Original subtitles

This time. Here we go.

Dr. Michelle Oakley races to save a life.

Hold on my sweets.

When a wounded dog is in danger of bleeding out.

Shut up.

Then, Michelle and her daughters lock horns.

No, no, no.

With a client that's full-o-bull.

Seriously? That was graceful.

And an angry mother sow will stop at nothing

to protect her baby piglets.

Out!

Spring is in full force in the Yukon.

Longer days and warming weather mean

snow and ice are scarce.

For Yukon Vet Dr. Michelle Oakley.

Boy.

That means servicing distant clients

is getting a little easier.

Here we go.

Even if the work is just as hard.

Okay.

Hey, get back there. Get back there.

Heads up.

Today Maya, and Sierra and I are in Whitehorse.

Don't get skewered now, Sierra.

Checking in on some of the animals

at the family farm of Cody and his dad, Dev.

So maybe since. Get the bulls.

It's been a long morning,

but the last animal on our list

is a female Scottish Highland Cow.

Uh, like, uh, check. Preg check.

Preg check? Okay, sure. Yeah.

As long as your squeeze is working,

I'll do it.

Newly acquired cows must be separated, examined.

How's it going back here?

And checked to see if they're pregnant.

Yup.

But with this breed, Dr. Oakley will take particular care.

I don't know if it's their temperament

or just the ones I've met here in the Yukon

have been really wild.

Yeah.

These long-haired cows evolved

to withstand the harsh weather of Scotland,

and are right at home here in the Yukon.

But their size and formidable horns

make them one of the most difficult patients

in Dr. Oakley's practice.

Get ready for some crazy Scottish dancing here

'cause these guys are rowdy.

Okay.

They have the funniest little faces.

Everybody head in.

No, don't jump out. Don't jump out. No, no no, no, no.

Oh, my God, that was graceful.

That was interesting.

Yeah, wouldn't wanna throw a saddle on it,

that's for sure.

Luckily it's not one we needed.

But I think it's an omen t

hat these guys are not gonna be cooperative.

You guys are crazy town.

Michelle needs to separate the female from the remaining male

and then herd her into a chute that leads to a squeeze.

Don't go that way. Go that way.

There she can properly secure the animal for an exam.

That's a good cow, there we go.

Both animals start heading for the chute,

so I'm thinking this is great.

Then they just turn tail and head right for me.

No, no, no, no. No, you're bigger than me, though.

Ha! Luckily there's a little feeder

where I can jump in and get out the way.

Seriously?

Ooh, now we can separate 'em.

Mom, watch behind you.

Just as things are getting completely out of control.

No. Yeah. No, you guys can go in.

Sierra steps in

and both of the animals go right in the chute.

There.

Oh, there we go. Perfect.

Let it be known out there tha

t the Oakley girls take bull from no one.

Sorry, but I'll try to.

After a quick vitamin shot,

Michelle deploys an unusual technique

to move the cows through the chute.

Come on. Come on.

Come on, sweetheart.

Yeah. That's how you do it with a little boogy-boogy [inaudible]

Wait, mom. Step back.

Nice.

Nice work. Woo!

Now to get down to business to see if this lady is pregnant.

I'm done with all this getting dirty.

Now we're ready. Professional lubrication.

We're not sure we have her caught really well,

so Cody's gonna put a little post behind her

because this could be a dangerous situation

if she can move around or try and kick me.

Okay. Okay. Don't wanna get kicked.

I don't wanna get kicked.

Aw. That's really warm.

So I'm just doing like a general health check on her uterus

to make sure that it's not full of fluid.

The uterus kinda sits like this

and there's an ovary on each side

about the size of a apricot or a golf ball.

So what I do is I go in there

and I flip that uterus back.

Grab it.

So she's not in heat right now.

If, when they're in heat,

their uterus will be really, you know, turgid, kind of.

But she does have some activity on her left.

So she's, she's cycling anyway

and everything feels normal.

The uterus feels nice and normal, so.

She's not pregnant yet.

But she's definitely healthy enough

and strong enough when the time comes.

Go ahead forward.

Yeah. Hey, good stuff.

They all look healthy, so. Good.

Got 'em all done. Yeah.

No one got a horn or a new orifice, so good work.

Good day. See you later.

