Re: NANFA-- Antibiotics - Geoff Kimber's comments

Doug Dame (dameda_at_shands.ufl.edu)
Fri, 15 Nov 2002 15:40:02 -0500

Geoff ... (Hey Geoff !!!) ... concluded his professional pharmacist views on
this subject by saying:

>> to be honest, I do not use antibiotics very much at all.
>> The most common time for me to use antibiotics is right
>> after capture. After that, I rarely use them except when
>> my prize specimens get sick.

Given all that you said ... which is certainly very consistent with what I've
heard, as a non-clinical person working in a large academic medical center ...
I find it curious that your self-described most common use of antibiotics
seems to be as a general preventative in new-caught fish, absent any specific
indication that an antibiotic is going to be useful. Old habits are hard to
break?

Personally, I barely use any medicines at all on my fish, probably mainly
because I don't really understand which moderns meds are appropriate for which
conditions, i.e., I'm profoundly ig'n'rint. Anything beyond fungus that seems
likely to respond to salt will most likely result in an immediate mercy trip
to the freezer for the unlucky victim. (Remember the classic Far Side cartoon
that has a few startled looking horses lying on beds in the "Horse Hospital",
while one bed is surrounded by a privacy screen? And the caption is "BANG!")

Your sewer anecdote is right on target, tho ... since our little guys are
living day to day in their own sewers. Minimizing the environmental exposures
and stresses in the first place is key.

Doug Dame
Interlachen FL
------------------------------------------
Enough talk, I need to go home and get busy doing some water changes.
(with due apologies to Charles Harrison,
the Original Mr Water Change)
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