Antibiotic sensitivity
Bacterial resistance is an issue that needs to be considered when choosing an appropriate antibiotic. While it may be necessary to start a course of treatment based on personal experience, it is also prudent to have bacterial identification and antibiotic sensitivity tests carried out at the same time. At worse this simply confirms the treatment choice, while possible saving valuable time and money if the initial course of action is ineffective.
A sterile swab is used to take a bacterial sample from either the posterior kidney or other organ of a newly dead fish, or alternatively from a body ulcer. When taking a swab of a body ulcer it should be sampled from the infected rim of the ulcer only.
The swab is then sent to a specialist laboratory for analysis and testing. Your local veterinarian can arrange this. The results from a body ulcer can be difficult to interpret because of the problem of secondary pathogens. It is quite common for samples from body lesions to show a mixed growth of several bacterial species and takes some experience to determine the relevance of the results.
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