Help! My Fantail is not pooping or eating

[Auntybea]

I need help! My 3 year old fantail who has been very healthy except for
constipation all her life, has been sitting on the bottom of the tank for the
past 2 weeks or more, too heavy to swim. I have tried giving her peas, she
has eaten them for a couple of days, but has been unable to poop anything out!
She has become very distressed and now is getting depressed. Today she would
not eat. I have been researching if there could be another problem on the
net, and I am wondering if she could be egg-bound. Her stomach is not
completely taught today but more squishy and she has two holes, her rectum
and then another one just beneath it which has a dark grey oval around it,
which I think I have read, if I am understanding correctly, is a sign that
she has eggs inside her.

I'm concerned that I am not doing enough for her and that I am not diagnosing
her condition properly. Can someone help me?? Today I gave her an epsom
bath to try to draw some fecal matter and all I got was some redness at her
anus, sort of like a sore!! which has really freaked me out!

I purchased some antibiotic food today, but she won't touch it and, usually
ravenous, she won't eat any peas today.

Do female goldfish ready to lay eggs quit eating? What do I do if she is egg-
bound? We have no fish doctors where I live. I don't want to lose her!!

Can anyone help me?????

[[email protected]]

call Jo Ann Burke at 251-649-4790. She is the Goldfish Guru with a great deal of
experience. Call before 5. Keep trying to call her, dont expect her to call you
back. Ingrid

On Sun, 29 Jun 2008 08:36:30 GMT, "Auntybea" <u44558@uwe> wrote:

>I need help! My 3 year old fantail who has been very healthy except for
>constipation all her life, has been sitting on the bottom of the tank for the
>past 2 weeks or more, too heavy to swim. I have tried giving her peas, she
>has eaten them for a couple of days, but has been unable to poop anything out!
>She has become very distressed and now is getting depressed. Today she would
>not eat. I have been researching if there could be another problem on the
>net, and I am wondering if she could be egg-bound. Her stomach is not
>completely taught today but more squishy and she has two holes, her rectum
>and then another one just beneath it which has a dark grey oval around it,
>which I think I have read, if I am understanding correctly, is a sign that
>she has eggs inside her.
>
>I'm concerned that I am not doing enough for her and that I am not diagnosing
>her condition properly. Can someone help me?? Today I gave her an epsom
>bath to try to draw some fecal matter and all I got was some redness at her
>anus, sort of like a sore!! which has really freaked me out!
>
>I purchased some antibiotic food today, but she won't touch it and, usually
>ravenous, she won't eat any peas today.
>
>Do female goldfish ready to lay eggs quit eating? What do I do if she is egg-
>bound? We have no fish doctors where I live. I don't want to lose her!!
>
>Can anyone help me?????

[Auntybea via PetKB.com]

wrote:
>call Jo Ann Burke at 251-649-4790. She is the Goldfish Guru with a great deal of
>experience. Call before 5. Keep trying to call her, dont expect her to call you
>back. Ingrid
>
>>I need help! My 3 year old fantail who has been very healthy except for
>>constipation all her life, has been sitting on the bottom of the tank for the
>[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
>>
>>Can anyone help me?????

Thank you for responding. Unfortunately, it came too late. She succumbed
about 12 hours or so after I sent out my plea for help. She just kept
getting more bloated and more bloated. I gave her an epsom salts bath for
only a few minutes and she seemed to bloat more from that and that seemed to
put her over the edge. I went to bed at 4:00 a.m. for a few hours sleep and
she had succumbed by the time I awoke at 9:30 a.m. Her rectum appeared to me
to be completely closed. I don't know what that means. There was also a
darkness behind her rectum. I don't know whether this was blocked up feces
or, I have black rocks in my tank, and I'm wondering if perhaps she
accidentally swallowed a rock that she couldn't pass. The day she passed I
was ready to give up on the whole process of being an aquarist. The pain of
losing a 3-year-old goldfish was akin to the pain of losing a 3-year-old cat
or dog! But somehow worse because at least with a cat or dog you have a vet
who can tell you that you did everything you could and that it wasn't your
fault. With fish you just don't know. I was, and still an to a degree, sick
with grief and guilt that I am a poor aquarist and that is why she died. I
told my husband that I was selling my tank. He asked me what I would do with
the other 7 goldfish for whom I am responsible. I said I would sell them
with the tank. Within 3 days I knew this was not something I could ever do.
For better or worse, I must play God and be responsible for the very water in
which those little lives swim for the duration of their lives. Yay, though
I walk through the valley...

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