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Fish Antibiotics for Humans. What You Need To Know…

Firstly a disclaimer. I am not a medical professional. I have simply done my own research online to a level which satisfies my own needs. Please do your own research and cross check everything you read here. Also please use antibiotics responsibly and only when absolutely required. Overuse of antibiotics can cause its own problems, due to bugs becoming resistant to them. See the links at the bottom of the page for more details on this.

Stockpiling medication for a future disaster or a collapse of society is straightforward when it comes to non-prescription medications such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen etc. They are cheap to buy and readily available. However, it is not so simple to acquire and stockpile prescription medications such as common antibiotics which are required to treat infections.

To have a stockpile of antibiotics in a long-term survival situation or a collapse of society would be useful if not vital. Infection will be a big problem in these kinds of situation; for example – take away our power, water/sanitation and groceries; replace with – fires/camp stoves, survival food and untreated water. On top of this, give us knives, axes and guns (which we are largely unaccustomed to using) to chop wood, hunt and defend ourselves and it is easy to see the need to have access to antibiotics. Lot of cuts and stomach bugs…

How To Stock Up On Antibiotics In Case The SHTF?

How do you acquire/stockpile prescription antibiotics in case of emergency? Well you could try to convince your doctor it is a good idea to give you a large amount of common antibiotics to stockpile (good luck with that one!), OR you could perhaps, just go down to your local pet store…

Believe it or not, many of the common antibiotics we are prescribed are also used to keep fish healthy in aquariums. Sceptical? I bet you are, so was I, but I looked into this, and many of the antibiotic medicines used to treat bacteria in aquariums contain the same antibiotics used to treat infection in humans.. The other strange thing is these aquarium antibiotics even come in the same common dosages which are used on humans. To me that seems very strange…

I have checked several sources, some of which were created by medical doctors, and below is a list of aquarium branded medicines which (at the time of writing) contain commonly prescribed human antibiotics.

Aquarium Branded Antibiotics Containing Common Human Antibiotics

FISH-MOX which is Amoxicillin 250mg (http://www.drugs.com/amoxicillin.html)
FISH-MOX FORTE which is Amoxicillin 500mg (http://www.drugs.com/amoxicillin.html)
FISH-FLEX which is Keflex 250mg (http://www.drugs.com/keflex.html)
FISH-FLEX FORTE which is Keflex 500mg (http://www.drugs.com/keflex.html)
FISH-ZOLE which is Metronidazole 250mg (http://www.drugs.com/metronidazole.html)
FISH-PEN which is Penicillin 250mg (http://www.drugs.com/penicillin.html)
FISH-PEN FORTE which is Penicillin 500mg (http://www.drugs.com/penicillin.html)

***I am not going to provide any information on correct dosages or advice on allergies/precautions or what each antibiotic treats etc. It is entirely 100% your responsibility to do your own research here. It is vital you can identify any tablets you purchase and know what treats what and the dosage/precautions etc for the people you are treating.***

Are The Aquarium Antibiotics The Same Thing?

My understanding is that if the pill identifier numbers are the same on the aquarium antibiotics, as on the human antibiotics, and vice versa, they have to be the same thing. This makes 100% sense to me as if you overdosed on one of the antibiotics, you would provide the pill identifier number to Poison Control for example, and they would identify the ingredients based on the pill identifier number regardless of whether they are prescription antibiotics or aquarium antibiotics.

All of the antibiotics above require a prescription from a doctor and usually a doctor will only prescribe a single course of treatment to cure your illness. However, they can all be bought from pet stores without prescription. This means you can stockpile these common antibiotics, in case the SHTF, something which would normally be impossible to achieve.

The bottom line is – we should not start going to the pet store when we have a cough or a sore throat, as it is clearly important to get a diagnosis and treatment from a doctor. I think the thing to bear in mind is that in the future, if things go wrong, we will have to improvise many things and many things may be less than ideal. We should be reluctant to take aquarium branded antibiotics today, but having access to some in a SHTF future could be vital.

I for one, will not be taking aquarium antibiotics whilst I have access to a doctor and prescription medications. If the SHTF in the future and aquarium antibiotics are my only option, I would cautiously and reluctantly take them. I say reluctantly as I am cautious about taking any drugs without them being 100% necessary. I will always try to give my body the chance to fight of an infection before resorting to antibiotic medication.

As a side note, I think anyone interested in emergency preparedness, or the outdoors, should purchase the book: Medicine for the Outdoors: The Essential Guide to First Aid and Medical Emergencies. The book covers pretty much every medical emergency you are likely to encounter, including very detailed information and advice about treating infections, and antibiotics.

