Sorry your friend is suffering. You'll know when it's time. Anytime you do real surgery on a fish (especially a weak fish), I highly suggest against using clove oil. Always keep some MS222 around for these kind of possibly lengthy procedures. I believe Puffer Queen might have one last bit of advise for you. She always says, "Where there's life, there's hope!"
I know you guys were speaking of thyroid. Pardon my ignorance but were you refering to a goiter? I thought those could come on pretty quickly. As far as iodine, can't that be taken in by the puffer thru the water column, since it's a SW fish?
One more thing, milk-spotted puffers are not boxfish.
Swelling in throat, not eating
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Swelling in throat, not eating
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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Corvus
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Re: Swelling in throat, not eating
Goiter would be a swelling of the thyroid gland.
I think iodine is mostly taken up by the food in significant amounts. It is taken up as iodide. The puffer apparently had a varied diet. Nonetheless, a treatment for a goiter could be tried, since the antibiotics failed.
"Where there's life, there's hope!"... Cicero?
I think iodine is mostly taken up by the food in significant amounts. It is taken up as iodide. The puffer apparently had a varied diet. Nonetheless, a treatment for a goiter could be tried, since the antibiotics failed.
"Where there's life, there's hope!"... Cicero?
Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Give a fish a man, and he'll eat for weeks.
Re: Swelling in throat, not eating
Hi everybody, I actually did treat it as a goiter using an iodide bath. I did it for four consecutive days for 30 - 45 mins. per bath, to no avail. The lump is still growing, though much more slowly, I suspect due to constriction. I considered tube feeding but his throat is completely closed. I would have to push through tissue with the tube and I'm afraid of doing more damage. I've been soaking his food in vitamins, he'll take a bite, try to swallow, then spit the food out in frustration. He'll do this 2 or 3 times before giving up and swimming away from the food. If he is getting anything from the vitamins it is not enough to sustain him. He's starting to suffer from the lack of sustenance - I can tell just by looking at him.
I was unable to contact Pufferqueen at Marine depot. I've only just gotten my computer running again - had to re-install the OS, it took me a few days to get all the drivers together.
At this point I feel it is time to end his suffering. Had I known how this would go I would have tried the surgery earlier. But the lump now comprises approximately 20% of his total mass, to excise something that large would likely kill him.
I was unable to contact Pufferqueen at Marine depot. I've only just gotten my computer running again - had to re-install the OS, it took me a few days to get all the drivers together.
At this point I feel it is time to end his suffering. Had I known how this would go I would have tried the surgery earlier. But the lump now comprises approximately 20% of his total mass, to excise something that large would likely kill him.