It's been awhile since I've been here, no reason really, just busy. Today I thought I'd see what was going on over here and the forum told me this:
So I thought I'd take that advice and post about my experience giving my Oscar Baytil Injections.
When I first got my Oscar I sort of jumped into things without doing a whole lot of research, uncharacteristic for me. I actually bought the wrong fish.
I've had my turtle for 17 years and always thought he needed a friend (that he wouldn't eat). He's had various goldfish "friends" over the years, and while he seemed to get used to them being around, eventually he always ate them. In one particularly famous incident he lived with three goldfish for around a year. The fish grew quite large and were accustomed to my turtle, sitting very near him without a care in the world. They must have been as surprised as I was when he devoured all three of them in single day.
Fast forward a few years (or maybe 10), I saw someone who had a Jack Dempsey living happily with their turtles. This intrigued me, especially because the fish was so gorgeous. I didn't get a chance to ask about the unknown species of fish (unknown to me at the time) so I began researching with what little info I had (read: google'd "pet turtles and fish"). I found that occasionally some folks had reasonable luck mixing turtles and Cichlids. An Oscar is a Cichlid, right? Well as it turned out, that's about as relevant as saying a Lion and a gray tabby are both cats.
Browsing the LFS I the Oscar caught my eye. I noticed it was about the size of the 'unknown' fish swimming with the turtles and figured it'd be a similar situation. Let me reiterate the wrongness of that assumption once more. To make a long story short the Oscar and turtle didn't work out so well. After awhile my Oscar looked like crap. Being one that doesn't like to give up, nor believes in disposable pets, I separated the two and began the process of nursing my Oscar back to health.
-- Side note to this story is I now have a Jack Dempsey living in harmony with my turtle, they're doing great together --
After awhile I began to notice my Oscar, in his quarantine tank, was looking a lot better. The wounds on his gill plates healed over (these wounds will become an important part of the story). I immediately went out and bought a larger tank, and while I was at it, another Oscar. I put them together and they immediately became inseparable friends. All was well. For the time being.
After a month or so I noticed a scale falling of my Oscar's gill plate. I figured he'd just been clumsy with the aquascaping. A day or so later I noticed another. And then another. I also noticed that my other Oscar seemed to be immune to these sort of "self inflicted injuries." I suppose one Oscar being more clumsy than the other isn't that out of the ordinary but I didn't want to risk it. I began researching. What I found was that these weren't just simple scrapes caused by clumsiness or turtles, they were caused by a bacteria. A particularly hearty bacteria resistant to most- especially the easily attainable- antibiotics.
I found out that people had a near 100% success ration with something called Baytril made by Bayer and limited success with something made by Seachem called Neoplex. I decided not to chance it and immediately began trying to figure out how to get a prescription (for an antibiotic meant for dogs) for my fish. After a week or two of no luck I bought the Neoplex so that I could at least do something. Eventually, after calling every vet in the state, and finding one or two would at least see him (but at the same time admitting they knew nothing about fish) I finally found a vet who would give me a prescription without seeing my fish. I got the Baytril. By that time, however, the wounds had healed, the Neoplex worked! For the time being.
Last week I noticed another wound. As it turns out it is not uncommon for this particular infection's wounds to heal over only to return, until eventually the fish, with a compromised immune system, succumbs to it. I decided to take action. That weekend I got some syringes from Walgreen's. They sell two kinds over the counter. One is a subcutaneous syringe commonly used by diabetics to inject insulin. My sister is diabetic, I can get a million of these. Problem is they have very small needles the are made to break off easily (for safe disposal), I didn't trust them to hold up to an Oscars scales. The second kind of syringe is called intramuscular and has a much longer and thicker needle. I bought ten for $3.33.
I gave the first injection on Sunday. Truth be told the injection is actually about fifty times easier to give than actually netting my Oscar. It takes a few minutes to get him out of the tank and then he's back in the water in 30 seconds. I did the first injection on Sunday, the second on Tuesday and he'll be getting another tonight.