Whilst we are discussing antibiotics, be sure to read the two articles below, from the BBC. They make scary reading… Antibiotic overuse, and resistance is a real and very worrying.

How To Reuse Old Car/Truck Batteries To Power Your Home

Car and truck batteries need to provide 100s of amps to get an engine started. An old car/truck battery might no longer have the power left to start a high drain engine, but it will probably still be capable of providing 100+ of watts of power, which can keep the lights on and power small devices.

You can use old car/truck batteries together with solar chargers to provide off-grid electricity. The solar chargers top up the batteries each day. An old car battery can easily provide 100 watts of electricity for several hours at a time. If your energy demands are higher, use two or more batteries.

The best part of all this is you can get old car batteries for zero cost. Garages are replacing car, van and truck batteries daily. They have to pay to recycle/dispose of these old batteries. If you ask, they should be happy to give you several batteries for free. Alternatively, old car batteries are often dropped off at household waste and recycling centres. If you swing by you will probably be able to get more than enough old batteries.

Check out the video below, explaining about using an old car battery with a solar charger to provide off-grid electricity.

How To Get Power From A Phone Line In An Emergency

Firstly – please note the words ‘In An Emergency’. This works but it could get you in trouble if you abuse the technique. This post isn’t about showing you how to power and charge your USB devices via the phone line for free. This cable set-up should only be made for use in the event of a SHTF emergency scenario.

The information is provided for use in an emergency. For example the power may be out and you need to charge your phone so you can head out in a disaster. Alternatively the power may be out in a SHTF scenario, but if there is still power running through the phone line, you could get one last charge on your phone, which could maintain communication for another day or two and make a huge difference…

I am not sure about this, but there may still be power running through your home phone line, even if the phone is disconnected. You would have to check to be sure though.

It is pretty cheap and easy to make up the cable used in the video above. It might be worth making one up now and storing it with your emergency supplies, as it may come in handy one day. It is simply not worth doing this daily and abusing the free power – the trouble you could get in is way out of proportion to any benefits gained.

(Photo from: DIYHacksAndHowTos via Instructables)

10 Foods To Store That “Practically” Keep Forever

Firstly – nothing will keep forever if it is not stored correctly in the right environment. Many of these foods need to remain dry and be kept in their original unopened packaging or airtight containers.

Sugar

All kinds of sugar, whether white, brown or powdered etc, will last forever if kept dry in an airtight container. Sugar will never spoil as bacteria simply cannot grow on sugar.

Dried Beans

Dried beans were tested by Brigham Young University. They tested the long-term storage of pinto beans, and their conclusion was that pinto beans were safe to eat 32 years after they were stored in an airtight container at an ambient temperature.

Rice

White, wild, arborio and basmati rice all keep for 25+ when kept in their sealed packaging, or when stored in an airtight container. Brown rice does not store so well due to its high oil content.

Corn Starch

Kept dry in its original box with the lid on, corn starch has an indefinite shelf life. Great for thickening soups and sauces post zombie apocalypse!

Powdered Milk

When stored unopened in its original packaging, powdered milk has an indefinite shelf life. Quick tip to determine if powdered milk has spoilt – if it has started to turn yellow, it’s time to bin it.

Honey

Due to its high sugar content and antibiotic properties, honey can remain edible for 1000s of years, even when opened! Edible honey has been found in Egyptian tombs.

Hard Liquor

All distilled spirits such as vodka, rum, whisky, gin and tequila, keep forever, even in opened bottles. Their color and taste may change over time, but they are still fine to drink.

Sea Salt

Salt will never go bad if stored in a dry container and environment. It has the added benefit of being able to be used to preserve other fresh foods too.

Vinegar

Both apple cider vinegar and basic white vinegar will keep indefinitely when stored in a cool/dark cupboard. Vinegar also has countless cleaning, DIY and medical uses (see here)

Ramen Noodles

Yeah those little bricks of noodles with the flavor packets, that cost 20 cents! They have been shown to last 10+ years, kept in their original packaging. Given the price or ramen noodles, stocking up on them is a no-brainer.

Endless FREE Hot Water Off-The-Grid!

If you already have a wood burning stove at home that heats your water, this is not going to be of much interest to you…

If however you rely on gas/electricity to heat your water, this is a great little emergency preparedness project for backup hot water in emergencies. It would also be useful for remote/off-the-grid cabins etc. With this system, you effectively have a free, constant supply of hot water stored in an insulated water tank (old water heater), much like folks with built in wood burning stove boiler systems.

You can pick up those old water heaters for nothing, or next to nothing from FreeCycle and Craig’s list etc. They often get wasted or recycled when people get their heating systems replaced for new modern ones.

