Dropsy

[Waterloo Kid]

Can someone please tell me if I can save the remaining fish in my tank. I have had a couple of cases of dropsy and I cannot seem to treat them. I have tried an anti bacterial treatment without success. Are my other fish doomed to die?

WK

 

[CFC]

Dropsy is untreatable (to my knowledge) and highly contagious, infected fish must be destroyed as soon as the disease is noticed and a good anti bacterial medication used to try and destroy the disease in the tank, Interpet #9 anti internal bacteria treatment is the best non prescription treatment for this that i know and melafix at half the normal dosage can be used along side it to increase the effect. Sorry if this sounds harsh but it is what must be done if you want to save your remaining stock IME

 

[Waterloo Kid]

No what I wanted to hear but it will be done.

Ta,

WK

 

[fishgeek]

Hope this is not too late for your fish

Dropsy is a non specific term used to describe all odematous coonditions in fish
it can apply to both abdominal distension with fluid - ascites
and also skin odema, this often leads to the scales protruding in a pine cone fashion
eye's may also push forward with fluid accumlation behind them

Any condition that affects osmoregulation can cause dropsy
ie gill, kidney disease

statisically diagnosed disease's , and doont forget not many people bother seeing a vet or having a post mortem include kidneys in goldfish and abdominal neoplasia in older koi

antibiotic treatment is often aimed at kidney disease, lack of specific diagnosis is probably why we fail to treat this condition effectively

possibly try isolating the affected fish, adding a combination antibacterial products(melafix with whatever your potion maybe) and possibly salt at low dose's purely as support for gill osmoregulation

unless of course he's an old carp

andrew

 

[Feline]

Very informative, fishgeek!!

One of my platies has suffered from dropsy few months ago. A fellow member here taught me how to deal with it, suggesting wot medicine to use, dosage etc.

But because I can't find the medicine here in UK, I had to take the fish to a vet for a prescription. She gave me metronidazole, n told me to feed my fish with it. Few weeks later, my platy recovered n now he's all happy again!!

ps. the dropsy my platy had is parasitic (hexamita), not bacterial. So perhaps it's treatable in my case

 

[smb]

But because I can't find the medicine here in UK, I had to take the fish to a vet for a prescription. She gave me metronidazole, n told me to feed my fish with it. Few weeks later, my platy recovered n now he's all happy again!!

That's great to hear.

Dropsy is most definately curable. I see so many articles written about it saying that it's not, but they are all wrong. Dropsy IS curable if caught in time. I'm glad it worked out for you.

 

[fishgeek]

hexamita is a protozoan parasite, sorry if i'm being pedantic , parasite is any organism that lives on or in another animal(host) without benefiting the host

dropsy again is not a disease it is a description of how a fish looks for many differing reasons

andrew

ps maybe anyone in feline's area would be interested to know of a vet that can help fish