Michelle and her daughters have one last stop

while in Whitehorse,

a small Yukon farm with a new litter of piglets

that need check-ups and neuters.

How big are they?

This big probably [inaudible]

Yeah, I think they're two weeks old.

The babies may be new,

but their mom has a history with Dr. Oakley.

The sow is super aggressive, so just be careful.

She's nasty. So when I was there last year,

we took the piglets out away from the sow

because we were worried about her being aggressive.

As soon as we picked one up

and it started screaming,

she started to attack the guy that was still in the pen with her.

Because she could just hear the piglets

and she just went crazy.

Good mom. I know, a really good mom,

but also dangerous, so.

Here we are, Fox Ridge Farm.

Every time I come here, they've done so much.

Fox Ridge is a small farm

run by Kathy Pritchard and Collin Remillard.

And their main source of income is raising and selling pigs.

My name is Collin Remillard.

I'm the owner of Fox Ridge Farm,

and Dr. Oakley is coming to the farm today

to castrate some piglets from a sow that is a bit, um, temperamental.

Weighing in at around 500 pounds (226 kilograms),

this momma has the bulk to back up her big attitude.

So we call her Stubbs because of her tail.

Stubbs is a very energetic, protective momma.

She's very aggressive,

especially when you go and grab one of her babies.

We're gonna gather all the piglets, male and female.

The males, of course, are gonna have the procedure

and the females are gonna get a mineral injection

to help them with their growth and, uh, health.

Last time she actually destroyed this corner.

Oh, okay. So I've got it fairly well-reinforced.

Pigs can actually be really dangerous.

I mean, they're not just all round pink and porky.

Once we grab a piglet, starts, uh, whining.

And crying, momma is gonna turn into a bear.

Okay. They've got a lot of weight behind them.

They've got really sharp teeth

and they can do a lot of damage

if they feel like they have to defend their babies

or if they feel attacked.

We'll be working fast. Okay. All right.

Okay. We'll go get our stuff on and meet you back here.

Bring it on. Okay.

All right. Let's get our coveralls on and,

ooh, those still have the creases, look at that. Nice.

They need to remove the piglets from the pen

to perform the procedures.

But to safely grab them,

they must first separate mom from her babies.

Okay, momma bear.

And she and the other adults are in no hurry to leave.

Come on, momma.

Okay. Maybe once they've had their drink,

they'll be happy to leave.

We're trying to use food to try and lure these guys out

so we can just separate one.

But it's super-hot out

and they don't wanna leave the water.

Come on, come on. Get goin'.

Here. Look it. Look it. Here's water for ya.

There ya go. Go on, guys.

Get goin', get goin'.

We're trying to convince them that they can have the water over there.

This is not the best water.

With food and water failing to tempt the last few stragglers.

We need to do something, let me just try and shoo them.

Michelle resorts to a little pig wrangling.

Get goin'. Get goin'. Get out of here, buddy. Get.

They respond to boards, try this.

Out, out, out, out, out!

I know, I know, get out.

Watch the piglets. [inaudible] get.

Get out of here.

Oh, my God, this is ridiculous. Get going.

Come on.

Okay, Smitty, come on.

What are you doin'? Yay.

Yay. That was difficult. Yeah.

Way more difficult.

With the adults out, Collin can reinforce the fence.

Come on, guys.

It'll be the only thing standing between Dr. Oakley

and 500 pounds (226 kilograms) of pig.

This is gonna work, but I need to put a lot more screws into this fence.

I'll do this.

There's a slot right here. Oh, yeah.

You do that, do that.

Yeah. Okay. Yes.

It'll probably flex with her

as long as it doesn't break open.

Yeah. I, you know, the secret is to keep the pigs quiet.

Yes. Okay.

I think Collin's hope that we do this quietly

is a bit of a pipe dream.

Hi. Everybody out. Everybody out. Come on.

I mean, the saying "squeal like a pig" is there for a reason. Okay.

Okay, are we ready? Pig wrestling, we're ready.

I guess so.

Watch out. Watch out. Watch out, Michelle.

Michelle, stand over here.

As soon as the sow hears her babies squeal,

she tries to come to their aid.

Oh, mom's freaking, huh?

And her anger grows with each piglet they grab.

Until finally, she's had enough.

Hurry up! Hurry up!

That momma came through the fence

like it was made out of toothpicks.

