Intricate brain surgery saves George the goldfish from life-threatening tumour

 
Standard Reporter26 June 2015

A 10-year-old pet goldfish named George went under the knife for intricate surgery to remove a life-threatening tumour.

The 80 gram fish was operated on after its owners opted for a 45 minute operation over the prospect of putting it to sleep.

Vet Dr Tristan Rich admitted it had been "quite fiddly" - but said George had come through the operation "swimmingly" and could now live for another 20 years.

"The fish was having trouble eating, getting around and he was getting bullied by other fish," he said.

"It was quite a large tumour – we had to scrape it off his skull. When it was all done we woke him up in a clean bucket of water ... he came through it swimmingly."

George's gills were kept wet throughout the operation by a tube which was fed in through its mouth durig the operation in Australia.

The fish was kept unconscious as he was placed in buckets laced with anaesthetic.

Owner Lyn Orton told Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper: "We love pulling up a chair and just sitting next to the pond, it's so relaxing just to watch them.

"They're not just things in the water... they're characters."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in