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A VET in NZ who knows about fish? Location doesn't matter!


Kelsta

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Hi Guys

I am totally desperate here, does anyone know of any vet anywhere in NZ who knows about fish? (Or even a vet nurse or anyone who works at a vets?)

I really need to get someone to professionally advise how to treat for gill flukes with Droncit so my other half feels comfortable going ahead with it. (He has trouble trusting the internet...)

PLEASE! Any help will be immensly appreciated!

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Hey from experience salt has always been the best and safest method for these kinds of problems, which is less scarey than using chemicals.

I would also do a 50% water change, concentrating on the cleanliness of your gravel substrate, the inside of your filters and the inside of the glass,with any luck this will then reduce the fluke population and the salt method will get rid of the rest, we have used salt for a number of problems (including whitespot etc) and it has always worked really well including raising the temp of the tank a little too.

AERATION TOO! dont wanna forget that, chuck a couple of airstones in.

You may need to do this every week for atleast 3 weeks, but hopefully this will solve your problem..

Make sure you buy the correct salt and use it as it directs on the package or rule of thumb we use is about 112 - 113gms of salt per 40Litres of water.

Goodluck!

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I think you'll find it a hard search to find a vet who knows anything about fish. The people here, especially those who have been in the hobby for a number of years would be able to give you very sound advice and i would trust them over any vet when it comes to fish. As dimebag said, what type of fish are you treating?

Is Droncit pure prazi? If so many websites would be able to give you a few different, equally as reliable, ways of treatment.

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Thanks everyone - treating goldfish who also share a tank with minnow and borneo sucker fish. The minnow flash and the suckers jump around madly sometimes, so I'm guessing they are also carrying the flukes.

I actually do find this site and a couple others extremely helpful and the prazi treatment methods/dose advice I've read all seems pretty consistent, and I'd be more than happy to go ahead and treat based on that - my problem is convincing hubby.

He needs a qualified professional to confirm it before he'll go ahead with it. What we have here is you typical 'husband doesn't trust wife, but husband trusts professional who says exactly the same thing as wife did in the first place' scenario. He doesn't even trust the advice from Doc Johnson - the Koi Vet website! "Anyone can claim to be a vet on the internet, it doesn't mean they are..."

Droncit is pure praziquantel, and I already have some from the vet. Unfortunately this vet was clueless about fish which did not help the husband situation... :roll:

Salt is great for most things, but actually doesn't get rid of gill flukes.

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Perhaps someone could pay a house visit? Or even better - take hubby and yourself round to someone elses (preferably with lots of tanks) so he can see the amount of experience these people (person) have (has). Just make sure you arrange it first :wink:

HTH

George

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Yeah, that might be good actually. In fact, we do have a friend who works at a fish store and she has goldfish - maybe I should try and get her on board. I'll get him to come to the shop this weekend with me and we'll see if she can help. Thanks :D

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Salt can actually work really well with the right methods or in conjunction with other treatments, including salt baths etc, a good reason for it not to work is that it is more common for flukes to become immune to salt now.

Here is a link that includes salt as a method, http://article.dphnet.com/cat-02/flukes1.shtml however I agree that the prazi is the surefire way to get of rid them this is just an alternative method without using chems. :)

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I've tackled my local vet about getting medication for fish in the past and they contacted Massey University. You could try contacting Massey directly, there is someone in the Vet/Aquaculture section up there that does know a bit about tropical fish

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I have treated for gills flukes with Droncit - use 2mg prazi /litre of water (I think each tablet was either 25 or 50mg of prazi per tablet.. check though) I dosed 3 days in a row (2mg/l each time) with no water changeds in between. Then leave it until a week from the first treatment.. do a water change and a good vacuum) 25-50%. And repeat this. Do the same until yo uhave 3 weeks or treatment. If your tank is not heated yo umay want to warm it as much as yo uare comfortable with as this speeds up the lifecycle of the flukes.

I have used this on WCMM's and goldfish with no ill effects. I haven't tried it on borneo suckers yet.

Droncit is VERY gentle and doesn't deplete the oxygen in the tank so yo udon't have to fret about extra aeration.

Use google and look up Merck Vet manual. It wont give dosages though... cause there's really very little 'official' literature on the subject.

But he can also look up prazi-pro which they sell in the US for flukes.. it gives instructions and is readiliy used over there without concerns.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have had surprisingly good luck with Vets in Hamilton.

I went to Animates had a chat with the vet nurse told her I needed some Prazi, Vet was busy but rang me back same day, we discussed the medication as well as other wormers. she offer to get a some prazi in for me, just have to fill in a form to say why I want it and if I kill my fish she isnt liable..sweet! too easy.

Am trying to track down a small amount (less than 4 L) of Levamisole atm I will post details of the outcome soon

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  • 1 month later...

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