Fish Tb 13 Year Old Girl May Loose Her Hand, Should you wear gloves

Hi All
I got my regular news letter from PFK today and was horrified to read that a 13 year old girl, became infected with fish TB in her hand, sadly she may now have to loose the hand
Robyn myself and others will all put their hands up to say that yes weve had our hands in our aquarium with cuts and no weve never caught anything .
The sad thing is you will never know until you get it fish TB is a zoonosis meaning qiuite frankly it can jump from species to species namly us.
The only thing we really can do to protect ourselves from this mycrobacteria is to wear gloves when in our ponds and our aquariums,.
Here is the link to that sad tale please take heed to what it says, you may never come across it in your lifetime as fish keepers but you never know do you ???

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/cont...tm_content=html

I know all at FPI will wish her well and that the doctors can cure her but things sadly are looking bad for her at the moment

rgrds
broxandval

I hope they can help her. It sounds like it's painful.

For me, I don't think that I have to worry. I've never used gloves (more than 20 years of fish keeping) and have definitely put my hands when they had cuts on them in all of my aquariums and have never gotten anything. I don't plan to get any more animals or fish. Many of the fish are self sustaining since they breed. I think that either my fish don't really have fish tuberculosis (which Dave has suggested many times) or that some people (specifically ones who are more often exposed to bacteria) have a natural resistance to it. If I wore gloves, I simply could not do what I need to do as the gloves impair movement. The only time I do use them in my pond is when the air temperature is below about 20 degrees F in the winter, and I'm pulling ice off the waterfall. Otherwise, my hands freeze too quickly. I get pond water all over me. In fact, it's about time to switch from hip waders to bathing suit. Yes, there are bacterial dangers but I don't want to live in fear of something that is extremely unlikely to happen.

Hi Robyn
Our heart goes out to the poor girl and we hope they find a cure for her soon I fpr one have gloves above elbow which were bought for us by Vals cousin and her husband but the only time I've worn them up to now has been to rgtead air pipres through the Jap matting as all my arms became scratched trying to do it without and the only time my hands get in contact with anything dirty is when I give the smaller polishing filters a clean .
Like you Robyn weve been long term fish keepers who never wore them in 23 tears of keeping.
The poor girl was just unlucky to catch it but they should check out the dealership where she originally purchased her fish from, to stop this happening ever again
rgrds
broxandval

I do hope that the doctors in Denver can help her. She states that she scratched her hand IN the tank and not had a cut prior to sticking her hand in there as the reporter states. I wonder if that makes a difference. Thank goodness it is rare. I swallow pond water all the time...yuck...but I'll usually take a swig of vineger after.

Thanks for posting.

May I ask why you swallow pond water? I saw my neighbor blow out her waterfall tubing one time & it just made me want to puke, yuck! I am always sticking my hands in the pond & the filthy bio filter & I have a lot of cuts on my hands, I may re think the glove thing.

My dad had a koi cement pond waaay back in the day (he built himself and now that I think about it, there were no pumps, just alot of plants) and he used a cut garden hose to syphon out the muck at the bottom. This was the day before wet dry vacs were invented. Anyway, I do the same (and I do have a wet dry vac as well as a steam cleaner that I could use, but I do it like he did, only I use a CLEAR 3/4 inch tubing so as I am sucking the water up, I can see where the water is. I still screw up sometimes and swallow water. It takes the muck out gently and I can see what I am sucking up. I see the leeches going by, I once sucked up a small fan tail ...I just went to the end, caught him as he came out and put him back in the pond. No disturbance of the gunk at all. It is simple and I don't have to drag equiptment out (I clean it all the time...it is amazing how much poop and debris that accumulates in such a short time)

The pond gets cleaned, the water is changed out from the bottom, and all is good. Gross, but it works for me and if handed both to use, I'd still pick my clear tubing.

I haven't got sick from it yet?

I tried using my Python tubing that I use to clean my aquariums on my pond once a few months ago. I didn't have to suck on it. I just filled it up with water, closed the valve on it and held the other end so it was full and naturally drained by gravity without my weak sucking power. The problem was it jammed instantly with pond debris. If I unclogged it, it just jammed again. So, I made a mess of my aquarium tubing for nothing.

Hi Robyn
The number of times I've come away with a sore throat from getting a mouthful of fish water I've lost count of.
Thankfully I've only the newt tank to syphon nowadays
rgrds
broxandval