Infection from Live Rock - Personal Experience
- Thread starter jeffmuse
- Start date
Wow Jeff I haven't been on ARC a lot and just seeing this. That's some wicked infection you got from that scratch and jeez...fast too!
Thank you for sharing this and documenting your injury, it may save several from going thru this.
I got pretty sick one time from fragging Zoa's and got pretty scared, never know how ad it can get. Anyway I do wear gloves more now.
I'm about to swap tanks and am going to get better gloves thanks to you.
So glad your starting your tank ack up. Ill be happy to pass some frags to you wen your ready!
Stay safe.
Thank you for sharing this and documenting your injury, it may save several from going thru this.
I got pretty sick one time from fragging Zoa's and got pretty scared, never know how ad it can get. Anyway I do wear gloves more now.
I'm about to swap tanks and am going to get better gloves thanks to you.
So glad your starting your tank ack up. Ill be happy to pass some frags to you wen your ready!
Stay safe.
Camellia, what happened with the Zoas? I know that they can be very toxic... how long did they make you sick?
Thank you for the frag offer!
Edit:
Thanks Nick, I am ready to jump back in! I still have a lot of work to do on the sump room; however, I am going to fill the display with water this week and let the cycle begin.
How's everything running with your tank?
JeffMuse;896935 wrote:
Loosing all of my fish/ live stock was devastating; however, I REALLY miss having my tank setup... its one of those things where you do not realize how much you love something till it is gone.
I have been working on my sump room for the past few weeks and I am almost ready to re-boot the system. I would like to have water in the tank by this weekend in order to get the cycle started. In a few short weeks I should be back in business
When you reboot the new tank you are welcome to stop by for some free frags. I can't ever imagine having to deal with a tank crash ::knock on wood::
Glad you are getting better after such an invasive infection. It is amazing how some seemingly inconsequential injuries can progress. I would be interested in seeing the lab report about the organism that infected you. Assuming they took a swab anyway. We see some nasty ones at work in the hospital that started really small. Gloves can help minimize some injuries. Looks like an average glove wouldn't have helped you in this case either from the location. I don't personally use gloves when working on the tank but do always wash my hands afterwards.
Tank water is filled with all kinds of bacteria like any water containing higher living organisms. I don't really know of any that are specifically pathogenic (may be some) but any bacteria can be opportunistic in the right situation. Your situation is a great reminder that all wounds should be cleaned up as soon as possible. I am curious to know if the bacteria were native to the water or possibly something on your skin such as a nasty strain of staph. There are all kinds of fast growing and drug resistant strains that can be on your skin at any one time and enter through an injury, pore, or follicle. And no, I am not attacking your personal hygeine lol! Again, glad you are getting over it finally.
Tank water is filled with all kinds of bacteria like any water containing higher living organisms. I don't really know of any that are specifically pathogenic (may be some) but any bacteria can be opportunistic in the right situation. Your situation is a great reminder that all wounds should be cleaned up as soon as possible. I am curious to know if the bacteria were native to the water or possibly something on your skin such as a nasty strain of staph. There are all kinds of fast growing and drug resistant strains that can be on your skin at any one time and enter through an injury, pore, or follicle. And no, I am not attacking your personal hygeine lol! Again, glad you are getting over it finally.
I would love to see the setup! I will give you a call in the next week or two and we can figure out a good time for me to stop by.
My live rock boulder is not looking too impressive at the moment (zero corals right now); however, give me a good 6 months or so and I'll have that thing loaded up once again
Edit:
I REALLY appreciate that, thank you!
Edit:
Blue Spot, thanks for commenting on the thread. When I was at the hospital, they swabbed the infection site, but had a difficult time culturing the bacteria. They also took blood cultures, but these came back negative as the infection never became septic.
The Infectious Disease Physician believed that this particular infection was caused by a form of Mycobacterium. With this in mind, I was given an IV of doxycycline and levaquin (I was given a third antibiotic as well, but I cannot remember what that one was called). Within a couple of days the infection began to recede and I was then switched over to three weeks of oral antibiotics.
I don't think that they ever got a 100% positive ID on the bacteria that caused this; however, I know that they treated it assuming it was a Mycobacterium. The antibiotics worked, so I am guessing that was what it was.
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