A 10-year-old goldfish named George went under the knife at the Lort Smith Animal Hospital in Melbourne, Australia on Sept. 11 to remove a brain tumor.
The tumor started developing within the last year and has grown to a point that George has not been swimming or eating as he normally would. Concerned, his owners Pip Joyce and Lyn Orton decided to get the goldfish checked out. That's when they found out that George has a brain tumor and that they have two options: put the goldfish to sleep or have surgery done on him to remove the tumor.
Joyce and Orton chose surgery because they were not ready to let go of their beloved George. The goldfish's surgery cost $180 when a new pet would only set them back by $9. Still, the two wanted to spend more time with the goldfish that's why it wasn't exactly a hard decision to choose surgery.
Head of Lort Smith's exotic and wildlife vet team Dr. Tristan Rich performed the surgery on George, setting up three buckets (one with anaesthetic to knock out George, one with a maintenance dose of anaesthetic, and one as a recovery unit filled with clean water) for the process.
To knock out George, he was placed in the bucket heavily dosed with anaesthetic. Once the goldfish fell asleep, he was placed on the operating table with a tube from the bucket with the maintenance dose of anaesthetic running through his mouth to continuously wash aneasthetic water over his gills.
Working quickly, Dr. Rich removed George's brain tumor, utilizing a gelatin sponge to take care of the bleeding. The brain tumor left a sizeable wound so the doctor had to use four stitches to close the wound first before sealing it with tissue glue.
Once the tissue glue had set, the goldfish was placed in the bucket designated as a recovery unit and given antibiotics and painkillers. Not long after, George was able to breathe on his own and was soon happily swimming around.
The entire surgery took 45 minutes and now George is expected live 20 more years. His owners were impressed with the surgery, but more of the fact that soon George was playing with his 38 other goldfish friends in their pond. He did, however, spend a few days in the hospital's tank to fully recover.
Aside from George, Dr. Rich had only done surgery on fish 10 times in his entire career.
