Transporting a goldfish

[mr gerbil]

Anyone got any tips for a bus/train journey of under an hour? :)

[Catmakemebark]

Are you taking Gary to that one fish vet place?
What about a large tupperware container?

[Nell]

I;d say that you should see if you can get a larger fish bag from your lfs and use that. Make sure there is a good layer of air at the top. The water will slosh around a lot less in a bag than a solid container, and its not a hard surface that he can hurt himself by crashing into it if he gets startled.

[Catmakemebark]

Hmm...lol, I was going to say that but I didnt think it would fit. I didnt know they made fish bags that big.:D

[mr gerbil]

I was thinking along the lines of a bag, possibly in a box with some polystyrene packaging. I'll visit the lfs tommorow (as if I need an excuse :laughing: ) .

[Nell]

so which fish is taking a trip?

[mr gerbil]

Gary's off to the vet for an x-ray. After a substantially large search, I managed to find the 3 fish vets in London :rolleyes: . Luckily, the nearest is apparently the UK's premier expert on fish medicine, which helps.

[Catmakemebark]

What does he need x-rays for? I thought he had paracites or something like that and only needed thoughs antiboitics?

[mr gerbil]

Our feathered friend suspects kidney cysts, and consequently wants to check. Ultrasound was also an option, but a rather more expensive one :( .
Either way, the prognosis isn't good.

[mynoven]

awww...poor fishy! Good luck!!

Fish vet huh? How they gonna x-ray a fish?

[mr gerbil]

Your guess is as good as mine :p .

[mynoven]

you must tell us how it goes and how they do it!! lol

[Shellie]

Awwwww, good luck Gary! And MG of course.

[LittleHippyGirl]

I hope your fish feels better <3 Personally I'd keep him in a tubberwear container in case of a leak. That would not be a good thing to encounter on an hour-long train ride. If the tupperwear is clear, keep that in a large paper bag or something similar to block light. He will be less stressed in a dark environment.

[animalmagic]

Well hello! I have re-appeared. Lol.

Good luck Gary! Taking goldfish on the bus is interesting, I remember getting mine home. Lots of sloshing!

[mr gerbil]

"Well hello! I have re-appeared. "

Yes, you have :rolleyes: .

Anyway, this could be interesting. Although the appointment's now been pushed to Saturday.

[animalmagic]

I hope she is okay! Would be interesting to be a fish vet.

[mr gerbil]

WTF happened to your avatar? :eek:

[Shellie]

Both of Abby's bunnies died, MG. Mischief joined Trouble this morning.

[animalmagic]

My avatar? What about it.. I replaced it with Jennifer Aniston.. she's my one vice.. :rolleyes:

[mr gerbil]

lol, I know you replaced it with her :rolleyes: . Just a bit...erm...odd.

[mr gerbil]

Well, bad news.

She was put down this afternoon. The xrays showed that the kidneys had been producing excess fluid...the swimbladder, etc, were all pushed out of place.
Kindest option.

[Catmakemebark]

Aww! I'm sorry to hear that! Poor Gary.:(

[Shellie]

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{MG}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} I'm sorry you lost Gary. :(

[mr gerbil]

Yep...well...at least she was still feeding, etc normally- another couple of weeks and that would have probably stopped.

[Catmakemebark]

Thats good that she didn't have die in pain.

[mr gerbil]

Yep.

It was interesting visiting the UK's premier goldfish expert, though :D .

[Catmakemebark]

Really? What did you see? Did they give you any helpful tips that may be worth sharing with us. :p

[mr gerbil]

lol...he gave me a copy of the Fish Vet Journal, on radiography. I can scan it in if anyone's interested.

It's a normal practice, though...he just has a 'fish box' :p . With airstones, equipment, MS222, etc...

[Catmakemebark]

Thats awesome! Hmm...I might want a copy later...

Was the fish box the place he kept sick fish?

[mr gerbil]

Erm...no :p .

But he really does know what he's talking about, to.
His diagnosis came with a free rant about all the crap on the internet...

[Catmakemebark]

lol, I get the internet rant all the time from my vet.

I would think he knows what he is talking about since he is apparently the best in the UK. :p

[mr gerbil]

Lol...so would I :p .

I also got this:

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k29/aquaticgerbil/bsavafish.jpg

[Catmakemebark]

Wow, thats great!

I could see how that could come in handy!

[mr gerbil]

lol!

It's not the book itself...it's an order form for it :laughing: . Priced at £80 (nearly $160?), consequently slightly out of my price range.

Considering his name's on the front, I can't help but have the suspicion that he was trying to boost his book sales :p .

[Catmakemebark]

Wow! Thats crazy expensive! It must be packed full of usful tips. :p

Lol, I was going to comment on the name.

[mr gerbil]

lol...that sort of name :p .

Still want some stuff from the radiography booklet?

[Catmakemebark]

Sure! You might have to email them to me because I have to leave in an hour and 8 minutes for a marching band parade. Plus I need to get my uniform on and find a way to get my hair in the shake-o(the big funny hat).

[mr gerbil]

Riight...
Sounds...interesting :p .

[Catmakemebark]

Lol...its like 80 degree's out and I have to march for 4 hours...:( damn...

[mr gerbil]

:laughing:

Let me know how close to death you feel at the end...

[Catmakemebark]

Oh thanks, you make me feel so much better.

:D

[Shellie]

MG, with a name like Wildgoose he must have known he had no choice but to work with animals of some kind.

[mr gerbil]

"Oh thanks, you make me feel so much better. "

Ah, it'll be ok. Look forward to a nice cold beer afterwards ;) .

Lol, Shellie...interesting how he didn't specialise in birds :p .

To be fair, though, he gave me the leaflets because I asked about fish medicine.

[Catmakemebark]

"Ah, it'll be ok. Look forward to a nice cold beer afterwards"

Your forgeting one minor detail. I'm in america, beer is illegal till I'm 21. :p Water will have to do.

[mr gerbil]

Oh dear...

Why is America so insane? :p

[Nell]

aww, RIP Gary. At least you found the cause and let her go before the suffering began...

Did the vet tell you much about the disease? What causes it, how common is it, etc? Does it only happen with goldfish?

[mynoven]

aww...poor gary! (Gary was a girl??) lol

I would like a copy of that thing he gave you too!!

If America wasn't insane...we wouldn't be Americans! ;)

[mr gerbil]

Kidney cysts, causing fluid to build up. The kidneys apparently swell to 20-30 times their normal size :eek: .
Cause is unknown- some people have theoried parasites, but apparently he's never seen this despite testing. Genetic abnormality is the most favoured opinion.
As far as I know, it affects all fish.

I saw the xrays...it wasn't pretty. The swimbladder had been pushed all the way from the spine into the bottom of the swelling, alongside other organs.

As I said, treatment wasn't really an option. He could have operated on her in an attempt to sort some things out, but he said that the probability of a sucessful outcome was very low.

[LittleHippyGirl]

Aww I'm sorry you had to put him to sleep :(

[mr gerbil]

Thanks :) .