♪ ♪
(horse nickers)
♪ ♪
(meow)
NARRATOR: At Pol Vet Clinic...
(baa)
a frenzy.
(baa)
(children playing)
DR. POL: Goats, pig, rabbit.
Aubrey is coming in today with a whole bunch of animals.
NARRATOR: And a whole bunch of future farmhands.
GIRL: Alright, little rabbit.
DR. POL: When people bring their kids with them...
GIRL: His name is Jack.
DR. POL: it's good because yes, they should learn
about the facts of life, and this is part of it.
How are you? Four?
I didn't say how old are you, I says how are you.
(boy screams) DR. POL: Okay, grab one.
(baa)
She wanted all the goats vaccinated.
One.
(goat crying)
Two.
Goats are like horses,
they are very susceptible to tetanus, which is lockjaw.
Grab the horns.
So, we vaccinated all the goats.
They're looking good.
They all look good.
BOY: There!
DR. POL: Aubrey bought a potbellied pig.
AUBREY: My big female, she hates him.
(laughing)
DR. POL: It was supposed to be a boar...
(squealing)
and she wanted to have little ones,
but he was not interested in the sow at all.
Spread it, let me feel.
(squealing)
There were some scars between his hind legs
that showed that he had been castrated already.
Yeah, right there.
AUBREY: Alright.
DR. POL: Ain't working.
It happens.
AUBREY: He's potty-trained.
I might find a home where he can be a house pig. I don't know.
DR. POL: Yeah.
So, the rabbit.
AUBREY: The rabbit with a goopy eye.
BOY: Rabbit with a goopy eye.
DR. POL: That eye, yes.
That was an injury.
And look at how infected,
you see the pus coming out right there?
Look at this.
Maybe some wire from the cage poked in there
or something like this, we never know what happened.
There was some pus coming out, but the eye itself was good.
He's eating alright, huh?
AUBREY: Yeah.
DR. POL: Yeah, he's in good shape.
Well, I'm thinking what I'm gonna do
is give you local eye salve.
Pull the eyelid down, drop it right in there,
twice a day that much for about a week.
I think you can do that. You're a good girl.
AUBREY: Sounds great.
DR. POL: Okay, what else we got?
AUBREY: That's it, right?
DR. POL: Are we sure?
Kids don't need any shots?
(baa)
You know, she knows how to handle these animals,
and that makes it easiest.
Watch out.
Yeah, they are all in good shape,
they get vaccinated.
Sorry about the pig, but everything will heal up.
WYATT: Whee!
DR. POL: Whee!
♪ ♪
(snort)
♪ ♪
HARRY: He's a rescue dog.
They found him in a home with three other dogs
and no food and no water.
Prince is a border collie/terrier mix.
Seven years old.
NARRATOR: Harry gave Prince a home years ago.
HARRY: Yeah, he's a good boy.
NARRATOR: Last week he noticed a new problem
with his old friend.
HARRY: Oh, his left front paw, he's limping.
DR. LISA: Okay.
HARRY: I took him out for a walk on Sunday, and he did real good.
DR. LISA: Okay.
HARRY: Fantastic. That was it.
After that, it's back down limping again.
DR. LISA: Anything you can think of that happened that...
HARRY: Nothing, nothing, there's nothing.
DR. LISA: Just kind of out of the blue?
HARRY: I squeezed his paw, I do everything,
and nothing bothers him.
DR. LISA: Okay. HARRY: But he limps.
DR. LISA: Alright, we'll see what we can do.
HARRY: Okay.
DR. LISA: Come on, kiddo.
NARRATOR: Rescues keep rolling in.
HARVEY: Gus is my three-year-old paint mini horse.
We took his mother in.
She was an abused rescue.
So we took her in, and she was already bred when we got her,
and that's where Gus come from, so.
He's a pet.
He's into everything, he tugs on your coat,
he's in your pockets,
you can't work on a fence because he grabs the tools up,
takes off and runs with them.
He just, he's a pest, but he's a buddy.
About four or five days ago he took off across the field
and got on the ice and went down,
and for two days all he did
was lay on the, on the floor and moan and groan, so.
You know, he ain't no good if I have to put him down,
and I don't want to put him down.
It swelled up clear to here.
DR. POL: Oh.
Bring him out, I want to see how bad he is.
HARVEY: Come on, Gus.
DR. POL: Ha!
Yup, he jumps.
Nothing is broke,
because otherwise he wouldn't be standing on it.
He walks tender on his feet.
This... swelled up, he's just a little fat here.
A little bit more swelling here.
There was a hematoma in there,
but it's already down to normal size.
HARVEY: Okay.
DR. POL: This is not the problem, this is.
Oh, yeah, he needs his feet trimmed.
HARVEY: Alright, well...
DR. POL: Okay, he's gonna go on bute pills.
HARVEY: Alright.
DR. POL: You have those? HARVEY: Yes.
DR. POL: Twice a day.
The leg is hurt somewhere in the muscle,
so pain pills for that.
Go home, clean up his feet with a hoof pick,
and you have Kopertox at home?
HARVEY: Yup.