Here, throw 'em in here.

But fortunately we got the piglets out of the way just in time.

Get them out of here. Get them out of here.

[inaudible] Did I mention she gets excited?

They take the piglets up behind the barn.

So where are we doing, oh, nice. Beautiful.

Yeah.

Far enough away that the sow can't hear them.

You can't beat this office, right?

Maya, you wanna pull up the [inaudible]

There's little time to take in the view.

With 15 piglets to process,

Dr. Oakley gets down to business.

So the plan is just to do 'em one by one.

If it's a female, they just get an injection of vitamins.

If it's a male, they'll get injection of vitamins,

something for pain control,

and they'll get castrated.

So, so I'm gonna do all the pokes at once

and then I'll come back do the cuts.

We're gonna weigh each piglet first.

They're definitely 10 pounds (4 kilograms).

8.5 (3 kilograms). All right.

Next thing, we're gonna give each of the piglets a vitamin shot,

which is pretty standard

because they're very prone to anemia at this age.

Next. There's a teardrop.

Aw, look at that cute little butt.

Switch ya. Okay.

Nice, way to not fumble the pigskin.

Good girl. Okay, back to mommy you go. Okay.

With the female piglets done,

it's time to move on to the castrations.

[inaudible] we need that, guys. Yes.

So pull up lidocaine 0.3 mils (7 microns).

Thirteen and plus. Okay, first one.

After an injection of an anti-inflammatory

and a local anesthetic,

Dr. Oakley demonstrates a hold

that allows her easy access to the business end of the piglet.

What I like to do is you're kinda like sitting like this.

Like that. Oh, they're, they're gonna pop right out.

And then as they pop right out, they hang there.

It's easy to see if there's a hernia,

like, all those kinds of things, you know.

Okay. Cool.

So. Pig castrations are fairly straight forward.

He will squeal, but he won't feel much.

You make a quick small incision over each testicle.

Oh, wow. He's been calm.

Pop those suckers out. Make a wish.

Hold the base and then pull them.

Come out.

They're so small and underdeveloped,

they really just pull right away with very little bleeding.

The castration looks worse than it is.

These guys get a local and something for pain

and swelling for afterwards.

So it's actually a pretty quick procedure.

Great, he's, he's done.

Oh, spray. Sierra will spray. Yeah, back.

A quick spray of an antiseptic

and this little piggy is done.

Oh, are we ready for the next one, Michelle?

Yeah, we're ready. Okay.

One-by-one, the pigs get processed.

That one's a boy.

Okay [inaudible]

And with everybody pitching in.

Grab 'em by the back legs.

It's not long before they're down to their last piglet.

Last one. Looks good.

Good stuff. All done.

Are you okay? All right.

With the castrations done,

it's time to get the babies back in the pen.

Collin has repaired the gate to try and buy a little time

before the mother comes crashing back in for her babies.

Okay. They might not squeal now that they're kinda over it. Yup.

Come on, speed this up, girls. Here you go.

Oh, she's gonna get excited, here she comes.

Hurry up. Hurry up.

As soon as one of those little guys squealed,

momma came running.

Okay. I guess she's gonna go in there.

Oh. Okay. Just wait a minute. I can open that up for ya.

Okay. Who cares if you've gotta repair fence all day?

I know. No one got hurt.

No one got hurt. She's in with the babies.

Yeah. It all worked out.

Back in Haines, Alaska,

Dr. Oakley's morning is getting off to a dramatic start

when an emergency call comes in from a nearby client.

So it's early morning

and I am headed to pick up Suki and Suki's owner, Evelyn.

Um, Suki has a cut on her neck

and it's been bleeding profusely,

so I'm a little worried about what we're gonna find.

But, um, I told Evelyn just put a pressure bandage on it

and we're gonna get her right in

and see what we need to do.

Hi, Evelyn. How are you?

Good. Good.

Saturday night she went to sleep in the normal fashion.

And in the morning, there was blood on the sheet.

I'm gonna take this right off.

Okay. So then I look closely

and I kinda see what to me I call a hole in her neck.

Okay. Let me just see.

Let me just see what's your color like.

Oh, it's kinda pale.

As I'm looking at Suki, I don't like what I'm seeing here.

You know what? I think I'll just put her in the back seat

and you sit with her and keep her quiet

so she's not moving much, okay?

