♪ ♪
(chirping)
DR. POL: Nah, it's warm.
Hunter has a gecko.
Nice little pets, but they are hard to handle
because they are fast.
HUNTER: His name is Stripes, and I love him a lot.
DR. POL: Now what did you do?
HUNTER: His eye is all messed up.
And I don't want him to go blind.
COURTNEY: A few weeks, and that's when I noticed it.
DR. POL: Mm-hmm, yeah.
What do you think about the eyes?
COURTNEY: This eye.
DR. POL: Yeah, that's still from molting.
Stripes is molting.
You see, both of them.
They, you know, take their old skin off and put new skin on.
Their eyes sheds, too.
Many times you get a cloudy eye to go with it.
And if that doesn't get cleared up fast, you get this.
I'll get you salve.
HUNTER: Here's another fact about him.
He eats his skin.
It's filled with vitamins.
That's pretty cool.
I like holding him.
DR. POL: You like holding him? HUNTER: Yeah.
DR. POL: You're a good boy.
The best way, then, is to keep the eye lubricated.
HUNTER: He's wiggling.
DR. POL: And at the same time,
with antibiotic infection under control.
It doesn't hurt.
So the eye salve is actually by far
the best to use in this case.
See what I did?
I would put it on right away when he sheds.
Okay?
You take care of him.
(laughter)
♪ ♪
(meow)
♪ ♪
HAROLD: There you go, Molly.
BRANDI: You're a good girl.
Molly is a year and a half old.
HAROLD: She's been good.
BRANDI: She is half pit, half Lab.
She is extremely rambunctious.
You're a good girl.
But she's the most loving dog,
like, she's the best cuddler, so.
Oh, yes.
DR. NICOLE: How are you guys?
HAROLD: Good. How about yourself?
DR. NICOLE: Oh, hi, sweetheart. Hi.
BRANDI: She has a weird lump on top of her head.
DR. NICOLE: So how long has that been there?
BRANDI: So she's had it for two weeks.
It was like squishy and now it's like super hard,
not going away, it's just getting bigger,
so we wanted to bring her in and make sure she was okay.
DR. NICOLE: Is she scratching at it or messing with it?
BRANDI: No, but when I do touch it, she doesn't,
like, she moves away,
you can tell that it, she doesn't like it.
DR. NICOLE: Okay.
What I want to do is take a needle to that mass
and poke it, look under the microscope
and see what kind of cells there are.
If a dog grows a mass pretty quickly,
it could be something very serious,
like a big cancerous mass.
You're fine.
Or it could be something not as serious,
like a bug bite or abscess.
Good girl.
BRANDI: I'm feeling really anxious.
Hopefully it's good news.
DR. NICOLE: That does not look good.
Under the microscope I see some pretty ugly cells.
♪ ♪
I saw some things that looked pretty scary.
It worries me that it may possibly be cancerous.
I think we should just go ahead and remove it.
BRANDI: Okay.
DR. NICOLE: I really want to get this mass off of Molly's head
and see if we can figure out what exactly it is.
HAROLD: Yeah, you're gonna have surgery, Molly.
BRANDI: Hopefully we'll know more once they send it in
so we can get treatment decided,
whether it is benign or cancerous.
DR. POL: Okay, who's next?
Kelly has a pig rescue.
There are so many people that love these little piglets,
and then they grow up.
Sheldon is one of those.
KELLY: He is about four years old.
He has spent his life inside of a crate,
not being able to go outside
or have any room to move around and play.
DR. POL: Sheldon has never been taken care of.
You have a pig with fancy feet, right?
KELLY: Yeah.
DR. POL: His dewclaws hit the ground, they're way too long.
And he has these tusks
that are actually dangerous for everybody else.
Come on, buddy.
They are sometimes sharp as a knife.
Now he comes here for a hoof trim and a tusk trim.
Pick him up around the chest, with the belly towards me.
KELLY: Okay.
DR. POL: Okay. You got the ear plugs.
KELLY: No.
DR. POL: The only defense that pigs have is run and scream.
(pig screaming)
So when we have Sheldon on his back...
Oh, you're fantastic.
he's screaming bloody murder.
NARRATOR: Despite Sheldon's protests, it's painless.
KELLY: I think you get used to the screams over time.
That's how they verbalize their emotions,
so you kind of get used to it.
(screaming)
DR. POL: Now hold him just like that.
Kelly has rescued a lot of pigs,
and she knows how to handle them.
You want to do his tusks, too, right?
KELLY: The tusks make me a little nervous.
(screaming)
DR. POL: There's no root above the jawline,
so you can cut these things off right by the jaw
and there's no pain.
(screaming)
Here.
KELLY: Yeah.
DR. POL: See, they're solid?
And that's why they can hurt you so much,
because they sharpen them,
and look at this, they're sharp already.
KELLY: Yeah.
DR. POL: And they just, and they slice your leg open.
KELLY: Slice you, yeah. DR. POL: Necklace.
KELLY: Yeah! Thank you.
People do make jewelry with the tusks.
I'm not sure that I will do that.
DR. POL: See, that's how we do it.
Sheldon is at the rescue,
so yes, he'll be happy over there with a bunch of others.
NARRATOR: And safely...
KELLY: Alright. DR. POL: Okay.
