This Section Is For Advanced Hobbyists Discussing new original cutting edge Experimental and Trial Treatments and Surgical Techniques, here we take koi health and pond keeping to the next level
The bone Duncan removed was definitely strange. When it was pulled with the tweezers, there was definite movement of the gill plate, but whether the bone had attached there or it was the soft tissues that caused the movement, who knows? As Dunc said, he's checked his fish skeleton and is still confused - and if he is, what chance do the rest of us have?
Dunc is obviously right when he says "better out than in" because the koi is eating again, not spitting its food out like it was!
An amazing afternoon that was both interesting and educational - thanks to Chris for inviting me along and to Dunc for letting us observe his skills in action!
im stressed out on puters at the moment but i have found out by euthenasing a koiand disecting its lower jaw
some great revelations unexpected not least of which was chris's fish bone in her throat
i now know what it does and how it functions and why it functions and its incredible absolutely stunning piece of physiology
my thanks to chris for allowing me this with out which i probably would not have ventured in this part of the fish sinply because we all concentrate on the main bit
got some great pictures but you will have to wait till im up and running properly
i have no way of processing the pictures yet im still on my net book and i shoot in raw format now for fish photo's
what i can say is, your fish was well screwed and that bone needed liberating. in short knowing what i know now i would do the exact same procedure again, but it also answer's a long standing question on many forums, why some fish end up having their jaws locked up in the open position
shoukd have my puter up and running with all my files on by mid week
Got home a bit early from work, so out she came, sedated her and got ready to remove stitches .....
well, two of the stitches had disappeared - leaving a bit of a hole. I removed three and left one behind as I didn't want to disturb the healing process.
This picture is before any clean up
koi Picture 039.jpg (70.28 KiB) Viewed 3923 times
Mercurochrome was applied and some lock and seal - I didnt see any infection and the one on her chest in the earlier photo has almost completly gone away.
after application of Mercurochrome and lock and seal plus
koi Picture 043.jpg (40.79 KiB) Viewed 3923 times
I'll wait another week or two before I remove the last stitch - but it looks like she might be going to spawn anytime soon as the chasing has begun.
Damaged re-stitched .... but Duncan, it's not as easy as you made it look
I tried to stitch from clear skin to clear skin and pull the damage together .... that made the stitches quite wide apart and even though I removed some tissue to start good blood flow, I could not pull the ends completly together, for fear of the stitch pulling through the skin.
.... fair bit of fleshy growth has taken place, but you can still see the hole
My repair 002.jpg (112.58 KiB) Viewed 3896 times
counting the stitches from top to bottom - nos 1, 3 and 4 were relatively easy to do .. but number 2, I had to go a long way to ensure that it didnt pull through
As Dunc said, he's checked his fish skeleton and is still confused - and if he is, what chance do the rest of us have? 
