I just recently had an interesting conversation with Neale Monks, in hoping I could narrow down what could be ailing poor BeeBoo, and I do believe I know what it is -- or at least I suspect this is what it is. Hexamita. All the symptoms sound like what BeeBoo is going through. His loss of colour, his loss of appetite, and the white stringy poo.
At first I thought the loss of colour was due to him sleeping, or relaxing, and it did seem that once he livened up a little the colour improved, and even now, if he gets excited -- say I'm vacuuming his tank and I get too close to him with the vacuum, his colour changes and becomes more intense, but the colouring soon goes back to that drab look. He seemed to have a pretty good appetite and then it went to him not eating one day, but eating the following day, and now he's gone 3 days without eating at all (that I've noticed, although I think he may be picking at the bloodworm later in the evening). Now last night I decided to try something, so I took some snails out of my snail-tank and I let them sink right in front of BeeBoo. At first, he just watched it drop ... but then he went over and he ate it. So I fed him about 6-7 more snails. His belly looked nice and full when he was done, and strangely this morning, it's still looking a good belly, not sunken-in or anything.
So thinking that it is Hexamita that I'm dealing with, I've ordered metronidazole, and just waiting for the tablets to come. Strangely enough, I have a skin condition that requires me to put a clear gel on my face, and when I went to use it the other night, I thought the name of the active ingredient seemed familiar -- that's because my medication has metronidazole in it too!! I wonder if I could use the gel?? I mean, if it's the same medication, would it matter? I haven't done anything .... but thing is, I feel that each day BeeBoo is getting worse, and I have a sinking feeling, and just hope I can turn this around and get him better. Unless someone thinks I can use the gel medication to treat BeeBoo, I will wait until the tablets come in the post.
It just sucks because BeeBoo is starting to grow, and he's always here by the computer desk watching me. I'd hate to have anything happen to him. I don't know what else to do other than to wait until the meds arrive. I'm sure someone on the forum has used metronidazole before .... can someone give me an idea about dosing. I have read what's in the library, but I prefer to talk to someone that's actually used it because I almost always have questions, and it's nice to have a person to answer those.
I feel so sorry for poor BeeBoo ..... he's so cute and I feel so helpless!