NARRATOR: go hog wild.
KELLY: We'll just let him enjoy his life.
Hopefully in a few weeks
he'll be able to make some new pig friends.
KELLY: End of the world, bud, end of the world, I know.
NARRATOR: Dr. Lisa is en route
to investigate a mysterious outbreak.
DR. LISA: Alright, how's it going?
KATIE: Good.
DR. LISA: We're at Katie's farm today
to take a look at a few of her cows.
It's this one? Or the little one?
KATIE: That's her baby.
Our cows are coughing.
A lot of stuff comes out when they cough.
Never had a cow cough like that.
And now our miniature horses are starting it, too.
DR. LISA: Oh, geez.
KATIE: I am worried.
DR. LISA: Hey, sweetheart.
(moo)
KATIE: It's never happened before.
DR. LISA: Hi.
Highlander cows have a pretty sassy personality.
Ooh.
(moo)
Cows, especially with large horns,
can be very dangerous very quickly.
Oh, easy, girl.
Everybody's safety is the number one priority.
(thump)
Oh, watch!
(moo)
(groans)
I know.
She does sound a little raspy.
Ooh.
KATIE: They don't usually kick at us ever,
so they did show a side we don't see.
This is our bull calf.
He has the cough.
DR. LISA: He does as well?
KATIE: And it's getting worse.
DR. LISA: It's really important when you're working with cows
just to make sure you know
how you're gonna get away from them.
KATIE: I'm glad you're quick.
It's a good thing Dr. Lisa's fast.
DR. LISA: Hey!
KATIE: She had to jump on the gate a few times,
and she's a mover.
That's good. (laughs)
DR. LISA: Alright, little one.
Surprisingly, the youngest member of the family
is the most cooperative today.
She's got a few crackles here and there, too.
KATIE: Okay.
DR. LISA: Alright, now let's go look at the miniature horses.
There aren't really any viruses
that cows and horses pass back between each other.
KATIE: He's a stallion, he thinks he's something.
DR. LISA: Oh, my goodness.
There's definitely some bacterial pathogens
that could be hanging about
causing issues with all of the animals.
I can hear like a little bit of like a slight raspiness,
but it's not anything like a crackly pneumonia.
So mild upper respiratory infections
can definitely develop into more severe pneumonias
if we don't do anything about them.
But the positive signs,
nobody seems to have really an elevated temperature,
so I think it's pretty mild, whatever is going on.
Antibiotics are the treatment.
Hi, missy.
I think it's a really great thing
that Katie called us early in the process.
Okay.
We can get this kind of nipped in the bud...
(thud) Ooh!
before it became a big problem.
Perfect.
KATIE: Geez. DR. LISA: What a champ.
KATIE: You were better than your parents.
I feel good.
Nobody got hurt, thank God for that.
And it looks like an easy fix, so I'm thankful for that, too.
(radio beep) DR. LISA: Mobile 4 to base.
♪ ♪
DR. POL: Ugh.
I don't know why we have a north wind in March.
Oh, my gosh, my hair is blowing away.
Okay, you got a new cat?
SAMANTHA: Yeah, I got two of them.
DR. POL: Two of them!
Samantha is coming in with the two cats,
George and Sylvester.
And I have to look at both of them?
SAMANTHA: Yes.
DR. POL: They have the sneezes.
Well, then bring them in.
SAMANTHA: I brought my son, Michael.
DR. POL: Can he carry one, or shall I? Oh, man.
SAMANTHA: He is the one who's taking care of them a lot.
DR. POL: Hurry up, the wind is just blowing through the clinic.
SAMANTHA: And he is very attached to both of them.
DR. POL: This is your cat?
MICHAEL: This one's mine. DR. POL: Oh.
SAMANTHA: I hope it's not anything too bad.
DR. POL: So this is Sylvester.
MICHAEL: Yep. (meow)
DR. POL: Oh, my gosh.
SAMANTHA: I'm hoping that it's just
an upper respiratory infection.
DR. POL: (laughing) And you thought you could hide.
SAMANTHA: Sylvester, he's about 9, 10 years old.
He started having a lot of discharge
from his nose and his eyes.
DR. POL: Yeah, he's got 103. Wish that was lower.
SAMANTHA: It has been going on for both of them
for about four or five days.
DR. POL: This is the typical rhinotracheitis virus.
That causes the cold, flu like we have.
They sneeze, and it flies all over.
What I do with them, I vaccinate them.
There, he's done.
Cat that goes in and out every so often
with all these feral cats they get in the fight with,
and they end up with typical rhinotracheitis virus.
Many times we have a secondary infection,
but it does reason to vaccinations.
Yeah, and he's the same thing.
See that?
Then you need the antibiotics.
They don't even feel this.
So that's what we do.
SAMANTHA: I'm feeling a lot better.
It's nothing that is long term,
they'll get over it within four to five days.
DR. POL: Then put this one back, and get--Oh, ho, ho.
Come on, speedy.
Now you go home again.
Outlook is good.
If they still sneeze in a month from now, let's revaccinate.
♪ ♪
ADAM: Cooper, he's a 7-year-old bloodhound.
He just kept laying down
and almost kind of lacked the strength to pick his head up.
Hi, Doc.
DR. POL: Morning. Holy cow.
