Cucumber

Cucumber is my third ever owned American Green Tree Frog. These frogs are usually a grass-green color with a creamy colored line that runs from their jaw along the flanks. They dont grow to be any bigger than 2-3 inches big and they live most to almost their entire lives up in trees, hences the name Tree Frog. Cucumber came with two other tree frogs i bought (Pickles and Olive) but they died from being in such rough shape from shipping. Cucumber is now three years old and lives in a large tank with two other fire-belly frogs. Rarely would he ever go to the floor of the cage, hes always hiding in the greenery in the corner so he hardly ever made contact with the fire-bellies. Night after night around 3-4am i would start to hear this light croaking that gradually got louder and louder and then too loud that i would find myself on the couch the next morning. It must of been mating season with his attract call to females. Tree frogs live anywhere from 2-7 years, atleast held in captivity.

Recently, I'm not sure what or how it happened, but he somehow managed to break his left arm and its causing him to be in alot pain to the point he cant even climb no longer, which is a huge thing for these frogs. I called a vet and asked him what i can do to help Cucumber. He said that i should probably bring him over to get some X-rays of his arm. I did. What they found was frighting to me. They saw where the bone was dislocated and there was a tiny infection around the opened area. The vet told me that if it didn't heal fast enough, in which it probably wouldn't, then the infection would spread and would most likely kill him. My only option was surgery and that wasn't even promising to save him, the surgery itself could kill him. I was between a rock and a hard place, no matter what decision i made would keep my frogs life at risk.



Few hours of making a pro and con list, my conclusion came down to doing the surgury. As i sat and waited in the waiting room i began to cry. I tried hard not to think about it but the more i did the worse it got. A man and his wife was sitting across from me who apparently had a cat in the surgery room as well getting it stiches removed after getting nutured. The man asked me what was wrong and i told him my tree frog is getting surgery and i was afriad he wouldnt live through it. The women gave me this astounded look and asked me if i was "being for real". She told me thats the strangest thing she heard and left the room. I could hear her ask an employee at the desk about my strange story and i heard something about "pictures". When she came back she sat down and told me that she was an Magazine writter and she wanted to write my story. She had a vet in the surgury room taking pictures of my frogs process.



Cucumber has now had his surgery and is still recovering. I am still waiting to hear back from the woman writting her story.