Most likely, they woke up in the brief warm weather and thought it was spring. Many people pull dead frogs out of their ponds every years, but this is the first year that I have had to remove a couple of dead toads, and that was after a brief warm spell.

Okay, thanks. Don't mean to sound like an idiot ~ I just find my active imagination somewhat of a curse. I think the worst of things. I really hope there will be more this spring to make up what I've lost, because I'll miss their noise for sure. Thanks again!

Sorry about that rosenbarn. Frogs can't seem to tolerate much fluctuation in temperatures once they're in hibernation.
Did you have some mud, etc. that they could burrow into?
Hopefully you'll have more come along in spring. I love their singing too.

When frogs wake up in the warming winter their metabolism goes back into normal operation and they burn up a lot of their reserves but there isn't any food for them to catch so many of them die

Sad, I found a leopard dead too at the bottom of my pond. I wondered what killed it. We also warmed up, then had a freeze. Didn't really consider that could happen in S. Texas. Our winter was much colder than normal this year.
I love the sound my leopards make, too!
Poo

Last winter (my first) I had 4 green frogs and one leopard frog die in my little (500-600 G) pond. I had cleaned the debris out late in the fall so there wasn't any place to them to snuggle while the temps jumped all over the place. So I swore I'd relocate any frogs that were hanging around this past fall to one of the nearby natural ponds. But none showed up all summer, probably because it was not hot and dry like the previous one.

I have a neighbor who is a professor at the local university. He studies frogs and toads. He travels to the Philippines seven or eight times a year to conduct research and such.

He has come over on occasion to look into our pond and admire it. He esp comments on all the toads and toad eggs. He identified the Eastern American Toads and others that are prevalent. That was last spring/summer.

I remember him saying that frogs esp are unlikely to survive a single year. Something like 85% of them don't make it to year 2.

So it might be beyond anything you can control.

My pond finally thawed, and last night I found all five of my frog dead. And my pond was totally frozen from December until this past week, no mid winter thaws, and the current water temp is 40 degrees. My fish survived, except for two small fish.

Hi there,

My mom has a man made pond in front of the house and has found two dead frogs this week. One was floating up right, and the second was on its back with its two front legs in the air, it also has some redness around its swollen belly. I was wondering if anyone could tell me why this could be happening… It is very sad and I would hate to see another frog turn up dead.

Thanks!

chemgeekponder,did your pond have a small opening during the winter? I usually use a bubbler and/or a small pond heater to keep a small hole open during the winter, so there is some air exchange. One year, snow blocked the opening for a few days, and it happened I didn't clean the pond in the fall, I lost quite a few fishes and all the frogs.

I have a 300 gallon Rubbermaid stocktank pond sunk into the ground. I used a pond deicer all winter, which keeps it pretty warm, but I didn't not oxygenate. Last weekend, I cleaned the pond out and found 8 dead green frogs!! In my case, I think perhaps there was too much muck and not enough oxygen. Hopefully, they were all very old and just couldn't make it. But dang..........8 in such a small pond?? Sorry froggies! I'll take cleaning it up a bit in the Fall more seriously........and injecting more O2 into the pond during the winter too.

I think all comments are on par. We have had a very strange and severe winter and I have had the dead frog problem in years past that were milder than this. If the frogs you lost invited themselves in to your pond, others will welcome themselves now.

I had the same sort of thing happen, however it is fall time here and the day temperatures have been fluctuating from 16c to 0c . i have bubblers going and netting surrounding the pond to keep the leaves from falling in the pond. There are gaps so they can get out. Hoping they weren't trapped 🤞

I know this post is old, but I wanted to inject more than I said earlier. I've learned to hardly use a deicer at all, and not a big one. It's only to let a small hole open to allow gases to come out. I believe when I had all those frogs dye, it was because I used the large deicer way too much and they probably went in and out of hibernation too often. I've learned my lesson and keep the pump running absolutely as long as I can (without it freezing), and only use the deicer to keep a small hole open. And, of course, I always have a lot of leaves and muck in the bottom for them to get comfy in.