Oh, man, he does not look good at all.
ADAM: We're not sure really what's going on.
DR. POL: You can pick him up?
Okay, I'm glad you're strong.
ADAM: He's not acting the way he normally would at all.
DR. POL: Oh, my gosh. This is not good.
ADAM: He almost just smells, like, he smells sick.
DR. POL: Mm-hmm.
ADAM: It's definitely scary.
He's been drooling.
DR. POL: Drooling, drooling. ADAM: Yep.
ADAM: Cooper, he wouldn't eat at all,
and his breathing was a little off.
DR. POL: Come on, say ah, please.
I wanted to look in his mouth,
but it's a bloodhound who has strong jaws.
Oh, man.
Saliva gland is plugged.
Yeah, that hurts.
Okay, take him off the table.
I'm gonna give him a very short-lasting anesthetic.
ADAM: We got him when he was still a puppy.
DR. POL: Come on, you old bloodhound.
Pick up your foot.
ADAM: Had a couple kids since we've gotten him,
and they've come to like him a lot, he's a big teddy bear.
DR. POL: Lay down flat.
Go to sleep.
Yeah, good.
Wow.
I hope that's-- No, that's solid.
Son of a...
The whole tongue is involved, see that?
Here it is not a cyst full of saliva,
but a solid tumor underneath.
I'll stick a needle in there and see what comes out.
This is something that is not very good
because it is a fast-growing lump.
Yeah, see, this is solid, there's nothing in there.
♪ ♪
Nicole, come take a look.
DR. NICOLE: At Pol Vet, we all help each other with our cases.
DR. POL: 'Cause that's all in the tongue and underneath there.
DR. NICOLE: If we have a question
or want a second opinion,
all we have to do is yell out the door
and someone comes running.
DR. POL: If I get some cells out,
you want to look at that, Nicole?
DR. NICOLE: Yeah.
Right now we're not sure what it is or what it could be.
DR. POL: That's what bothers me, it grew too fast.
Those many times are malignant.
(sighs)
Let's find out if she finds any cells in there.
ADAM: Okay. DR. POL: He can lay here.
ADAM: You know, normally he's a good, healthy dog,
he's never really had any major issues.
That's kind of the scary part.
DR. NICOLE: On the aspirate,
I get a whole bunch of red and white blood cells.
This means that it could be cancerous,
especially with all the red blood cells involved.
(Dr. Pol sighs)
DR. POL: My suggestion, let's try to take it off
and say a prayer.
That's about all I can say.
Because he's out already, I would like to take it off
and see if we can save him this way.
And I'd like to take it off and see what happens.
WOMAN: Okay, here we go. Off we go.
DR. POL: If you don't try it, you never know if it works.
So we're gonna take it off and hope for the best.
NARRATOR: Surgery should give Cooper a fighting chance.
♪ ♪
MATTHEW: Come on out.
BB is a Frenglish bulldog,
which is half breed of Frenchie and English bulldog.
DR. LISA: Hello.
Matthew brought BB in to see me today.
Hi, bud.
He had a hot spot on his face
that has kind of developed into a more severe infection.
Oh, yeah, ouch.
After BB got into a fight with another dog.
MATTHEW: He came up and got him right there,
just one tooth stuck in him right there.
DR. LISA: Yeah.
Hot spots are fairly common in dogs.
MATTHEW: And then it came that bad.
DR. LISA: They get a small wound.
Do you mind if I take him inside so I can clean that up?
MATTHEW: No, of course.
DR. LISA: They start to scratch it.
MATTHEW: Come on, BB, walk with her.
DR. LISA: Some infection can set in,
and that makes it more irritated.
Good boy.
And just creates kind of a self-perpetuating cycle
of itching and scratching and not healing.
He's a cute little meatball.
MATTHEW: I get so worried. He's like my son.
He is my son to me.
DR. LISA: Doesn't look too bad, really.
As I get a closer look,
I think he's already kind of turned the corner here.
It's just like a tiny little puncture.
But that fight that he had with the other dog
has kind of worsened things for now.
Oh, it's oozy.
The pus is kind of more loose, indicating that this infection
hasn't been around for all that long.
You ready?
It should heal pretty quickly now.
MATTHEW: Slow down, BB.
BB's gonna be just fine.
Hi, BB, BB!
DR. LISA: Let me know if you have any concerns
about anything, but you should be just fine.
MATTHEW: Oh, I'll call you right away.
DR. LISA: I know you will. You have a good one.
MATTHEW: Love my baby. You, too.
So BB's gonna be all good to go.
(panting)
♪ ♪
(clucking)
DR. POL: Fancy chickens, right, Charles?
CHARLES: Yeah.
NARRATOR: Doc and Charles are on mission: maternity.
DR. POL: I'm going to Becky.
She bought some heifers last year,
and they were actually rescues almost
because they were in very bad shape.
Those here? TAYLOR: Yep.
DR. POL: So now, when they are looking in better shape,
she had them bred.
How did you breed them, with a bull?
TAYLOR: Yes.
DR. POL: And now we have to make sure that they're pregnant.
I think the easiest, if I crawl through and chase them in.
SAMANTHA: I'm hoping he comes back
and says that all the cows are pregnant.
DR. POL: Oh, that's a heavy gate.
We have a nice setup here, we run them through the chute.
