To the Vet?

So I took a guinea pig to our vet today. To get him looked at.
Because yesterday after I left my coworkers discovered he had a lump behind his ear. 
So I figured that it would be best to get that looked at sooner rather than later.

Only our usual vet wasn't in today....but another vet had come in to cover that did see them.

So I figured it wouldn't be that much of an issue.

Except it kinda was.

As this vet...
Is really allergic to guinea pigs.
Any other animal and she's fine.
But she can't be near them without breaking down in a rash.

So like....she was going to do her best to look at the guinea pig and figure out a plan of action for him...

but I haven't yet got word on what that plan was.
As we took them over before the auditor arrived....
And hadn't yet gone to pick them up when I left.

So hopefully tomorrow I'll have word on what they want to do with the guinea pig....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Fix The Fish

Had a customer come into the store today with a question about her betta.

Because she said for the last little bit the betta she has has just kinda been laying on the bottom of the tank and doesn't swim around much, and seems to struggle when swimming up to the surface to get food.

So I asked her, noting the use of 'struggling' if the fish was using it's back end at all. The tail part to swim.

To which she said she didn't think it was and wanted to know what she could do to fix the problem.

Unfortunately there's nothing much she could do....

As if anything it sounded like the fish had a stroke of some sort.

I've seen it before in my own betta fish.
Where one day they're swimming fine.
And the next they're all gimpy swimming about.

And if it's a stroke...not much we can do to fix it.

I mean it could be some sort of other issue.
But with fish it's definitely a lot harder to tell.

The customer wanted me to come up with a solution...and was a bit disappointed I couldn't.

Most treatable things you see something on the outside of the fish. 
So like red sores, or white growths, or white spots, or ragged fins would help to be able to tell if the issue was bacterial or fungal or even parasitic.

But not moving the back half of the body?
Yah...not a symptom that's listed under the categories above.

Still I directed the customer to a 'general cure' that would treat everything and anything that is treatable with the fish.

Which she ended up buying.
Because her son told her to go to the store to get medicine.
And she figured she'd better try something so her son would know she at least tried to take care of the fish.

Though honestly I don't know if the fish will recover from that.

*fingers crossed* though. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Returned

I came into work today to see that our ISO tank -the tank we have to quarantine sick fish had a ton of random fish within in.
Like everthing from neons to angelfish to bala sharks to glotetras. 
Which O.o I was so confused.

I could see a few of them had ick and such.
But I thought it odd to have so many fish --around 30 or so? suddenly in our tank.

Though I didn't think much of it because yesterday was our fish shipment.
So I figured some of the fish had come in sick yesterday and my coworkers had put them in the ISO tank to recover. 

Turns out it was an entirely different story.

So apparently sometime earlier in the week. Maybe two or three days ago (when I wasn't there) 
A customer came into the store and got a brand new tank.
But also got around FORTY fish to put into his tank.
On the same day.

Which. O.o I really wish I knew which coworker bagged up all those fish because we usually strongly recommend waiting at least 24 hours after setting up a brand new tank before adding in any fish and when adding in fish only to do a few at a time. Like 5-6 at a time.

Because if you set up a tank and then add a ton of fish all in the same day,
It greatly increases the chances of the fish dying and/or getting sick from stress.

Which...did my coworker not realize this was a bad idea?
Did they try and convince the customer not to but the customer refused?
Hard to say for sure.
No one is talking.

But in any case. 
Yesterday the customer came back in...and returned all the fish. (and maybe the fishtank? not clear on that) because some of his fish had died and the other ones all had ick. 

So the dude had the fish like 2 days before returning them all and like....
O.o

So weird.
So weird. 

I honestly want to figure out how the whole situation came about....because that's just an odd one in my book.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Eggs?!?!!?

Had a customer come into the store today who was rather interested in the hayball we had in our canary's cage.
-As she hadn't realized right away that the bird within was a Canary and not a parakeet.

But apparently she'd never seen the hayball filled with hay before.
And wanted to know why we had that in the cage.