DR. POL: Put it on. Bute pills, Kopertox.
HARVEY: Alright, Doc.
DR. POL: That's all we need.
Load him up.
Hopefully Gus will just, with time
and some anti-inflammatories, will heal up good.
HARVEY: I was worried that maybe he'd broken something
in his shoulder,
I was worried that maybe he had a fracture in his leg, but...
DR. POL: Ready?
HARVEY: Doc seems to think
everything's gonna be alright, so I'm happy.
DR. POL: That's how you do it.
DR. LISA: Let me see your front end, bud.
As I'm examining Prince, I'm just trying to localize
any specific part of the leg that's causing him pain,
making sure he has good range of motion in the joints of his leg.
As I'm doing this, I can't really find
any specific location
that's causing Prince to react like it's painful.
Come on, bud.
So I really want to see Prince walk around
so I can see the lameness that Harry has described to me.
Good boy.
Come on. Come on!
After watching Prince walk
and seeing how his foot is kind of turning oddly,
I take a closer look at his foot,
and I see that his toenails are pretty badly overgrown.
Let's see if trimming your nails will make you feel better.
Nails that haven't been trimmed in a long time
can sometimes grow past the ends of the toes...
(snip, snip, snip)
and start to catch on the ground
and maybe turn the toe sideways a little bit
and can cause some gait issues, that's for sure.
These ones are so long,
they're bending to the side a little bit.
(snip)
NARRATOR: Untrimmed nails can bring about
serious issues down the road.
DR. LISA: If the toes are chronically turned sideways,
this can abnormally stretch
the bones and ligaments of the toe,
and even after the toes are trimmed,
we might be dealing with some issues
of arthritis or joint strain.
Let's see if that works for you, bud.
He wasn't limping too badly right now, but, you know,
if he steps weird or gets it caught in something
while he's outside, it would be a little sore.
So, this is some pain medication if he starts limping again.
I'm hoping that the nail trim fixes everything,
but if he's still limping, give the clinic a call, okay?
HARRY: Okay, will do.
♪ ♪
(neigh)
♪ ♪
(moo)
DAVE: Come on, Stormy. (clicks tongue)
You good baby, you good baby.
You good baby.
(bells jingling)
NARRATOR: Holiday events
packed Rooftop Landing's calendar last season.
If bookings increase next year,
they're going to need more reindeer
to keep up with demand.
DAVE: We want to build the herd up a little bit more.
And we do need some, some more females hopefully.
NARRATOR: Because reindeer typically breed
just once a year,
successful pregnancies are precious.
DR. BRENDA: Hello.
DAVE: How we doing? DR. BRENDA: Good.
Today we're gonna just pregnancy-check the cows,
which for reindeer cows, it involves a blood sample.
DAVE: Well, that'll kind of help us plan
whether we need to go out
and purchase some more calves this year from other sources.
They're pretty hard to find,
so we would like to get as many as we can on our own.
DR. BRENDA: Who is this?
DAN: Angel.
DR. BRENDA: This would be easier
if they were just a little less hairy.
So, the blood samples collected today from the cows,
part of what we're going to do
is we're gonna send that to a lab
to have it checked for pregnancy.
DAN: You're alright.
DR. BRENDA: While we're here with them, also,
we usually take enough extra blood to collect plasma
to give to the new calves that are coming.
NARRATOR: Plasma, rich in antibodies,
will eventually supplement the calf's diet.
Dr. Brenda keeps it in cold storage
until babies arrive.
DR. BRENDA: It helps keep the babies protected
as they continue to grow
and their immune systems continue to develop.
DAN: This is Clairice, this is a nine-year-old cow,
produced many good calves for us.
DR. BRENDA: Reindeer are cool, they're different,
they're still a lot like cattle, which makes me happy.
But they've got their own personalities, their own quirks.
Okay, everybody hold still.
The biggest concern is restraint.
DAN: Alright, girl.
DR. BRENDA: For the reindeer it means
somebody holding the antlers,
so I hopefully don't get whacked in the head.
The antlers are about three feet long,
so they can injure me,
and sometimes pretty severely if we're not careful.
DAN: You got enough?
DR. BRENDA: I think so.
This is Velvet?
DAN: This is Velvet.
Velvet gave us a female calf last year,
we hope she gives us another female.
DR. BRENDA: You always hope they're all females.
DAN: We do.
DR. BRENDA: You need to talk to your bull about that.
DAVE: Girls are at a premium in the reindeer business.
So we'd like to see three female calves born.
We can sure use them.
DR. BRENDA: Don't move, Velvet.
Ah!
DAN: Sorry.
DR. BRENDA: It's alright, it's alright.
We've got some from her, too.
But I think we're gonna let her go today.
DAN: You got enough for the test, though?
DR. BRENDA: Yeah, we got enough for the test.
So I will get those mailed out,
takes about a week or so to get results back.
I'll let you know when I find out something.
DAVE: Alright, we appreciate it.
Dr. Brenda did great as always.
We're confident in what she does when she comes,
so everything's good.
We're moving on, we just got to wait for some results.
NARRATOR: Snow.
Wind.
