Antibiotics, which are intended to kill or slow the growth of bacteria that cause infection, are useless against a virus-and you don’t want to use them if you don’t have to, or it might lead to bacterial resistance. When a doctor prescribes you antibiotics, the first step is to make sure you’re dealing with a bacterial infection by running the proper tests. Penicillin comes with different risks and side effects than other classes of antibiotics, and has been known to breed bacterial resistance. The fish antibiotic Fish Mox Forte contains amoxicillin, a type of penicillin. "We're still figuring out what works for fish and what kind of diseases we're treating," he says.īut even if fish meds were labeled as human-grade medicines, using them to self-medicate would still be a bad idea. He likens the situation to the early days of the livestock industry, when farmers could purchase a range of medications without a prescription. But for now, Young describes the field of fish medicine as being in its infancy. It can be anything."Īccording to the FDA’s website, the agency hopes to someday help make more of the medications given to "minor species," which include fish, legally available and therefore regulated. " are not able to guarantee-or even required to guarantee-what's actually in it, the purity of it, or the actual amount of it. "I think it's probably mostly B.S." Young says of these grades. Though it tests a small number of supplements through its " USP verified " program, it does not otherwise measure the purity or content of drugs for their purported contents. The USP, however, is not a regulatory agency. Lacking the stamp of FDA approval, fish meds instead often sport claims that they are pharmaceutical or “ USP grade ,” a supposed quality benchmark set by an independent non-profit called the United States Pharmacopeia. "FDA considers taking action based on its resources, the risk the product poses, and its public health priorities." "We are currently looking into these products," representatives wrote in a statement. T he FDA says that it does not have any data on how prevalent the fish antibiotics problem is. Thus, pet fish meds don’t pose nearly the same risks as antibiotics used for food animals, which the FDA is currently working to regulate more tightly. Pet fish antibiotics make up a tiny fraction of the total amount of antibiotics used, says Samuel Young, a veterinarian and founder of the Uncommon Creatures Mobile Veterinary Services, which treats animals from fish to gila monsters to llamas. Why aren’t they regulated? According to some veterinarians, they’re simply too small of a problem for the agency to bother with. We strongly advise people to not substitute them for approved products that are intended for use in humans as prescribed by their health care provider. The FDA does not have any information about the unapproved antibiotics sold in pet stores because they have not been evaluated for quality, safety, effectiveness, or purity. If consumers are seeing these products in stores, they should be aware that these products have no assurance of purity, safety or effectiveness. "The antibiotics available in pet stores or online for ornamental fish have not been approved, conditionally approved, or indexed by the FDA, so it is illegal to market them," the FDA said in a statement to . The statement continued: Yet no ornamental fish antibiotics are approved by the FDA. Those animals including companion animals (dogs, cats, horses) and food animals (cattle, pigs, chickens). Technically, they should fall under the purview of the Food and Drug Administration, which oversees both human and animal drugs. Let’s start at the top.įirst, fish antibiotics are completely unregulated. īut there are a few key reasons why taking your fish’s drugs is a very bad, no good idea. And while a trip to the doctor can rack up hundreds of dollars for someone who doesn't have insurance, a bottle of 30 500mg capsules of Moxifish costs just $29.95 from the supplier, Fishceuticals. These pills, which are intended to be dissolved in fish tanks and be absorbed through fishes' skin, can also look extremely similar to the human versions. Fish are given many of the same antibiotics as humans-amoxicillin, ciprofloxacin, penicillin and more-sometimes even in the same doses. Read the reviews for aquarium antibiotics and decide for yourself.
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