Not a fish story: This vet operates on fish

KUSA - It may be hard to visualize a goldfish undergoing surgery on an operating table, but there really is a veterinarian in Denver who specializes in such surgeries.

A squirming fish is hauled out of a fish pond, anesthetized and put through a physical examination. X-rays are taken of the fish and it's given an ultrasound. As odd as it sounds, a fish owner who has paid $5,000 to $10,000 for a prized Japanese Koi may find that special medical care for a fish is well worth the cost.

Meet Dr. Koi, a fully certified veterinarian who knows more about fish ailments and their cures than many biologists. Dr. Koi is the pseudonym for veterinarian Jena Questen. Questen was a vet technician for a number of years and decided she wanted to become a doctor of veterinary medicine. She eventually got her degree from Colorado State University in 2001.

A few years later, she met and married Denver resident Scott Eddy. Eddy is a prominent builder of Koi ponds in the metro area. He also sells about $100,000 worth of Koi that he gets from domestic breeders around the country.

Questen says she saw Eddy was losing a number of his expensive Koi to various parasites and aquatic diseases. Rather than write off the dying fish as part of the cost of doing business, Questen and Eddy began attending clinics and seminars with fish experts around the country. Soon, Questen found she had more expertise on the subject than many other veterinarians. As word spread around the Denver area, the couple began picking up a number of customers.

"We just got so little fish training in vet school," Questen said. "I got into it primarily because there wasn't anyone out there treating fish. I just saw so many of them dying needlessly."

Jena showed her expertise at spotting a sick fish in a pond of hundreds of others.

"Koi really are social creatures." She pointed to one fish that was swimming a few feet away from the others.

"That one is sick. He's not schooling with the others. He's very lethargic. He's swimming very slowly and always facing the walls. That's why we think he's ill."

Questen and Eddy hauled out the 18 inch long orange and white Koi and put it into a bucket. A few seconds later, Jena pointed out its symptoms.

"His scales are all standing straight out from his body. He looks like a little porcupine. These guys are very prone to getting tumors. They live a long time and they can get cancer just like any other animal. We can do surgery on them and remove their tumors very successfully."

Questen takes a few scrapings from the Koi's skin and examines them under a microscope.

"This one probably has a bacterial infection," she says. She loads up a syringe with antibiotic and injects into the fish. It's then put into an isolation pond away from the others. "That one will probably live now," she says.

Through her DrKoi.com Web site and her Colorado vanity license plate that says "Dr Koi," Questen says she's picking up an increasing number of customers. For $350 to $450, Jena can examine an average fish pond for parasites and a variety of bacterial and viral diseases.

One of her clients is a new pond owner in the south metro area.

"We bought this home a year ago and it just came with a fish pond," said Sara Mosca, a recent client of Dr. Koi's. "We didn't realize how valuable these fish were."

Japanese Koi are descendents of food carp that were grown for centuries in rice paddies in the Far East. Questen and Eddy say rice farmers began noticing that every so often, a carp would be born with orange or red markings. Farmers began breeding specially colored Koi. Each variety is named after the village where it was bred.

Koi can usually be purchased for $10 to 50. But more exotic tri-colored fish can sell for far more. One Web site for Koi fanciers says the record price paid for a Koi fish was $3 million. For that kind of investment, a Koi owner could have several dozen veterinarians on retainer!