Freezing temperatures.
Autumn has arrived.
JOANNA: She's a very playful dog,
loves to play fetch.
SHANNON: My brother was playing with her.
She jumped up to grab a stick, came back on her hind leg.
It's definitely hurting her.
DR. NICOLE: Hello. You have Autumn?
JOANNA: Yes.
DR. NICOLE: Okay.
Hi, girlie. Hi.
So what happened to her?
SHANNON: She jumped up to grab a stick.
DR. NICOLE: Okay.
SHANNON: Back on her hind leg.
DR. NICOLE: At first glance I can see that Autumn
is not putting any weight on her back leg,
and it looks super swollen.
Can she walk?
It's okay, good girl, good girl.
Okay.
And she's just under a year old?
Is that right?
SHANNON: Uh, 9 months.
DR. NICOLE: Okay.
Come on, sweetheart.
SHANNON: Autumn is a German shepherd.
And yeah, I went all the way to Texas for her.
She's my only dog.
She means a lot to me.
DR. NICOLE: Oh, your whole foot is swollen.
WOMAN: Good girl.
DR. NICOLE: Seems like her tibia's super painful.
She doesn't like me touching that.
(beep)
Looks like a nice clean break.
WOMAN: Yep.
DR. NICOLE: Just took it and broke it in half. So...
JOANNA: Wow, how did that happen? I mean, that's crazy.
DR. NICOLE: I'm not sure.
It could have been some uneven ground,
something stuck under the snow.
It's a pretty much clean break, which is good,
but it's not gonna heal on its own.
We can go ahead and splint her leg,
and she walks around with this big metal cage
basically around her leg for a couple weeks.
JOANNA: Sure.
DR. NICOLE: Maybe a couple months, worst-case scenario.
The big thing is caring for it.
You do have to keep an eye on it
and make sure it stays clean and it's on correctly.
JOANNA: Right.
DR. NICOLE: So that her leg will heal as straight as possible.
JOANNA: Sure.
I mean, that's probably what you want to do, right?
SHANNON: Mm-hmm.
DR. NICOLE: I'll have her hang out with you guys
while I go get some paperwork started.
SHANNON: Autumn, she's a good friend.
DR. NICOLE: So we'll get her started on some pain meds,
she'll go home on pain meds, we'll keep her here,
we'll get the splint on as soon as possible.
SHANNON: She loves running and playing,
and I just want to get her fixed up, back to normal.
(wind howling)
CAROLINE: Oh, he is our baby.
He's old, but he's our baby.
His name is Shadow.
He's about 12 years old.
I'm worried about a growth on his neck.
DR. LISA: Hello. RON: Hi.
DR. LISA: How's Shadow?
RON: See them little tags that come out on him?
DR. LISA: Uh-huh.
RON: Well, he's got one right there, but see there,
and then he's got an awful one here,
that thing really broke or something.
DR. LISA: Oh, yeah, ouch.
CAROLINE: It's really sore, that one is.
DR. LISA: Yeah, I bet it is.
It's one of those poodles
that gets all those little warty things.
(clippers whirring)
He's got quite a few.
But the problem is this guy over here.
There's plenty of things that could be causing lumps and bumps
and oozy things on your dog.
I know, that hurts, doesn't it, bud?
Look how red it is.
So having it evaluated is definitely very important.
WOMAN: Hang on, bud.
DR. LISA: It's all red all the way around it.
Probably hurts a lot.
So dog skin is covered in sebaceous glands
that help produce oils that coat the hair
and make your dog nice and shiny.
(dog whimpering)
I know, bud.
I got to see it.
These glands can sometimes become blocked or infected,
and then it kind of starts to grow out of control,
and it can rupture and cause these oozy sores.
A cheesy core in there.
WOMAN: Gross.
DR. LISA: I can see why that hurts.
I'll get some lidocaine and see if I can numb that.
So once I have him calm,
I can thoroughly clean the infected gland
and make sure all that cheese is squeezed out of there.
Good boy.
Yeah.
And then we can start him
on some antibiotics and pain medications.
See, that wasn't so bad. You survived.
Ron and Caroline were definitely very concerned.
It's called a sebaceous cyst.
They can get obstructed
just like a zit in a person, basically,
and then infection can set in.
CAROLINE: So what do I do with it, just keep this...
DR. LISA: Yeah, I have a wound spray for you to put on there,
and then there's antibiotics.
You can give him the first one when you get home tonight.
CAROLINE: Okay.
DR. LISA: It's very good to be able to tell them
that even though this is something
that looked really nasty and was very painful for him,
this is something that we can treat really easily,
and Shadow's gonna be just fine.
(rooster crows)
♪ ♪
DR. NICOLE: Let's go. Come on.
NARRATOR: A shiny new splint can take some getting used to.
DR. NICOLE: Come on.
NARRATOR: For the patient...
DR. NICOLE: Good girl. Look at you go.
NARRATOR: as well as the caretaker.
DR. NICOLE: Here she is.
So her break is right here.
JOANNA: Okay. Right in here. DR. NICOLE: Um, yeah.
JOANNA: So basically, this keeps her leg in this position.
