Skinny Disease? Please advise.

[chefkeith]

Not renal failure, I think. Not sure what's wrong with her. Loss of weight and excessive hunger. No special diet. She won't touch most foods, so I just give her what she likes.

[Tad]

Hmmm, maybe kitty has worms?
My cat was filling the litterbox with saucer-sized puddles of pee--then I took him to the vet and blood tests confirmed renal failure. His seems age-related. When he was about 2 years old--we discovered that he had feline urilogic syndrome--so he has been on special food for a long time. We have had our share of worm issues with him too.
Wishing the best to your kitty.

[KLKelly]

Sorry for helping with the thread redirection. The owners cat at the wildlife centre where I volunteer is exactly like that. He actually has a thyroid problem and is now given a pill every day. He was eating great but was extremely thin.

[Tad]

Thread redirection--tee hee oops.

That kitty ailment makes sense--might be worth checking out.

My cat gets top notch care to the point of being spoiled--he is older than my kids and is my first baby.

[Tad]

Okay--back on to the original intent of my thread--

Today is the day that I am supposed to change the water in the tank and re-dose the Prazipro (2nd dose). I haven't seen any changes in the fish at all. Should I still re-dose the Prazipro or should I change water, put in carbon, wait __ (?) long and dose with Levamisole Hydrochloride? I did buy some at my local Tractor Supply -- 20.17 g for $17.15 plus I had a coupon for 10% off (yippee-love those savings). For a second when I first picked it up--I thought someone must have spilled the bottle--big ole bottle with a little powder in the bottom--ha ha ha.

I am assuming that I need to give the fish time to show improvement--but how much time?

Thanks!

[chefkeith]

Prazipro usually works quickly. If the fish had the type of worms that Prazi treats, then fish would probably become lethargic for awhile.


Do a few 30-40% water changes and gravel vac the substrate to get most of the Prazi out. Then run some activated carbon in the filter for a few days.
Then go ahead and treat with the levamisole hcl. 1/8 of a teaspoon dosage for a 55 gallons is about right.

Be careful with the Levamisole HCl. It's powerful stuff. Like Prazi it can cause an allergic reaction. When you measure it out, make sure there are no fans blowing near by.

[Tad]

Thanks!
So--one treatment of Prazipro? No one became lethargic--and I thought that was a good thing --argh--oh well--I probably would have panicked and did another water change to take the prazipro out if I would have seen that.

By a few water changes--how many do you recommend and how far apart? Daily? How many days with the carbon do you recommend? I have an Emperor filter--to which I could add lots of carbon in the "fill your own" cartridge "boxes"--I also run a powerhead with the undergravel filter.

I made sure to pick up some of those gloves that go up to the shoulder at TSC. Allergies are bad enough with pollen--no need for anything else to affect anyone here. Thanks for the hint--I will make sure nothing is blowing and no one disturbes the dry stuff.

Sorry for all of the questions but thanks so much for taking your time to read and advise--sometimes I need to be hit with a brick.

[chefkeith]

You don't need to be exact. 2 water changes should be good enough. You can do them back to back or a few hours apart. It's usually better to do 2 smaller water changes back to back, than to do one huge water change.

Run the carbon for 2 or 3 days. However time permits.

[Tad]

Thanks so much!

[Tad]

I am sad to report that my skinny loach died this past Thursday--Aug 30. I bagged him and put him into the refrig. Saturday, I took him to Preuss Pets to be examined to be sure that I did all that I could for him. I was told --preliminary observation--looks like tuberculosis. I should learn more later this week after Antonio does an autopsy (if he can after so long).

On another note--while cleaning the tank Thursday--I attempted to move the rocks that I had glued together with Mr. Sticky's Glue (after reading another post here--thanks!). The stupid rocks broke apart and scared the crap out of me--I was afraid that I crushed fish or broke the tank. I won't attempt any more rocks in my tanks. (now to get the glue remnants off of my rocks) My fish eat all of the plants--so the ones I do have turn into expensive salad bars and look pretty threadbare. So now I have a boring tank that looks like a plumbers' junkyard. No imagination here.

On a lighter note--Preuss is celebrating their 25th anniversary. I also learned that I can use a Python to do water changes even though I don't use tap water in the tanks--yippee!

Thanks for everyone's help--I continue to enjoy reading others' posts.

[dynacity]

If you was skinny through whole of your life,maybe that's your body construction.How old are you? If you observed that you had became skinnier,srawny than before you need a professional advice from dietician and better a doctor(I suggest you to visit endocrinoligyst).Maybe you have some disease of your glands(DO NOT BE scared at all)..and the cause is the over-production of some hormones like Tyroyds ets.Eat healthy,I want to tell you than to gain weight is tougher than losing it..Contact me if you need a program..I strongly recommend you to use Bee pollen and sesami tahan(from raw seeds) make mirracles!

[chefkeith]

Sorry to hear that Tad.

I took my cat to the vet again a little over a month ago. After 3 visits and about a dozen tests, they are still clueless with what's wrong with her. They gave me some antibiotics to give to her and that's about it. She has been going downhill fast ever since. She's no longer hungry all the time, has lost more weight, and She's lost most of her strength. It's almost time for me to have her put to sleep unless some miracle happens. Poor girl.

[Tad]

So sorry about your cat, Chefkeith. I feel for you--my cat is my baby-- he is over 18 years old. My family has always had a cat in the house. It is hard to watch any pet deteriorate--and even harder to have to "play God".