Re:bloated pinto

Dear hobbyist:

Well done! Now that you’ve performed the procedure once, the next time you do a needle aspiration it won’t be nearly so intimidating.

It is encouraging that the fluid you aspirated was crystal clear and watery. If it had been noticeably discolored or actually purulent, that would have indicated heavy infection. The clearness of the aspirate suggests either that the antibiotics are controlling the infection, or that the fluid in your male’s marsupium consist primarily of tank water, with which it inflated its pouch during a courtship display such as "Pumping" or "Ballooning."

Yes, as long as you use sterile technique, it’s perfectly safe to repeat the needle aspiration in a day or two as needed. A larger syringe that can retract more of the fluid would be useful, and I would be sure to save some of the fluid aspirate so that Dr. Martin Belli can perform a laboratory analysis on it for you. (Just contact Marty — Labdoc at the org — beforehand and make sure he’s willing to culture the aspirate for you.)

Ciprofloxacin is a safe drug as long as it’s used according to instructions. However, it can interact unpredictably with other antibiotics, so be sure to make a complete water change before you use the Cipro, and give your Pinto a day or two to clear the neomycin + triple sulfa from his system before you begin another round of antibiotic therapy.

What do the instructions that came with the ciprofloxacin say? What is the suggested dosage and duration of treatment? If the directions recommend prolonged immersion (5-10 days), that would be probably be better to wait until you get the culture results on your aspirate back from Dr. Belli before you administer any more antibiotic therapy.

If you have almost completed the regimen of neomycin + triple sulfa, then I think it would be better to wait until you begin the next regimen of antibiotics before you transfer your Sunburst to the hospital tank with the Pinto.

Best of luck resolving this problem!

Respectfully,
Pete Giwojna