Another view on fish antibiotics:
Investigative Report: Everything You’ve Wanted to Know About Fish Antibiotics for Humans
http://www.thesurvivaldoctor.com/2015/07...or-humans/
First, keep in mind that animal doses may be different from human ones. So make sure you have the correct human dosage. Also confirm that the medication can be safely used in humans. (Some animal meds aren’t safe for humans, and some go by different names than the human ones, so make sure you’re not allergic.)
If you’ve satisfied these two requirements, you still have a couple of other things to consider. Namely, even animal drugs that have the same name as human drugs may not be exactly the same. For example:
FDA regulations for animal and human drugs are determined separately. Animal drugs may contain fillers, additives, and impurities that aren’t allowed in human medications.
Medications are manufactured to absorb just right in the type of body they’re approved for. A cow has two stomachs. A chicken has a gizzard. A fish is tiny.
It’s up to you whether to take the med, but for an expert opinion, we asked pharmacist Jim Budde, president of the Society of Veterinary Hospital Pharmacists, if he’d take such a medicine. He says if it were FDA approved for dogs or cats and it was safe for people, yes, he would feel comfortable taking it. Note that he said he’d take a product that was FDA approved. Believe it or not, there are no such antibiotics for ornamental fish.
In fact, marketing these drugs for use in fish is illegal, according to an FDA source we spoke with. So is selling them in stores, the source said. (Preppers usually order these drugs online).
Therefore, there is no government oversight regarding the safety, purity or effectiveness of fish antibiotics. Budde likens the lack of FDA scrutiny to that of nutritional supplements: there is no guarantee that the pills contain what the manufacturers say they do, either in amount or purity.
In addition, the medication may not absorb correctly. A drug must be manufactured properly to absorb properly. For example, some should melt immediately in the mouth; some should dissolve in the stomach; and others must survive the stomach and dissolve in the intestines.
Some online prepper articles about fish antibiotics speculate that you can get around this lack of FDA oversight by making sure the pills are “pharmaceutical grade” and/or “USP certified.” Yet we found that neither of these terms means much when it comes to fish antibiotics.
“USP certified” seems more promising at first—until you look into the details.
The United States Pharmacopeial Convention is a nonprofit organization that sets quality guidelines for medications. They don’t assess whether a drug is effective or safe; they do set standards for things like storage, purity, and strength. To be sold in the U.S., a drug must pass these standards. We could find no antibiotics for ornamental fish that are USP verified.
However, there are fish antibiotics whose appearance is identical to USP grade human antibiotics. They have the same coloring and imprints (codes printed on the pills), suggesting that they are, in fact, the same capsules.
We contacted one popular company that sells such fish meds. A representative, who asked not to be identified, confirmed that they are the same pills. They’re sourced from a manufacturer that makes them for humans, the representative said. The fish company repackages them.
Still, this does not mean the antibiotics are USP grade, even when a company claims they are.
That’s because, to be USP grade, the pill has to meet every USP standard for that medication. And the standards go far beyond ingredients. They also ensure medications are packaged, labeled, and stored correctly. For example:
Antibiotics are sensitive to heat, so they must be stored at room temperature. (Consider the shipment temperature as well as conditions in facility storage.)
Antibiotics are sensitive to moisture, so they must be stored in tight containers.
The pills must be tested to make sure they don’t have bacteria, mold, or yeast.
The packaging material must not interfere with the drug. For example, plastic shouldn’t absorb into the pill, nor the medication into the plastic.
The USP also has labeling standards, requiring certain warnings and guidelines to be displayed.
Finally, there’s the issue of expiration, which is especially a concern if a medication isn’t stored or shipped optimally. With no FDA oversight, there’s no guarantee of how old a medicine is.
Considering all these things, any fish antibiotic could pose problems to humans. Perhaps the biggest concern is its effectiveness may be reduced. In that case, the med may not work on your infection—or it could weaken the infection, only to have it resurge as an antibiotic-resistant version.
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