CHARLES: Shh shh shh shh shh shh!
DR. POL: It's a little hard.
Come on, turn around!
But they're not wild, either.
Hey, come on, yeah, two of you.
CHARLES: Two of you.
DR. POL: Come on!
Okay, pull it shut.
SAMANTHA: It is very important that they're pregnant.
DR. POL: Yeah, this one is already pregnant
about four months.
SAMANTHA: So then we can grow our farm.
DR. POL: This one looks like this bag already.
This one is pregnant.
Maybe even gonna have twins.
Yeah, this one is pregnant four months.
CHARLES: He can kind of just feel through experience...
DR. POL: Come on!
CHARLES: how big that calf is and then be able to tell them.
DR. POL: This one is not pregnant.
Only one is open, so three out of the four are pregnant.
Fantastic.
Okay, where's the little kid?
CHARLES: Right there.
That little tiny thing right there in the pile.
DR. POL: Becky also has goats,
and this goat, they want me to check.
The one that isn't even drinking?
SAMANTHA: Right.
A baby kid that was born yesterday, and she's not eating.
DR. POL: Looks like it's a little underfed.
This is what I made for you.
There's the tube, this syringe fits right on top.
Just stick it down the mouth, gently push it in
and just fill it up with milk.
SAMANTHA: Okay.
DR. POL: But she looks decent.
Thank goodness for sunshine.
SAMANTHA: Yes.
DR. POL: Okay. Got it?
TAYLOR: Yep, perfect. SAMANTHA: Got it.
DR. POL: Take care. TAYLOR: Thank you.
DR. POL: Thanks! We'll see you.
♪ ♪
(radio beep)
Mobile 1 to base.
It's Michigan;
in one day you may have sunshine, rain, sleet, and snow.
Everything is possible here.
DR. NICOLE: Hello. MERCEDE: Hi!
DR. NICOLE: You have two injured kitty cats?
MERCEDE: I do. DR. NICOLE: Who's this one?
MERCEDE: This one's Cow. DR. NICOLE: Hi, Cow.
Mercede is bringing in Kiki and Cow today.
MERCEDE: I brought Cow in
because he was really lethargic and tired, not wanting to eat.
DR. NICOLE: So we can start with Cow first.
You're a very sweet kitty.
MERCEDE: Kiki, he wasn't using his back foot
and he had a cut on it, and it kind of stunk.
DR. NICOLE: And they're both barn kitties, you said?
MERCEDE: Yes. DR. NICOLE: Okay.
You have pretty gross ears, kitty cat.
Cow looks pretty normal on physical,
except she has a whole bunch of gunk in her ears.
Looks like she has ear mites.
That's kind of common in barn kitties, unfortunately.
This could be exactly why Cow wasn't acting right.
Oh, look at those.
MERCEDE: Oh.
DR. NICOLE: So that's why
she's kind of shaking her head a whole bunch.
This could be painful,
it could be irritating and very itchy.
I'm gonna go ahead and clean out these ears.
And that'll make you feel better.
I know.
So itchy, huh?
She is going to go home on some medication
to treat and prevent those.
Okay, she is all set.
MERCEDE: Kiki is very spunky and outgoing,
and he's very lovey and cuddly,
and he's my daughter's best friend.
DR. NICOLE: Hi, Kiki. Oh, goodness, ooh, girly.
Kiki's back right paw does not look good.
Hold on, I know it hurts, it hurts, bud.
There is a whole bunch of fur, skin and muscle
missing off of it.
That looks like that's bone right there.
Ugh, kitty cat.
DR. NICOLE: The bone is exposed.
Kiki has a strange wound.
The infection is all over in those tissues.
Anytime there's bone exposure to a wound,
that means that infection can spread very quickly
and it can go in the whole body.
(meow)
Oh, I know, yep, that was your bone. I'm sorry.
And leave the cat very sick or close to death.
MERCEDE: I am worried that it will be too bad,
that we will, um, have to put him down.
DR. NICOLE: We could go ahead and amputate his back leg.
Best course of action
is to go ahead and take that back leg off.
Especially since he's a barn cat,
it's gonna be really hard trying to treat it,
trying to keep it clean.
MERCEDE: It was really bad.
We either had to amputate or put him down.
DR. NICOLE: Does that sound like something you want to do?
MERCEDE: I am very worried about him getting around
with three legs as a barn cat,
'cause it doesn't seem like an easy job.
DR. NICOLE: If you want to go ahead and try to save him,
we can definitely do that.
'Cause he seems healthy otherwise.
MERCEDE: I don't want to lose him.
DR. NICOLE: He's doing fine now on the three legs,
he's able to get around and move.
So, I think it would be a good option.
MERCEDE: It's worth a shot.
I think he'll be able to do it
when it doesn't hurt as bad, either.
DR. NICOLE: I don't know if you've seen Tater,
our clinic cat.
Thankfully we have a great role model in the clinic.
He does great with three legs, it doesn't stop him,
he gets mice, he gets everything.
Tater shows her that you can get around with three legs
with no issue.
Three-legged barn cat will be fine.
MERCEDE: Showing me Tater made a big difference.
♪ ♪
DR. NICOLE: I will keep him for a few days
just to make sure that his pain levels are controlled.