(Image from: engineer775 Practical Preppers)

1 Year Emergency Food Storage For A Family Of 4 For Less Than $300

This is a great post from the Seasoned Prepper, but I should add here (also noted on the original post), this food storage plan will provide for almost all of your family’s nutritional needs, but it is lacking any dairy or vitamin B12. However, vitamin b12 can easily and cheaply be added via a multivitamin supplement (which I would already recommend) or with some nutritional yeast flakes. If you wanted to add in some dairy, you could quite cheaply add some whey protein powder or milk powder as well.

That said, for less than $300 and a weekend’s work, you can store 90% of the food required by a family of four to last a whole year. That is fairly amazing!

I should point out – this plan provides a very basic diet that whilst very nutritious and healthy, it is going to get boring and bland pretty quickly. With this in mind I would suggest either upping the initial budget to around $500 and adding some extra foods/herbs and spices etc, to provide some variety. Alternatively, you can get the basics stored now and you can then gradually add to it over time as money allows.

I think a lot of people are overwhelmed when it comes to starting out storing food in case the SHTF. This food plan provides a great way to get started super quickly and store a core basic range of foods that you can then add to bit by bit, over time. The most important thing with emergency food storage is actually getting started storing some food. This emergency food plan enables you to do this quickly, easily, and fairly cheaply.

The bottom line is this – if you don’t already have any food supplies stored away in case of emergency, what are you waiting for? It doesn’t get simpler or cheaper than this.

(Photo from: Tim Patterson)

How to Build A Simple PVC Tube Homemade Squirrel Trap

This PVC tube homemade squirrel trap is useful for getting rid of pest squirrels and also for trapping wild squirrels for food. This trap is humane, in that it doesn’t kill or harm the squirrel once caught (providing you check it regularly). It’s up to you, if it is a pest squirrel, you can either re-home it somewhere else, or you can kill it. Obviously, if you are using the trap for hunting, you’re going to kill it.

All you need for this trap is a five-six foot length of 6 inch PVC tube. You also need an end-cap or something to securely plug one end of the tube.

Once you have your length of PVC tube with the end capped off, it’s time for bait. I think it is a given that peanut butter works best; smear a little around the open end of the tube and then keep adding a little more down to around an arm’s length down the tube. I also got a slice of bread (which I covered in peanut butter) and dropped it down to the bottom of the tube.

Ok, so now we have the baited squirrel trap, it’s time to set it. Set the trap where you know there is squirrel activity. You want to set the plugged end on the ground and rest the open end against a branch etc. You don’t want the tube to be fully vertical, as the squirrel won’t go down the tube. You want to set it at around 60-70 degrees. This way the squirrel will go down after the food, but cannot escape due to the slippery surface of the inner tube.

A Few Tips

You can spray or smear some cooking oil around the inside of the tube, around an arm’s length down. This will make it doubly difficult for the squirrel to escape.
If you are planning to dispatch the squirrel, the easiest way to do this is to hold a hessian/burlap bag over the open end of the tube and simply tip the squirrel out into the bag. A heavy whack with a piece of wood etc should kill the squirrel quickly and humanely.
If you are hunting squirrel for food, make several of these homemade squirrel traps and set them in several locations.

There you go, a low cost (free if you have some PVC tube laying around), zero skill way to trap squirrels. Happy hunting!

(Photo from: Airwolfhound)

How To Buy A Shipping Container

Due to TV shows such as Doomsday Preppers and Armageddon Outfitters etc, there has been a huge boom in the sale of used shipping containers. Preppers everywhere are snapping them up and burying them in their backyards… Problem is the used shipping container companies have cottoned on to this and the price for a used shipping container has now gone through the roof.

Below is an excellent tutorial which explains how to go about purchasing a used shipping container. There is loads of advice on regulations, which types of containers to consider etc. Best of all there are a couple of tricks listed that can enable you to get a jump on the competition and bag a shipping container on the cheap. Click the link below to find out more…

How To Buy A Shipping Container (incl tricks for finding cheap containers)

(Image from: Wikipedia)

Tiny House Plans Free To Download & Print | 8 Tiny House Blueprints

Tiny houses and DIY sheds and cabins are really popular right now. They are so affordable to build (or buy), they take up so little space, and they are so adaptable. Some folks live in them 24/7 whilst others use them for guest accommodation or workshops and home offices etc.

There are many PAID DIY build plans out there, but if you are on a budget there’s no need to have to pay for plans. You can get a selection of free tiny house blueprint plans down below. There are 7 free tiny house plans available, although the newest one at the top of the page requires you to sign up to the newsletter to get it, but that is no hardship really to bag some quality free PDF tiny house blueprints.

