Fish First Aid

[Alice]

Hi All;
We have a good-sized Raccoon Butterfly at the shop (special order for a customer who then never picked him up :( ) and he's had a wound on his side ever since he came in, which was about 4-6 weeks ago. The wound is almost the size of a a pencil eraser, irregularly shaped, and is all the way through the skin layer to the exposed flesh underneath. It has not grow any larger or smaller, does not show
visible signs of a parasite and has not been attacked by fuzzy white bacterial infection or look likes it's necrotic. He has no other wounds or spots on his body.

I've dosed him with different medications for bacterial infection and made a paste of Nitrafurizol (sp) that I applied directly to the wound (he didn't like that a bit!)

Any ideas or suggestions? He's kind of made himself my pet and I feel badly that I can't heal him up.

Thanks,

~Alice

[billsreef]

What medications have you tried.

My favorite antibiotics (based on what I've found to work well in most cases) are Nitrofuran, SW Maracyn 2, Kanacyn and Ampicillex. If you have an agreeable DR or Pharmacist you might be able to try out some antibiotics not available to the trade if the ones I mentioned aren't effective. The trick in obtaining a good fish antibiotic is to find one that is not only water soluble but tissue soluble. Also most pathogenic bacteria in fish are grahm negative.

Have you tried any anti parasite meds in conjunction with the antibiotics. A lot of protozoan infections can yield similar symptoms to bacterial infections and often are the primary cause of many such problems.

Good luck with the Raccoon.

BTW are you going to MACNA this year?

[Alice]

Hi Bill!

Thanks for the reply. You know, without the packages here in front of my face, I can't remember what the heck I've tried on the poor fish at this point. I know we don't have any Maracyn 2 though and that seems to be widely used, I'll give that a try as well as something for protazoan infections. He's not suffering in any way and eats pretty well, he's putting on weight :)

Sadly, no MACNA for me this year :( I hear this is shaping up to be one of the best conferences ever and I'm really disappointed that I am unable to attend. I'll be in Dallas/FW next year though, barring the river don't flood and the creek don't rise. Hope to see you there!

Thanks again,

~Alice