The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1903-06-09
THE FISH SURGEON.
OPERATIONS WHICH HE PERFORMS
UPON HIS PATIENTS.

Medicines Are Administered.
The fish doctor, like the regular doc
nor, gives medicine, performs surgical
operations and superintends his pa
tents diet and environment. These
are the principal operations which he
performs: Trimming the tish's tail with
fish shears when fungous growths ell
large il; stripping the fish to remove
the eggs or milt that have not been
naturally deposited; eXcising with the
lance tumcrs. lacerated scales and
splintcrs of bone.
Among the medicines that the fish
doctor gives are castor oil for swelling
of the swimming bladder and nuX vom-
lea for debility and emaciation. This
specialist also presidcs over the food
of the fish, inspects their food troughs
thoroughly and makes microscopic eX-
aminations Of their water to see that il
contains the proper life giving elements
in their due proportions. Regarding
,hesc matters, which are rs important
to healthy as to sick fish. the leading
fish doctor of Philadelphia recently
said:
- food trough Of cnameled ware
that will not rust should be used for
fish. At the same time each day their
oatmeal should be put in this trough,
which should always be kept i'll the
same place. and as consequence of
this treatment the fish Will gather
around their trough mt mealtimc, which
they will instinctivCIy recognize a.
arccdilv as hogs, burying their noses
in the food when ii is set before them
and crOWding and pushing one another
in 4 healthy. ravcnous and hoglikr
manner. The trough should be cleaned
once DAY lost it gct sour. but the wa
ter Of the fish should rarely he changed.
Even when it becomes foul smelling it
should only be changed gradually-a
quart n day, say-for to change it all
at once has the effect of a terrible eX-
Dosurp-is, indeed, the same as if You
should snatch a child from its warm
bed and lay it naked out of doors in the
cold night wind and snow"
IT is not the detention of fish from
their native element that makes fish
surgery difficult. for they can be kent
out of the water for five, six and sew
| en- minutes without the slightest harm
to them. and there is no operation that
requires n longer suace of time. But
what makes it difficult is the disincli
nation of the flesh to heal after it has
been cut. a wound to heal requires to
be dry. Nothing is more deleterious to
it than any sort of moisture, and hence
the troubles of fish wound bathed
ana soaked in water all the time. In
| evitably, therefore, fish operations are
simple and slight.
one of them is the trimming of tails
enlarged to unwieldiness by growths
of fungus. In this work sharp shears,
with blades oddly curved-fish shears
are employed. The fish is lifted from
the water and held head downward
while it's tail is being trimmed. a deX-
ferrous operator gets through the work
in two or three minutes. There is no
flow of blood and no gaping wound
that will not heal; hence tail trimming
is in nine cases out of ten successful.
1t must be resorted to often with Jap
anese goldfish. for these costly ana
graceful creatures. with their resem-
blancc to strange golden flowers, have
tails bigger than their bodies, and when
their tails, as frequently happens, be-
come affected with fungus, they are I'M
able to swim we'll, and sometimes, in
deed, they drown. y fish "droWns
technically when, floating with its head
out Of the water. it dies from asphyXia'
ton.
The knife is used on fish to remove
tumors or lacerated scales or splintereo
bones, which, uneXcised, would cause
the nsh's death. Lacorations of the
scales arc only treated when they arc
so severe that the fish without treat
ment would surely die. This operation
is successful in about 10 per cent of thu
cases. The remaining so per cent die
hono,,cn thoir wounds do NOT heal