DR. NICOLE: Yup, in place, so the fracture
kind of is forced to heal.
JOANNA: Sure.
DR. NICOLE: The less she moves this leg the better,
for the next couple weeks,
'cause we want it to stay still and we want it to heal.
I don't want her running,
I don't want her going up stairs, no jumping.
So, if she goes outside,
she only gets to go outside on a leash to go to the bathroom
and then come right back in.
And then I would always put a bag on it
whenever you take her outside,
just 'cause you don't want it to get wet,
'cause then that can cause some irritation to the skin.
JOANNA: Sure.
DR. NICOLE: As long as Autumn stays still
and doesn't mess with her splint,
the bone should heal up nicely,
and hopefully in the next couple weeks we can take this off.
Bye, girlie.
SHANNON: It's gonna be a challenge,
once we get her home, keep her out of mischief.
But I have a couple brothers and sisters
that'll help me out, too, so.
Yeah, I can't wait till she's healed.
♪ ♪
(panting)
(groaning)
NARRATOR: Dog days are usually a summer thing.
But don't tell them that.
Fido keeps filing in this winter.
DR. BRENDA: I like working with dogs
because, I don't know, they're interesting.
DR. POL: Big dogs is my favorite.
DR. LISA: Poodle, toy poodle, standard poodle.
DR. NICOLE: My favorite dog breeds
would have to be a beagle and German shepherds.
DR. BRENDA: I don't know that I have a favorite dog breed.
DR. LISA: Dalmatian, corgi.
DR. BRENDA: I might want a Rottweiler.
I might want a Boston terrier.
DR. LISA: Bichon frise.
DR. NICOLE: I love all the dogs that come in.
They're all my buddies.
DR. LISA: Golden retrievers are almost without exception
the best dogs to work with as a vet.
DR. BRENDA: Ah, thank you, thank you, thank you.
As long as they're not trying to eat me, that's a good breed.
DR. POL: It makes no difference what dogs come in.
If they need help, I help them.
Come on!
DR. BRENDA: Sometimes it'd be nice if they could talk.
Sometimes I'm pretty sure I'm glad they can't talk.
(barking)
DR. POL: Oh, go ahead and bite me.
AUBRINA: Hi. DR. POL: Hello.
AUBRINA: Hello.
(barking)
(Dr. Pol laughs)
She's not...
DR. POL: Okay, so what's going on?
AUBRINA: I think she's pregnant.
(barking)
DR. POL: Is she supposed to be?
AUBRINA: No, I don't, I don't know if she got bred or not.
I mean, I didn't do it on purpose.
I think my dog Tiny is pregnant.
I think, I don't know.
My neighbor's dog snuck in my house, and I wasn't home,
so I don't know what happened.
(barking)
DR. POL: A little one like this?
AUBRINA: He's a little bit bigger than her.
DR. POL: Okay, come on in.
Let's have a feel and maybe take an x-ray if you want to.
(barking)
Oh, be quiet, you.
AUBRINA: I know, she barks a lot.
DR. POL: That's what Chihuahuas do.
And then they attack you.
AUBRINA: I hope she has all alive puppies,
because I would really like some puppies
'cause she's getting old.
DR. POL: Okay, now you're in my...
(growls)
AUBRINA: Tiny, you're okay. DR. POL: Hold still.
(snarling)
AUBRINA: Aww, stop.
DR. POL: Will you just be quiet.
(growling)
AUBRINA: Stop, stop.
DR. POL: When... (barking)
DR. POL: Okay, now you're...
(barking)
Oh. I appreciate you hanging on to her.
(snarling)
Oh, come on, you little.
NARRATOR: Tiny has a big belly.
(snarling)
And a bigger attitude.
AUBRINA: Tiny, you're okay.
DR. POL: Hold still.
Not bloated.
AUBRINA: Okay.
DR. POL: Yes, she is pregnant.
AUBRINA: Okay.
DR. POL: She is already swollen up,
mammary glands are swelling up, so she's very close.
Looks to me like she's due pretty soon.
AUBRINA: Pretty soon? Okay.
DR. POL: Yeah.
Now, we have no idea what the male was.
So, when she goes into labor, we may have to do a C-section.
AUBRINA: Okay.
DR. POL: So be prepared.
When she starts having labor pains--eeeg!--straining,
and there's mucus coming that is green,
that means that the puppies should come out.
If they don't, call us.
AUBRINA: Okay. DR. POL: Okay?
AUBRINA: Mm-hmm.
NARRATOR: With her hunch confirmed,
Aubrina's better prepared for what's to come.
AUBRINA: I'm happy.
Dr. Pol said that she will have her puppies
in maybe like two, three days.
DR. POL: Take care of her and watch her.
AUBRINA: Alright.
When I get home, just make sure she's got what she needs,
and I just hope she just has a safe delivery.
(bark)
(door chime)
DR. LISA: Good morning. ISAIAH: Morning.
DR. LISA: How's it going? ISAIAH: Good, how are you?
DR. LISA: What's going on with our friend in the box?
ISAIAH: I came into Dr. Pol's today to have my goat looked at.
