[REC]

We see alot of dropsy cases on KoiVet and over the years I have done a lot of work with dropsied fish including more cultures and post-morts than I care to count. How many people do you know that "collect" sick fish?? I am one of them. Awhile back we had a thread on KoiVet stating that yogurt was used to cure dropsy in koi. Not being very delicate about such things, I offered a response about yogurt and dropsy in general. Let me share this with you as it has some additional information about dropsy, its causes and effects.

A post from KoiVet:

Yogurt??? We can't be serious, folks. What is the yogurt combating? Let's take yet another look at dropsy... First, dropsy is not a disease, it is a syndrome or a set of symptoms, such as pineconing, bloat, pop-eye, etc. There are many things that can cause dropsy symptoms to develop, such as bacterial and viral infections of the organs (most likely the kidneys and/or liver), parasitic infestations of the organs, and even bad water conditions or rapidly changing environmental conditions. To understand dropsy, one needs to study osmotic processes in the fish and how fluids are moved in and around the fish's body. What one will see is the impact of chloride on the physiology of the fish and how an imbalance in chloride processing can cause dropsy symptoms to develop.



Typically when we discuss dropsy cases, we do not offer much in the way of hope for the fish's survival and every now and then we are wrong and a fish pulls through it. But that is not very often. And with dropsy cases, it is easy to be wrong because the average ponder has no way of knowing what is causing the dropsy symptoms. To do this, a sample of the exudates (body fluid) needs to be drawn and cultured. This might tell us if the cause is bacterial or viral, even parasitic if we get lucky. But doing such a test is difficult and time consuming.



But there are other signs that help us diagnose the proximate cause of dropsy such as pale gills. For every dropsy case, examination of the gills is probably THE most important diagnostic tool we have. Why? Because the gills tell us the condition of the blood and that tells us the condition of the key organs, to say nothing about the overall health of the fish. Pale gills tells us the fish is anemic and most likely the kidneys and/or liver are affected. Post-mortem exam has proved this out every single time. So, once pale gills are spotted and with the bloating of the fish, we have two key pieces of the diagnostic puzzle: compromised organs and poor blood condition.



But, as we have discussed on numerous occasions on Koivet, there are some things we can do to maybe improve the situation:



1. Salt baths are recommended because we know that the osmotic process failures can be caused by poor chloride processing in the fish. It is chloride that moves the fluid out of the kidneys and into waste. When this function is interrupted, the fluid is pushed out of the organs as exudates and fills the body cavity. So, as a first step in dealing with dropsy, we recommend a salt bath at a level determined by the condition of the fish. If the fish is weak and responds poorly to handling, start the salt bath using pond water at .3% (one tablespoon of salt per gallon of water) for no more than 30 minutes. If the fish is strong and responsive, use a salt level of .6% for 30 minutes. Once in the bath, if the fish reacts poorly and rolls over, remove him immediately and place him back in the pond to recover. For a weaker fish, if he reacts fine to the .3% bath, do the bath again in 48 hours at .4 or .5%. Remember that all of this handling is causing more stress and not helping an already weakened fish. If the fish is responsive to the salt bath, we should see the swelling reduce within 24-48 hours.



2. Warm salty water is recommended for long term care of a dropsied fish. The ideal temperature range is 78-82 degree F as this equates to the peak performance levels of immune system and what we are really trying to do is get the fish to heal itself. The salt level should be .3%, no higher. The increased salt level puts more chloride ions in the water and this helps the fish process fluids more easily.



3. Antibiotics. For most ponders, medicated food is the most practical source of antibiotics for fish. But this assumes that the fish is eating. If the fish is not eating, then some in-water anti-biotics such as oxilium, might be of help. Obviously the fish has to take up the meds from the water and not all meds are easily absorbed. For some fish that are not eating, forced feeding using a feeding tube may be necessary just to get the meds into them. And then there are the injectables. A word of strong caution here about injectables and dropsy. Keep in mind that we always suspect some level of organ compromise with dropsy and so there is a right and wrong choice of injectable meds for treating dropsy. Baytril is a good choice, amikacin is not. Amikacin is both oto-toxic and nephro-toxic. Oto-toxic means it adversely affects the balance system and nephro-toxic means it adversely affects the kidneys. Think about this, folks.. if we suspect damage to the kidneys, why would we inject a med that may compound the problem?? My suggestion is that if you are going to inject, stick with Baytril every time.



4. Tri-Cide Neo dips have the ability to affect internal bacteria problems and makes an excellent choice when dealing with suspected and diagnosed internal bacterial infections, including septicemia.



Quite honestly, despite all of the anecdotal evidence of "cured" dropsy patients, anytime we see a fish exhibiting dropsy symptoms, we have to know that that fish is in a dire condition. And this brings me to point of trying to understand the use of yogurt in treating dropsy. The hardest thing that I am trying to grasp is why inject a foreign substance, loaded with bacteria, into a fish with an already compromised immune system? While I do not doubt zenpond's results that the fish is still alive, I have to state that the technique of using yogurt lacks medical merit and really should not be tried by anyone. I don't want zenpond to take offense to this and actually I am glad he posted this as we can openly discuss these types of issues because we all know that there are SO MANY treatments for all kinds of ailments available on the internet (as we have seen with epsom salts for dropsy) that we need to objectively sort all of this out. This is what Koivet does better than any other fish-related site on the internet.



So, if anyone has some medical evidence of the effect of yogurt on dropsy, the syndrome, please post it here.

REC