Dr. K's Alien Animal Emergency Room

Today on Dr. K's Exotic Animal ER, an old macaw needs to learn some new tricks from her owner. You gonna listen? No. A young squirrel's life hangs in the balance. His stomach is literally to the point where it could explode. And it's man versus gator in the Everglades. He just dove in with the gators. No, it was like 10. Holy **** Horace and Bugsy, a pair of guinea pig friends, arrive at the clinic. Horace has something wrong with his ear. Today I'm here bringing in Horace for what I think is an ear infection, but I'm not sure. We noticed that his ear was encrusted with goop, and we brought along his buddy Bugsy with him to keep him company. They're so loving, and they love to be cuddled. They love to play. So we have two adorable pigs I heard. One with a terrible ear infection. So since this is Horace's first visit, what I'm gonna do is go ahead and look over every part of Horace first, and then focus on the problem last so I don't miss anything else. Hay is their primary diet. So how much hay do they get a day, I guess? We just have a feeder that we keep- Filling it up, filling it up. Yeah, we fill that up. We have pellets for them as well. Beautiful. And then they get a pig nick every night. A pig nick. Fresh fruits, fresh vegetables. Let's look at Horace. We are both very, very sad. So we do need to cut back on pellets. Oh, you're very cute. You're very round. So body condition score of one to nine. Five being normal. They're probably eights. What does it smell like? Wanna taste it? Wow, that is crazy, mom. Do you see how his head's a little crooked? Yes. That's because his ear infection. Oh my gosh. We'll clean it out today. We'll figure it out. I just wanted to stop smelling too. I'm trying to pick him up. I'm like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. I have a weak stomach. I hoped to make him feel better today. Good. The fact that he has a tilt does make me concerned that it's not just external, but it's internal. The pus and the inflammation associated with that infection will compress some of the nerves that's right there. And those are the nerves that maintain your balance. And so sometimes we'll have a little tilting. OK. Because that's upright to them. But it won't stay that way, correct? Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't. OK. We'll probably take an x-ray today to see how involved this is. OK. And we'll definitely clean it out and get some antibiotics on you, little boy. Definitely step one is cleaning that up. He stinks. Yes. This ear infection, I've never seen anything like this in my entire life. There's like a ball of pus like this on this animal's ear. So this skinny pig, as you probably smelled already, has a terrible infection. And it's in this ear. And I'm just going to try to clean it out and see what's going on. But he's also going to get an x-ray. Hang on. Oh, that looks like skin, guys. It does. Oh, it's a polyp. Oh, how crazy. Oh, OK. So he has a little growth in his ear? He has a growth. This case got a lot more complicated than just a simple ear infection. He has a mass originating from his ear. And it can be anything from a benign polyp to some nasty malignant tumor. Oh, goodness. The smell of that guinea pig's ear. Oh, Horace. It smells like something's dying is really what it smells like. It's just nasty. It's not all pus. Can we take an x-ray of his head? This is probably a polyp, which isn't actually truly cancer. It's not going to invade his skull and go all these other places. It's just going to be locally aggressive and might actually return. Oh, my god. Try that, Tom. That's really interesting. I've never seen that before. In a guinea pig. You can even see, like, stalk that this mass or polyp is on. When I started looking at Horace's ear, I really didn't appreciate it whenever I did the first exam. There's actually, I'm going to call it a mass. OK. And that's what's causing all the inflammation. He does have an inner ear infection, too. The most likely differential for this is called a polyp. It's usually just inflammation, not actually cancer. My fear is I'm not going to get the infection cleared up until I get that mass gone. But if it's originating inside the ear canal, like deep inside the skull, you have to do a much more complicated surgery. OK. So I'm going to anesthetize him just briefly so I can, you know, clean everything up and cut it off right there. OK. I'm really nervous, but I think Dr. Phelan has a great plan on how to treat Horace. We just want to make him feel better as soon as possible. And the way to do that is to remove as much of the mass today as we can and get rid of that infection. You know, when you have a pet, they're not just a pet. They are a member of the family. And you treat them like they're a member of the