She was on three legs earlier this week,
and it raised a little concern.
So, I brought her in here to see if we can figure it out.
When she runs, she kind of holds it
like completely off the ground,
she doesn't put any weight on it at all.
DR. LISA: And when did it all kind of start?
ISAIAH: Um, we noticed it like Sunday night, Monday morning.
She means a lot to our farm.
We have five goats back home and they're just pets,
just, we, we enjoy them, they're fun to have, so I was concerned.
Some people might not be, but I was,
so we had to get her checked out.
DR. LISA: This goat's feet I can tell immediately
that the leg that she's lame on,
the toe is kind of overgrown and long.
I'd like to see her walk.
(baa)
This toe here, it's almost like twisting her foot sideways.
I think that unevenness might be causing her some issues.
NARRATOR: This patient's symptoms
match another's seen earlier in the week.
DR. LISA: The overgrown toe is causing her to place weight
on the wrong part of the foot.
NARRATOR: A similar diagnosis calls for a similar treatment.
(boing boing boing)
DR. LISA: I'm gonna get as much of this loose part off
as possible.
Trimming back the toe...
(boing boing boing)
and making sure that she's walking on a flat surface...
I know, we're getting there.
I think is going to make a big difference
in her ability to walk normally.
She's an awfully nice goat.
(baa)
Very cooperative.
NARRATOR: Hooves and fingernails are made
from the same substance: keratin.
This pedicure is painless.
(baa)
DR. LISA: That looks flatter.
NARRATOR: Nailed it.
(baa)
DR. LISA: I think now that we have the main issue resolved,
this goat should be able to get around just fine.
So you give two of these once a day.
NARRATOR: Anti-inflammatories will take care
of lingering joint swelling.
ISAIAH: Pretty relieving, saved a lot of stress
as far as she could have had an injury
or anything else serious going on,
so we got the best-case scenario.
(baa)
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: Doc and his son, Charles, are on the move.
♪ ♪
CHARLES: The suspension in this car is horrible.
Either that or your wheels are about to come off.
(Dr. Pol laughs)
NARRATOR: Hopefully this is the day's only bumpy ride.
The next patient is an Angus cow.
And the first rule when treating an Angus cow...
DR. POL: Oh. I'm not sure if the cow is here.
NARRATOR: find the Angus cow.
DR. POL: No, they got only horses at the other place.
Calves, no cows. We're not gonna...
CHARLES: It said out in the field, actually,
I think it did say on the, the book.
What was it again?
DR. POL: A cow.
CHARLES: Oh.
DR. POL: Mobile one to base.
WOMAN: Go ahead.
DR. POL: Was it on 17 Mile Road
or was it right at their home place?
WOMAN: The cow is in a shed in the field is what it says.
(radio chirps)
DR. POL: Uh-huh.
Okay, I'll go to the home place.
(engine revving)
Okay, let's go find it.
KATIE: Alright.
NARRATOR: It never takes long to get back on track.
DR. POL: Oh, my gosh.
This one.
KATIE: This one, yep.
DR. POL: Okay.
NARRATOR: One of Katie's cows
recently delivered a stillborn calf.
DR. POL: And Katie was wondering
if all the afterbirth has come out.
NARRATOR: A retained placenta can fester
and lead to a toxic infection.
DR. POL: Now, come on, girl, stick your head in here.
This is easy to check.
But Angus cows are not that easy-going.
KATIE: They'll try to get out.
CHARLES: Yeah, no, we'll keep them out.
I'm gonna stay here.
KATIE: Okay.
CHARLES: Not that I can stop them if they try to get out,
but I can discourage it.
KATIE: They're not mean, they're just.
DR. POL: No, they're just Angus.
Two cows are easier to handle than one.
When you have two, they think, well,
maybe they are after the other one and not me.
CHARLES: Do you want to get another gate in here?
DR. POL: No.
KATIE: If you're not gonna do anything with her,
we could let her out.
DR. POL: No, she's fine. KATIE: She's fine?
CHARLES: You done?
Alright, watch out, everybody.
DR. POL: No! Guys!
(sighs)
When you have one cow, they know that you're after them.
Charles, close the gate 'cause she's gonna...
CHARLES: It's closed.
DR. POL: That's why I didn't want the other one out.
So they really try to get away.
CHARLES: Back, hold on.
DR. POL: No, Charles, what the...
CHARLES: Hold on.
DR. POL: Charles, watch it, she's gonna get ya.
CHARLES: Oh, no.
DR. POL: Yes, she's gonna get ya!
DR. POL: Charles!
CHARLES: She is definitely too close for comfort.
Do you want to come? Hold on.
This is by far the worst position I could have been in.
Go, go, go, go, go.
DR. POL: Get!
CHARLES: Hold on. Grab it, right around that post.
She knows where the exit is, but she's not angry.
DR. POL: Okay, now we got her.
Okay.
CHARLES: She's not gonna be going anywhere.
DR. POL: No, not now.
CHARLES: She's playing with me, trying to get me to move.
I got lucky today.
Could have gone a lot different way,
and I could have got hurt.
