Columnaris... Molly's Lips Fell Off!

[Doomchibi]

I made the mistake of purchasing a couple mollies from Wal-mart only to soon find out one of them had cotton-mouth. I moved it to a hospital tank and started treating it with both Pimafix and tetracycline because it was all I had on hand and I read in a few places that it would help. Both the main tank and hospital tank are low end brackish, about 1.005 sg and I also have the normal dosage of aquarium salt added. The molly has been very active since I brought it home and I only noticed it had cotton-mouth starting when I saw it was trying to eat but the food wouldn't go into it's mouth. Since I have isolated it, it has continued to try to eat but it's mouth was completely plugged with fuzz and stuck open. It was like that for 2 days and I just looked over at it and thought it looked a bit strange... got closer only to realize that it's lips have actually fallen off!
 
(sorry about the detail)
 
The molly's mouth area is a big gaping hole, and if you look into it you can pretty much see it's throat, tongue and everything.. It honestly looks like something out of a horror movie yet the molly does not seem to even notice. The edges of the wound look ragged and seems to have stopped bleeding. The fuzz covered lips are unfortunately still attached by a tiny piece of skin and just floating around by it's head when it moves and I am really not sure what to do next. Strangely enough, the (mostly) removed mouth seems to be the only infected part, and although the remainder of the molly's mouth looks very bad it does not seem to be infected with columnaris at this point. What I am going to do is wait until the chunk falls off (which will probably be soon) and then I will remove it and do a huge water change and continue treating until I am sure the molly is getting better.
 
What else should I do? Have any of you ever experienced a fish actually losing most of it's mouth to columnaris? Is there any chance of some skin regenerating where it's lips were, and do you think it will be able to live a relatively normal life if it survives this whole thing?
 
I have seen it trying to eat some bubbles even with it's horrible wound and it seems as if it can actually still suck some of them in with little issue.. should I try feeding it or wait another day to let it heal? It hasn't been able to eat in at least 3-4 days because of the blockage and so I am thinking sooner might be better but I don't want to cause more damage. 
 
I tried to get pictures but I don't have a camera that can take clear pictures of something so small and dark
 
Any and all help would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I think someone else might need to help you with the treatment of your fish, but maybe I can help you with feeding it while it is being treated.  If it cannot use its mouth to open and close you could try feeding it baby food, like TetraMin or liquid fry food.  The caution is that these types of foods do dirty up the water so you'd need to up the water changes... so depending on treatment that may or may not interfere with that (since water changes are not advised during some courses of medication.)

 

[Doomchibi]

I was feeding my other fish and watched it continue to try to eat bubbles for a while, so I tried putting a couple brine shrimp in and at first it couldn't eat them but I think it's figured out how. It doesn't eat them like a normal fish now, the food gets pulled onto it's mouth and then gets very slowly sucked in like a dying vacuum cleaner over a few seconds.. But at least it can eat. I watched it eat a few and then the floating thing kept getting in the way and then I realized it wasn't attached by skin anymore, it just seemed like the fuzz was trying to stick back onto it so I took a wet q-tip, netted it and very carefully wiped the thing off and the molly went right back to eating. I can't tell if it's in any pain, either it is too hungry to care or maybe it isn't as bad as it looks, but at least it's eating and acting normally for now. I will do the water change later today, treat the water again and post back if anything changes. 
 
I have micro bites I was planning on trying to feed as a last resort, but for now it seems to be doing OK with the smaller brine shrimp. Thank you though

 
 
Also, it seems like the treatment is working so far as I don't see any signs of the fuzz anywhere else on the fish.. Hopefully I killed most of the columnaris off and the flesh that came off had the last of it.

 

[ech0o]

Being as how molly can actually be housed in full saltwater, it is def. wise to do a marine saltwater dip on them before adding them to any aquaria.   Seems that most fungal infections don't cross over to marine from freshwater.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Salt dip:
 
2 TBSP salt per gallon of water is the recipe for the salt dip.  ANY SALT without anti-clogging additives.  (This includes regular cooking salt, as long as its not containing the anti clogging stuff...  Ultimately, I prefer kosher salt, epsom salt, or aquarium salt.)
 
 
Leave the fish in the dip for NEVER MORE than 30 minutes, but even just about 5 minutes can help.  IF AT ANY TIME the fish appears to show signs of stress, remove the fish from the salt dip and IMMEDIATELY place it back in the freshwater.   I would aim for about 10-15 minutes. 
 
You can do this as much as twice daily for as long as needed until the signs of infection are gone.  Generally, the longer you do the dip, the faster it will deal with the infection, but it will NOT cause the fish to heal any faster... although the sooner the infection is removed, the sooner the fish will heal.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Apologies...
 
Missed the part where this is a low end brackish tank.  The above directions are for a 'standard' salt dip for FRESHWATER fish.
 
 
In your case, you'll want to go with a much stronger salt solution.  up to 1/2 cup per gallon - as ech0o said, the molly should be able to handle that, as mollys can be kept in full marine set-ups.

 

[Doomchibi]

As an update.. I have been treating him since the fuzz started growing, and it seems he is completely clean from the disease now. I have been continuing the tetracycline and pimafix and finished the suggested doses for those, and I have been using salt as well. My hospital tank water still looks like fruit punch but I have been doing water changes for the past couple days and it is not lightening up, so I am thinking maybe I should re introduce the molly back to it's original tank so I can get rid of this creepy red hospital tank and be able to watch it more easily, and I am not sure if the prolonged treatment would have any negative effects on the fish. It has been eating well since the fuzz came off, though it's mouth is still pretty ragged looking. I'm thinking it is going to heal like that and it doesn't seem likely that the lips are going to grow back at all.  I'm glad it's lived through this but I wish it hadn't cost it the use of it's mouth. 

 I'm going to watch it for the next 12 hours or so and then put it back in the main tank. Thank you all for the help

 

[ech0o]

You will be surprised how much it will regenerate!!  I have had fish with gaping holes in their gills from parasites, that look like perfectly normal fish again.   He may always have a little issue, but I am betting a lot of recovery will be made.   Sounds like you have it under control, luckily molly are super strong fish, and if any fish will make a recovery its those.