I have more to write but I must continue a little later.
So I thought I'd take that advice and post about my experience giving my Oscar Baytil Injections.
When I first got my Oscar I sort of jumped into things without doing a whole lot of research, uncharacteristic for me. I actually bought the wrong fish.
I've had my turtle for 17 years and always thought he needed a friend (that he wouldn't eat). He's had various goldfish "friends" over the years, and while he seemed to get used to them being around, eventually he always ate them. In one particularly famous incident he lived with three goldfish for around a year. The fish grew quite large and were accustomed to my turtle, sitting very near him without a care in the world. They must have been as surprised as I was when he devoured all three of them in single day.
Fast forward a few years (or maybe 10), I saw someone who had a Jack Dempsey living happily with their turtles. This intrigued me, especially because the fish was so gorgeous. I didn't get a chance to ask about the unknown species of fish (unknown to me at the time) so I began researching with what little info I had (read: google'd "pet turtles and fish"). I found that occasionally some folks had reasonable luck mixing turtles and Cichlids. An Oscar is a Cichlid, right? Well as it turned out, that's about as relevant as saying a Lion and a gray tabby are both cats.
Browsing the LFS I the Oscar caught my eye. I noticed it was about the size of the 'unknown' fish swimming with the turtles and figured it'd be a similar situation. Let me reiterate the wrongness of that assumption once more. To make a long story short the Oscar and turtle didn't work out so well. After awhile my Oscar looked like crap. Being one that doesn't like to give up, nor believes in disposable pets, I separated the two and began the process of nursing my Oscar back to health.
-- Side note to this story is I now have a Jack Dempsey living in harmony with my turtle, they're doing great together --
After awhile I began to notice my Oscar, in his quarantine tank, was looking a lot better. The wounds on his gill plates healed over (these wounds will become an important part of the story). I immediately went out and bought a larger tank, and while I was at it, another Oscar. I put them together and they immediately became inseparable friends. All was well. For the time being.
After a month or so I noticed a scale falling of my Oscar's gill plate. I figured he'd just been clumsy with the aquascaping. A day or so later I noticed another. And then another. I also noticed that my other Oscar seemed to be immune to these sort of "self inflicted injuries." I suppose one Oscar being more clumsy than the other isn't that out of the ordinary but I didn't want to risk it. I began researching. What I found was that these weren't just simple scrapes caused by clumsiness or turtles, they were caused by a bacteria. A particularly hearty bacteria resistant to most- especially the easily attainable- antibiotics.
I found out that people had a near 100% success ration with something called Baytril made by Bayer and limited success with something made by Seachem called Neoplex. I decided not to chance it and immediately began trying to figure out how to get a prescription (for an antibiotic meant for dogs) for my fish. After a week or two of no luck I bought the Neoplex so that I could at least do something. Eventually, after calling every vet in the state, and finding one or two would at least see him (but at the same time admitting they knew nothing about fish) I finally found a vet who would give me a prescription without seeing my fish. I got the Baytril. By that time, however, the wounds had healed, the Neoplex worked! For the time being.
Last week I noticed another wound. As it turns out it is not uncommon for this particular infection's wounds to heal over only to return, until eventually the fish, with a compromised immune system, succumbs to it. I decided to take action. That weekend I got some syringes from Walgreen's. They sell two kinds over the counter. One is a subcutaneous syringe commonly used by diabetics to inject insulin. My sister is diabetic, I can get a million of these. Problem is they have very small needles the are made to break off easily (for safe disposal), I didn't trust them to hold up to an Oscars scales. The second kind of syringe is called intramuscular and has a much longer and thicker needle. I bought ten for $3.33.
I gave the first injection on Sunday. Truth be told the injection is actually about fifty times easier to give than actually netting my Oscar. It takes a few minutes to get him out of the tank and then he's back in the water in 30 seconds. I did the first injection on Sunday, the second on Tuesday and he'll be getting another tonight.
I have more to write but I must continue a little later.
