/mL for 20s
1mg benzalkonium chloride/mL for 20s
didecyl dimethyl ammonium chloride [0.012% in Path-X; 0.008% in quaternary ammonium compound 128]
bleach [1% or more sodium hypochlorite]

complete drying [<3 hours at room temperature]
heat: 37C for 4 hours
heat: 47C for 30 minutes
heat: 60C for 5 minutes

Chlorhexidene, chloramine, methanol, and isopropanol are also mentioned as being effective, but untested.
http://www.int-res.com/articles/dao2004/57/d057p255.pdf

And for possible topical treatment of amphibians, topical chloramphenicol:
http://www.int-res.com/articles/dao_oa/d084p009.pdf

[joeysgreen]

The chloramphenicol is most mentioned in my circles.

Ian