Here's the history:

A friend of my daughter's came over a couple of weeks ago and described what sounded like dropsy in on of her fancy goldies. I gave her some metromeds and she's been feeding that since then. She brought the goldie over today (Nov 5th, 2006). Poor thing's belly is seriously HUGE, espcially on the right hand side. Belly is soft tho. not hard like I expected.

and it looks like there are some raised areas.

I aspirated about 4ml of peach colored fluid that isn't clear. When I shook it it foamed suggesting protein. It tested negative for ammonia. I gave him .05cc baytril IP. Her belly was soft before, but it's even softer now with less fluid in it. It jiggles like jello when she wiggles around. She is pooping. and her dorsal's up.

11/6/06 aspirated 10ccs of fluid. Her skin is so thin, I can see her GI tract. It appears to be pressed up against her left lower belly. The bottom of her right belly is really jiggly now, tho the top still looks like there may be a pocket of fluid up there.

To me it looks like the bottom right is deflated some now. Looks to me like there's a pocket of fluid up higher. and that's a fluid filled blister by her ventral fin.

Here's the left side. That dark area running from front to back near the bottom is her GI tract! That's her vent to the left of her tailfin. I think I could put a lightbulb behind her to get a decent look inside.

11/7/06 aspirated 10ccs of fluid. Here's a video that shows some jiggling of her lower belly when she wiggles.

11/9/06 aspirated 4ccs of fluid

11/10/06 aspirated 10ccs of fluid

11/11/06 aspirated 5ccs of fluid

11/12/06 aspirated 12ccs of fluid. The area I pulled it from is really flat and bouncy now.

11/13/06 aspirated 7ccs of fluid. This time under her belly and forward from last time. Now she can sit without tilting at 45 degrees. The aspirate tested negative for ammonia.

and figured out I can palpate while the needle's in to find where the fluid pockets are.

11/16/06 She's filling up again. aspirated 5ccs of fluid. She's still begging for food and eating all that I feed her.

11/17/06 left eye getting fluid around it

11/18/06 Dorsal's still up and she's eating fine. She doesn't appear to be in pain. but she has definitely filled back up again to the point it's hard for her to balance upright. aspirated 15ccs of fluid. Tested it for ammonia. it read 0ppm. Looked at some under the scope. Saw a few clear cells with one nucleus each and what may have been strands of fibrin.

There were a bunch of thin filaments. I should have gotten a pic at lower magnification.

When I was pouring the fluid onto the slide, it acted like partially set jello.

11/19/06 her right eye is starting to get some fluid around it.

11/21/06 She is on her side now.

11/24/06 Woke up this morning and she was dead. She'd been on her side and was spitting food for the last couple of days.

Necropsy

Her she is laid out. Almost 7 inches long. You can see the indentation on her belly where I'd aspirated fluid.

Here's the fluid that leaked out while she was in the fridge for several hours. Similar to Stripe's but not as yellow.

Her gills were exceedingly pale which suggest organ failure. To me they look uniform and happy otherwise. Note the gill rakers on the right side of the pic.

Her abdominal wall was very very thin and to some degree it was stuck to the mass of fluid filled cysts inside her.

Here's a couple of pics of the mass. again, you can see the sunken in areas where I aspirated.

The mass came away easily and didn't appear to be attached much in front. You can see a smaller mass on the other side of her swim bladder.

but it did appear to be attached posteriorly and at the top.

Here she is without the mass. The caudal lobe of her swim bladder is deflated which is consistant with her being on her side the last couple of days. Her GI tract looks fine for being as squished as it was. I don't see her kidneys.

Here's the mass. It appears to be a bunch of fluid filled cysts hooked together by membranes.

I made a cut along the top and a bunch of clear fluid ran out.

Here it is cut almost all the way thru. You can tell there's not much to it cept for fluid.

Here's the other smaller piece from her other side. Appears to be the same thing. fluid filled cysts.

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