family. We see a lot of sick animals here. I'm super excited that my next patient is here for a wellness exam. And it's even better that he's an adorable baby goat. He's our baby. This is Timothy, a Nigerian Dwarf goat. I went in for a bird. I came out with a goat. Pretty much, that's the story. When I went in, I saw them giving him his bottle. And I just kind of fell for him. Hey, good morning. How are you? Hi, good morning. How are you? I'm Amy. It's nice to meet you, too. Little Timmy is completely adorable. You are very, very cute. OK, is this your first goat? Mm-hmm. All right, super. Is he living indoors or outdoors? Indoors. Strictly forever? Yes. OK. What are you eating? Goat milk. How long have you had him? About a month. Oh, so you got him when he was newborn? Mm-hmm. I got him when he had his umbilical cord so long. Oh, my goodness gracious. Well, you've done a good job. That's not easy. It isn't. Hi, handsome. Let's see you. Oh, my goodness. When we watch movies, he hops on the couch and just goes to sleep. He's very adventurous. Curious George, I would call. Let me see in your little mouth. Oh, you're just pretty. I am so grateful when I see animals in for well care. You know, with dogs and cats, they're on a more regimented vaccination schedule. Exotic animals need care, and they urgently need to come in for education, because we have to make sure from day one that they have their parasites under control, that they're on the proper diet, that they're getting the right environmental enrichment. It's huge. These animals' lifespans and their well-being depend on it. I was very happy to see Timothy so early in his life. You're only feeding milk right now, right? Right now, yeah. Okay. And do you have a plan for when he's an adult? Because the most important thing that you need to know is that they can develop urinary stones if they're on a high level of grain. Oh, I take him outside, too. He eats grass all the time. Oh, he does eat grass all the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, perfect. I needed to hear about that. He's inside, but only when we're like... And the other thing is he needs to be on hay. Hay. Timothy hay. Goats do make good pets, but the owners really have to be conscientious about their nutrition. They like to eat grain. They really should be eating hay. When they eat too much grain, it can contribute greatly to the formation of bladder stones, which is the number one health problem that we see in pet goats. We're going to run a fecal to see if there's any eggs in his stool, because there's different types of parasites that goats get that we have to be aware of. All right, super. Well, we'll get a fecal, and then we'll come back and talk to you, okay? Can I grab some of this poop from... Yep. We're going to look at Timmy's stool sample, looking for a particular parasite. What do you smell like? It's a little early to be able to see eggs, but there are certain parasites of goats, especially hamonchus, which are so dangerous that if there's any evidence at all of this, we want to try to manage his health as best as possible so it doesn't become a threat. I don't know if he's cuter than a bunny. He's extremely cute. The only thing cuter than a baby goat is a baby goat in pajamas. My favorite are baby bunnies, of course. Of course, baby bunnies. Yes, baby parrots. True, they have that little one we had in here earlier. Chameleons are really cute because they perch on your finger. They're like this big. What do you think, Tom? Kinkajous. Yeah. An emergency situation brings in two squirrels, Flipper and Lucky, who are severely bloated and in great pain. It's a race against time. This squirrel is dying, and the only information I have is that they recently tried to wean these squirrels, and they started offering them some fruit. This one's dieting. My heart rate's picking up a little more. My priority is to relieve this bloating as soon as possible because this is a very serious emergency situation. Amanda, the owner, is a really good-hearted person. These little squirrels were abandoned, and she rescued them. She's been nursing them night and day to raise them up, and she's terrified right now. He's ice cold when I think, hey, can I have some warm water bottles? This little squirrel's just ice cold. Yeah, it's not heated up yet. I'm getting lots of air now. I'm not sure if it's moved or... It feels like 84 degrees. It's really urgent to get these squirrels' body temperature up. They're warm-blooded animals. Their body temperature is way too cold for them to function normally. Right now, I just want to warm them up as soon as possible here. Hold on, just turn that off for just a second. Unfortunately, we lost this squirrel. All we can do is try to save the other one. And he likes to latch on very much, so... Oh, poor