How to put down a Goldfish?
Posted by: George Fredrik on 02 March 2013
I have inherited three Goldfish.
Unfortunately one has a sort of carbuncle growing on its head, and is showing signs of developing another next to the first one.
I don't particularly want to pay a vet £XX to quietly put down the little fish, and I think taking the fish to the vet would as likely as not be more stress for it than doing the same job myself.
Is there a kindly and humane way of putting a fish down?
I don't think the fish is suffering, but I would not want to let him suffer if that is a possibility.
Thanks in advance for any serious suggestions, even if it is to take the fish to the vet as the only way.
ATB from George
Dear George,
Thanks for the link to those helpful suggestions.
It is quite sad to put a fish to sleep, but strangely, it is the best thing to do before suffering comes along. I'd hate to come home from work one day and see he had died ...
Thanks from George
PS: Thanks Tony. That would be quick and so worth considering. I once had to kill a sweet little farmyard cat - we used to call her the wild-puss, because she was not really very tame - as she had been mangled by a car. She had three tiny kittens at the time, and I knew where they were. I reared them and let them go when they were big enough to look after themselves - their descendants still rove that farmyard today, thirty years on ... I used a sledge hammer on her head. She never knew anything about it. I buried her after.
Dear Tony,
I had my last dog from Christmas 1984 [as a weaner of six weeks] till the 7th of January 1997, so he passed his twelfth birthday. He was a black, tan and white Welsh Collie. And he was one heck of a good strong working sheep dog. A bit rough by the standards of "One man and his dog" but they are dealing with a handful of sheep and "Fred" could manage complete control of say 600 in a bunch. He was fast and wiry! And the gentlest of individual when not working. His doggy sixth sense was uncanny ...
He had an outsized exuberance for people and could frighten children because he would see a child and run straight over and want to play. He could not understand that in running directly to a person that that person might feel under threat! He never changed. He had a massive heart attack at five years old, survived nearly dying, and the vet told me that though he had a congenital heart defect he might live a long time yet. No treatment was offered except pills to quiet him down. I thought that was wrong, as his exuberance might kill him, but at least he would die quickly like that.
At his twelfth anniversary it became clear to me that his heart was failing, and I took two weeks holiday over the Christmas, plus the Bank Holidays, and spoiled him all day for the time. On the last day of the time off I took him to the vet. That was a heart rending experience, but I would have another dog tomorrow if I could.
ATB from George
Dear Debs,
She was burst open from the car running over her - nearly in two parts. She would be dead in minutes but was struggling to crawl with her front feet only, back to her kittens, which I reared myself after that. To have picked her up would itself have only been adding to her suffering. As I say, the poor little cat never knew what I did. It was a horrible experience, but not one that was cruel. Would you have let her carry on trying to get back to her tiny kittens in absolute agony?
ATB from George
Pictures added on behalf of George.
I couldn't get this one to stay rotated correctly. 
Dear Tony,
George has kindly posted two picture of my last dog Fred, who I mentioned above. The top one shows that he remained a puppy at heart when off duty. I think he is about three here, and the second shows him as a fiesty little pup on Boxing day 1984!
The black and white photo shows the first dog - Spot - that was really mine. Here he is thirteen years old.
He was also one heck of a character. He used to fart occasionally, and you knew it, because he would move away! Then it hit you!
Terriers will eat anything and it showed!
ATB from George
George,
I’ve deleted the post,
can’t comment really as I was not there and did not see the ‘exceptional circumstance’…
On a slightly different subject:
It’s always a good thing to have cats neutered, even farm cats.
Left fertile they can breed almost as prolifically as rabbits, and these days there are far more cats than good people who can take them in and be looked after by them.
Debs
Dear Debs,
No probs. I adored that little cat. She was totally a feisty farmyard cat, but I tamed her for me at least. She was a masterful hunter, and was quite savage with others than me. She became the wild puss, because she would forget herself, and sidle up to an unsuspecting person and then when petted she went at it with teeth and claws. Only my brother could more or less fuss her. With me, who was daily fetching hay and straw out of the barn [where she had her nest] she was completely docile. It was right for me to rear her kittens. I gave two away as house cats and let the third back into the farmyard, where their descendants still prowl about today. She was a classic tabby, but with long hair on her ears, which gave her a linx-like look.