We've got a pressure bandage on,

we're just gonna get her right to the clinic.

Here we go.

Okay, Suki, hold on my sweets.

Go here and then you can look at your mom.

The cause of Suki's wound is a mystery.

But the bleeding won't stop.

Okay, Suki. Come on, love. Come on, let's go.

Come on. Suki.

I'm just gonna put you right here.

Sit down for a second.

Oh, yup. You are still leaking.

With no history of a wound,

why would she be bleeding?

One reason is maybe the jugular vein,

the large vein there is, um, lacerated

and that's pretty tough one for her to be able to clot.

You need to keep every last drop.

Yes, you do. Yes, you do. Oh, yes.

Oh, that was in my mouth, yuck.

In order to find out the source of Suki's bleeding,

Dr. Oakley and her assistant, Kellyn,

must perform emergency surgery.

They dim the lights to help the sedatives take effect.

And offer Suki a chance to receive some needed comfort.

[inaudible] we have to know what this is about.

she's the only dog I've ever had.

I'll see you later.

We've been together like 10 years.

All right.

Suki, hang in there. Hang in there. Keep breathing. S

he's my dog and I'm her person,

and we're sticking this out till the end.

This is an adventure you've never been on before.

Good girl.

Okay.

To locate the source of the bleeding,

Dr. Oakley and her assistant, Kellyn,

prepare Suki for emergency surgery.

Okay. That's a good girl.

They'll need to stop the bleeding fast or shock,

and lack of oxygen to Suki's organs will quickly lead to death.

A first look at the wound provides few clues to the cause.

It's hard to tell still.

I mean, there's, certainly there is a bit of a lump

right at the area where it's bleeding,

but there's a cut next to the lump.

The lump before when I first looked at it,

looked like when I touched it,

it went away and was just, was kind of pooching out

because blood was pooling there.

What is this?

As I get in there, I'm seeing what looks like a mass.

But it doesn't really have the firmness

or the texture of a normal tumor.

See, it's funny, look at this,

I, I, like, squeeze this thing and there's just like nothing to it.

It leaks blood and it looks like a mass,

but it's kinda funny,

it could be an entrance wound for a foreign body, too.

So taking my time getting in there

in case I bump into something I don't want to.

Okay. I start cutting away the tissue around the mass,

and all of a sudden my heart just stops.

Shut up! What is that?

Oh, a mass. I thought it was a pellet for a second.

So that looks like, I think that's a tumor. Okay.

A closer look confirms Michelle's suspicions.

Yeah.

That the tumor and the vessels attached to it

are the cause of Suki's bleeding.

So there's still oozing,

but that main artery that was feeding the tumor,

that one I tied off and it stopped immediately.

The mass will be sent for testing

to determine if it's malignant.

We should get it.

But an x-ray may quickly show

whether the tumor has spread to other parts of Suki's body.

Suki's x-rays look pretty good.

I don't see any sign of any tumors in her chest

or in her abdomen.

But they way she was bleeding during surgery

makes me a little nervous,

so I'm gonna have a look at her blood

and see if she's able to clot properly.

I'm looking to see if there's any kind of weird cells.

Oh, boy, I'm seeing lots of white blood cells.

And a lot of the cells are funny shaped.

A very strange shape.

Like, sharp ends to them

and they should be nice and round and smooth.

Something's going on with red blood cells,

but I'm not sure what.

I need a pathologist to look at this really to, darn it.

I'm really suspicious about something going on,

where her own body is kind of sucking up those blood cells

or destroying them, or attacking them.

Suki's blood samples will be flown to Juneau for testing,

with results expected in a few days.

Yup.

But Suki's condition remains critical.

I feel like if I wait around for blood results,

unfortunately, you know, we can lose her in that time, to be honest.

So I'm actually gonna give her an injection of steroids.

It's not something I do lightly

because there's a lot of side effects of steroids.

But it's something that we, we really need to do.

If there's an immune-mediated process going on,

I need to stop it right now.

Oh, I definitely feel like she's gonna get better out of this.

I've wondered sometimes

if she was on her way out, but not, not right now.

I just don't see it happening.

Suki will head home as soon as she's fully awake.

And Dr. Oakley will continue to look for answers.

After an eventful morning,

Michelle gets back to her normal schedule.

