euthanizing

bsope · 04-26-2009, 04:47 PM

I have been avoiding this idea for a little while now. I have a powder blue dwarf gourami who is wasting away. I have had it for about 7 months. It had a problem about 5 months ago with a tiny hole in the side of its head, and I treated himn with Metro X for hole-in-the-head. It worked.

About 3 months ago he started to get a little thinner and more shy. It has been VERY gradual. I don;t like to go bonkers with meds so I moved him into a quieter 10g tank in case he was stressing. I change the water 1 time a week, a 50% change, siphoning the gravel each time. The water is very hard, pH around 8. When I have tested the water ammon 0, nitrite 0, nitrate about 10.

About 6 weeks ago I realized he is way too thin. I tried metro x again for 7 days. No improvement. About 2 weeks after that I tried Jungle Parasite fizzy tabs, and he seemed worse. After many water changes I tried a little epsom salt. That did seem to help a little. His spine is bent s shaped now, he has difficulty moving (stays in one spot ALL the time), he's emaciated, and eats about 50% of the time. I have to use a turkey baster to drop the flake food near his mouth. I had tried medicated food, but he would have nothing to do with it. I have tried peas, zuchinni, dried bloodworms and frozen glass worms to vary his diet. He only likes flakes.

So, how do you know when they are in pain? How do you know if it is the best or most ethical thing to euthanize them? Sometimes I think he is going to pass away, and then the next day he seems better and swims to the top and eats a lot. He lives alone in a 10G tank, HOB filter, temp at 78-80, and a bubble strip for aeration.

Thanks for any thoughts.
Bsope

Ruadh · 04-26-2009, 05:55 PM

There's several ways, I'm sure there'll be lots of replies.
What I do is put him in a baggy with water and put him in the freezer. There's no pain and his metabolism will slow to the point where ha goes into a comma before he dies.

Sorry for your loss.

louistheloach · 04-27-2009, 11:08 AM

It is a hard decision to have to end the life of an animal you have cared for. I know it wont help now but in the future it may be something to consider. Actually it sounds like you did with the fizzy stuff.

Most fish have internal parasites. For the most part, as long as they are healthy, their body just deals with it. But by going through this hole in the head time of stress, his body was no longer able to manage the level of internal parasites. As they increase in size and number, the fish wastes away.

Generally the stuff you add to the tank water is much less effective than getting the meds into them internally. There are several products on the market that are applied to the food. To assist with the removal of the parasites, it is also helpful to decrease the amount of food given, but increase the number of times per day it is given to keep stuff moving through and help his system fight the buildup of numbers and to try to prevent buildup of the dead and dying stuff.

As to the euthanizing.....a plastic bag or a small covered container of water and he will simply go to sleep and then expire.... (hypothermia) ....

It does sound like he is too far gone and it would indeed be kinder to let him go.

ltl