Fish veterinarians

[Calico3]

Hello All : I am a newer member and I want to find out if anyone knows of a vet in the Ottawa area whom you can go to for fish problems. Now with Health Canada's new regulations it is almost impossible to get any required medications without a prescription and you now need a vet referral.   Unfortunately my dog vet doesn't want to see possible fish problems.
The staff at Big Al's haven't been able to give me a name so i am reaching out to anyone in the area.  I am not needing an immediate referral however correspondence with a email fish keeper in the province has  again had me thinking of when this situation could arrive.
Advice to all. Do extended quarantines  ....... My friends problem made its presence known well after 60 days and she lost another favourite this morning. Awful when your fish are important to you.

[Jody]

Hi Calico,

There is currently only one aquatic vet in Ontario, and he is based out of Toronto, though they are working on getting others certified.
With a quick search I came up with this page.

http://mmvet.ca/about-dr-musson/

Jody

[Calico3]

Thank you Jody : I will definitely take note of Dr Musson and also forward his/her name to my friend with the current problem and whom is located closer to Markham then myself . So she may have easier access to Dr Musson. I have also been told of a Kemptville clinic that  also will see clients for fish problems though I need to verify this directly and to find out how much experience this clinic has had with fish ailments.  Something to do . I visit the town fairly often so will stop next visit or call soon. Thanks again.

We definitely need more aquatic vets !!!

[Calico3]

Hi Calico,

There is currently only one aquatic vet in Ontario, and he is based out of Toronto, though they are working on getting others certified.
With a quick search I came up with this page.

http://mmvet.ca/about-dr-musson/

Jody

Hi Calico,

There is currently only one aquatic vet in Ontario, and he is based out of Toronto, though they are working on getting others certified.
With a quick search I came up with this page.

http://mmvet.ca/about-dr-musson/

Jody

Just getting back from vacation and having checked with my friend whom had a tankful of ill Angelfish. Unfortunately she lost all her Angels and  other types of dither fish and she is now in the process of disinfecting and drying out her complete tank. She is very discouraged . Thankfully only one of her tanks seem at this time to have been affected .I do hope that is all as they spread very easily . It is very important to do a extended quarantine on new fish. Her fish died because of Camallanus worms and though she was able to get treatment it was to late. These worms take a long time to be seen  and only as they exit the host fish. I personally will be extending QT on any new fish to at least 3 months. I  did not know of this  problem and hope to not deal with it in the future. Much better to be safe  and to take precautions .

[nerdRVT]

I'm currently looking for a local private practice vet willing to see fish, especially with the new antimicrobial stewardship guidelines in place. The relevant vet orgs in Canada and Ontario have been running mini courses to help get vets up to speed on the new guidelines, and I'm hoping someone will step up. I've reached out locally to practices as I'm willing to provide guidance/consultancy. In my current day job I do fish health/husbandry/anesthesia/surgery under the supervision of a research vet and a fish vet based out of BC. I also teach some fish health and husbandry to vet tech students and interns at my work.

So, if there's any vets out there reading this who want some guidance on developing a VCPR with fish folks, hit me up! I've previously done the same for practices wanting to see reptiles. In the meantime, I'll keep poking the local vets I know to try and get them on board.

[nerdRVT]

Okay, I got some responses from CVO and the Ontario vet community regarding pet fish vets. They actually have a list on their site. I totally forgot that I spoke with this particular vet recently about his work with aquatics. Best part is, he's a mobile vet and is super keen about fish. He got his start in the vet world with fish.

Might not be a bad idea to contact this practice for your fish needs locally in Ottawa. http://www.the100xvet.com/

There's another Ottawa vet who recently took some fish training, but I'm not sure to what extent this training is. However, they are listed on the CVO website. Dr. Charron at Bayview. https://vcacanada.com/bayviewon

Now, it is great that vets are training up and taking courses, but again I'm unsure what they've been trained on besides diagnostics and prescribing. There's a whole other aspect to dealing with non-mammal health. They need to be adept at being able to house and handle fish in clinic, and they need to be able to interpret history and husbandry information in order to have the best possible idea of what the health problem may stem from. Prescriptions won't help much if you can't solve the root of the problem, which may be a husbandry issue.

[Calico3]

Thank you.  Always good to have some local access when required for our fish.  I do hope more vets come on board and they are able to deal with complex problems  if needed
I do hope any member whom learns of additional sources does post for all ?

[Christianloug]

Looks like a very interesting career option, even as a side job! I would be interested in taking some form of training or course if there is one. Anyone have any idea where I might find the course?

[nerdRVT]

The course I am referring to was available only to DVMs (veterinarians). Even RVTs weren't able to take it.

Not sure what your background is (DVM, etc) but there is a scope of practice for DVMs in Ontario, and non-DVMs cannot diagnose, prognose, prescribe or perform surgery among other things in places outside of specific areas, like research facilities.

There are a number of courses offered through https://www.wavma.org/, but as this AMS issue becomes recognized, I think more of the aquaculture vets in the country will start offering services to the public and their pets.

[Christianloug]

I am actually a student, so I could train to become a veterinarian and then do the course

[REIDRVT]

Hi all!

Seeing this post come up on the first google page when searching for Ontario veterinarians that will see fish, and being in the vet industry, I just wanted to update people coming across this post to two of the most popular suggestions ive seen on this thread:

Dr. CHARRON at Bayview animal hospital in Ottawa DOES NOT see fish, she has done some aquatics training but is strictly seeing dogs and cats.

The 100x Vet team works through CanadianFishVet.com when seeing fish. The site is temporarily down due to an overwhelming amount of case submissions but will be opening up to new clients during new working hours! This should be happening in the next week or so.

Just wanted everyone to have some updated info on where to get help as this post is a few years old and things have changed

Reid

[charlie]

Thanks for the update Reid👍