I have an 11 year old daughter who probably has bipolar (they are hesitant to dx her). She spent a week in the psych hospital about a month ago. She is on Geodon and Lamictal and doing much better.
She has a fish tank and up until this morning, a few fish were in there. Last week we were at a pet store and she told me she wanted to get rid of her fish and get a lizard instead. I told her no. This morning, I was sitting next to the fish and watched them for a few minutes. There were 2 in there that were just fine. There was a dead fish in there, but she already knew about it. These other 2 fish were healthy and just fine. I took a short nap and when I woke up, she came and told me that all her fish had died.
It's too hard to explain, but I am sure she killed them somehow. I know they weren't sick and there is no reason they would have died in an hour and a half. Plus the way she acted just wasn't the same has it's been when she lost other pets.
So, is it normal for a child to kill her pets like this? She normally LOVES her pets and she hates seeing animals hurt in any way. Just a few days ago she yelled at her big sister for not treating her Beta fish right by not cleaning the tank enough. It is just extremely out of character for her to hurt an animal. But the fish didn't die on their own. I don't know what to think about this. I plan on speaking to her therapist tomorrow before her visit, but I wanted some other opinions as well.