So I told her we kept the balls full of hay in specific cages so that the birds could use the hay to build nests.

To which she asked "Why would they want to do that?"

...Build nests?

Well....for one it's something to do, for two it gives them a place to sleep if they desire and three...it's so that they can lay eggs.

And her response to the laying eggs was a surprised. "You mean they naturally lay eggs!!" 

Like the concept had never occurred to her that the birds could do that without human interference or something.
But like. 
Yah? It's a bird. A female. Females usually reproduce and by doing that they lay eggs on occasion for the male to fertilize....it's a typical circle of life sort of thing.

But she just seemed so astounded that the birds would just go lay eggs.

And then was concerned because she didn't want her birds laying eggs.
Which really it depends on the bird.
Like our Finches? They lay eggs all the time it seems like.
The parakeets? Never seen them lay an egg.
I don't even remember them laying eggs when I had them growing up. 

Which there are some birds that don't lay eggs unless given the opportunity like nesting boxes and nesting material to do so.

In any case.
It was a rather interesting fifteen minute conversation for sure. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Fish Price

I had a customer call the store asking what the price of our Neon Tetras were.

So I told him $2.55.

And he thanked me....hung up.....and then like five minutes later called the store again to ask the same question.

Like....did he not realize that he called the same store twice?

Possibly he did because he then asked about other potential tetras we carried and their prices....

But at the same time...

I do wonder if he realized...

I mean I answered both times and did the same standard greeting.

So like maybe he'd been scrolling through his phone and thought he hit one pet store after calling ours and then hit ours again?

Dunno.

Hopefully he found the tetras he was looking for at the price he wanted though.

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Bowl

It was "buy a goldfish in a bowl" kinda day today.

I basically had three customers in a row.
Come up to me saying that they wanted one of the 31 cent goldfish we sell.
Two of them holding the itty bitty half gallon bowls that we unfortunately sell.

The first customer stated she had a 'large' bowl at home that she wanted to put fish in. 

And despite all my efforts to convince her that goldfish wouldn't work.
Her mind was set. 
So she got two goldfish.

The other two, however, with their half gallon bowls, I was able to convince to go for a betta fish instead.

Which is rather easy to do when you tell them they need to do a water change once a week for the betta instead of everyday for the goldfish. 

Still though.

I don't get why we had the sudden rush of people all wanting the same thing...
I mean it happens.
But it's rather odd for it to happen so closely together. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Only Goldfish

Had a customer come into the store wanting to get a fish for a 2 1/2 year old.
And of course...she was thinking of putting said fish in a bowl.

Specifically a goldfish.

Specifically a rather large goldfish.

Which I told her wasn't a great idea. 

Because a) the goldfish was too big for the bowl.
and b) Goldfish in bowls are a lot of work, you need to change the water like every other day to keep them happy and alive. 

So I suggested she try a betta fish as they do better in bowls. Needing only to have a water change like once a week in comparison to the goldfish. 

She wasn't keen on the idea at all.

Specifying that the fish was for a TWO year old.

Which....I didn't get why a goldfish was considered the better pet for a kid than a betta fish.

But she was set.
Nothing was changing her mind. 
-I think she said she had goldfish before and wanted to do them again or something.

*exhales*
I wish we didn't carry bowls.

In any case.

I showed her said bowls.
and she was like "So what kind of water does it need?" 

Uh...tap water? Bottled water? You know....almost any water would do. 

She then said "Can you fill the bowl up with water for me?"

O.o Why? "That's not something we usually do." Was my response.
Because like it's much more difficult to carry around a bowl full of water than like an...empty bowl. 

"How am I supposed to take the fish home then!" 

*exhales*
It's a question I understand more with the other animals I sell. Birds. Reptiles. Hamsters. Their method of containment for transporting them home isn't obvious.

But like....fish? It's easy.
We put them in a bag of water and give it to you.

Easy peasy.

*shakes head* 

Yah. Not quite sure what she was thinking for most of our conversation. But hopefully she's content with her goldfish purchase. 

-Sarnic Dirchi