DR. POL: Yeah, look at this, she already cleaned.
There was no afterbirth left, and she can be bred again.
KATIE: Okay.
DR. POL: Open the gate.
CHARLES: Go on.
DR. POL: We're done.
So that's all we do for her.
KATIE: Okay.
DR. POL: Take care!
♪ ♪
(moo)
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: Another day...
(puppy yelps)
another collar.
STACY: Doc is about 12 weeks old.
We got him last week,
so he's coming in for his first puppy visit.
NARRATOR: Although young,
this Australian shepherd has had it "ruff."
DR. LISA: How's he doing?
STACY: He's doing pretty good. We got him last Monday.
DR. LISA: Okay.
STACY: He had gone through like quite a bit
where they said they ended up having to feed him
like goat's milk and stuff
to keep that, like, the litter going.
So he's pretty small.
The mom had some medical issues,
and so the puppies weren't getting a lot of nutrition,
so they had to give them goat's milk
to kind of keep them going.
I gave him the flea and tick last Tuesday
and the wormer last Thursday.
He did pass a couple of tapeworms, but nothing since.
And I did bring...
DR. LISA: Good boy.
STACY: a lovely sample for you.
DR. LISA: Oh, yeah, I'll take a look at it.
SHANNON: Gigi, come here.
Gigi is a cane corso, which she is an Italian mastiff.
DR. POL: Oh, my gosh.
SHANNON: We've always only had golden retrievers,
so Gigi has been quite a challenge for us.
DR. POL: Come on. Come on.
SHANNON: She was bred as a working dog in Italy
and also a guard dog, so she is very stubborn.
DR. POL: Come on, let's go.
I'm going behind you.
SHANNON: And she's very protective,
so she doesn't do well around strangers yet.
DR. POL: Just follow the old guy.
DR. LISA: Hi, bud.
Stacy's noticed a couple tapeworm segments in his stool.
Puppies are almost 100% of the time
born with parasites in their GI tract,
and they can cause problems with diarrhea and weight loss.
Almost 10 pounds.
Just a little guy.
And Doc already has enough on his plate
as far as growing and playing and being a happy puppy.
We don't want him dealing with that as well.
So we're definitely gonna be dosing him up
with some dewormer today.
Bwah!
He seems perfectly healthy otherwise.
He gained like almost two pounds since last time.
STACY: Oh, he did, good, good.
DR. LISA: He's 10 pounds today.
He is still, I would say, a little bit on the skinny side,
but he's getting there.
STACY: Okay, good.
DR. LISA: And as long as he's eating well,
he's gonna compensate for that pretty quickly.
STACY: Perfect.
DR. POL: Come on.
It's okay.
Hey, look at me.
It's okay.
SHANNON: We came to Dr. Pol specifically for Gigi
because he is so good with large animals,
and he loves mastiffs.
DR. POL: Oh, my gosh. You're fine. You're fine.
NARRATOR: Shannon has big plans
to help Gigi break out of her shell.
SHANNON: We're putting her in a bunch of puppy classes,
she goes to doggy day care,
so that she can get the socialization.
DR. POL: She's 20 weeks?
Distemper, adenovirus, parvo, parainfluenza,
and Bordetella, kennel cough.
These puppies have to be vaccinated,
otherwise they really can pick up, you know,
other, all kinds of diseases.
Everything in one shot, 'cause I hate to keep poking you.
Okay.
And it's a lot cheaper and healthier and better for the pet
to be vaccinated than to get the disease.
SHANNON: Come on.
It was wonderful.
Dr. Pol makes everything so easy and painless.
You're fine, Gigi.
♪ ♪
(meow)
♪ ♪
DR. NICOLE: Today I'm going to the Babcock farm.
When I first pull in the driveway,
I am kind of shocked because I see a horse laying down.
That's not usually normal,
and at closer look, I see that he's not moving.
DR. NICOLE: Hi, bud.
What happened to you, hmm?
NARRATOR: Dr. Nicole's routine farm call takes a dire turn.
DR. NICOLE: Did he just recently go down or?
VICKY: Just, he ate this morning,
but I just come out an hour ago and he was down.
DR. NICOLE: And he hasn't been having any other issues
besides today just going down?
VICKY: Right.
DR. NICOLE: This horse does not look good at all.
He's not moving, and he almost looks lifeless.
I want to listen to his heartbeat.
And I can barely hear it.
It's super faint, it's super slow.
Has he been trying to roll or anything?
VICKY: Yeah, he has.
He gets his head up, but he's not real strong.
I'm sure it's just his age.
He's 34.
DR. NICOLE: Okay.
NARRATOR: This horse is on borrowed time.
Few live past 30.
DR. NICOLE: He is super cold.
Yeah, his temperature's not even reading.
Rectal temperature, it's not even reading,
which means it's below 90 degrees,
which is super hypothermic for a horse.
Well, there's really no reason for him to be this cold,
so that means something's going on.
He's not looking too good.
Maybe he has a bad heart,
maybe he has some congestive heart failure.
It's not pumping as it should be,
meaning there's not enough blood flow throughout the body,
and that's just cooling him off
and causing him to become hypothermic.