MERCEDE: We're gonna leave Kiki here for two to three days
and then he'll be good to go home with us
and see how he does on three legs.
DR. NICOLE: And I can call you later today
and let you know how his surgery went.
He's a very sweet boy.
DR. POL: Say ah.
NARRATOR: Earlier...
DR. POL: Oh, my gosh.
NARRATOR: Doc discovered a huge tumor on Cooper's tongue.
ADAM: The only real option was to do their best to take it out
and just see if he pulls through.
NARRATOR: Now Adam's back...
DR. POL: Come on, big guy.
NARRATOR: to bring Cooper home.
DR. POL: Come on.
Surgery went very fast.
It was a tumor that had not a stem to it.
I got, from my opinion, the whole thing out.
Come on, you old bloodhound.
As long as he can eat with the next couple days,
everything should be fine.
♪ ♪
(baa)
What's going on with that horse?
Evelyn bringing in her horse.
She's falling down?
DAMIEN: He's got a loose rear end.
DR. POL: Uncle Ugly was a rescue,
and he's wobbly in the back end.
Okay, be careful.
EVELYN: He's off balance.
DR. POL: Oh, yeah.
EVELYN: We feel really bad for him,
we'd like to get him as much help as possible,
get him healthy if we can.
DR. POL: I see the symptoms of EPM,
which is equine protozoal meningitis.
It's a protozoa.
EVELYN: Yeah.
DR. POL: In the spinal cord.
This many times comes from possum stool
that is in the hay, and they carry this protozoa.
For some reason or other
this settles in the spinal cord of these horses.
I'm gonna give him a shot of cortisone.
Then SMZ pills.
I try to treat him instantly.
NARRATOR: Certain antibiotics...
DR. POL: One pill per hundred pounds twice a day.
NARRATOR: will kill the protozoa.
DR. POL: Most of the time when you treat them early,
they come out of it real good.
Just see if he walks in.
Come on, boy, come on.
The SMZ is working already.
(claps)
Ha ha!
Don't give up.
EVELYN: He should be good to go. If not, we'll be back.
♪ ♪
DR. POL: Becky's bringing in these goats.
She just bought them.
They--Holy cow, triplets?
BECKY: Yeah.
DR. POL: There are some little ones that are coughing.
Where is mom?
BECKY: In the back, she's sick, too.
DR. POL: This older one that is coughing.
Well, let's find out what the heck is going on.
A little bit of noise.
There is some increased lungs, but not bad.
Okay, I need their butt to take the temperature.
Oh, yeah, I hear that.
I'm gonna check the stool sample, too, in a minute.
BECKY: Okay.
DR. POL: The temperature is normal.
(squirt)
Hey!
She has diarrhea?
BECKY: She does now.
(laughing)
DR. POL: That's why you don't stand behind them.
Turn her loose, I'm gonna check this first and be back.
I always check a stool sample on goats,
because goats are so susceptible to parasites.
Nothing there.
These stool samples were negative.
Not a worm egg, no coccidia, no nothing.
That's what I suspected,
a little bit off because of shipping.
It is just being shipped around that causes problems.
NARRATOR: The stress of being moved
has taken a toll on their immune systems.
DR. POL: Bring the little baby out.
BECKY: The hacker. DR. POL: Yeah.
(kid cries)
BECKY: We're fine.
DR. POL: Make sure that the little ones are nursing good
so that the protein will help them get over the problem.
BECKY: Good.
DR. POL: Okay, get busy. Thanks.
BECKY: Thank you.
DR. POL: And yeah, they should get better within a few days.
♪ ♪
Cara's bringing Rebel in,
and she is afraid that he has a bad heart.
Hiya, big guy.
CARA: When Great Danes are real big like that,
a lot of times they can have heart problems.
DR. POL: Come on.
CARA: I'm very scared that his heart is going out.
DR. POL: Hi, you big guy.
Cara is a good person that breeds Danes.
Every dog is sick today.
And she's had a lot of pups.
You're like a horse.
CARA: Rebel is over 200 pounds.
And with real large breeds, a major concern is their heart.
And I've just been really, really scared.
DR. POL: If it was a congenital heart disease,
some heart defect, then we couldn't do anything.
His temperature's high.
So we know there is an infection going on.
You hardly can hear his heart,
because he, his lungs are so bad.
Here. Listen.
Listen to those bad lungs.
I let her listen to the lungs.
That's way too much noise.
They don't sound good.
This is pneumonia.
CARA: Mm-hmm.
DR. POL: How in the heck did he get that?
CARA: I don't know. DR. POL: I don't know, either.
CARA: He hasn't been anywhere.
DR. POL: Has to be the weather. This crazy weather.
It's hot one day, cold the next.
We can put a coat on and take a coat off.
These dogs cannot.
You know, they do not sweat.
They have to pant in order to get rid of the heat,
and that sometimes then causes pneumonia.
Well, we should be able to fix that.
Pneumonia's still not good news, but it's treatable.
We'll try to get him better in a hurry.
CARA: I'm really sad that he's sick at all,
but I'm just so glad that it's not his heart.
DR. POL: Good boy. CARA: Good boy.
DR. POL: Rebel should get over this and be alright.
NARRATOR: A few days ago,
Dr. Nicole had to remove Kiki's leg
after it was mangled in an accident.
