Albus Froggy’s House Call

Photo: Ann Hohenhaus, DVM

We have a pet frog. He is a South African clawed frog who we sometimes call Albus, after Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series. Albus is Latin for white, and Froggy, which is his other name, is an albino frog.

Albus Froggy’s first home was a 10 gallon fish tank with snails, tropical fish and one giant plecostomus, Platus. He was about the size of a quarter and he would eat bloodworms and shrimp pellets. I guess we didn’t recognize how big Albus Froggy was getting, but suddenly, fish were missing. We just thought they had died, but pretty soon Albus Froggy was looking very full and supporting himself on the leaves of the plants like he had a stomach ache. The next thing we knew, Albus Froggy was as big as your hand and he became the consummate predator, polishing off four neon tetras and a little school of fish we called the Police.

Albus Froggy moved to his own private Baby Biorb tank. Every week he would get 10 or so 19¢ feeder fish from the pet store who would be his friends — only long enough for him to eat them. Then one day, Albus Froggy had a bloody nose. On closer inspection, there was a swelling on his face on the same side as the bloody nose. In another day, both nostrils were bloody. Being an oncologist, I was sure Albus Froggy had a tumor, but an Animal Medical Center specialist veterinarian knew how to save his little frog life. Dr. Kathy Quesenberry suggested Albus Froggy might have an infection and recommended antibiotic therapy. She prescribed an injection of a powerful antibiotic, gentamicin.

So much to the delight of our Saturday night dinner guests, slippery Albus Froggy was captured, weighed in a Gladware box on the kitchen scale and given exactly the right dosage of antibiotic in the fanny. For several days after the injection, we stood around the Baby Biorb trying to convince ourselves he was better. And he was! First the bleeding stopped a couple of days after the injection and then the swelling decreased. And now Albus Froggy is back to eating and swimming around the Baby Biorb.

The successful treatment of Albus Froggy is a good example of how important it is to find the right specialist is for your pet. In this case, I was just a regular pet owner who could recognize my pet had a problem. Albus Froggy needed the exotic pet specialist to hone in on the correct diagnosis and treatment leading to a successful outcome.

This blog may also be found in the “Tales from the Pet Clinic” blog from WebMD.

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For nearly a century, The Animal Medical Center has been a national leader in animal health care, known for its expertise, innovation and success in providing routine, specialty and emergency medical care for companion animals. Thanks in part to the enduring generosity of donors, The AMC is also known for its outstanding teaching, research and compassionate community funds. Please help us to continue these efforts. Send your contribution to: The Animal Medical Center, 510 East 62nd Street, New York, NY 10065. For more information, visit www.amcny.org. To make an appointment, please call 212.838.7053.

The Hedgehog Comes Home for the Holidays

While I realize this story is not on par with O’Henry’s Gift of the Magi or Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, from a New Yorker’s perspective and a veterinarian’s viewpoint, it is a truly heartwarming story for the season.

The story starts with the daily 5:30 am email to AMC staff announcing the overnight admissions to the hospital. At first the list did not seem unusual, a coughing dog, a vomiting cat. But then I got to the ICU admission of a “stray” hedgehog. Stray didn’t seem quite right, since hedgehogs are clearly not indigenous to New York City. When I arrived in ICU for morning rounds, sure enough, there was a hedgehog, pictured here, eating cat food pellets from a paper plate.

The ICU staff reported the hedgehog had been found the night before on Third Avenue near Dylan’s Candy Bar and was brought to The Animal Medical Center by a Good Samaritan who kindly took a shopping break to help this poor creature reach a safe haven. The hedgehog was not your “typical hedgehog,” it had a bandage on one of its hind legs and when the ICU staff examined the hedgehog, they found the bandage covered a recent surgical site. The AMC’s Avian and Exotic Pet Service was contacted and they reported caring for a patient matching the description of the hedgehog in ICU. The phone-a-thon to locate the owner began immediately, but was unsuccessful in reaching the hedgehog’s family.

The hedgehog stayed in the Exotic Pet ward at AMC for the next couple of days. Her presence made all of us smile to see such a cute little critter in our midst. At the end of the day, a few days after the hedgehog arrived at AMC, Dr. Cazzolli of AMC’s Emergency Service was heading home on the subway. Posted in the Lexington Avenue subway station were lost pet flyers announcing, you guessed it, a missing hedgehog. Immediately, Dr. Cazzolli called the owner who was overjoyed to learn her hedgehog was safe at The AMC, where she was happily reunited with Madame, the formerly stray hedgehog.

Pretty incredible, a city of millions of people, wrapped up in their pre-Christmas frenzy, a kind stranger and now a 300 gram hedgehog is back with her family for the holidays. As Tiny Tim would say, “God bless us every one.”

This blog may also be found in the “Tales from the Pet Clinic” blog from WebMD.

_________________________________________________

For nearly a century, The Animal Medical Center has been a national leader in animal health care, known for its expertise, innovation and success in providing routine, specialty and emergency medical care for companion animals. Thanks in part to the enduring generosity of donors, The AMC is also known for its outstanding teaching, research and compassionate community funds. Please help us to continue these efforts. Send your contribution to: The Animal Medical Center, 510 East 62nd Street, New York, NY 10065. For more information, visit www.amcny.org. To make an appointment, please call 212.838.7053.