Help! Any advice re cats and frog /toads?

[stirling]

Few evenings in a row, my cat has suddenly leapt across the garden and hunted down a frog (or toad, I can't tell apart). They're very small and she clearly uses her mouth as part of the hunt because she immediately recoils, steps back and begins to drool masses of saliva/long, sticky looking threads of drool.

I've rushed to wash her mouth out and wipe with wet flannels, and then she's bouncing around again. But my son mentioned that they're toxic to cats and could kill her. What to do? Any experience?

No water sources I'm aware of in my garden but my nasty neighbour, a cat hater and bird lover could well be breeding them. We're not on good terms. I've had my cat a year and oddly, this is the first time ever that I've seen frogs in 12 years of living here.

Any advice? Thank you

I think they're likely to be small frogs. Mine hunts them too, they seem to live in the bushes. I don't think we have poisonous frogs in the UK so I think the biggest worry is keeping them out of the house!

(I also don't remember seeing them before cat involvement)

supertedlasso thank you! Does your cat have an oral reaction to them too?

My cat likes to stalk frogs too. I'm wondering if he's ever tried to catch one and found it tasted foul, as he does seem quite wary. Cats will often drool if the ingest something they don't like. My other cat 'ancient cat' was meant to have medication syringed into her mouth, and she reacted like that.
I didnt thing frogs in the uk were poisonous, and i doubt your neighbour is breeding them to kill your cat. We have no water source in our garden apart from some manky old buckets of water I found in an overgrown patch, and we still have frogs. Suspect they come from neighbour's ponds, though I'm not aware of any (high fences/hedges)

So you don't care about the welfare of the wildlife your cat is hunting, only whether it will harm your cat? Charming.

Perhaps the frogs/toads have always been there but you've only noticed now that you have a cat that hunts them? They don't live in ponds all year round so there might be a pond a few gardens away that they breed in but wander further away the rest of the time.

Frogs and toads have a defence mechanism which allows them to secrete a bitter tasting liquid through their skin when they're attacked. It is completely harmless in amphibians in the UK. Your cat salivates in order to get the taste out of their mouth and it's not doing them any harm and is a deterrent or a distraction which allows the frog/toad to get away. Frogs and toads actually spend little time in the water generally and prefer dampish sheltered areas. You can help frogs hide from your cat by creating a small barrel pond and by laying small terracotta pots on their sides in secluded places in your garden in the undergrowth. Make sure that you cover the pots with small branches/twigs or place a large stone in front so that a smallish hole is available to the frog to get in. I
When my cat catches a frog I catch it and pop it in the barrel pond to rest and then leave it be. Mostly he just hits them to make them squeal!!!
Frogs and toads are very good for a garden as like hedgehogs they eat slugs and snails so they are your friend and don't worry as they will not harm your cat 🐱

I don't think she does, she doesn't drool afterwards (and she's definitely had them in her mouth 🤢), but to be honest she's a weird eater at the best of times so hard to tell. When I was a teenager a friends cat ate a frog and threw up a lot but I've had nothing like that from any of mine, but I don't think they actually ever ate them.

I've had at least 2 hunt frogs and the first one lived a good while and this one has been hunting them for 6 years and is OK so I think yours should be fine, although the reaction does sound odd. Have you got insurance? They usually have a vet line you can ring for free advice.

I rescue the frogs when I can smite but how exactly do you propose OP stop it happening? Ask the frogs nicely to leave her garden? 😂

Oh that's great advice MothralovesGojira thanks.

Thats such useful info @MothralovesGojira. Thank you! My garden is like that as my default, which is a relief.Its full of wildlife and I worry fairly constantly about them all. I wouldn't choose to have cats but I took mine in for a friend who couldn't keep them. Try to keep them in from dusk till dawn but the younger one gets desperate and destructive if he's in for too long.
I'm so happy to know that a) there is a good defence system and b) hiding places help!

My DCat very occasionally brings in a frog. Normally leaves just the legs on the kitchen floor as a delightful gift. Sometimes I get there quick enough and manage to prise open the jaws of death and save it and plop it back in next door's pond.
Never seemed to harm the cat in any way - can't say the same for the poor frog though

Thanks everyone. Really like the idea of the frog rescue sanctuary.
I just panicked since the Google search came up with very alarming claims about the toxic effects, deadly rather - mostly of toads...