There are some great downloadable and printable PDF floor plans here. There are a few basic free tiny house plans, some static and some on wheels, but there is also a nice homesteader’s house plan and a solar house plan, with the tiny solar house designed to be lived in full-time. Whether it is for your accommodation, guest accommodation, an outside office, or even just a shed/workshop, building one of these yourself will give you great satisfaction and save you money a ton of money. Check out the 7 tiny house plans free to download here.

Below is another free tiny house plan!

Free Tiny House Plan – Cottage Style Plan

You can print out the tiny house blueprint below.

This wood cabin is 8 foot by 13.6 foot, which gives you 108 feet of living space. Many local authorities don’t require a building permit for structures less than 108 feet, so you should be able to build this cabin without a building permit. That said, be sure to double check with your local authority first! This wood cabin would be great for guest accommodation, or perhaps even a secret, get-away-from-it-all cabin in the woods. Get this tiny house plan free to download and print out here: Free Cottage Style Wood Cabin Plans.

Amazing Mobile Hot Tub Tiny House – You’ve Got To See This!

Ok so this doesn’t contain the build plans, but that’s why the post is titled – 8 Tiny House Plans Free To Download & Print In PDF (rather than 9!) – This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen, a tiny house with a hot tub, built on a trailer for easy transportation. It’s also absolutely stunning inside and out.

This tiny house is owned by Tinywood Homes, and if you live in the UK (or you are visiting), you can actually stay in this awesome little house, as it is one of several tiny wooden built houses they have for holiday rental. Even if you are not going to stay there, I highly recommend checking out the additional photos of this and the other awesome tiny houses they have for rental. See here: Amazing Mobile Hot Tub Tiny House – You’ve Got To See This!

(Image from: TinyWoodHomes.com & Nicolás Boullosa)

Trucker’s Friend Review — An All-Purpose and Survival Tool?

The Trucker’s Friend is an all-purpose tool, designed for truck drivers. Basically it does hacking, prying, wrecking, pulling and pounding! It weighs around 2.5 pounds and it is just under 20 inches in length. I think it should also be called Prepper’s Friend! Two HUGE additional bonuses are – it is made in the USA and it is backed by a ‘no hassle’ Lifetime Replacement Guarantee, very cool!

Here are some of the specifications:

Curved Axe (fully resharpenable)
Hammer and Nail Puller
Spanner (for hose couplings)
Pry Bar and Lever
Tire Chain Hook
Wire Twist (for removing lightweight security seals)
Ice and Debris Remover
Cast Alloy Tool-Steel Blade and Shank (heat-treated for extra strength)
Rust Resistant Matte Finish
Fibreglass Handle (non-conducting)
Shock Absorbing Powergrip
Backed by a ‘Hassle-Free’ Lifetime Replacement Guarantee
Made in the USA

Trucker’s Friend Review

The Prepper’s Friend, sorry, Trucker’s Friend, currently sells at $59.95, which I think is an awesome price given its versatility, quality and the no-hassle replacement guarantee.

I have had my Trucker’s Friend for around a month or so now, and overall my thoughts are very positive. It is a truly versatile wrecking machine. It does everything stated, BUT, and maybe this is an obvious point, it doesn’t do these things, as well as the individual specialized tools, would. For example, the hammer does its job, but it is not weighted or balanced in the same way a specific hammer is, so you have to use more force to hammer nails etc.

Don’t get me wrong – as a prepper/survival tool it is highly recommended. If you want one tool with multiple uses, this is the tool for you. However, for around the home, day to day use, I would reach for a specific hammer or axe first.

A few other things to note – the Trucker’s Friend is a very nice length/weight, at 20 inches with 2.5 pounds of weight, it has a nice heft and swing, specifically for chopping/wrecking. The biggest negative is the sheath, which is terrible. It is made from very cheap thin plastic, and mine was ripped when it arrived. Personally I think this tool should come with a small Kydex sheath which covered the axe blade and fastens around the head. This is not a deal-breaker it is very easy to make a DIY Kydex sheath (search YouTube for tutorials), and this is exactly what I will be doing!

Conclusion

The Trucker’s Friend is a solid and dependable, multi-use tool which can also double up as a weapon in an emergency self-defence situation. Its versatility makes it an obvious choice for preppers etc, who are looking for an all-in-one hammer, axe and pry-bar. It costs $59.59, which isn’t small change, but I think it represents excellent value for money, especially when you factor it that it is made in the USA and it comes with a lifetime no quibble replacement guarantee. Break it, they’ll send you a new one! My recommendation – buy a Trucker’s Friend and spend 30 minutes to make a simple Kydex sheath.