Reviving Nemo! Goldfish saved with £230, a 260-mile round trip and 45-minute op
CONSIDERING a healthy new goldfish costs £2.50, spending £230 on life-saving surgery for one may seem off the scale.
But the devoted Hands family were happy to splash out and make a 260-mile round trip to save their pet Nemo.
Roy Hands, 59, and wife Caroline, 54, said they had ‘nothing to lose’ by paying to remove a huge tumour.
Their five-year-old fish was first sedated by anaesthetic dissolved in its water before the intricate 45-minute surgery.
Nemo’s heart stopped beating under the knife, but the surgeon and nurse revived him to remove the growth. He was discharged two hours later and has made a good recovery.
Nemo’s owners, who also have three cats, two dogs, a hedgehog and a parrot, travelled from Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire, to Bristol to find a vet willing to do the operation.
Mr Hands, who works at Heathrow, said: ‘He got a tumour that grew and grew. We saw that another fish was operated on so we thought we have got nothing to lose. He is doing brilliantly. You would not know he had been through an operation.’
While Nemo was in surgery, the anaesthetic solution was pumped through his gills with a syringe to keep him asleep. Freshwater was used to wake him up.
Veterinary surgeon Sonya Miles, who carried out the operation with nurse Millie Gardiner at Highcroft Veterinary Group, said: ‘It was difficult keeping him asleep and alive – there was a hairy moment when his heart stopped but we managed to revive him.’
Last year another owner forked out £300 to pay for a procedure to save a constipated two-year-old goldfish. National store chain Pets at Home sells goldfish for £2.49.