Why is it bad news for a dog to attempt to eat a frog?

BEWARE - ATTACK FROG ON DUTY


A number of years ago, when my daughter was living with me, she woke me up in a panic one morning at 4:00 am. Now I have been known to stay up til 4:00 am, but to be woken up at that time is just wrong! So as I'm waking up I can hear the dog running wildly through the house, using the entire carpet as a face napkin, and panting like crazy.

So Nik tells me that she had gone outside on the patio to smoke a cigarette and, as usual, Tobi went with her. While they are out there a frog joined them. We hardly ever get frogs here but this one turned up and Tobi was curious. She had never seen a frog before and decided to inspect it more closely. The frog would take a few hops and Tobi would follow it, so the frog would take a few more hops and Tobi would follow. I guess the frog became annoyed with this game and hopped into the garden making it more difficult for Tobi's close inspection. So Tobi decided to do the logical thing... move the frog back on to the patio.

According to Nik, Tobi was not trying to hurt the frog, she just wasn't finished with the game. Now I have to believe that because I've seen Tobi when her heart was set on evil. There is no doubt when her goal is "kill or be killed". This generally occurs with cats, rabbits, mice, and squirels. Birds, crickets, frogs, geckos, and flies are just novelty items to pass the time. So anyway, Tobi picked up the frog in her mouth to move it and immediately spit it out and went tearing out down the patio and on to the grass with foam pouring out of her mouth as she rubbed her face all over the lawn in a desperate attempt to rid herself of this nasty discovery.

Not knowing what was going on, I called a 24 hour Animal Hospital and asked them if frogs were toxic to dogs and the guy on the other end kind of chuckled and said "So your dog got a hold of a frog huh?" I took the chuckle to be an encouragement that this was not a life threatening situation and was quite relieved.

It seems that God has given frogs a highly effective defense mechanism by making their skin toxic enough to cause a very immediate, and from Tobi's response, quite uncomfortable reaction. I don't think Tobi will be interested in frogs anymore.


Jeremiah was a bullfrog...
was no friend of mine.
I tried to help him out and how he repayed me
was with a mouth full of foamy slime,
and it was mighty nasty foamy slime....