Injury questions OK here, too? Shubunkin with wing damage...

Fish can go without food for at least a week or two. Try presoaking the food or switch to sinking pellets or gel foods. If the fin appears to improve and not worsen anymore, you could consider putting her back in the pond however it may be a little too early to do it unless you really are sure it will be okay while still trying to recover its injury.
 
I think she's dying and I don't know what to do. Today the filter flow is enough to push her around, and her fins are all pulled in tight instead of flowing. She let me hold her in my hand...still not eating or pooping.

Ammonia is at 0. I am thinking about doing a 100% water change and giving her no medicine this time. I can't think of anything else to do. Her fin looks to be healing. I am almost tempted to put her back in the pond and let her die in peace...

This really sucks.
Jen
 
Oh no! I am sorry to hear that, Jennie.:( Could you please lower the filter flow? If the fin looks to be healing, please do not euthanize her yet. Confine her for now in the quarantine if she seems weakening. If she doesn't seem to improve in a few days, euthanasia may be the last option. I know this is extremely painful to hear and I am really sorry to suggest this last option.
 
I can't do this anymore tonight. I did as close to a 100% water change as I could without stressing her too much, and put the carbon back in the filter to strain out any medicine remnants. All I can do is give her clean water and wait and see what happens. My head tells me it's silly to sit here crying over a 5.00 goldfish, but my heart is breaking. Poor baby, I didn't bring her home to kill her...I can't sit here and watch her anymore.

Jen
 
Jen... try putting another goldfish in there with here... one as small as she is.... watch carefully to make sure the other one doesn't pick at the injured fin. If her fin is healing and you are keeping the water pristine, then I'm wondering if she's terribly lonely.

Clean water, 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites, temperature matched when you do water changes, Prime by Seachem water conditioner. These are the things that will help her, and let her immune system do its work.

I can't think of any other possibility right now and I do know that goldfish are very sociable. She may be depressed from being so alone, not discounting your nurturing and loving face looking down on her, but she may miss her own kind.

I think it's worth a try.
 
The fin looks like it is healing beautifully, so you've done a great job on that. She may not be eating much right now, but with the pristine water you are providing for her and the your excellent care, you're giving her the best opportunity to recover.

You might try visiting your LFS in the next day or two to ask for live brine shrimp. Don't buy too many, as they die rather quickly and won't be any good after a day or two. But the live food may stimulate her appetite. Sometimes this does the trick for a fish that won't eat.

If you're desperate you can force-feed her.

From the Atlantic Coast Veterinary Conference, 2001:

Koi are quite easy to force feed since there is no risk of aspiration. A flexible blunt tube such as a red rubber catheter can be used to administer a gruel which should be fairly viscous. Commercial flake or pelleted food can be mixed with small amounts of water to formulate the tube feeding gruel. Special care should be taken when passing the gastric tube to avoid perforation of the gastrointestinal lining since koi do not have a true stomach. The clinician will benefit by being familiar with the general internal anatomy of the koi patient.
Click to expand...

http://www.vin.com/VINDBPub/SearchPB/Proceedings/PR05000/PR00343.htm

If you're going to go this route, I would tranquilize her with a low dose of properly mixed eugenol in water first, to reduce any chance of her struggling as you insert the tube into her mouth. Also remember that koi - and goldfish, having nearly identical internal anatomy - cannot comfortably eat more than 1-2x the size of their eyeball in one sitting.

Best of luck.
 
I've been watching this thread, Jen and you've had good advice. You're doing a great job helping her to recover. It does look like regrowth along the edge of her fin. Hope this goes well from here. Try not to worry... I know that's real hard to do, but do try.

Let us know how it goes. Good luck!!
 
Update:
Ok, here goes...yesterday she was even worse, fins all squeezed in tight, drifting more than swimming, still wouldn't eat. Still no poo. Her fins but not her tail looked like they were turning pink, but couldn't tell if they actually were, or if that was just what they looked like all folded in. Spent the morning hunting down live brine shrimp, but she wouldn't touch them either. Accidently sucked one up, but spit it right back out. Soaked sinking pellets in garlic...nothing there, either.

Spent half an hour convincing one of the other fish to come in and keep her company (much harder to net a fish in a pond than in a tank :) ). Finally Pearl agreed to come in, and promptly ate everything in sight and pooped all over the place. So then I worried that Indy wouldn't get anything to eat even if she wanted it, 'cause Pearl was hogging it all. Did another close to 100% water change, put in a few more brine shrimp, since Pearl seemed to like them and that way they wouldn't get wasted, and went to watch a movie with the kids. Indy still tucked in at the bottom doing nothing, but seemed to be snuggling up to Pearl whenever Pearl stopped moving.

Movie gets done and we go to check on the fish one last time before bed...

Indy is hoovering the bottom of the tub like nobody's business, sucking up anything she can get! Dropped a sinking pellet in front of her nose and she wolfed it down--and didn't spit it out! Put in a few more shrimp and she sucked them down, too.

This morning she is all over the tub, fins out, not pink, eating everything I drop in, including some frozen bloodworms. I have never been so happy to see a fish trailing poo in my whole life. Still seems to get tired easily...might get to sleep tonight myself...

So, I now have two fish--one shubunkin and one comet-- in a 10 gal tub. Even doing huge water changes everyday, I know this is not an ideal situation. Indy's fin is healing but not entirely regrown. What's the best thing to do? Leave them both in another day or two? Both back to the pond? Keep only Indy in till fin is completely regrown? Don't know what turned things around for her...could be Pearl, or getting the water unmedicated and just clean, or...? I do think, having reread the medication, that I should maybe have only dosed twice, rather than four or five days worth, and waited to see how she did. Package says A second dose may be administered after 24 hours. I wonder if I pickled her in medicine for too long.

Thanks everyone for listening to me blubber the last few days.
This whole roller coaster of better-worse-better-worse is enough to make a person crazy:duh:

Jen
 
If you are willing to do water changes daily, I'd keep Indy in the tub for now until her fin has grown back completely. Keep Pearl there for company. It seems to me Indy was starving her to death because of lack of company, aside from possibly the potency of the treatment. Some fish are such strange creatures.
 
I think Lupin has a good idea to keep her there for longer, but I wouldn't keep her in the tub until it's completely grown back. I'd give it three or four more days and if she's doing well, return her to the pond. You did a great job! I think it was loneliness and possibly that medication bomb you dropped on her too! :D I'm glad to hear she has improved.
 
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