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Unread 02/20/2011, 03:47 PM   #42
ros_sco
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Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Redding, CA
Posts: 761
Well after 7 years of keeping zoanthids I managed to learn a valuable lesson yesterday. I have fragged ordinary zoas many times and after time, I too have become lax in taking precautions. The polyps that I was working with are Nuclear Greens, very similar to the Purple Deaths the OP was working with. These varieties secrete a mucous that I don't see from ordinary zoas. I was fragging as usual and subconsiously rubbed the corner of my right eye. Soon it started to feel like something was in it so I washed my hands and went to take my contact out, figuring I got an eyelash in it. The contact had adhered to my cornea. I had to pull it off much like when back in the day when we slept in them and it was dry in the morning. I thought it was weird but whatever, washed the contact off and put it back in. An hour later I couldn't handle it anymore and went to take the contact out and it was stuck again, took it out and put my glasses on.. Soon my vision in that eye was cloudy like looking through a thick fog and it was getting painful, more than just irritated like before. I finally went to the doctor and after putting fluorescein in it and viewing unde uv light, he determined that it was not the result of a corneal abrasion but some irritant. He determined at that point supportive therapy was indicated and I decided to forgo an antibiotic at that time due to it probably being an irritant rather than infection. When I went to bed it was very painful, and the lower lid was quite swollen but the cloudiness had gone. This morning it was mattered shut but the swelling was mostly gone and my vision is normal. At the visit, I mentioned palytoxin but after discussing my symptoms vs what has been reported we determined that it is possibly a different toxin but very strong nonetheless. Some medications used in the eye can manifest systemic side effects due to absorbtion through the conjunctiva and sinuses & GI tract through lacrimal duct drainage so it seems reasonable to conclude that if it was palytoxin, I would have had some systemic symptoms. This it a localized reaction that affected my eye, and my sinus on the right side which was running. Now, just about 24 hours later, the swelling is mostly gone, the eye is still red and mattering a bit and the pain is about 25 percent of what it was. If it is not substantially better by the end of the day I will start on antibotic eye drops as a precaution.
Bottom line, this genus of zoanthids seems to have some sort of powerful toxin / irritant that should not be underestimated.


6 hours - note the blister on the inner lower eyelid


9 hours lower lid swollen and eye discharging




18 hours - mattered shut upon awakening



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