Wounds

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Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Sep 30, 2010
1,128
5
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Puyallup, WA
I may have put this in the wrong section, but I am dealing with a disease, so here goes.

About 3-4 weeks ago my large male Hoga chased after the female and hit his forehead on a rock. It took a pretty good size chunk out of it. Up until this past weekend, it was still just a small hole, now it is getting larger. Which makes me feel uneasy and that it may be infected. I have been doing frequent water changes, but no salt. I also started to put that liquid bandage for fish wounds.

Anyone of you have any experience with bad wounds like this? The liquid bandage says use every day, he is sure going to hate me. :)
 
Time is of essence for medicine.. whether this is bacterial infection or parasitic i don't know.. since open wounds introduce both.. you do need overall type of medicine.. pristene water conditions and i would add aquarium salt according to tank size and box instructions.. good luck
 
If you can catch the fish put some iodine directly on the wound. Then use aquarium salt in the water to stave off any secondary infection.
 
It's probably going to wash off within seconds of returning the fish to the water.

It's probably a columnaris infection so the ideal treatment is to put the fish in a hospital tank and treat with antibiotics. Columnaris is in all aquaria and is very often the bacteria that infects open wounds on fish, usually causing expanding ulcers. It's a good idea to always keep antibiotics for columnaris​ in stock.
 
squint said:
It's probably going to wash off within seconds of returning the fish to the water.

It's probably a columnaris infection so the ideal treatment is to put the fish in a hospital tank and treat with antibiotics. Columnaris is in all aquaria and is very often the bacteria that infects open wounds on fish, usually causing expanding ulcers. It's a good idea to always keep antibiotics for columnaris​ in stock.
Click to expand...

I doubt it's columinnaris, the fish wounded itslef running into somthing in the aquarium. Iodine is comminly used in the the treatment of open wounds and ulcers in fish. I've used it succesfully many times on open wounds. Salt will help prevent secondary infections and reduce stress.
 
That kind of trauma is exactly the kind of open wound (any, really) that columnaris could infect. Columnaris is an extremely​ common infectious agent in aquarium fish.

The koi people do a lot of topical treatments of wounds with iodine and the like but find it just washes off. They're now being marketed with exotic sealants but I don't really see the point.
 
Thank you. It is an injury, and I just dont want it to get infected and spread.

Iodine can be very fatal if it gets into the eyes, nose or mouth, is there not an issue if it gets into the water?

I am going to up water changes daily, with salt, and treat water with bifuran, I am also going to put on him daily a product called Bio Bandage for open wounds.

Any other experiences out there, please chime in.
 
i use both melafix and Pimafix.. Melafix heals open wounds ,ulcers and damaged fins.. Pimafix can safely be used in conjunction with melafix. Those two combined regenerate tissue and heal wounds quickly.. i did forget to mention as the above poster brought up ..to quarenteen the fish.. just makes sense to care for a small tank with meds and treat one fish.. saves money and time.. then treat the entire tank of healthy fish..this medicine is widely available at most LFS and walmart stores..also treat in a hospital tank will ease the stress of the injured fish..other fish prey on the injured.. mentally and physically.. i use the water from the mother tank.. 3/4 fill tank... 1/4 fresh water..
 
For large open wounds I've done exactly what Tom described. Iodine will kill most bacteria upon contact, and if the wound is sealed after it's been treated with iodine what "washes off" becomes a non issue. Getting iodine into the fishes gills, mouth etc is also a non issue if one is careful. For larger fish such as your Hoga I would start by sedating the fish, once the fish is under carefully blot the wound with iodine, seal the wound, then allow the fishes immune system to do the rest. Here's a play by play posted on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjqW8ZYZ6Fk

You can do the same thing using common household 3% hydrogen peroxide.

Raising the sodium content to .3% (raised slowly over a few days) will help alleviate any osmotic imbalance (which causes osmoregulatory stress) from such a large wound.

I've never used Bio-Bandage but it appears to be neomycin sulfate/methylene blue based, and designed to treat neomycin-susceptible, bacterial diseases. IMO I would only administer this once, not daily. Once the outer surface of the injury begins to heal you do not want to be applying more of anything as this will reduce the healing of the wound, not promote it.


Good luck, hope he pulls through.
 
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