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March 2002 |
March 20th Utsee has fully recovered and is back in
the main pond swimming with her friends.
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July16, 2002 |
TA -DAH And here
is Utsee! The very last dime-sized of red is all gone now. It was a
long haul but she is doing great. The Black is like coal and white is like fresh
fallen snow. We have 2 beautiful baby Shiro Utsuri's from her spawn on May
23rd that we plan to keep. The netting that you see is to keep the Kingfishers
from stealing our fish. It covers the whole pond and keeps the fish safe. The
complete story and pictures can be found below.
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History |
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Utsee is a 4 pound, 20 inch
female Shiro Utsuri that developed sepsis around the middle of March. I
did several injections. Nuflor, Baytril and Azactam, and she did not seem
to be improving.
On Tuesday March 26th we drove
her to NCSU in Raleigh (a 3 hour drive one way) where Rich and I had the
pleasure of meeting Dr. Greg Lewbart who specializes in reptiles and aquatic
animals. Blood was drawn for culturing. Biopsies of the fins, gill and
body proved negative for parasites. Several biopsies done by me over the
previous weeks that had also proved negative. All fins were bloody and
both pectoral fins had splits that I am thinking came from her sitting on the
bottom of the pond. Both eyes were clouded over. Water parameters
were normal (0) in all cases. Total alkalinity was 120 an pH was 8.0.
Salinity was at .02
At the clinic she was injected
with Ceftazidime 20 cc. And I was advised to re-inject every 72 hours for a
total of 5 injections
Not seeing any improvement
after 3 injections Dr. Lewbart advised me to inject Amikacin using .17cc. This
was done on April 3rd.
Salt in the pond was brought
up to .30 as per instructions over a 2 1/2 day period.
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May 23rd |
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Today we moved Utsee from the main pond
to a spawning tank. I did not want her to get beat up by all the males in
the pond if she should spawn there. So I put her with a smaller male for
spawning purposed. She came through with flying colors and lots of eggs.
While she is not 100% better she is way
on the road to recovery now! Here are 2 updated pictures of her.
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April
17th |
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Most of the fungus has come off,
exposing the redness underneath. Utsee was injected with .75cc
Baytril today. I did note that her eyes are no longer cloudy and are now
normal looking. I am taking this as a sign of healing. The tank she
is in has undergone a nitrite spike and I felt it was in her best interest and
the other fish in the tank to return her to the main pond. The water in
the main pond has warmed to 80* now. This after noon she was active and
alert and schooling with the other fish. She fought aggressively for her
share of the food.
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April 13th |
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Not much improvement as far as I can
see. As per advice of Dr. Johnson and Dr.Greg Lewbart she was injected today with
.75 cc of Baytril. Although I don't think she can see, she is eating earth worms
and occasionally some Sho Koi fish food. After 2 weeks of waiting ,the blood
culture was negative on bacteria.
Extensive water testing at a lab was
also negative.
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April 5th |
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These pictures were taken on
April 5th after deriding with hydrogen peroxide and a cotton ball. She was also
given her 4th injection of Ceftazidime.20 cc
About 2 hours after injection
she went to the bottom of the pond where she laid on her side, breathing
shallowly. I then made a call to Dr. Greg Lewbart at NCSU. We discussed
putting her in a bag of water and oxygen and floating her in the pond. We
then decided to leave her be and not stress her any further by netting and
bagging.
This morning April 5th
she is swimming upright and does go sit on the bottom of the pond by herself for
brief periods. Dr Lewbart also advised me to hold off injecting on April 6th so
that she may recover from the stress of yesterday.
Up until 3 days ago she had
been eating first medicated food and then Sho Koi. Then she stopped
eating. She would join the other fish when they were feed but did not eat.
It was almost like she could not see or smell the food as she gasped at the
food.
I did drop 2 big earth
worms near where she was resting on the bottom and she ate them heartily.
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March 26th |
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These pictures were taken at NCSU on
March 26th. They show anesthetic, drawing blood from the caudal vein and
general pictures of Utsee
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March
20th |
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6 days before the trip to NCSU.
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March
9th |
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The pictures below were taken when I first noticed something wrong with her.
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July 16th ,2002 |
Rich and I and the pond fish would like to thank every one for the love
and prayers while she made her recovery. MANY THANKS Drs. Lewbart of NCSU and
Dr. Erik Johnson (my good buddy) of Marietta, Ga. for their help and support!
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