little thing. Yeah, he's cold. Yeah, he's really ice cold, too. This is bad, little squirrel. What happened? I know, I know. Dr. K and Dr. Gessner are working on Flipper the squirrel, who is suffering from severe bloating. See, I've just gotten through. Oh, buddy. When animals come in bloated like this, the first thing that goes through my head is they need pain meds, and they need them as fast as possible. While I give Flipper pain medication, Dr. Gessner needs to go talk to the owner. Hi, I'm Dr. Gessner. Amanda. Amanda was shaking. She was so upset when she brought these squirrels in. She has been caring for these squirrels day and night. I mean, she was just beside herself, upset at how these little baby squirrels that she's been nurturing have gotten so bloated. We lost Lucky. So, I'm so sorry. But gotta do what we can for Flipper. Dr. Gessner needs to get more of a history so we can try to figure out why these little squirrels are bloated. So, when you weaned them, did you go cold turkey from formula to fruit? No, no. I started doing bald, mixing it. Okay. So, Amanda did the right thing. She started to introduce some solid foods to her pet squirrels. But unfortunately, I think that for these teeny tiny babies and her enthusiasm for trying to help them more, that might have been just too much solid food to start with all at once. Flipper, we're working on, we're not able to pass a tube into his stomach. What we need to do is get IV access in him. And we also need to do what we call trucarizing his stomach. So, that's putting a needle in directly through the skin to just let off the pressure because that's what's causing all the problems right now. So, I'll keep you updated as much as I can. Okay. When you think about this little tiny animal, who about at least 60% of his body weight is GI tract, and it's all filled with gas, that's excruciatingly painful for these tiny little animals. I don't know how still he's going to sit and he does bite. Ready? I think I'm in. If the fluid goes in easily, you're in. It does. You're good. All right, you're good. Is the meds kicking in, baby? These little squirrels are very tiny animals. When their body temperature gets to a certain point, they're going to be way too cold and they can die just from that. I know you don't have much diaper experience, but these are quite helpful. Cut one end and then I'd get the little bear hugger from surgery. It just unclips from that pole. Oh, little booger. You're going to just feel a whole bunch of better soon. Let me have the hose and I'll do my little diaper engineering. If you don't get them warm, you're going to lose them just from that. And then we need fluids. Yep, that would be good. The most urgent thing is that we get flippers slowly and safely warmed up to normal temperature, but everything is hanging in the balance with this little guy. He's extremely fragile. Little purple guy. Schuster, the macaw's owner, has discovered a cyst and wants Dr. K to check her out. Schuster's a blue and gold macaw. Schuster is going to be 32 years old. That's my life right there. My father went to some pet store and I was 17, gave me away my age, and he brought him home and he's been mine ever since. Now he lives outside in a beautiful... I inherited when we got married. Yeah. He's a part of my family. I mean, I love him. I know. What you doing, beautiful? He's been here for a few years. I know she has a macaw, so we bonded over that and I trust her. So you're worried about a cyst today? I think that's what it is. There's like, you know by the crop? There's like a white pimple looking thing. It's a pimple. Is it tiny? Yeah, it's tiny. No worries, I'll be able to check that. But I want you to check that. Absolutely, absolutely. It makes me very scared. No worries. And it's easy to see because... Yeah, yeah, yeah. She has a lot of anxiety behaviors. She will literally look at the owner. If she doesn't get immediate attention that she wants, she will literally pull a feather and keep pulling the feathers until the owner comes and gets her. So the owner comes and gets her. So it just reinforces the behavior. Sometimes there are psychological reasons as well as medical. Does she bite her nails too? Oh, so that's her favorite. This is one anxiety. Yeah, yeah. The sexual behavior is beyond... Okay, so she's like masturbating on things or... Everything, her hands, everything. And like if this bird could live in a little tiny like closet or little room with a towel and just pick it up. Like nesting, I guess. Has she ever laid eggs in the past? Was she ever in any distress with laying eggs? Never. Well, they come out like soft the last time. Had some good ones and some soft ones. All right, honey. Her reproductive tract doesn't even work right. But worse than the eggs is the constant