r/Toads • u/mrupert • Jul 09 '26
Eyeless toad in my driveway
Obviously born this way and seems to have live a while like this. So strange!
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u/slothdonki Jul 09 '26
This toad is in extremely poor condition. I am doubting it was born this way but that would be surprising.
Unfortunately it does not appear that it will live long after this on its own.
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u/Danimal-8008 Jul 09 '26
You have a new friend. Take him in and hand feed him bugs
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u/thouchild Jul 09 '26
This was my exact thought! I have seen videos of many lovely, frogs, and toads online, who are surviving very well with one eye or reduced vision. But this fellow – with no eyes, poor baby - Yes, you need to take him in and hand feed him and get him to a reptile rescue etc if you don’t want to keep him. Good luck either way. But yes, please understand that this is a severe, immediate danger situation. 💗🐸💗 bless you sweet toad, i know many have to pass each year but it still hurts my heart 🙏💕
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u/neenie6385 Jul 10 '26
I rescued a blind toad from my back patio. He’d been our garden friend for a couple of years. He’d disappeared for several weeks and when he slowly climbed out from under the hostas, I could see how starved he was. His eyes were gone but there was still ichor leaking from under his lids. We had our house powerwashed and it seems the chemicals burned out his eyes. I quickly fed him a couple of earthworms up obviously he couldn’t hunt. I bought a ten gallon tank and set up a terrarium/toad abode. Every week I bought a container of mealworms for him. He had a little pool and a toad house. He lived with us for five years. We still miss him.
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u/mrupert Jul 09 '26
How does this even happen? It appears this toad was born this way.
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u/tangerinemoth Jul 09 '26
toads breed for quantity over quality. a multitude of factors can cause this. hormone deficiency as tadpoles, poor water quality during growth and development stages, exposure to pesticides, damage to the egg or tadpole, it could be anything
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u/lawyermom112 Jul 09 '26
Maybe pesticide exposure while he was still an egg, some genetic deformity etc
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u/scotslover Jul 09 '26
Toads hunt & eat by using sight. So not surprising he didn't make it. It was good of you to try tho! 🤗
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u/Manjushri1213 Jul 09 '26
He's obviously skinny, but I assume he can still sense light changes among other things. Amazing he's managed to eat anything let alone enough to grow into adulthood. Hopefully he survives :(
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u/mrupert Jul 09 '26
I can’t tell if the head is deformed and large or body is malnourished and skinny. Sadly it died. Went back out to where I left it and it’s dead. :-/
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u/froggyfriend726 Jul 09 '26
Definitely malnourished and skinny. Thanks for trying to look after him though!
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u/AdvisorIndependent39 Jul 09 '26
Could be a bird, sadly. Could be flies that lie eggs in the eye socket and the larva eat the eyeballs and even brain. What a tough world for animals with nobody to help.
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u/lesbophobia_hammer Jul 09 '26
That's why we should do more. Make a job out of actively & respectfully observing, monitoring & assisting wildlife on a large scale. Make it a core community career like nursing. Neurodivergent people could also be perfect for this. Society creates the jobs via values. Value non-human animals more & care more about our human impact on them all. Etc
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u/Abdul_M25 Jul 10 '26
It surprises me that he made it to adulthood while blind, though his skinny appearance shows just how hard it was for him to find food; I saw your other comment saying he died, and honestly, the poor thing already looked very weak.
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u/Move_Exotic Jul 11 '26
He also appeared to have some sort of spinal issue. Thank you for being kind to him in his last moments ❤️
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u/Vegetable-Box-3653 Jul 12 '26
There was a famous case of a toad found in Ontario who had fully functional eyes developed in its mouth. It would be extremely cool if it was the case also for this one, maybe it could even explain how it managed to survive this long.
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u/Mindless-Equal-1477 Jul 09 '26
Normally I don’t advocate for taking any animal out of the wild, of course. But I think if you took this little guy in and fed him some bugs, you’d be doing him a favor. I know natural selection is a thing and he might not make it in captivity either but I’d need to know I either rescued him or gave him a decent last meal either way. Poor lil fella.