You just don't look like you have any life left in you.
He is pretty old.
His body could be saying
"hey, I've had enough, and it's my time to go."
VICKY: Yeah, I don't want him to suffer.
DR. NICOLE: I think he's suffering right now.
MAN: Betcha. VICKY: Alright.
DR. NICOLE: I'm sorry.
Vicky and I are on the same page.
We both feel that it's best to put him out of his suffering.
Let me go get his shots, okay?
We could try and go ahead
and do all these diagnostics and treatments,
but I think we're just prolonging the worst.
I'm so sorry.
You're doing the best thing for him.
Euthanasia is always hard.
I wish all the animals
could stay nice and healthy their whole lives
and live forever,
but I know that it's necessary
to save the animal a lot of pain in the long run.
(sobbing)
I'm so sorry for your loss.
♪ ♪
(geese honking)
♪ ♪
STEPHANIE: We're having Dr. Pol out today.
We have been dealing with a cow that's been bloating.
DR. POL: How bad is he now?
STEPHANIE: Well...
He actually doesn't appear that he feels that bad,
but he's not 100%, that's for sure.
♪ ♪
(clang)
DR. POL: Ooh, he's a wild one.
♪ ♪
Hmm.
This is a bloat caused by pneumonia.
There is a nerve that runs from the brain in between the lungs
that is supposed to make the stomach work.
And when they have pneumonia,
then this nerve gets damaged, and they bloat.
It's easy to help, but it takes some time.
Yep, we'll get the thing in there.
Knife.
So, what we have to do now
is put one of those screw-in trocars in the rumen
so that the gas will go out.
What I have to do is just make a hole in the skin.
He's barely solid enough to get the tube in, but I'll try it.
When there's not much gas in the stomach,
then it's a lot harder to push that trocar all the way through.
CHARLES: You losing the stomach?
Or you having a hard time getting through the skin?
DR. POL: The stomach is not hard enough.
NARRATOR: If the inflated stomach
isn't pressed up against the abdomen wall,
the trocar will fail.
(moo)
Giving up, however, is not an option.
If the stomach continues to grow,
it can crush the lungs and suffocate the calf.
♪ ♪
CHARLES: Sounded like it went in there.
DR. POL: Yeah.
(clanging)
Oh, stand still.
I can smell it, I got it.
CHARLES: Yeah, I smell it, too.
DR. POL: It's fermented grass,
so it always smells a little bit funny.
And when you smell it, you know that you're in the rumen.
Okay, back him up.
CHARLES: Go on! Go on!
DR. POL: Okay, good.
Alrighty.
He won't bloat anymore.
In about two weeks that thing comes out.
And it heals up.
And it's just like a screw, you just unscrew it.
Normally these things heal up very well.
Some antibiotics that clears up the pneumonia,
we take the trocar out in a couple weeks.
STEPHANIE: Alright.
He looked like he had just a smidge of issue.
DR. POL: See ya.
STEPHANIE: But as usual, he made it work out, and the calf,
he'll be back in the pasture with his friends
and will hopefully grow up to be an awesome steer.
NARRATOR: Roy's cat hasn't been herself lately.
DR. LISA: Hello. ROY: Hi.
DR. LISA: So, what's going on with Betty today?
ROY: Well, hasn't had a bowel movement in about a week.
DR. LISA: Is she eating and drinking okay?
ROY: She is. Surprisingly she's eating pretty well.
DR. LISA: Has she been peeing in the litter box?
ROY: Off and on.
DR. LISA: And no diet changes?
ROY: No, hasn't been.
DR. LISA: Okay.
Depending on what I feel or don't feel,
I might want to take an x-ray and see what's going on inside.
ROY: Okay.
My cat Betty's probably around 10 years old.
I don't know the exact age
because she came to us as a stray.
DR. LISA: Come on out.
ROY: And really became kind of part of our family,
so you know, she'd definitely be missed if she wasn't around.
DR. LISA: Hey, baby.
Oh, you're very round.
WOMAN: Mm-hmm.
DR. LISA: Doesn't want to go inside her butt.
Immediately it's pretty difficult
to get the thermometer in Betty's hind end.
She doesn't feel constipated.
WOMAN: It's alright.
DR. LISA: What the heck?
That is, okay, that feels-- There's something hard in there.
DR. LISA: This is going to be gross.
NARRATOR: Unclogging pipes is dirty work.
ROY: I'm hoping that she leaves feeling a lot better.
She's been, you know, pretty miserable
trying to relieve herself.
DR. LISA: Yeah, it's coming out.
I do feel some pretty hard material in her rectum.
I got...
WOMAN: A chunk?
DR. LISA: The first chunk out.
Normally the rectum is totally empty
or there might be a small amount of normal soft feces,
but finding this hard mass is definitely abnormal.
It doesn't feel like it extends very far.
Yeah, I think I'm gonna sedate her to get the rest out.
You've put up with a lot there, kiddo.
NARRATOR: Dr. Lisa can help more when Betty's relaxed.
WOMAN: You're okay.
DR. LISA: And once she's asleep
I'm able to more fully kind of explore the problem.
