It took a while to figure out what the client was talking about. His friends' bosses' daughters' neighbor was in the hospital for what sounded like a severe infection. He was asking me about a mercy germ.Since it was a first person 5 times removed, it is similar to the kids game called "telephone". The ending is nothing like the beginning. Well- the person was asking about MRSA. We do cultures on a regular basis, and I think if you understand the bacterial testing, it will be useful.
There are many different groups of " Cooties". Remember as a kid you got a cootie shot? Well- that worked for all the cooties out there. Life has gotten more complicated. There are bacteria, viruses, fungi,and parasites as the main groups. Viruses tend to go to very specific groups. The scientific term would be species specific. Most viruses are species specific.The other 2 groups :parasites and yeast have their own stories, for now- we will discuss bacteria.
So- the germ group that we can and do treat and sometimes over treat , is the bacteria. All bacteria have a first name and a last name.Sometimes a group is so closely related they get additional titles- subspecies- kind of like calling some one Junior, or the 3rd. The first names are capitalized, and sometimes long. The last name is in lower case. Ever hear of Escherchia coli? Long never heard of name?How about E. coli? That is the name we usually use for it. How about Streptococcus? ( Does Strept throat sound familiar?) There is another bacteria called Staphylococcus aureus.This is the SA of MRSA. Sometimes I see a creature that has already been seen and treated by several pet shops, with random medications used. If the wrong medicine is done, the pet will die. A classic example is rabbits. Rabbits have a balance of lots of bacteria in their intestines. If we use the wrong antibiotic, it will destroy the "good" bacteria, and then the " bad ones" will take over. That would be when we get diarrhea or a yeast infection after certain antibiotics- we are upsetting the balance of bacteria in the body. Lets say I put a net in the water, and it let only certain size fish through. (For the sake of discussion forget babies of big fish). The fish that passed the net will reproduce, and make babies of the size that can pass freely in and out of the netted area. So if some antibiotic is done, and some of the bacteria "pass the net" , those bacteria will reproduce, and their babies" are not affected by the medicine . So why can we see this bacterial resistance? Some bacteria are not affected by certain types of antibiotics. Sometimes the antibiotic may be given at too low a dose, or not frequently enough- so the bacteria not killed off get to reproduce, and their babies are resistant. That would be the dog with a bladder infection, that gets sent home with 3 weeks of antibiotics, but the owner only treats for 10 days then starts skipping and then eventually stops. The bacteria had a chance to adjust to the size of the net- and the ones that survived- the " resistant" bacteria keep reproducing. One of the tests we will do is called a C/S or culture senistivity. It will test what the bacteria is, and what it is sensitive and resistant to. The more resistant the bacteria- the stronger it is. This is the pet shop treating all the turtles for " Salmonella". All you get is a resistant colony of salmonella.This is the newspaper headline of a child hospitalized with a very resistant type of salmonella. We know you can not get rid of this bacteria- it lives- dormant- until stressed- activated, and then flairs up. So imagine a pet shop ( this is on a large scale), or your tank ( smaller scale), and you "pour" some medicine into the area. Some may get too much, some may not get enough. Some may get the exact amount. Those that don't get enough encouage resistance. There is such wide spread use of medicines that they have found resistant bacteria in some of the dog treats like certain brands of pigs ears!Even in the water- measurable levels of antibiotics are appearing. I have found bacteria resistant to almost all antibiotics. MRSA, is methicillin resistant Staph aureous. ( Methicillin was an antibiotic reserved for the most resisteant bacteria.) I see puppies coming for a first exam. The owner will have the pet shops own combination of drugs that will " prevent" or " treat" everything. antibiotic, antiparasitic, antispasmotic,antitussive. Breeders " needing " a bottle of 500 pills, just in case there is an outbreak....
The bacteria were here long before us, they may end up here long after us too.