hormonal behavior that she exhibits because she's allowed to nest in towels and blankets, which is very stimulating for a bird. And that can actually escalate the hormonal situation, which can then make the feather-destructive behavior worse. I'm going to run some blood work on Schuster because she's due and there's a few things on her that I like to keep an eye on. I'm also going to check out that cyst that Kim is worried about on her skin. So just pick her up and just in one fell swoop, once. Exactly. Get her underwear and everything. I don't like the going under. Do we have to? She just screams. She doesn't. She screams all the way under, but it's just less stressful for her. We'll do this really fast. It's always fast. This is my love of my life, so... I get it, sister. I get it. Just the point of my macaw going under and God forbid anything happening. I just want it over. Birds are even more delicate than other species when it comes to using anesthesia. You have to be very conscientious that they are breathing. They lose body heat very quickly. They're just very fragile patients. Just do it fast. Yeah, it's all right. I'll let daddy catch you up. Oh, that's good. I've had practice. Okay. Indeed. That's a little work. The pressure's on to get everything done as efficiently as possible. I want Schuster down, get all the blood and x-rays I need, get her back up again. I know that Kim is climbing the walls in there and wanting her bird back in her arms. Oh, God. Well, you've got to go under. Schuster is a 33-year-old blue and gold macaw. She's had chronic egg laying problems. She lays very sloppy malformed eggs. She's also had a long history of feather destructive behavior. I'm going to work as efficiently and quickly as possible. Kim is very concerned when I do anything with Schuster, let alone put her under anesthesia. She's made it every time. Yeah, and what if she doesn't? Well, made it every time. The odds are pretty good she'll make it again. My wife, I've had him 33 years, you know. I don't even really see in the cyst she's worried about. With all anesthesia episodes, I never relax. Okay, I'll take her. Yep. I stay calm. I do my job. My staff does their job. Hurry, hurry, hurry. All right, but I never take anesthesia casually. You can't. There are animals that can die under anesthesia. I know, I know. Let's go back and see mommy. Ah, he woke up. She's fine, she's fine. I just want to make sure we're looking at the same thing on her. That, that. Yep, that's just a little skin cyst. Okay. Yeah, nothing to worry about. Oh, I know. I'm gonna set you on the floor and you can go back to mommy, okay? Oh my goodness. Yes, you're better, you're better. Whoa, I know mama's mama. Mama's baby. All right, no worries. I'm gonna go read out the films. Her bones look very, very bright white here because she's extremely hormonally active. Looking at the radiographs, I can see that Schuster's reproductive tract is enlarged. This is a big problem. Over the years, Schuster has been known to lay very abnormal eggs on a regular basis. They're not fully shelled and her blood work gets all out of whack. When she's laying eggs, she's gotten egg bound a few times. This is very bad for Schuster. So there's options that we have depending on how her blood work looks. One thing I can consider is trying to shut down her hormones with the medication. I've used it on a number of blue and golds in their 20s and 30s. I can work on the medical problems with Schuster, but I'm concerned just as much about Schuster's psychological well-being as well. Both Kim and Schuster are deeply bonded to each other, and that's a wonderful thing to have a great bond with your pet, but sometimes it can cause some pathology when Schuster is so dependent on Kim for attention that if she doesn't get the attention, she acts out and actually damages herself physically by pulling her feathers. So her negative behaviors are being extremely needy with you. 100% needy. I cannot eat dinner without this bird on my neck. I don't want to ever insult a pet owner about how they're interacting with their pet. So it can be a little bit of an awkward conversation, but I have to teach her different ways to interact with her bird because often the physical health is tied to behavioral problems. It's very difficult for me because this is my best friend. You know, I want to be with him all the time as much as he wants to be with me, but I can't be with him all the time. You know, every night at dinner, I get two seconds warning and he's on my shoulder. So maybe at dinner time, it would be prudent to just put her outside before you sit down to dinner, you know? I know, but I'm bad. Her behavior is getting worse, and your life is becoming more unbearable because of her behavior. Exactly. So what we have to do is