But her first patient, Lucy,

might best be described by some word other than "normal."

I'm Dawn Woodard,

and I brought my cat, Lucy, to see Dr. Oakley

because she has a vomiting problem.

She's checking the place out.

I learned years ago that

male cats don't seem to get the drift of how to walk on a leash.

But female kitties love it.

Aw, Lucy. Come on in, Lucy.

I think she's pretty intelligent.

I like the fact that she seems like she can run her life, in a sense.

And I, I'm glad to have a cat like that.

Are you gonna jump up today or not?

Hey, Lucy. Do you wanna come up here?

Lucy is a beautiful little kitty.

And she's super friendly.

I mean I don't have too many cats come in here on a leash.

Lucy! Lucy, come!

The fact that she just kind of walks in,

giving a friendly meow,

it's, it's really nice to see.

Oh, my goodness, I'm gonna scoop you.

The bad news is I don't think she's gonna stay like that

because I'm gonna need to get some blood work from Lucy,

you know, squeeze a few parts that she's probably not gonna like.

But, hopefully, she's forgiving.

But first off, I wanna hear how she's doing.

What's been going on with her?

Lucy has a vomiting problem.

She's had for a number of years, off and on.

The problem is is that she goes through real bad spasms of it.

You know, where you end up with three or four times in a day.

And then, eventually, her stomach is so sore,

so she's vomiting blood.

Oh, okay. Okay. You know.

Yeah. Vomiting and cats goes together, unfortunately.

We don't entirely know why.

Whatever the reason is,

when a cat gets sick with various other things,

they tend to vomit. S o it's good to know,

but you need a lot of other information.

What has worked the best is to give her a shot.

Okay.

And, you know, it'll last for two months

and she doesn't vomit at all.

In addition to the vomiting issue,

Lucy's file also indicates that

she's on a special diet to deal with a chronic kidney condition.

Right. So she's on a renal diet, is that right?

Yes.

Okay. Because of these elevated kidney levels?

Yes.

Okay. It was already confirmed previously that Lucy has kidney disease,

so I definitely wanna check in on that.

Dawn's feeding her the best diet for that,

but I wanna see where we are,

especially before I give her any treatments for the vomiting.

I think our first thing to do is for me to take blood work

and get some fresh answers,

and the only blood I see here is on her kidneys,

and, and liver is really important here, too.

Dawn mentioned that steroids have helped Lucy with her vomiting in the past.

But knowing that she has a liver condition,

I'm really leery about giving her steroids at this point.

If she has liver issues, it's just asking for trouble.

And with a chronic injection of that,

that can cause her to vomit blood

and can cause irritation of the stomach lining,

and she can throw up, you know, blood,

and start to bleed.

We're gonna get some blood from her.

We're gonna send that off, and check that out.

Then I can more safely prescribe medications for the vomiting

or for any other condition that we find in the blood.

Can I see your color?

After a quick physical exam,

Michelle and her vet tech Kellyn

prepare to extract blood from Lucy.

So I have to try and take the blood from the jugular here.

If it upsets you to see this,

you're welcome to step out or sit down, or whatever.

No. I'm a practical nurse, okay?

Oh, okay! Okay.

Do you wanna just do it?

That's why I said I wasn't gonna go.

Do you wanna do this, so I can have a break?

I'm not worried about giving her a shot.

I could deal with that one.

Okay. In order to do some testing on Lucy,

I actually need a pretty big volume of blood,

and the easiest way to get that

is actually from the jugular vein in her neck.

Oh. It's okay, Lucy.

It's all right, it's okay, Lucy.

It's good kitty. Good kitty.

Let's try this one, okay, a little poke.

Good girl, good girl, good girl.

Okay. I didn't do it yet. I didn't even do it yet.

There we go.

Okay. No.

As expected, Lucy is not very happy with what I'm doing here.

But thankfully, Kellyn and I are prepared to deal with fussy patients.

So we probably need to put a little kitty muzzle on her for a distraction,

and it just basically covers up her.

Yeah, because I'm worried she will bite, I know.

Yeah. The muzzle for Miss Lucy is to protect my fingers,

but another deal with the muzzle is,

it covers their eyes, a little bit of a blindfold,

and it's a huge distraction.

They're like, "What is on my face? This is so annoying."

