Koi Surgery

If a fish is injured, or has an abdominal swelling which might be a surgical target either for its diagnosis or removal, the owner would make contact with the office in Marietta and arrange to ship the fish or carry the fish to my office.

Do all vets do fish surgeries? Not all vets practice fish medicine. Exactly the same way I don't practice on horses or birds, so some veterinarians do not work on fish. It has to do with expertise and passion. Fish are important to me as pets and I "like" them. Other vets prefer horses in a similar way. This defines our training and our allocation of time. There is a growing list of veterinarians who practice fish medicine. The list is at Fishdoc.net — Choose "Find a Vet" and you will be able to search by state.

Do I have to ship my fish to you for the surgery? Sometimes you can find a veterinarian who will perform fish surgery. Of these, a growing proportion will be able to provide you with surgical services. There is a diagnostic process to determine if surgery is even indicated for your fish. Past that, you can find help locally if you're lucky. If you have to ship your fish to me in Atlanta, there are guidelines for this.

And if I do have to ship a fish, how do I package and ship them so they survive? There's a complete document on shipping fish for surgery at the Koivet website.

The highlights of shipping are as follows. First, never ship the fish until or unless you've actually spoken to someone on the receiving-end to make sure that I am in town, ready to have the fish in the clinic, and ready to do the surgery. It's also important that you ship the fish in a large plastic bag with about 30% water (enough to cover the fish) and 70% oxygen. The oxygen needs to be pure, 100% oxygen from a tank, not room-air. Fish will NOT get here alive packed under room air. I promise. And the air should take up more space in the bagg than the fish or the water. But there should be enough water to cover the fish. Finally, make sure the bag is not "taut" with oxygen — the bag should be "mushy" becuase when the airplane cabin pressurizes in flight, the bag will expand and become taut — and if you've packed it tight with oxygen, it will pop — and the fish will be lost. Make sure to close the bag with TWO rubberbands and then overbag it in another plastic bag with TWO rubberbands. Those are the highlights. The website talks about the shipping type, time of day to drop the fish off, and how to talk to Fedex to get what you want!