Help!! This is my whites tree frog and as you can see one of her pupils is more dilated than the other, and she’s also been getting some stuck shed in one of her eyes lately, I’m booking her a vet visit tomorrow but i’m worried it might take a while to get an appointment. It’s not the lighting, trust me I checked. And I keep up with cleaning. Luckily she’s eating well and not exhibiting any behavioral differences. I’m really just wondering what to do in the meantime that could help because I really don’t want it getting worse!!
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Does she have any sharp objects in her tank that she could have had a close encounter with her eye? Like a limb or a branch etc? I would not worry too much about it at this point until you know when you can get her in to see a vet.
What is her tank setup like? Temps, humidity, what’s in the tank and so on…..
There is a possibility that she might have an eye infection. Either way I don’t believe there is much you can do besides inspecting her tank for safety issues and monitoring her for any odd behavior…..
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Nothing sharp, temperature and humidity are fine, I think it’s most likely an infection maybe from stuck shed?? I’m not sure.
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Curious – what supplement do you use? And do you use it on every prey item?
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You mean to put on her food?? I use calcium powder from repashy, and the roaches I give her are gutloaded.
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Exactly which Repashy product, and exactly what gut load diet? And how long has this been the routine?
Edit to add: is the frog only fed roaches? Just trying to understand what’s getting supplemented and how.
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The gutloading is mostly organic vegetables and some fruits plus a roach diet, sometimes they also get crickets, the repashy is the supercal LoD. I’ve been doing this for five years, and I also have another frog who isn’t having any problems.
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Fruits, vegetables, and roach diet are not gutload. They don’t increase the calcium, Vitamin D or Vitamin A content of the food. The notion that fruits and vegetables are gutload for insects is internet misinformation.
Supercal LoD (or any other version of Supercal) has no Vitamin A. The frog has not gotten any Vitamin A in five years. That – hypovitaminosis A – would be the place for the vet to start.
The only supplement sold in the US that’s suitable for frogs is Repashy Calcium Plus (there no need to use a LoD version even if offering proper UVB). Link to more info:
https://www.dendroboard.com/threads/supplementation-reasons-and-recommendations.362613/
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Thank you very much!! I feel so awful, I’m constantly doing research and I don’t know how I haven’t found this out yet, luckily I do have proper UVB, but I will be fixing my care immediately, thank you again!!
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Don’t blame yourself. Unfortunately, a person can’t just go on the internet and look stuff up; the world isn’t like that anymore. You’re fixing the situation, which is what good keepers do.
There’s definitely a link between eye and skin health and Vitamin A, and Vitamin A in amphibians is especially tricky (since they don’t convert beta carotene to Vitamin A like a lot of other herps do). But the symptoms you’re describing are a bit odd, so the situation might be more complex than just a direct link.
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On a brighter note! She is adorable!!! 
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If her one pupil isn’t properly dilating I would suggest leaving the lights dim until she sees the vet. The brighter light can potentially cause more pain or stress at the moment.
Unfortunately, that’s about all I can recommend for now. I would just try to keep her as low stress as possible for the moment and I wouldn’t feed her tonight if you are expecting to see a vet tomorrow, just in case they want to sedate her or anything.
She’s super cute though so I hope she does well. Do let us know how it goes
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Thank you!!
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I will be doing this thank you so much!!!
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Update: I’m taking her to the vet tomorrow! It’s most likely a small infection but nothing to severe, so she’ll most likely be ok maybe need some kind of medication or something? well see though!!
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Poked around a bit and found nothing in the major vet texts for reptiles (Maders) or amphibians (Whittaker). Here’s one report in a wild frog:
Seems the uneven pupil dilation can be a symptom of many things ranging from nothing at all to major neural disease. I’d personally not treat it all too aggressively, since amphibians and medication don’t always mix well.
The sticking shed could very well be a direct effect of Vitamin A deficiency, which correcting supplementation would help a lot. The vet might choose to administer one or two doses of water soluble Vitamin A, which wouldn’t likely be a bad idea.
Different topic: I should have pointed out earlier that if you’re going to continue to offer roaches (which are fine), they can be gutloaded with a powdered diet that’s actually a gutload diet (if the marketing says that the roaches can be fed it all the time, then it isn’t a gutload diet). I use Repashy Superload for this, with apparent benefit on geckos that were showing subtle signs of calcium deficiency when fed primarily dusted roaches.
When feeding roaches, I recommend using both the gutload diet and a complete supplement (Repashy Calcium Plus), since whether a given gutload diet is reliable is really hard to say, and also supplement dust does not stick well to roaches.
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I will totally look into the roach diet! I ordered the calcium plus and it should be coming soon, I read that it could be a neurological issue as well. But I’m going to at least try to save most of my worries for tomorrow and wait to hear what the vet has to say, I’m sure the vitamin will resolve a lot of the issue. Thank you again for your help!!
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Yes, it seems it could be something unrelated to the supplementation issue. But since so many of these things are impossible to diagnose conclusively, it’s often most useful to start with making sure basic care is on point. 
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Yeah, unfortunately eyes are difficult to pinpoint sometimes. I always worry about optical nerve issues or neurological things in mammals. Reptiles and amphibians are so stoic at times it is frustrating to figure them out.
I’m hoping it’s something you can maybe do a short eyedrop course and vitamin change to fix.
If it does seem like a more long term issue I would maybe consider a lower UV level bulb to help keep them comfortable but still provide the benefits. Or at the least add some more clutter for now to break up the rays a bit so it’s not crazy bright
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I do have a lot of clutter she can hide in luckily! I’m really hoping that this is something fixable because from what I’ve seen at least, this just started. And like I said before she’s eating well, and her behavior hasn’t changed at all. If it is something permanent i’m at least hoping it’s something she can still have happy life with.
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