Treating exotic animals requires creativity and a “why not?” philosophy. New ideas are shared openly in the exotic animal community so that patients benefit.<\/p>\n
To this end, I have traveled across the U.S. in search of every tidbit of knowledge available to help these critters.<\/p>\n
One of my recent ventures saw me returning from a koi medicine and surgery conference in Georgia.<\/p>\n
Walking through the entryway of our house, I breathed deeply the familiar smells that made my travel-weary body truly feel at home.<\/p>\n
I dropped my suitcase at the front door, knowing deep down inside that by doing so, I’ve condemned it to at least five days of obscurity.<\/p>\n
I, in turn, will be reminded regularly by the love of my life to disembowel my luggage and unfetter the path to the front door.<\/p>\n
After three days of intensive fish anatomy, diseases and surgical techniques, however, I was willing to risk the ordeal to plop my tired body onto my favorite couch.<\/p>\n
As I plodded past our freshwater aquarium, something caught my eye – the right one, to be exact. Looking closer, I noticed that our koi Kramer had his mouth frozen in an open position.<\/p>\n
My wife saw me gazing at the aquarium, and soon both of us were peering intently at Kramer.<\/p>\n
“Honey, I think he has something stuck in his mouth,” she says.<\/p>\n
“Please,” I respond, “if he had something in his mouth, don’t you think I would have noticed it?”<\/p>\n
After all, I am the veterinarian in the family.<\/p>\n
Slowly, however, I realized that my wife was correct. Oops! After a bit of backpedaling, I apologized for my curt reply and turned my attention back to Kramer.<\/p>\n
My wife asked, “What did your conference teach you about removing a catfish from a koi’s mouth?”<\/p>\n
I didn’t know what he was she talking about.<\/p>\n
Soon, however, I realized she was right again.<\/p>\n
Kramer had our little armored catfish, George, in his mouth. I suspected someone (I wasn’t about to mention who) didn’t feed the fish regularly while I was gone.<\/p>\n
I quickly opened my suitcase and thumbed through my notes from the koi conference. After a few minutes, I came to the realization that I was on my own.<\/p>\n
Catfish extraction, apparently, is not a common procedure for koi.<\/p>\n
As I scooped up Kramer with an aquarium net, I saw that George had spread every fin on his body and was really wedged in Kramer’s mouth. This must have been a self-defense mechanism to stave off the predicament of being swallowed by a larger fish.<\/p>\n
I needed something, and fast. I rushed to our kitchen drawer and pulled out my favorite chopsticks.<\/p>\n
Gently, I wiggled George back and forth until I loosened him from Kramer’s maw.<\/p>\n
Placing both back into the aquarium, Kramer immediately began swimming while poor George sank to the bottom.<\/p>\n
I was too late.<\/p>\n
Chopsticks … who knew?<\/p>\n
What is usually used for eating fish ended up saving a fish’s life. Now I occasionally will salute my sashimi with a pair of chopsticks.<\/p>\n
To onlookers, it just looks weird.<\/p>\n
For me, it signifies the spark of creativity and reminds me of George and his sacrifice. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Treating exotic animals requires creativity and a “why not?” philosophy. New ideas are shared openly in the exotic animal community..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hawaii-lifestyle-news-opinions","category-the-wild-side"],"yoast_head":"\n