As with all animals, you should be aware of frogs' potential medical problems. Vitamin deficiencies can affect the health of the frogs and can even transfer over to the health of the tadpoles. Malnutrition can lead to loss of appetite, paralysis, seizures, and death. Dust the frogs' food sources with vitamins and calcium to avoid many of these health problems. Caution: It is possible to over administer vitamins and calcium. Conduct consistent dusting, and you and your frogs should be fine.
“Glass belly” is a condition in tadpoles that creates bloating and a transparent look to the tadpoles. These tadpoles usually take far too many months to metamorphose. "Spindly leg syndrome" is another problem that you may encounter when the tadpoles emerge into juveniles. Spindly leg syndrome can be very frustrating when breeding frogs. What you will see is that the front legs of the frogs are underdeveloped when they change from tadpoles to froglets. If you are having problems with your tadpoles, try switching the food source from algae to blood worms (or vise versa) and see if that helps.
Spindly leg syndrome causes the juvenile frogs to flop around with little to no coordination and to eat sparsely or not at all. There is no cure once a froglet has developed spindly leg syndrome. I suggest euthanizing the afflicted frog in a freezer. A frog with this underdevelopment will inevitably die within a week or two, so there is no point in letting it suffer for that long. Place the frog in a plastic bag or container with air, and place the bag or container in the freezer. This does not cause the frog any pain because frogs are cold-blooded animals and their systems just shut down. It is thought that spindly leg syndrome comes from a lack of nutrients, either in the egg status or during the frog’s metamorphosis from tadpole to froglet. Some suggested ways to avoid spindly leg syndrome are to adequately dust the parents’ fruit flies with vitamins and calcium and to use tannins in your tadpoles’ water to provide extra nutrients. It can also help to change the tadpoles’ food source.
“Short femur" syndrome is similar to spindly leg syndrome except that it is the hind legs that are underdeveloped. It is thought to originate from some of the same causes as spindly leg syndrome as well as from excessively high water temperature for the tadpoles. Keep the tadpoles' water temperature in the low 70s and you should not have this problem.
You can prevent parasites from attacking your frogs by buying captive species and properly quarantining your new frogs from your existing captives. If you notice anything suspicious, don’t hesitate to act. Take stool samples from your frogs into your nearest herpetological vet for examination. Usually the medicine the vet gives you comes in syringes, and you drop a little on the frog’s back. Frogs will absorb the medicine directly through their skin.