interrupt the behavior. I have to be stronger than the bird. Yes, I know. And I don't want to be stronger because they're buddies. This bird is really the love of her life, but she 100% caters to every one of the bird's demands. All right. I will be in touch with you. Thank you. Okay. I know you can do it. In a couple days, right? Absolutely, by Tuesday at the latest. Bye. I'm giving Kim a few days to start working on her behavioral interactions with Schuster. She's going to come back and we're going to give a hormonal implant to shut Schuster down reproductively and help the chemical process slow down. But I really need the behavioral components to be calmed down as well. I'm not sure she's tough enough to follow through with what really needs to be done with controlling Schuster's behavior. We'll see what happens. You're going to listen? No. Oh, he's just my buddy. Tara. Tara, are you dying? Oh my goodness. Hello. Hey, aren't you a cutie pie? Dr. K is about to reveal the results of the stool sample for Timmy the goat. You have no bugs in your poop. That's very, very good. All right, handsome. Timmy is only four weeks old and he is still within what we call the pre-patent period. In other words, he is under six weeks of age. It's only after six weeks that the full life cycle of the parasite can come to fruition and you actually detect eggs in the stool. So I'm encouraging Aria to bring Timmy back for a fecal after he's six weeks of age. I've never had somebody bring in a baby goat that they have raised from the umbilicus before. Literally. Like, it's a mega cord for all. Who couldn't fall in love with a cute little face like that? I'm giving Timothy a clean bill of health and we'll just keep an eye on the parasite situation. That's the kind of little patient that brightens your day when you've had a lot of really serious cases and I really look forward to taking care of Timothy throughout the years. Now that Flipper the squirrel is warm, Dr. Gessner can move forward with his treatment. Is he relaxing a little bit more? Yeah, he gets like these little spurts of energy, but I think it's pain. I think he's just... I think it is pain. I'm a wimp when it comes to stomach stuff, so yeah, I can't handle stomach pain. Do you want this? So we have him sedated. He would never let me pass a tube down to his stomach awake unless he's in really bad shape. Looks like it's mostly formula. Yeah. It's starting to work, but we need to get all of the food out. Oh, sorry, honey. That feels funny. Yeah, his belly is still rock hard though. It's really terrible to see these guys in this state. I mean, squirrels are such wonderful, active, happy little creatures and it's just awful to see them like this. Okay, sugar pie. Okay. While Dr. Gessner tries to save the squirrel's life, his owner, Amanda, waits to find out his fate. She didn't get a lot of pressure off. This is still very painful. His stomach is literally to the point where it could explode. Flipper the squirrel fights for his life. Everything is on the line for this little squirrel right now. We're going to do everything we can to save him. I'm getting mostly... It's like formula is just coming out. I wonder if the needle is clogged now because, you know, he had all of that chunks in there. Right. Well, I mean, all you can do is supportive care and decompress and antibiotics. I know, but with him, like the decompressing is going to have to be repeated trochorization because I could not get anything out. I feel like I have to get more off because I didn't get much off at all. Are you ready? I know, buddy. That sounded like it was a good amount of pressure. I'm not getting anything. Prognosis is gravely guarded. There's not much more we can do for Flipper. This little guy is in extreme pain. Dr. G is going to go ahead and talk to Amanda about this. These conversations are never easy. We did everything we could. It's just really hard when it turns out this way. He could die at any time. And, you know, I can keep trying to decompress him. But so far, everything I've tried has been unsuccessful. But at this point, you know, I worry that everything I can do for him isn't working. So I think it would be reasonable at this point to consider euthanasia. Hi. I have a lot of clients that absolutely adore their pet squirrels and really consider them and treasure them as a member of their family. I know, baby. Amanda has decided to euthanize. But first, she's going to say goodbye. Come here, baby. He's a little worried. It's hard for some people to understand. But these little creatures are just like dogs and cats are to other people. Now, how it really goes out to Amanda. I know this loss is going to be very difficult for her. So it's really upsetting to lose an animal like this. But Amanda had to make the decision that's