DR. NICOLE: I am very excited to reunite Kiki with Mercede.
Kiki has been a great patient.
Hi!
Is this your kitty cat?
SOPHIE: Yeah. DR. NICOLE: Yes?
MERCEDE: I brought my daughter Sophie with me today.
DR. NICOLE: So now he only has three legs and he's doing great.
MERCEDE: Kiki looks amazing.
DR. NICOLE: He is very friendly, he's a very nice kitty.
Prognosis for Kiki is great,
he'll be hopping around just like Tater.
DR. POL: Tater, what are you doing?
DR. NICOLE: He's very happy to go home with you guys.
MERCEDE: Oh, my goodness, thank you, guys, so much.
DR. NICOLE: You're welcome.
MERCEDE: I think he's gonna do great.
He got a new chance at life.
(door chime)
MATTHEW: Come here, BB!
I brought BB into the Pol Veterinary Clinic
because the neighbor's dog came out and pinched him on the neck.
And it got infected real bad.
Dr. Lisa recommended antibiotics for him, and it was great.
It worked so perfect.
It was nasty, and you could barely see it.
I got my happy little boy back, his fur is growing back in.
Come on, come on!
BB's everything to me. He's basically my son.
No, he is my son.
He's my big little baby.
And I love him so much.
Good boy!
COREY: Skye is a German shepherd,
she's been shaking her ears nonstop
for the last couple weeks.
Today she kind of bounced sideways
after she was shaking her head.
DR. POL: Winnie's, how are you?
COREY: Good, and you?
DR. POL: Sun shines. What's new?
COREY: I brought Skye in today because...
DR. POL: Hey!
Some German shepherds are a little scared.
Come on in, we'll put a muzzle on him.
DR. POL: Skye is just a little too scared, basically,
and that is dangerous.
(growling) KAYLA: No.
DR. POL: See what I mean?
There's no need for that when I try to help.
Yeah, he's got... (dog yelps)
he has a very chronic ear infection.
COREY: Okay.
DR. POL: See the thing is, a dog's ear goes down and in.
COREY: Okay.
DR. POL: The eardrum you can't reach.
COREY: Yeah.
DR. POL: 'Cause you cannot go around the corner.
COREY: Yep.
DR. POL: But the problem is that here is infection also.
So the infection that's here you don't get out very easily.
I like to treat the ear, not too much in there.
See how much?
COREY: Yep.
DR. POL: That's all.
But really massage the ear so the antibiotic gets in
all the grooves and crevices in the skin.
So rub it for 30 seconds.
Once a day.
COREY: Okay.
DR. POL: For 10 days.
It'll feel better in a minute, buddy.
Then you can get rid of the infection.
Don't bite.
Yeah, he's, he like-- You feed him right?
(laughter)
Come here.
Yeah, look at that.
COREY: Skye made it through, and Doc Pol made it through,
and I'm very relieved.
Skye is gonna go home and be better.
(panting)
PHOEBE: We were moving some horses around on the farm today
and we put Hank in his stall,
and he didn't like that very much
and at some point he cut this hoof.
DR. LISA: I'll have you back him out,
and I can take a closer look.
PHOEBE: Yeah, sure.
Step, step!
DR. LISA: The laceration is pretty jagged.
That's impressive.
At first glance it's really difficult to be able to say
if I'm going to be able to close this injury at all.
DR. LISA: Ooh.
I'm not sure that I'm gonna be able to suture it all
just 'cause it's like, right...
PHOEBE: Right.
Just the fact that it's still bleeding and it hasn't stopped,
it hasn't clotted yet's a little bit worrisome.
Ho.
DR. LISA: Hank is a little bit uncomfortable
with me handling his foot.
PHOEBE: He did not appreciate that.
Hank is fun to be around most of the time,
but every once in a while he, he's a little opinionated.
DR. LISA: Getting that cleaned off well,
we'll be able to get a better idea,
but I don't think he's gonna let me do that without...
PHOEBE: I agree. DR. LISA: some drugs.
We're gonna use a little bit of sedation
so I can get a better look.
PHOEBE: Hank is used for the equestrian team this year,
and he does quite a bit of lesson work.
(horse grunts)
Hank has a pretty busy schedule, he does lots of stuff for us.
DR. LISA: There isn't really even a flap,
it's just like a straight slice in there.
PHOEBE: Okay.
DR. LISA: There's like two parallel ones, I think.
Once I have him sedated,
I'm starting to do a little bit of local blocking
to make the area less painful.
Hank still has plenty of ability to give me a pretty good kick.
I think I could probably get...
PHOEBE: Maybe one in there?
DR. LISA: Maybe one in here.
I'm gonna clean up the wound really well,
reduce the risk of infection.
This one I don't think
I'm gonna be able to do really anything about.
But I can put one in this smaller one.
And then put some skin sutures in to close the wound up.
Needle pulled through.
Okay, I'm gonna put another,
'cause it's still kind of bleeding here.
Just for a little extra security.
I'm gonna put a bandage on there, too,
just for compression.
Hopefully he'll let you take this off.
PHOEBE: He will. DR. LISA: Okay.
Probably just a couple days,
'cause I think it's only gonna be sore for a little while.
It's not too large of a wound, but just to be nice.
