Goldfish Injury

Question
One of my goldfish which is in an outdoor pond was found out of the pond and gasping for air. We put it back in the pond and it has been a couple of days and is still alive. It is orange and now has white scrapes over the left side of it's body and i think it's left eye is missing and i am not sure if the right one is still ok. I think he got attacked by a bird. It is quite large and so the bird probably just dropped it. It's in the pond with two other goldfish, ones a comet and the other a fantail. This one has telescopic eyes and so already is at a disadvantage. We havn't seen it eat since the accident. I don't think it can see very well if at all. i am not sure what to do about infection etc. ALl of them are not moving very much because it is quite cold at the moment. I noticed it's gills have been moving in and out and the other two's are not doing this. Any advice would be great, i havn't found much on goldfish bird injuries. Thankyou.

Answer
Hello Kate,

This sounds like it tried to jump out thinking there was water on the other side of whatever it jumped on. That is kind of common with goldfish for them to want to jump somewhere if they are  in the bigger outside ponds. The white scrapes will heal up just fine with no problem. As for the eyes I couldnt tell you without a picture which would be hard to get. And as far as the gill pumping like that, I would assume that it is stressed and trying to recover from its injurys, however I could not tell you without a picture. If it had made it that long then I would assume there is a good chance of it doing fine. While stressed they dont like to eat or move alot and sometimes even shake. So just give it some time and it should start eating again.

If there is any other questions please feel free to ask.

thanks,
Exp. Michael M.