The Puffer Forum

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.

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?

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.