I think with the cleaning and the sutures,
this injury should heal up just fine.
PHOEBE: Thank you, ma'am.
DR. LISA: Alright, have a good one.
PHOEBE: Thanks.
DR. LISA: And if she has any concerns,
I'm just a phone call away.
PHOEBE: Get all the way up in there.
Good boy.
Hank's gonna get some time off.
No lessons for him probably this week or next week.
Back up.
Be on some dry pasture for a little while
and then he should be able to go back to work.
♪ ♪
DR. POL: Ethan is coming in with his dog,
a nice golden retriever...
Hello.
ETHAN: How's it going?
DR. POL: who has been licking his rear end.
Oh, you can't climb out the window.
You're not supposed to do that. No, you're not.
ETHAN: He's fun-loving, he really likes new people,
he likes being outside and likes getting dirty right now.
This spring weather's
really pushing us to the test with cleaning.
DR. POL: Come on, boy, run!
They tell me his sister has anal gland problems.
Okay, you want to go first, be my guest.
ETHAN: Come on, Camp.
DR. POL: No, that smells too good there.
ETHAN: We didn't know if he had anal gland that was flared up
or what was going on,
but under his tail and stuff was getting raw.
DR. POL: Oh, yeah, put him on the table.
You're a big guy.
If you can't do it, nobody can.
ETHAN: We just want to make sure that he's still healthy,
'cause he's young and we want him to have a long, happy life.
DR. POL: Okay, so his butt, right?
ETHAN: Yep.
DR. POL: His anal glands are good.
I get hot spots here, too.
This is a typical hot spot.
Are you doing anything for fleas?
ETHAN: Have we done? Not recently.
KENNEDY: Not in a long time.
DR. POL: Any irritation will cause a hot spot.
I'm gonna get the clippers and clip it and clean it.
Sometimes it's just an injury, sometimes it's a flea bite.
Flea bite will start it up.
ETHAN: Okay.
DR. POL: Dogs love the taste
of that oozing liquid that comes out.
Hold still.
ETHAN: Camper.
DR. POL: Don't ask me why, but that's what they do.
Yeah, that irritates, I know.
Once they lick, they don't stop.
So I clip all the hair around.
Scrub it with a disinfectant.
Okay, good enough there.
And then he gets an anti-inflammatory cortisone.
Now, the minute he starts itching some place again...
ETHAN: Yeah.
DR. POL: start spraying. ETHAN: Okay.
DR. POL: And what we use is spray on it.
And this is safe.
If he licks it, it doesn't hurt at all.
Okay, so that's what we do.
Usually within about three to five days
everything is healed up.
ETHAN: Alright. DR. POL: Oh, yeah.
ETHAN: He's a happy Camper after this,
so we should be doing well.
(panting)
MAN: Come on, bud.
NARRATOR: At PVS...
DR. POL: Oh, my gosh.
NARRATOR: canine is king.
DR. POL: There is a breed for everybody.
What you got there?
Ha ha ha!
That's a cute little animal.
I think a kid that grows up with dogs will make better adults.
I cannot imagine life without a dog.
(laughing)
Oh, come here, you.
(puppy whimpers)
(whining)
BRANDI: We brought Molly in to see Dr. Nicole
because she had a surgery
to remove a lump that they found on her head.
DR. NICOLE: Could be something very serious
like a big cancerous mass.
Good girl!
Or it could be something not as serious, like an abscess.
Surgery went great, the mass came off pretty easily.
It's benign.
NARRATOR: Tests confirm...
DR. NICOLE: Molly!
NARRATOR: the tumor poses no threat to Molly.
DR. NICOLE: Come here, girly.
But she does have a big wound on the top of her head
with some sutures, so those will have to come out.
I'm gonna carry you, okay?
Oh, good girl.
BRANDI: I'm surprised how well she's done,
'cause I thought for sure she was gonna mess with the sutures,
but she really didn't.
DR. NICOLE: Looks good, girly.
Molly's incision looks great, she healed perfectly,
and I don't see any more masses, so I think we're in the clear.
CHILD: That was like two minutes.
BRANDI: She's a little bald on top.
DR. NICOLE: Okay?
BRANDI: Thank you so much.
DR. NICOLE: Have a good day. Bye, guys.
BRANDI: Dr. Nicole said that it would grow back,
and, you know, should be just as beautiful as ever.
(whining)
♪ ♪
BILLY: Came out this morning to feed the horses
and noticed that one of the mares was in distress.
It's about time for her to be due from last year's breeding.
Something's wrong.
And just kind of waiting for the doctor to get here
to see if we can't...
DR. LISA: Hey.
BILLY: at least make sure the mare's gonna be okay.
DR. LISA: Oh, that's not a good sign.
(horse neighs)
DR. LISA: When I walk up to Amaretto,
I can see some placenta hanging out.
Alright, I'll have you just hang on to her.
She is still contracting,
which makes me pretty sure that there's still a baby inside.
Yup.
Do you have any idea when she was bred?
BILLY: Beginning of May last year.
She's obviously in distress.
It's my thought that probably we've lost the foal
at this point.
DR. LISA: The first thing is to take a feel
and try and figure out which parts of the baby are where
and what is causing the holdup.
It's got its head twisted up sideways.