And then, hopefully, you can kind of get in and out for your blood sample.

Shall we kitty wrap her?

Yeah, if you wrap her up in it, you're better off.

Lucy the cat doesn't wanna give blood today.

Oh, God. Oh, darn it, Lucy.

But in order to diagnose a mysterious vomiting disorder,

Michelle and her vet tech Kellyn need a sample for testing.

Yeah, this is really difficult,

getting blood from Lucy.

It's okay, Lucy.

Hopefully, she's got enough on her slide.

Oh, no. We, that's definitely not enough.

What? That's just the slide.

We have to get enough for a tube to send in.

It's hard on Dawn as well.

So I hate to keep poking her like this,

but we really need that sample.

Sorry, Lucy. T his sample's important, though.

It's hard to keep Lucy still.

I think if we try again at the jugular,

we'll have another shot.

All right. Stretch her a little bit more.

Okay. It's like she knows what I'm about to do

and I haven't even done it.

Hold on there, Lucy. A few seconds there.

Good kitty. Hold still, Lucy.

Okay. Oh, I've got it, I've got it. Please, don't, ugh.

No, no, no, no. No, don't do that.

Don't do that, don't do that. We almost got it.

Okay. Good kitty, good kitty.

That's what we're gonna have. Can we take her hat off?

Yes.

And your breath stinks, you've been sweating so bad.

Oh, man. She's spittin' mad.

That's where that comes from, spittin' mad.

I am so sorry.

And you weren't supposed to be going to the hair dresser today.

No.

Lucy's exhausted from all the work in there,

but hopefully, we can get some more answers,

and try and get her to enjoy life better

because I don't know if I'd like to be puking every day.

Yeah, so, we'll have blood work by the end of the week.

Um, I'm gonna give you everything,

we'll give you a summary of the record, okay?

We'll just email it to you, so you can see that.

Thank you very much, Dr. Oakley.

You're welcome. Thanks for coming in, Dawn.

Yes, I appreciate it.

Sorry for all the rough handling there.

Lucy was a trooper today.

I'm not sure under the same circumstances

I would be as well behaved.

You're not too sure whether we should leave or not.

I'm hoping the test results point to something definitive.

That way, we can get a good treatment in place,

and get her feeling better soon.

Dr. Oakley's next client is a brand new one.

Come on, Lily. Leave it.

Come on, Lily.

Nine week old lab Lily has some intestinal issues she's been dealing with,

that have her family concerned.

Sit, Lily.

I'm Heath Scott, I'm the chief of police.

This is my wife Candice and our daughter Ella.

And we're here for our dog, Lily,

who's having problems going to the bathroom.

Hey! How's it going? Hello. How's it goin'?

Hi. Hi.

Fine with us. Not with her.

Nice to meet you and what's your name?

Okay. Yeah.

You have, you have matching bows.

They do. You both have pink bows.

Lily has only been with the Scotts a short time.

But she's already become more than just a family pet.

Lily seems to have another role in the family right now,

and that's a bit of support for Ella.

I mean Ella's been having some medical issues,

and Lily seems to be right there for her,

providing a bit of a distraction, a

nd maybe even helping everyone else notice what's going on.

Is she gonna get her a shot?

Maybe. We'll talk about it,

and I promise she won't even make a noise,

hardly at all, or maybe no noise at all.

Ella has tummy aches.

She has what's called intussusception,

which is happening with the telescoping of her small intestine

inside her small intestine,

and also happening in parts of her large intestine.

I think Lily is, came at the perfect time,

although some would say I, I bit off a lot.

I think that she's helping Ella manage some of her pain.

So, tell me about the puppy.

I heard her name is Lily Lake.

Yes. Cute.

They like that one. I love it. Yup.

So, nine weeks.

Hey, how are you? Nine weeks, oh, she's tiny.

Um, yeah. We were just up in Whitehorse for ortho appointments.

Yup.

And, uh, while we were there,

she was having a really hard time going to the bathroom.

Okay. And can you tell, like, is she hunched over, like, she's, you know.

Like, she looks as though she's bearing down to go poop.

To poop.

Okay. Do you mind just holding her here?

So that she doesn't disappear from me. Yeah.

And then, I've been kind of feeling her all over while we're talking.

Yeah, I was worried that she maybe swallowed something.