best for him. I don't know if we'll ever know the answer exactly why the situation happened. But I have a high suspicion that the sudden diet change contributed to the bloating in these baby squirrels. People need to be very careful with any young animal when they're changing the diet. Lulu, a brown lemur, is tender on her side. And her concerned owner wants her checked out. This is my brown lemur named Lulu. She's about five and a half years old. She has been with me since she was that big. They call her Lulu the love bug. Hey. How are you, Angel? How are you? I heard if I just let you get on me, we're going to be friends for life. Right? Are you a good girl? She's known all around the world. She's on Facebooks everywhere. Because I take her to South Beach. I take her to Key West. And everybody takes pictures of her. So she's already a movie star. She's been tender on the left side of her stomach on and off for the last four or five months. Yeah. Occasionally, I don't know if it's just she doesn't like being touched there or if there's something bothering her. Since she's not spayed, ovarian disease has to be on my list. In general, lemurs are very, very active pets. And I don't think a lot of times people realize just how much environmental stimulation that they need. She is extremely well-socialized. She's not at all aggressive, which is very pleasant for me to go into an exam room like this. Mama, no, no. You sound good. She's really tender. I don't want to upset her. Every day, I've had some interaction with her and always take her to parties. Her family comes over. And everybody pulls her out of the cage and plays with her. So she's like this because we've worked with her. All right. This is going to be the plan then. What I'll do is I'll put her under anesthesia to be able to take the x-rays and draw blood. And what we usually do is we put them in a clear acrylic box. And then we just kind of put the gas in slowly like that. That way, it doesn't startle them. And they go under very slowly and not get upset. I love the noises she makes. The grunting means she's curious and everything's OK. And then she goes, eek, eek, eek, eek, eek, eek. And then she's- Get out of the way? Yeah, she's not well. The owner is really perceptive about her personality. That tells me that he really cares about his pet. And he's really tuned into his pet's needs. While Lulu waits for Dr. K to do x-rays, Dr. T and vet tech Tom Cronenweth head out to help an injured alligator at the Everglades Outpost and Animal Rescue Center. So we came to the Everglades Outpost today to do an alligator examination. It's always very sad to see abandoned animals. I'm here to make sure that they're treated properly and they get back on the road to recovery. My name is Bob Freer. Our main objective is to take in hurt and injured wildlife, rehabilitate it, and release it back to the wild. We typically don't go in the field, if you will, to see animals. But we really wanted to give back to the community and help them out the best we can. Hey, guys. Hey, Martha. Thank you. Dr. T. OK, perfect. Actually, Bob's about to wrangle up a gator. We know this seems to have a pretty deep flesh wound. So if you guys want to come on in. Yeah, sure. I'm about to enter an enclosure with gators inside. It's time to take a deep breath. I am so intrigued. I've never seen this happen before. He just dove in with the gators. No, it was like 10. He just dove in with the gators. No, it was like 10. Bob searches for the injured gator in a pool full of gators. I just thought that was awesome, watching Bob just dive in the middle of the enclosure here in the exhibit. I'm like, dumbfounded. Oh, my gosh. Most of these gators here are pretty much nuisance gators, meaning they can never be released back into the wild. They're so used to people interacting with them. Does anyone know exactly what happened to just all of a sudden there was a wound? I think someone brought it in and was probably injured out in the wild. That's what Martha's doing is she's directing him. He's noose because he's dragging it with him. So if another gator were to get a little curious and come up to him while he's trying to get this one, then she'll let him know. Jenny, there's tape on that leg. Look, Tom, look how well he's using that leg. Yeah. It ain't broken, it's just... Yep. Look, tape. Okay. And you direct me, Bob, whenever you're ready for me, okay? Good job. I've had a heart attack when you jumped in the pool with 10 gators, but... I've been handling alligators for a long time. I had my first one in 1956 as a pet, but that's many years. That's smart, you tape the eyes. Less stress. Yeah, definitely less stress. And you're getting that vagal response, slowing their heart rate. So I'm just gonna debride a little bit and try to get it