The Puffer Forum

Do you have to tranq her to force-feed? I thought she was pretty good with you handling her. I'm still not sure with dead worm in her stomach, she could digeest any food. Too bad she can't digest the worm! Have you tried PMing Puffer Queen at MD? She never responded to your Q on there?

When I tried to feed her with just the syringe and no tube she spit it all out. The only other way would be to tube feed her. I don't think she would stay sill for that. And I don't want to take the chance that she will bite the tube off and accidentally swallow it.

I didn't post in marinedepot about Annabelle because she's freshwater. I thought pq only did saltwater. I'll go post it now.

I think if all you post about is a puffer with worms, it shouldn't matter. The Q is about whether to force-feed her at this point or not. I'm sure your lovely pics will be appreciated by her.

I did the long story short version to update her on what's been going on. Then I linked this post so that she can look at the pictures. I'll post here once I get an answer.

Annabelle is mad at me. But the good news is I measured 8 ml of pureed shrimp in the syringe. This time I used a bigger syringe with a long tip so that she had to swallow and couldn't spit everything out. Of course when I put her back in the tank she spit out another mouth full. After feeding her I poured the water out of the bowl and I only measured 5 ml of pureed shrimp. I'm hoping that I got at least 3 ml in her tummy. It's not full and round but it felt like I got something in there. And I didn't use a tube. She is a little more perky tonight and I'm about to do another water change. She actually tried to get away from the net. She's tired of being picked at. Oh and no sign of worm, her anus is closed and not swollen. I tried to feed her normally first but she would just swim away. So that's when I decided to try with the bigger syringe. Now only time will tell. I'll keep you posted.

Great job! No lumps? Any response from Kelly?

i think you are on the right track..

give her energy at least.

No response from pq yet. Here are some pictures I got of Annabelle last night before I went to bed. I'm certain now that I got some food in her. Depending on how you look at her I can see a little lump. But I'm so happy to see a "food" tummy again.

that is good news....
great job mom......
way to go annabelle.........

Here are a few from this morning:





And one of a pretty "butt". As you can see not swollen, not red, and "NO WORM!"

I'll be doing one more water change on her tank today. Do you think I should treat her with epsom salt one more time?

..............
yeahhhhhhhhhhh annabelle......she looks great.......
you are indeed the best puffer mom i've ever known.....

is she swimming again..? Looks at least like she's moving around more.. or am i imagining it?

Not swimming around as in prowling for food just yet. But she is hanging out. She goes from one spot to another and she's starting to fan out her tail again. Her color is extremely light and now she tries to get away from me. She thinks I'm going to catch her again. I guess that's all a good sign that she's feeling better.

Annabelle started to swim around for about a minute and I noticed that she "still" has some worm. I'll try to feed her tonight and she if see she eats on her own if not then I'll syringe feed her again. Hopefully she will pass the rest of it.

Do you think I should treat her tonight with epsom salt?