Oh, okay. And do you have any toys missing

or anything like that? No?

Nothing that I can put my, my finger on.

Yeah, it's probably tough to keep track with everybody's stuff.

Just gonna look at your bite. That looks awesome.

Lab puppies eat everything,

and they are very inquisitive,

they sniff everything, they chew everything,

so you will really have to watch that things

don't get chewed up and disappear.

Sometimes, if they eat something,

it can be very rough on the exit,

so, I'm gonna go ahead and do a rectal exam,

and make sure there's nothing blocking,

or no swelling as well that could be causing a problem.

So, if someone wants to steady the front end, whoever.

Okay. And I'm gonna have to go in the back end here.

Okay. Oopsy, oopsy, goodness! That probably surprised you.

And everything feels normal,

but there is no poop there, unfortunately.

Lily's rectum feels normal, and it's nice and smooth.

So, I'm not sure why she's getting herself constipated.

Fecal and urine samples will give Michelle more insight

into what might be causing Lily's symptoms.

Is that if you, next time she goes, just grab it.

I'll send you with little glove.

Okay. So you just pick it up,

turn inside out, and tie it, stick it in the fridge,

and then get it to me within, you know, 12 hours or so.

Twelve hours?

And then we'll, we'll go ahead and deworm her, anyway.

But I just would be curious to see if there's anything in there,

so that we can know that might have been the cause of the straining, so.

Overall, Lily looks great, but we wanna make sure

there's not like a urinary tract infection,

or maybe some parasites.

So, we'll kind of rule those things out. Yup.

What's she gonna do?

So we're just gonna get some samples of her business

that she does outside, her pee and poop,

and that way, we can make sure that she's healthy.

Do you wanna help me listen to her heart, though?

It's kind of cool, it sounds really neat.

Okay, okay, we'll let you have a turn.

Heath and Candice told me that Ella wants to be a doctor.

So I'm gonna see if she wants to help with the checkup.

Can you put those in your ears?

Yup. And then I'm gonna put it on her chest,

and then you're gonna tell me if you hear anything.

Do you hear it puddle?

Now you hear it, don't you?

As soon as you sit still, yeah.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Right?

Do you wanna, do you wanna help with the shot?

No.

Okay. Well, it's too late, I already gave it to her.

All done.

She didn't even notice. Did she even know?

Did you do it when I was in the bathroom?

No, I just did it right this minute.

She did, she went right there. Right this minute.

And now I'm gonna give her something for worms, okay?

Ella is so cute.

A lot of times when kids are going through pain,

it's not that it stops the pain,

but it, it definitely helps lessen it

if you can just distract them a little bit.

You're doing great. See, you could be a veterinarian.

Lily's test results came back normal,

so her symptoms are likely just a passing condition.

Awesome.

She likes that place.

But not all of Michelle's clients have cases that are so cut and dry.

Come on.

Oh, yes, good kitty.

Lucy the cat is back to address her vomiting issues.

There we go.

Lucy's test results show that

her kidney function is improving slightly.

But I'm not sure Dawn's gonna be totally happy with my recommendation.

The, the problem, though, is still the vomiting.

And because you have her,

her system so well balanced,

I really don't wanna give her the injectable steroids

to control the vomiting. I

think, I think it'll throw everything up in a whack again,

and it's, it's just not that safe for her.

There is another treatment we can do for her,

and since you're a nurse practitioner,

if you're comfortable giving her periodic injections,

we can manage it that way with something called cerenia.

Cerenia is a drug used by veterinarians

to effectively block a neurotransmitter responsible for vomiting.

So, you know how to do the injection.

We're basically gonna tent the skin.

Yeah. Just to go underneath.

Go at a 45. We're, we're in there, injecting,

let it go, I'm so sorry, that stings.

It's cold, too. And it stings.

Yeah. It's okay, good kitty.

Okay. So keep it in the fridge, there you go.

I'm gonna send you with these fluids too, okay?

Okay, yeah, I do need the fluids.

Thank you, Dawn.

Nice to see you guys again. Thank you very much.

Bye, Lucy. Sorry about the poke.

Dr. Oakley is done with you today,

and oh, boy, are you glad to go.

Oh, yes. Come on.

As the day winds down,

it's time for Michelle to turn her attention back to Suki,

the dog with the mysterious bleeding issue.

