This young male barbouri quickly developed an infection below the neck region as indicated in the photograph.  There was also a light patch that was developing on the side of the head area.  I feel the infection was probably caused by my mishandling in attempting to perform a pouch evacuation.  I have found that large fingers and small seahorses do not mix well.  I am usually very conservative in utilizing any type of treatment but since the infection developed so quickly I felt I needed to set up a hospital tank and begin antibiotics immediately.

Existing tank water was used for the 10 gallon hospital tank.  An air stone was used for circulation and as well as a small heater.  Various sizes of air tubing were placed in the tank for hitching.  A few live brine shrimp were available in the tank at all times during treatment.  Any dead brine shrimp were vacuumed at the end of each day.  Enriched mysis shrimp was feed once each day.

Before placing my patient into the untreated hospital tank I topically applied Neosporin^TM for quick broad-spectrum antibiotic control.  I then treated the hospital tank with erythromycin for 4 consecutive treatments with water changes as directed over a period of about a week.  The first three days I also repeated topical application of Neosporin^TM.  I considered applying the Neosporin^TM more than once a day but wanted to keep his already stressful situation to a minimum.  I didn't feel the additional handling would benefit him further than the once a day application topically.

He remained in the hospital tank for approximately 8 days.  His recovery was quick and I felt he would continue to progress if placed back into the main tank as he did.  As one can see in the recovered picture that there is still a faint light patch residual of the former infection.  You might also note his slightly larger size.