cleaned up. Yeah, that's helped. This is fine, though, that this is coming off. Just making sure I'm not getting pus behind it. So what I'm pulling out is scar tissue forming over. And that can happen when in response to wound healing, it just seemed a little excessive. And I think that if I removed it, it'll just heal quicker. That's the only reason why I did that. So after dividing the wound, I think it looks great. I mean, this is granulating in, you know, really nice, getting really good healing. And I would just watch this pocket and see in case you see any discharge. That's great that you saw that. He is gorgeous. Wow. I'm sorry. Thank you, though. So when you let go of him, is he going to go forward? Should I move? Oh, I'm sitting on him, so he can't. I guess he's going to want to hightail it back in the water. Most times. He goes backwards. OK. He's like, I hate you guys. Sorry. Thank you. There he goes. All right. Well, I liked the little surprise. That was really awesome. Very impressive. Thanks for taking them out for me. Thank you. Of course. Good seeing you guys. I was really excited to get to put my hands on the alligator. Wow, that was awesome, right? Yeah, great trip. Definitely, definitely. Oh, I'd swim with the alligators in a heartbeat. Back at home base, Lulu the lemur gets ready for x-rays. I'm just going to do this so she's not scared. She seems real tender on the left side of her abdomen. And I couldn't really palpate very deeply while she was in the room. So I'll be able to feel her more deeply while she's under anesthetic. You're so soft. We're going to start with just some radiographs, see if there's anything going on. Because she's not spayed, so concerns might be something going on with the reproductive tract. I don't feel anything lumpy. Oh, their hands are just so human-like. I know, I love them. Let's take a good x-rays. I didn't feel anything. She's excellent husbandry. She's in good body condition. Everything looks really good on her. Any primate, but especially lemurs, are very, very high-maintenance pets. They have very specific dietary needs. They're a very active animal. This is certainly not the ideal pet. That's probably the other kidney there. But that looks good. So we're just going to do a routine panel on her, see if there's anything going on. I don't see any significant problems or changes in her abdomen. Lulu's owner did bring her in because he was concerned she may have had some abdominal pain. She checks out perfectly on physical exam. Everything looks great. You know, when you think about how painful it is when humans, large humans, get gas pain, animals get gas as well, and that can certainly create pain. Thank you, babe. Between the radiographs and palpating her deeply while she's under anesthesia, I don't find any abnormalities to account for that. Here you are. Thank you. I am always so happy when an owner errs on the side of caution. I would rather see an animal for something minor that turns out to be nothing than have something be let go that was catastrophic. Dr. Kelleher is excellent. She saved my other lemur, my emergency surgery. I'm very happy. They are my family, and I got to take care of them. Bye. Dr. Thielen is preparing for surgery. The mass in Horace the guinea pig's ear needs to come out now. It is not going to be a major procedure. My only plan is to just try to dissect this down as far as I can, cauterize, make the bleeding stop, pick him up. Kimberly is absolutely in love with this little guinea pig, and I can't blame her. He has a wonderful personality, and he must be really suffering with this mass in his ear and all the infection. So it's imperative that we do everything we can to remove as much of the mass as possible. I made the decision to recommend debulking the mass inside his ear. Debulking is removing the mass as much as possible without the intent of actually curing the disease. Removing the mass and making him feel better, start to clear up the infections is the right thing to do. So one of my big concerns with Horace's surgery is blood loss. This mass is really highly innervated, and so I'm afraid as soon as I cut it, it's going to bleed like crazy. My other big concern with this surgery is there's a lot of really important nerves in this area. If I hit the nerve, he could wake up, and he has a head tilt, and he has like vertigo, and it would make him worse. I can see a really nice edge on this side, and I'm trying to like get a hold of it, but honestly, it's not letting me. Horace the guinea pig has a mass bulging out of his ear, and Dr. T is attempting to remove as much of it as possible. Okay, I'm underneath it. I'm going to go one, two, three. Oh my gosh, nothing happened. What the hell? That's great. I thought the mass was going to bleed profusely. Thank goodness