♪ ♪
I'm pulling out some really dry impacted fecal material
with a lot of hair matted in it.
As far as other constipated cats I've seen,
Betty's definitely one of the worst cases.
Yeah, everything else feels nice and small.
It's likely that Betty
has been kind of mildly constipated for some time.
I think it's just there's lots of hair and stuff in there,
and probably one chunk stalled the flow
and then everything got dried out.
WOMAN: Yeah.
(door chime)
DR. LISA: Success.
ROY: Oh, okay, cool.
DR. LISA: I don't feel anything further up in her abdomen,
but this is syrup,
this is just gonna help loosen everything that's...
ROY: Okay.
DR. LISA: still in there.
Now that we've removed the big dry obstruction
that was stopping everything up...
ROY: Thank you very much.
DR. LISA: Have a good day. ROY: Yep.
DR. LISA: I think Betty's gonna be just fine.
(honks horn)
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: As things start to run a little hot,
two docs run to farm calls.
MARSHA: My goat Dora's not eating.
She didn't even want to eat her peanuts this morning,
which she usually gobbles right up.
DR. BRENDA: There ya go.
How long's she been off feed?
MARSHA: Probably late yesterday and today.
I've been raising goats for 35 years,
and I don't know what the problem really is.
(baa)
Why you being such a pistol, huh?
DR. BRENDA: I'm not getting a whole lot with her
that sounds wrong with her.
Like her lungs don't sound bad, her udder feels good,
she's ruminating like she should be.
There's really nothing wrong with her
that I can find from the outside.
MARSHA: And I only got about half of the milk this morning.
DR. BRENDA: That's 'cause she's not eating.
MARSHA: Yeah.
DR. BRENDA: Those go hand in hand.
I think what I would like to do with her today
is just, um, start her on some B complex
and see if that does anything for her.
Hopefully a combination of B vitamins
will make Dora feel a little bit better,
get her appetite back up, she'll start back to eating.
Do you have some left, or are you out?
MARSHA: I probably should go look.
DR. BRENDA: Okay, why don't you go look,
and then I will see what I've got here,
and see if we can, what we can make happen...
MARSHA: Okay.
DR. BRENDA: between the two of us.
DR. POL: Nicole has a hobby farm,
a little bit of everything, and I kind of like that.
And she has a couple pigs
that she was wondering if they were pregnant.
NICOLE: Louise is due any day now.
Darlene hopefully within a month.
We might be too late for 4-H,
but if not, then we will have some pigs for 4-H kids.
DR. POL: Oh, big girl, how are ya?
NICOLE: You can rub her belly. DR. POL: Oh, yeah.
NICOLE: She'll lay right down.
DR. POL: Oh, she, she's pregnant.
NICOLE: Okay.
DR. POL: Hee hee hee hee! Definite, 'cause see this here.
She has mammary development, and a bell-shaped belly,
so we know that she's pregnant.
I can feel them right here.
NICOLE: Okay.
DR. POL: Okay.
Louise is harder to tell.
Ah, that, I don't know yet.
Because she's not that far along.
For her I would just wait and see.
NICOLE: Okay. DR. POL: Okay, what else?
(quacking)
Ducks. Love 'em.
NICOLE: I had four ducks, so I named them D, U, C, K.
This is U.
She hurt her foot somehow, and I'm not sure what it exactly is.
DR. POL: That's a bumble foot. NICOLE: It is? Okay.
DR. POL: Yeah, here.
It's an injury where you get some bacterias in there
and then a real hard pus pocket.
Now you put Neosporin on or something like that.
NICOLE: Okay.
DR. POL: And most of the time it will heal up.
NICOLE: Okay.
DR. POL: That was easy.
DR. BRENDA: Dora, you really need to eat,
'cause there's really no reason that you're not eating
other than you're just stubborn.
At least there's not a reason I can find today.
Sometimes sheep and goat have problems
with thiamin deficiencies if they're not feeling well.
Well, what's the word?
MARSHA: I don't, I can't find it now.
DR. BRENDA: You come empty-handed, okay.
I have a bottle of thiamin with me.
Alright, go back.
(baa)
Five of the B complex and two of the thiamin,
once a day for each one of them.
MARSHA: Thanks for coming. DR. BRENDA: Yep.
♪ ♪
SHANNON: I was a little bit scared at first.
NARRATOR: Five months ago...
SHANNON: My brother, he heard it snap.
NARRATOR: Autumn had a rough landing.
(beep)
DR. NICOLE: It's a pretty much clean break,
but it's not gonna heal on its own.
Come on, sweetheart.
NARRATOR: Dr. Nicole set the fractured bone
and stabilized it with a custom splint.
DR. NICOLE: As long as Autumn stays still
and doesn't mess with her splint,
the bone should heal up nicely.
SHANNON: She did tear her splint off a couple of times
'cause she was frustrated with it.
But, other than that, she did very well.
It's very nice to see Autumn back to normal.
Drop it.
She's just as ready to go hit the ball.
(chuckles)
Now that she's back, I often have to stop and catch myself
and think, wow, I'm so glad I have her like this.