''It's actually happening far more rapidly than I'd imagined.'' According to the A.V.M.A., almost 2,000 vets currently practice fish medicine. David Scarfe, assistant director of scientific activities at the American Veterinary Medical Association. ''I have no doubt fish medicine will become mainstream much like bird medicine did in the 80's,'' said Dr. But people who want to take fish to the vet - those people are still crazy. Today we have surgery for parakeets, organ transplantation for dogs and cats, chemotherapy for gerbils. Yet by the 80's, avian medicine had its own academic programs, a professional society, at least one monthly magazine and a large clientele. Instead, bird advice came from pet stores (and birds died of a ''draft,'' a diagnosis akin to the vapors). By the 70's, dogs and cats could get human-quality medical care - but treating birds? That was insane. But by the mid-50's, the world was in love with Rin Tin Tin and Lassie, and people started thinking, I shouldn't have to shoot my dog. You didn't treat cats and dogs - you usually shot those. Through the early 1900's, vets treated livestock mostly. But true to its history, veterinary medicine is steadily evolving to meet the demands of pet owners. Ten years ago, the chances of finding a fish vet were slim. Just like Lucky, the one-and-a-half-pound koi with a two-and-a-half-pound tumor Sunshine, who was impaled on a branch during rough sex Betta, with a fluid-filled abdomen and countless goldfish with so-called buoyancy disorders, like the perpetually upside-down Belly Bob, or Raven, who was stuck floating nose down and tail to the sky. Which is to say, it's a regular fish that could belong to anybody. Not the fancy kind that people buy for thousands of dollars and keep in decorative ponds (though they do surgery on those too), but on a county-fair goldfish named the Golden One, which Roberts adopted when its previous owners brought it into her clinic outside Buffalo, saying they didn't have time to take care of it. Yes, Roberts and Bonita (Bonnie) Wulf were doing surgery on a goldfish. ''Fish are a lot smarter than people give them credit for.'' ''She was holding her breath,'' she said, shaking her head. damn, she's waking up - 30 c.c.'s of anesthetic.'' Roberts sighed. Bonnie wasn't happy: ''We have gill movement - but not much.'' Then the Doppler went silent and she reached for the jug. Seconds later, a whisper of a heart rate came through the Doppler. ''She's too deep,'' Roberts said, ''go ahead and give her 30 c.c.'s of fresh water.'' Bonnie picked up an old plastic jug filled with pond water and poured two glugs into the anesthesia machine. Bonnie, how's she doing?'' Bonnie pushed up her purple glasses, leaned over the surgery table and lowered her face inches from the patient to watch for any signs of breath: nothing. ''Grab the Doppler,'' she told her other assistant. ''Bonnie,'' she said, turning to her anesthesiologist, ''is she breathing? I don't see her breathing.'' Roberts's eyes darted around the room. Helen Roberts was about to make the first incision in what should have been a standard surgery - a quick in-and-out procedure - when she froze.
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