Fish: [tropical fish club] Antibiotics (Was: New member from UK)

It's not 'over-use' of antibiotics that's the problem - it's the
'misuse'. The problem is people on a course of antibiotics begin to
feel better and stop the course without realising that means that not
all the infection has been killed and that that remains has now been
exposed to that particular antibiotic and builds up a resistance to it.
Think of it in terms of why we inoculate ourselves with weak strains of
a disease - so that our own bodies trigger a response and we then have
antibodies ready to fight the 'real' thing.

What we do, by not finishing a course, is breed diseases that are immune
to that antibiotic and new antibiotics are needed, stronger ones, to
fight the mutated disease.
Extrapolate that, and factor in that the availability of antibiotic
compounds is finite and it becomes a serious issue.

I have no issues with folks using antibiotics but agree with the UK
policy of issuing them via vets which means the dosage and course can be
correctly set and it can be strongly impressed on the customer that the
course *must* be completed. I think a 'willy-nilly' approach where
anyone can buy and administer what they like just compounds the problem.

I know that R&D are currently looking into ways of dealing with the
issue - due to the emergence of the 'super-bugs' and hope whatever they
develop will eventually filter down to those of us with pets who need
the same remedies.

Christine McCluskey
Scotland, UK

On 26/06/2013 22:39, milwaukee_mermaid wrote:
>
> Chris, I responded to the part of your post addressing aquarium
> availability in another post, please take a look at that. I came back
> to your post because I want to address the info about the antibiotics.
> While I agree that there can be an issue with over use of antibiotics,
> I also must stand firm on the info about internal bacterial infections
> not being able to be treated with topical antiseptics, which leaves
> those fish unable to be treated and left to either suffer and die, or
> be euthanized, not to mention lack of control in spreading the
> infection directly from fish to fish. While koi can be injected with
> antibiotic medications prescribed by a vet, there are a great many
> "typical" aquarium fish that cannot just due to safety issues and
> their size. I do wish antibiotic medications were a bit more difficult
> to obtain here in the US than they are, but to see them banned
> completely would devastate the hobby and industry.
>
> I'm wondering what you would suggest be an alternative to antibiotics
> to treat internal bacterial infections in fish?
>
> Dawn
>
>

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