I agree that cats should be neutered really. In those days the laws of natural selection in the farm yard seemed to keep the population of cats in proportion to rats and mice. Different times for sure.
I'll only add that not only was I very sad that the wild puss got run over, but she had endeared herself to everyone who worked there in those days. I agree that it was no good way for a lovely little cat to leave this world. No argument from me on that. Simply horrible.
but perhaps that I remember it to this day as if it were last week rather than thirty years ago, points to the significance for me of this lovely little animal.
ATB from George
It's a fish. Throw it in the Severn. Put it in the freezer. Flush it down the loo. Smash it with a hammer.
You eat meat don't you?
George - the only impressive way to put down a goldfish is a little bit of oneupmanship
Don dark downtown York
It's a fish. Throw it in the Severn. Put it in the freezer. Flush it down the loo. Smash it with a hammer.
You eat meat don't you?
Derry, you're not in the medical profession by any chance, are you?
It's a fish. Throw it in the Severn. Put it in the freezer. Flush it down the loo. Smash it with a hammer.
You eat meat don't you?
Derry, you're not in the medical profession by any chance, are you?
I used to work at Stafford hospital...all of the above were acceptable patient outcomes.
I'm sorry you have a dilemma with this problem George. I wouldn't have thought coming from a farming background you would have much of an issue with this. The freezer method is possibly the easiest to live with if you're squeamish. The other method is more hands on; place index finger at the mouth and the thumb on the back of it's neck region then pull back swiftly. Instantaneous dispatch. Otherwise use Derry's method.
Steve
Dear Steve,
Actually I have no issue with any particular method, but knowing so little about fish, I wanted to avoid making the end for the creature unpleasant or cruel by sheer avoidable ignorance.
Certainly flushing it down the loo would be bad, as the sewage plant is hardly going to be a nice place to end up!
I think the solution is clear now though.
I have wrung the necks of poultry and would have no difficulty doing so again.
In my lifespan pigs were no longer killed on farms, nor sheep, so I have no experience of dispatching them.
Contrary to a popular mythology, whilst people off the land are not sentimental about animals, they often are very careful of their welfare. Often it can be a simple case that poor animal welfare is caused by ignorance of what is suitable care for an animal.
ATB from George
...whilst people off the land are not sentimental about animals, they often are very careful of their welfare.
Very true George.
It's a fish. Throw it in the Severn. Put it in the freezer. Flush it down the loo. Smash it with a hammer.
You eat meat don't you?
Derry, you're not in the medical profession by any chance, are you?
Or the counselling business, perchance - helping people through difficult times of their lives with tact and sensitivity.
John.
George
You have 3 goldfish,Debs has 3 cats,looks to me like a snack sorry match made in heaven.
Mista h
I also have a Guinea Pig! That would be a cat Christmas lunch!
I have a cat that occasionally gets in here through the bathroom window. I always shut the Pig's lid before going out of the house!
ATB from George
From years of fishkeeping (my other claim to fame, apart from being a popular fictional character, is that my PhD was on Stoneloach foraging behaviour) I'd suggest catching it in a net, laying the fish, in the net, on the ground, and bopping it on the head with a heavy stick. ie the priest. Freezing it slowly or flushing down the loo is extremely cruel.
The other thing to be aware of is that if it is behaving normally and is eating well it is probably in no pain and you can just leave well alone, and let it peg out in the fullness of time. Fish can live for years with all sorts of carbuncles and seem to suffer no ill effects.
Crush it under the feet of an ESL57
Sister xx
Dear Nigel,
I read your post, and understand your point.
There are three of them, and all eat well - all swim about madly when they see me! Sometimes they even break the surface in their feeding! I sometimes think the one with his two distinct carbuncles is less vigorous than the other two when they are simply resting with the filter pump on, but if it is the case that he or she is not suffering pain, then perhaps I should leave it a while to decide?
Pause for thought. ATB from George