The deaths of sea lions fishbone and grits are taking a toll on zoo keepers at the fort wayne children's zoo.

Rachel percell trained with fishbone every day.

Fishbone died wednesday during a medical procedure at the zoo.

Dr. cami fox is one of the vets at the zoo.she says fishbone got sick last month ... but in the last few weeks ... she wasn't using her back flippers much.fox says they were trying to do a bunch of testing so they could properly diagnose fishbone.

Fishbone and grits were born at sea world in 2001 and moved to fort wayne the following year.zoo staff says grits had to be euthanized on march 30 because she wasn't responding to treatments for her illness.

More than 8 million people 3 walked by and interacted with the sisters and other sea lions in the last 16 years.and percell says the loss has been hard on her and other zoo keepers.

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