The baby's head was kind of twisted around sideways
and to the back.
So, right now I'm just pushing the baby back in
so that head has some room to swing around.
BILLY: Sure.
DR. LISA: In order to get the head to come forward,
I had to push the baby away from me,
without putting too much strain on the side of her uterus.
I don't think it's alive anymore.
BILLY: Yeah, I wouldn't think so.
DR. LISA: From the smell on my glove,
it smelled like the baby was probably dead.
We're getting there,
I just don't want to push anything too hard.
BILLY: Sure.
DR. LISA: Now that I know that the baby is dead
and there's not really any hope for that life.
BILLY: That's a bummer. DR. LISA: Yeah.
BILLY: Sometimes that's just what happens.
DR. LISA: The biggest risks are some pretty severe infections.
BILLY: That is no fun, is it, kid?
DR. LISA: The first thing is
to get that source of infection out of the mare...
You're okay, sweetheart.
without causing any damage to her uterus.
(neighs)
So, just being really gentle and taking things super slow.
Poor girl.
BILLY: Yeah.
DR. LISA: Being fast can be kind of a life-ending situation here,
so it just takes a lot of patience.
So it might have just died a little early
and been deformed.
BILLY: That's what I'm thinking,
yeah, it looks a little underdeveloped.
DR. LISA: It's got to feel nice to have that out of you.
BILLY: Mm-hmm.
DR. LISA: There is a risk of some uterine infection.
BILLY: Sure.
DR. LISA: I want to flush out all the juices
remaining in the uterus
so that they aren't there to cause infection,
and then protecting her against infection
with some antibiotics as well.
(pumping)
Oh, yep, we are good.
And also gonna give her some oxytocin.
BILLY: Okay.
DR. LISA: And that oxytocin
is gonna help push the rest of that stuff out.
BILLY: Okay.
We might not breed her anymore.
DR. LISA: Yeah, that might not be a bad idea.
BILLY: Yeah, that's okay. DR.. LISA: Time to retire.
BILLY: Yeah. We like having her around, so that's okay.
DR. LISA: Is there a place she could be like on her own?
BILLY: I could put her in a stall.
Let's see, can you walk?
Gingerly?
DR. LISA: I would say her prognosis is pretty good.
It's really important he keeps a close eye out
for any uterine discharge, any nasty, smelly stuff.
Alright. BILLY: Alright, thank you.
DR. LISA: Yep, you have a great day.
BILLY: Yes, you, too. Appreciate you coming out.
DR. LISA: Yep.
And just to let me know as soon as possible
if it seems like she's uncomfortable
or not eating or any problems like that.
♪ ♪
(radio beep)
Mobile 4 to base.
♪ ♪
DAVID: Ladybird is a hound dog.
She has been in our family for about seven years,
since she was a puppy.
And she's one of the kids, basically.
DR. NICOLE: What's going on with her? Hi, girl!
DAVID: She got in a fight last night with her sister,
a German short-haired pointer.
DR. NICOLE: I'll take her in and get a look at her, okay?
DAVID: Alright. She has a wound on her upper lip.
Almost like when she was in the fight,
she got a tooth right through her entire lip.
DR. NICOLE: We're gonna have to take a look
and see what's going on.
A first look with a bite wound
is always really hard to say how bad the damage is.
103.4.
Geez.
Ladybird does have a fever,
so that could point to an infection.
We'll go ahead and check out that lip.
Ladybird does have a bruise on her left lip and a scab as well.
She's not gonna like it when I pull that scab off.
I'm gonna remove the scab
and see if there's any pus that comes out
or if it's just bruised.
Hey, can I see?
(clippers whirring)
It's okay, see?
Just a loud noise.
Ladybird does not like me messing with her lip.
So, she's gonna get a muzzle put on.
(clippers whirring)
The muzzle not only protects her,
but also me and my fingers.
Come on.
DAVID: We're really concerned
about what's going on inside of the lip.
DR. NICOLE: Okay, let me see the inside.
DAVID: Really hoping that there's not gonna be
too many stitches needed.
DR. NICOLE: Doesn't go inside, just on the outside,
so that's good.
Ladybird is lucky, the puncture from the bite wound
does not go all the way through her lip.
Okay, now this part you stay still for, okay?
It's just on the outside,
so just some topical care is all that's needed.
(dog whines) Good girl.
It's okay, it's okay.
We're almost done.
Ladybird is not getting stitches today.
Okay, here she is.
DAVID: Okay, what did we come up with?
DR. NICOLE: She does have a pretty good puncture
on her cheek,
but it does not go through her cheek,
so it's just through...
DAVID: Really? Okay.
DR. NICOLE: the outside, there's no lesions
on the inside of her mouth at all.
DAVID: Really? Okay. DR. NICOLE: Which is good.
She has just a little bruising, but that's it.
DAVID: I'm feeling really good.
Dr. Nicole says that Ladybird looks good.
DR. NICOLE: She's gonna go home on some antibiotics
'cause she did have a pretty good fever, too.
Outlook for Ladybird is good.
It'll just be a couple days for all that swelling to go down.
David is gonna have to keep the wound clean
and make sure that Ladybird
doesn't cause any more damage to it.
DAVID: Alright, come on, girl.
Many thanks to Dr. Nicole for taking care of Ladybird today.