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| Dead Fish, Handle Properly By
Sandee Todorsky A few days ago we ended up with some fish that we felt were beyond the help of quarantine and injections. These fish (there were two) had huge growths on their heads covering one side of the head. The fish were both yellow in color and the growths were like a port-wine stain that is seen on humans sometimes. But these growths had the appearance of a cluster of rough berries. We had never seen anything like it. There were lesions on the tail and dorsal fins that looked like Carp Pox, but even that was questionable. I got online and tried to find something that would give me a clue as to what we were dealing with. I found all kinds of diseases, but none of the pictures that were available were anything like what we were dealing with in person. I looked at 15+ sites. So I did a fair amount of research trying to find something to help. During my search, the fish were getting worse. Rather than take a chance on letting these fish infect others we had in quarantine, or even foul the water as they rolled over, the fish went into a bag of pond water and into the freezer. Time and funds were short, so we did the most humane thing we could. It wasn’t until the fish were already in the freezer that I thought of contacting Allen Riggs at the college of veterinary medicine at the University of Florida. Allen had run the wet lab for anyone who signed up at AFKAPS this past March and had given seminars at previous AFKAPS. The fish had already been put down in a humane manner. But I thought these growths might be interesting to Veterinary Students. Allen thought they also might have been interesting for his students, but they were not usable after being frozen. So this was a real learning experience for us. I contacted Allen Riggs via e-mail (RiggsA@mail.vetmed.ufl.edu). His response was very interesting. So I thought I would share it in case anyone else finds themselves in the same position and would want to either donate fish or actually find out what their growths are. Allen’s reply: ....it sounds like some form of neoplasia, which would make an interesting case/slide for histopath, but unfortunately once the tissue is frozen the ice crystals cause artifacts which renders the subtle histological characteristics often necessary to make the diagnosis unreadable. If you get something like that in the future, after euthanizing the fish excise the mass out and put in a 10% buffered formalin at a 10:1 ratio of formalin:mass...with the mass scored so the formalin can penetrate easily (ie breadloaf slice it about 1/4") ...this will allow the formalin to easily penetrate into the slices from both sides and properly fix the tissue until we can get together and get a slide cut and stained. Had we had this information before we euthanized these fish, we could have made a donation which may have helped us in the future. Having the information on what exactly is needed to be able to properly diagnose any problem is something to have in reference and waiting rather than information you scramble to get on a moment’s notice. |
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