Since I removed the tumor,

I have had her in for some more tests,

and I've even been to see her at Evelyn's house

to provide some supportive care.

The results of Suki's latest blood test are in,

and the numbers point to a troubling diagnosis.

So, um,

so what I'm, I'm pretty sure is going on here

is an immune-mediated process called hemolytic anemia.

Where the, the dog's own body is attacking its red blood cells

and its platelets.

And you need red blood cells in your blood

to take oxygen around, deliver it to the tissues.

You need platelets to stop little parts of,

you know, random bleeding in your body,

so, I'm sort of feeling like we should put the dog down

because she's not really improving,

and it's been a few days.

The results of Suki's blood test are in,

and they point to a condition known as hemolytic anemia,

a disease in which the body destroys its own red blood cells.

The bone marrow is still making red blood cells.

But as soon as they get in the circulation,

the body takes them right back out.

And as soon as your immune system goes to attacking itself,

things can go very bad very quickly.

This is not a good diagnosis.

With this disease, if it's caught early,

sometimes, you can get somewhere with treatment.

But at this advantaged stage, it's almost always fatal.

Just heading over to Evelyn's house.

Gonna check up on Suki.

Sounds like she's having a hard time moving around,

and she's eating, but she's just go on peeing,

kind of right where she's laying,

and doesn't sound good.

So, I'm gonna just do a quick check up on her,

and then grab another blood sample,

and try and get an idea if we're gaining any ground with her.

It's ultimately up to Evelyn,

but my recommendation will come down to what I find Suki like

when I walk through the door.

Hey. Hi! What a good girl.

Oh, my goodness. I saw a tail wag.

Uh-hmm. She's been kind of out of it.

Let me get a light on there.

She did eat a little bit, but she couldn't stand up.

She didn't look like she had zero energy,

but she just looked like she wasn't getting better.

Well, her color is way better.

Way better, yes. Way better.

Steroids can make a drastic difference in cases like this.

They can stimulate appetite,

they make them feel better.

And in Suki's case, they may be helping.

Good stuff.

But how come you're not moving around, huh?

She's the only dog I've ever had.

We've been together almost 10 years, s

o we're in this together.

Um, one thing I was thinking about,

maybe that could try to help her out a bit.

Like, with, maybe using like a towel or something like this.

Would that be okay? Uh-hmm. Yeah.

And I have a shorter towel length,

towels hanging up over there.

Sure. Uh, would that be all right if I.

It's common to treat patients,

whether they're people or animals,

really gently, and kind of baby them.

But sometimes, you just got to get them movin'

to get them improving.

Huh? What a nice day.

Good girl.

You need to pee? You go ahead.

Have a sniff and do your biz. Good girl.

I'm very happy that, that Michelle came over and wanted to do this

because it would have never occurred to me.

Anything else you wanna do while we're out here?

Nice, for a change?

What do you wanna do?

I had no clue that this could happen today.

I mean, I'm still concerned about the whole big picture.

But I have a lot of faith that we'll keep goin'.

Love it. Dog poopin'.

I was 90 percent sure I was gonna see a dog that needed to be put down.

Suki is behaving like a regular dog.

That's fantastic.

But I don't know if it's the sunshine

and the combination of medication,

but she really is looking a lot better.

She might not be ready to go just yet.

So I think we just need to keep testing her

and giving her supportive care,

and see how she does.

God, I hate to go poke her, but I need that sample.

If you wanna just reassure while I do it, I can.

Use a tourniquet,

that is much better blood pressure.

Make sure I got a good sample.

That looks great.

Send me the reports. Okay.

I like getting 'em because each day,

it's a little bit of hope.

So appreciate it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I'll, I'll give you a call when I get these results.

Okay. Yeah. And just let you know, okay?

Great. Well, enjoy the sunshine, both of you.

Right. See you.

Seeing her in the sun is like

seeing Suki that you know and love.

It kind of, it looked like, will that ever happen again?

You go to that worst-case scenario,

like she'll never get up again,

she'll never sit in the sun again.

The long term prognosis for Suki is not very positive.

At some point, this disease will catch up with her,

but today is not her day.

And every day that she gets to spend with Evelyn,

and in the sun, is gonna be good for them both.

Oh, there we are. There's the kissing dog I remember.

All right.