Shovelnose Cat Badly Injured

[MoonstruckMuse]

I came home from a day trip to find my shovelnose cat upsidedown and gasping for breath with multiple injuries scattered across his body, supposedly from the arowana, since nothing else is broken/dangerous. They've also had mild scuffles before.

Injuries include, from worst to least:
A large scrape over his outer gill area - inner gill, the reddish area, is exposed
Several (slightly smaller then dime) lesion holes around his head - right behind his gills. Brown stuff is slightly coming out - looks like muscle/flesh.
Barbels are all significantly shredded and shortened.
On the underside of the head, the gills are fluffy/ragged looking (not fungusy looking, just shredded).
Long scrape, superficial, across one side of his body.
Tail, pectoral, and dorsal fins are all shredded.

No noticeable other injuries are there. Ammonia, Nitrites are at 0, Nitrates are at 10. We've moved him to another container for the time being and are going to be doing roughly 50% water changes twice a day, with mature tank water. Tank is overfiltered and aerated.

What should I do to treat his injuries? Are there some form of topical treatment I can put on the lesions (or a dip to put him in)? Aid gill funtion? Should I put anti-fungusing meds in, and which ones? What other treatments should I do? What's with the whole... upsidedown ness?

...

What are his chances looking like?

Any help greatly appreciated. Thank you. Even a thought to spare would be great.

 

[*Fishkies*]

Sounds to be in very bad condition. I would go with a type of bacterial medication. This would help heal up those open wounds. Also be sure to keep his water extremely clean so no infections can occur. Be sure to provide plenty of aeration in with him, this should help with his breathing.

As for the upsidedown ness. Does he swim like that all the time? Or does he swim in circles? What's his swimming like?
Odd swimming is usually saying a fish is very stressed.

 

[MoonstruckMuse]

He's... not swimming, which is entirely what bothers me the most. He just lies there upside down, much like well... a dead fish. =( He usually hovers around midwater/bottom water, searching for food happily.

What sort of bacterial med would you recommend? I've really no experience with treating tanks with anything asides from the occasional ich outbreak.

 

[*Fishkies*]

How is his breathing? His not swimming could still be from stress, and may recover, however it is hard to say especially if he is not moving.

I would suggest treating with Pimafix, it says it is a great product for delicate fish, and it is also an antifungal and antibacterial medication. Click here if you want to read about the product.

 

[MoonstruckMuse]

He seems like he's breathing normally, if anything...just slightly slower then usual. Almost as if he's sleeping, really. Might just be that he's completely worn out at the moment, heh. Not too worried about his breathing, to be completely honest.

When he moved him to the larger tank, he hardly even made a splash. Considering he's about 18" long, and a big, strong heavy guy that flailed the entire way home from when we bought him...this worries me. Blergh.
And I'll head out to the store for some pimafix first thing tomorrow morning. Thanks!

 

[-germ-]

I had a similar situation recently with a badly beaten gourami....
I tried an undertreatment using melafix for regeneration and an antibacterial (tetramedica), during the period in which your fish is healing make sure your stats are perfect, tank extra clean via extra gravel vacs etc.
Makes sure you add extra aeration as well, he'll be respiring faster due to stress, the injury,the meds etc. and you need to balance this out with added oxygenation IMHO.
Good luck.

 

[MoonstruckMuse]

=( Augh.

I checked on him this morning, he was still fine. Even gave me a little wiggle to protest me turning on the lights to see him, the silly.
So I went to the pet store, gone maybe an hour, picked up pimafix and melafix.
...He was gone by the time I got home. ::sigh:: I watched him for over an hour, no gill movement, and no reflexes to anything. Left him for another two hours, just in case... but the poor dear has moved on.

Blergh. There goes my favorite baby. =/

I may post pictures to see if I can determine a cause later. The more I look at him, the more I wonder how on earth the Arowana shredded him that badly, and why he was bellyup like that in the first place. Perhaps he had a fast bacterial infection, and the aro attacked later?
Thanks for all the help. You guys are great, and I'll definitely be ready just in case something happens again.

RIP Xemnas.

 

[*Fishkies*]

Awe so sorry to hear of your loss. Xemnas.

Sometimes you just can't help your fishy the way you'd like to. Best of luck with your future in fishkeeping!