Gas bubble disease? Help please!

[Howieytown]

Hello all,
Seems from what i can tell my male seahorse has gas bubble disease. His brood pouch is swollen and floating him on the surface when he's not holding on to anything.
Is there anything that can be done to help?
Everytime i try to use the search feature on this site it wont let me any links to past posts about this would be great!

His appetite is still very good, swelling in his brood pouch, pretty sure he is not pregnant, any help would be great.
Thanks

 

[JennyL]

You will need to do a pouch evacuation to help him release the air in his pouch.

Do you know how to do this?

 

[zoster.keeper]

A good method is massaging the pouch or doing what Jenny said...do you know what to do?

 

[JennyL]

Be sure your hands are very clean.

Hold your horse in your left or right hand and allow him to wrap his tail around your little finger. This will help him to relax. Be sure you keep the horse under water at all times.

Give him a minute to relax. Then with your thumb and index finger of your other hand, begin at the bottom of the pouch and apply some pressure and slowly work the air up to the opening of the pouch. You should see the bubbles being released into the water.

Do not rub or pinch the pouch, you don't want to cause any injury.

Once the air has been released from the pouch, he will immediately swim normally.

If he will not open his pouch, you can use a small blunt instrument, such as a plastic bobby pin. Apply just a little pressure next to the pouch opening. Do NOT insert it into the pouch opening. You are simply teasing the pouch open if needed.

If you have any problems doing this procedure, let us know.

You then need to find the cause of the problem.
If you can give us your water perams including temp and setup, maybe we can find the cause.

HTH

 

[Howieytown]

Ok, I managed to get some air to escape. He's a strong swimmer still, the pouch still looks somewhat inflated and he's still close to the surface holding on.
He was upside down, head down, belly up but now he is able to hold on in an uppright postion.
Do you think I should medicate, maybe Furan-2 or Neomyican?

and thanks for the quick replies, i went straight to it following your instructions

 

[JennyL]

Allow him to rest a little bit and then do another one. Sometimes it takes a couple of times to get all the air out.

Don't wait too long because he is under stress as long as he is having the bouyancy problem.

I would not rush to use meds until we know a little more, it may be just something in your setup that needs attention.

 

[pledosophy]

I would try the pouch evac again. Some find it easer to do when the horse is upsidedown. The bobby pin method seems the most effective. Admittedly I have never done one.

If you have a skimmer feeding directly into the system, I would turn it off for now. If anything else is creating micro bubbles in the system, I would turn that off as well. make sure there is ample surface agitation.

I would also place an order for Diamox, which is the appropriate med if that situation arises. It takes time to get in the U.S. so you shoul dorder today if you do not already have on hand.

Good luck.

 

[Howieytown]

I did the evac again, seems i got most off the air out this time. He's heads up and holding on now, hopefully he'll be alright.
I've some water mixed and ready to do a water change tonight, maybe I'll do a few small water changes this week.
What about using Furan-2 or Neomycin? I have both of those on hand.

 

[pledosophy]

Neither of those meds are appropriate. It is like giving Peptobismol to cure athlete's foot.

 

[TamiW]

If the air returns, you'll likely have to treat with diamox (acetazolamide). It is a prescription only drug in the US, so you'll have to get it from a vet willing to help or a doctor friend. (its usually only used in humans, so you would probably have to explain to the vet what exactly it is and why you need it prescribed). Otherwise, do what many seahorse people do and order it grey market from other countries. PM me if you need to and I'll send you the url to the place I use.

 

[Howieytown]

Update

Update

Update,
Just to let you know after the day after the second Evac HE was back to his courtship displays. I've caught them doing it everyday now.
I guess he's fully recovered or just a typical male?

thanks all for the help~

 

[Holokai]

I read this thread from begining to end in about 3 minutes, but I went from worry to cheering to worry to cheering. Good Job!

 

[Howieytown]

diamox

diamox

Where can i get this medication, easily?
And is Diamox always the solution to the air in pouch problem?

I do use a skimmer but there are NO visable air bubbles in the main tank.