scars plastic surgery and healing!

[kevan]

i wanted to ask if anyone could comment on the expected healing of hi on koi,

i have heard that some people have changed the pattern on a koi, especially on the head by scraping away the top skin on hi they wish to remove (personally a practice i dont agree with),

i have no experience of this but it made me wonder how damaged parts of a koi may heal such as if the koi has scraped its side and head, i would expect the wound to go whitish but what id like to ask is if these whitish areas will return to the full red again in time?

i guess the same could be said for any koi where someone has changed the pattern by scraping or does the effect and long term situation of the Hi depend on how deep the damage is?

also does anyone have pics of a damaged koi a healing koi and a healed koi to illustrait the process?

kevan.

[bekko]

Told this story before, but...

I don't have a photo, but do have a kohaku that jumped and knocked her head on the wooden boardwalk over her pond. I was standing on the boardwalk about 80 feet away and could feel the thud. It was nasty with a loose chunk of skin about 1.5 inch x 0.5 inch which flopped back and forth when she swam. It was right in the center of her head. I didn't do anything except watch for a few days. The damaged area was bloody raw flesh, then a whitish scar and now, 16 months later, the beni has returned. If you look really close, you can still see the mark as the new beni is not (yet?) as thick as the surrounding area. Suprised the heck out of me.

-steve hop kins

[db reddragonfly]

As far as altering the pattern,I have heard of it but have never seen it done. In my own experience the color usually comes back in the injured area. It does not appear the scales have come back.The area appears to remain smooth. I have a koi that had a big gash behind the gill area a few years back.When it healed the net pattern was disfigured. This spring one of my showas had a ding on its face. The white area(The area healing) did heal back to its original hi color.There were of course no scales in this area and it looks pretty good now.

[Mike T]

Bekko:

The reason the koi healed is because all the CCA in your treated board walks killed any bacteria before it could get a foot hold...bet some CCA rubbed off into the cut...

Love and Kisses, Mike T...

[kevan]

thanks for the great replies guys,

kevan

[dinh]

Quote: Originally Posted by bekko Told this story before, but... I don't have a photo, but do have a kohaku that jumped and knocked her head on the wooden boardwalk over her pond. I was standing on the boardwalk about 80 feet away and could feel the thud. It was nasty with a loose chunk of skin about 1.5 inch x 0.5 inch which flopped back and forth when she swam. It was right in the center of her head. I didn't do anything except watch for a few days. The damaged area was bloody raw flesh, then a whitish scar and now, 16 months later, the beni has returned. If you look really close, you can still see the mark as the new beni is not (yet?) as thick as the surrounding area. Suprised the heck out of me. -steve hop kins

This happened exactly to one of my showa, except where she jumped to the waterfall and bumped her head to the rock in waterfall area..

--Dinh

[bekko]

MikeT, the industry switched from CCA to HiBore (borate) right in the middle of that project. Hard to pin down which antibiotic was in use on that particular occasion.

-steve