Squeezed out eggs, now what?

[Krustylove]

I didn’t expect my horse to live through the night, but he did. Yesterday I slowly and carefully evacuated gas out of his pouch per instructions on seahorse.org and was successful in getting 80% of the air out but in the process 6 perfectly round eggs with red nucleuses popped out also! I knew right away what they where as they looked like something I had ordered at the sushi bar before and my heart immediately sank with the gravity of what I had just done…I do not know where to go from here as I did not expect him to live through the night. He has been hitched to the same spot for 24 hours now and is curled up in a C shape with some slime/loose skin on his pouch coming off. I purchased some erythromycin today (says it’s for birds but I have used fish antibiotics on my dogs before?!?) and am not sure how to use it but I can look this up on the internet. Any help would be greatly appreciated as this is my 4th and last male who had got GB disease. I killed the other 3 evacuating their pouches…I just want to cry right now

:eek2:

 

[DanU]

Can you post a pic of the seahorse? How about a little history and current parameters?

I would consider Neomycin and Triple Sulpha combo as a first choice for an antibiotic. In a pinch Furan 2 works pretty well too.

Dan

 

[Krustylove]

Here is a picture of my last male-note how inflated his pouch still is and the loose dead skin I would assume that is hanging off of it. It is day two and he lived through the night again and looks to be hunting-thou I did not see him eat at feeding time yesterday. The tank is a 30 tall w/ Barbie sized sump & skimmer w/ plenty of macro algae. I recently treated the tank w/ hydrox to kill bristol worms that were bigger than my horses and I am fighting a hair algae explosion as a result of not changing the water soon enough after the treatment. All of the water parameters are within normal ranges. My biggest mistake was bringing new horses into my show tank w/o a dip or QT time; second pic is culprit-horse with spots. I thought it was a new palomino breed-but I was wrong and now all of the horses in the photo are sadly dead. I was also wondering if you know if this macro in the 3ed pic is mermaids cup and dangerous? I know I have alot going on in this tank...it is too much stress for the horses and me!!! Thanks for your time

 

[DanU]

I would go ahead with antibiotic therapy based on the info given. This should be done a hospital tank, barebottom with aeration and hitching post. Filtration is not needed but water changes of 50% need to be done daily.
Ideally temperature should be brought down to as low as you can, target being around 69 degrees. Temperature needs to be dropped gradually, not all at once. If you can't go that low, go as low as you can. Lower temperatures help slow down bacterial growth.
Again, I would go with Neomycin and Triple Sulpha. Second choice would be Furan 2.
Feeding is important. If the horse will eat frozen great. If not, I would not hesitate to get live foods such as mysids or ghost shrimp. You will be able to monitor feeding better in the hospital tank. If possible, adding Beta Glucan to the diet may prove beneficial as well.
I am having a hard time seeing the peeling skin.

Dan

 

[Krustylove]

Thanks for the info Dan,
The temp is high in the show tank-82 f, I just got a new chiller on my reef tank, I could ladle in the chilled water for my QT tank. About the peeling skin, look on the pouch in the pic and it is at the half way mark towards the outside, you may be missing it because it may just be part of the slime coat coming off. And one more thing about the meds. can I get this stuff at my LFS and does it have a common name/brand and will the directions be on the package or should I go to seahorse.org for treatment directions? I know I ask alot of Q:s, thanks for your patience and your help

 

[DanU]

I just can't see it real well.

Getting the temp down from 82 is critical! Even for a healthy seahorse that is too warm in the closed aquarium environment.

Neomycin is likely to be tough to get locally. Most end up ordering it online. Triple sulpha and Furan 2 should be available in LFS. Need to make the call quickly though, if it is going to be ordered, you want to get it done as soon as possible and not get stuck over the weekend with the meds.

Probably a good idea to do a post in the Emergency Forum on the other site. You will likely get other opinions and possibly options.

Dan

 

[Krustylove]

Thank you so very much, I am on it...

 

[TamiW]

I see a hippocampus comes in there. I assume these are wild caught seahorses (at least some of them?). You've got an uphill battle ahead of you. For the male with gas, treat with diamox if you can get ahold of it. Do a pouch flush specifically. I would STILL treat with antibiotics, there are several websites that cover negative drug interactions, so just be sure to check those before mixing diamox and other medicines (note; I very rarely found drugs that react with diamox).

Please post your specific water parameters. Saying they're within "normal" range isn't very helpful, as one person's normal range is another persons disaster.