Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Jeffery, the office fish

As most of you know, last week I put our poor little Jeffery to sleep. He was sooo sick! It was by all accounts, traumatic!! He was our beloved office Betta Fish with bright red, vibrant colors and wavy fins galore. :) I believe he was a happy Betta, in his fish bowl of life.

So the story goes... My boss was leaving for vacation last week and we both knew something was wrong with poor little Jeffery as he stopped swimming or eating like he should be -- we both kind of figured he'd be dead by the end of the week. Plus Betta's average life span is 2-5 yrs and we've had him 2 yrs at least, and you never know how old a fish is when you buy them.

Let me just say -I am a complete animal lover and being the animal lover that I am I immediately started doing some online research about Betta's and illness... You wouldn't believe all the different illnesses there are for fish! Anyways, poor little Jeffery had multiple issues from Fin Rot, to Ich, to parasites, to bacterial infections -oh, and did I mention he also had Swim Bladder (a fish bladder infection)!! Yes, the poor little guy! snif.

I decided I would try to save him, if I could. Turns out, I couldn't afford it; because he had so many "issues" I needed several antibiotics, costing about $50 or more, plus a lot of time -- He was a $4 fish! The Pet Store Clerk said my best bet was to put Jeffery in the freezer and let him fall asleep. I know, such a sad moment for me too. snif, snif. I liked the freezer idea, except that I was worried that he would freeze while still awake (or something along those lines) so when I got back to the office I started researching again of what to do now... Plus the internet said freezing fish not under anesthesia was NOT the thing to do!! Did I mention, Animal lover!!

The internet offers a wide verity of things to do in my situation from smashing the poor little guy against a wall, to chopping his head off, to euthanizing him... I chose to euthanize him! They suggested using Clove Oil, mixing it with some of his water (in a separate container) and then adding it to his water little by little --Its like anesthesia but for fish, and then you place him in the freezer. So I went to the local Walgreens to pick up some Clove Oil as the internet said "you should be able to find this at any drug store", turns out you can not! So back to the office I go, empty handed. By the way, Milk at Walgreens is on sale for $3 a gallon!

I continued looking around on the net and discovered that Clove Oil is a fancy name for Benzocaine, which is the active ingredient in Orajel -which I totally have! So I mixed Orajel in some of his water and slowly added it back to the bowl he was in... He immediately went crazy and then settled right down. I checked back in a few minutes and he was still breathing (did you know that Betta fish are Air breathers -yep! They don't need water to breath, but if they are without water for a long period they will die of dehydration.)

According to the internet, the "anesthesia" was suppose to put him to sleep and A) he would drowned from not swimming and collecting air or B) I could put him in the freezer to continue the process that way... So him still breathing meant I needed to add more anesthesia to his water. I did, and I waited a few more minutes until I couldn't see him moving or breathing anymore, then began to transfer him to a cup I could freeze him in... Turns out he wasn't quite a sleep yet! He went crazy!! But again, settled right down in his new home (cup) and into the freezer I placed him. By this point I had added quite a bit of Orajel to the water and I just needed to be patient for it to take affect. snif, snif, snif.

I did all this last Friday afternoon. All week I had been thinking about this... He was getting worse with every day and I knew if I had to do this, then it would have to be on a Friday otherwise I would be back checking on him every few minutes and tormenting myself over this... The weekend was pretty terrible but all in all, I think it was the right thing to do! And yes, I did say a little prayer for Jeffery. :)

PS: I told my boss if he was to get a new fish... it needed to run on batteries!

2 comments:

  1. Poor Jeffrey...and poor Holly! They should not make animal lovers deal with things like this. We take things too hard! It does make for a good blog story, though! :)

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  2. @ Lyd: Aw. Thanks. Like I told Lindsey, the next fish will just have to run on batteries!!

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