I dodged a bullet. It didn't, and so now I'm going to feel more confident proceeding with the rest of trying to debulk as much of the mass as possible. The reason why I'm doing this is just because I can see it, so I'm just trying to debulk it as much as humanly possible. Come here, my friend. Oh, sorry, little buddy. He's just going to feel better. Oh, well, at least I feel like I helped him. Look, he's got a normal ear again. Horace's surgery went as well as it could have, and he recovered from anesthesia wonderfully, so he can actually go home tonight with his owner. Hey, guys. Hi, how are you? Good, how are you? Good, thank you. He did so good. Good. He smells better. Horace's procedure went excellent. He's a very strong and young guinea pig with a very attentive owner, so I'm very confident he's going to continue to do well. Great, oh my gosh, thank you so much. You're so welcome. Thank you. I feel very relieved that they were able to help him today. Just really happy that we found this place. This is our first time here. Everyone was so helpful and so nice and just happiness that he's back with us and that he's OK and that he's able to come home. Schuster the macaw is back to receive her hormone treatment to help control her obsessive behavior. OK. Hi, princess. OK, so before we do this. Yeah. I just want to make sure it's just something you're putting under the skin between her shoulder blades. OK. That's all. And that's just going to release hormones to stop everything that's happening. Yes. OK. Shut down, that's the reproductive. You're not putting her to sleep, you're just. OK, OK. Just like getting a shot. OK. All right, be just a moment. Hurry up. We're going to give Schuster a deslorelin implant. So I do this subcutaneously in the birds. That's tradition. This is a small waxy pellet about the size of a long grain of rice that slowly elutes hormones that will shut down her hormonal reproductive activity. You're being a very good girl. Yeah. I can help control Schuster's hormones with medications. But what will really make a world of difference is if we help change her behaviors at home. Yeah, you're good. All right, two little implants. All right. Go to mama. There we go. Didn't bite your ear? No, no, no, no, no. She was good. Oh, no, we're good. OK, so we did that. How long does that take? It takes about a month. But again, the other modification, decreasing nesting. Not letting her down to the pellet tray. Yeah. You'll see a difference over the next month. You'll see a difference. OK. All right, keep in touch. OK. Well, I have to tell you the way it is. It's good to see her. I know. We're going to. It's not training the bird. It's training her. I get it. You're doing great. You will. Good to see you. Bye. Schuster's hormone implant will take effect over the next month. For him to grow old with me, I need to get him moving more. And we're going to try to forage for toys. Just come for his checkups, make sure he's healthy. Keep him with me for a while. I think I actually got through to Kim. I'm much more confident that she's going to follow the doctor's orders. Kimberly and her guinea pig, Horace, are back just a few months after his surgery. Dr. Thielen originally saw Horace and removed a mass out of his right ear. How's he been? He's been doing well. Nice having a little lump off the ear? Yeah. Oh, aren't you frisky now, huh? You're able to blink on that side, aren't you? Let's check. Oh, yes, you can. Oh, yes, sweet baby. Some of our guinea pigs get a severe ear infection that disrupts the nerve that goes through the middle ear and then down to innervate the face. OK. And some of our guinea pigs, it gets so bad that they can't even blink, and then they get corneal ulcers. Any guinea pig with any history of ear anything, we always check that they can still blink. And so he didn't really seem to even care that he had surgery, does he? No, not at all. And you just bounced right back. Are you a tough guy, huh? Let's have a look in there, huh? Oh, that looks great. Dr. Thielen did a great job in this surgery. At this point in time, it's healed up so well, I can't even tell what ear it was operated on. You took all your medicine like a good boy and got better, didn't you? If there is any evidence of it starting to come back, if you see a lump, if you're scratching it, shaking the head, got in a jar, we can send it off and find out exactly what it is. Ideally, we like to usually submit any abnormal tissue to our pathologist, but sometimes it's not necessary. Thinking ahead, though, we did put this tissue in formalin. It'll keep forever in formalin. It'll keep 10 years from now. So if anything does start to come back, I still have the tissues, and I can send it off at any time. He certainly has a good appetite, it looks like. Yes. He's actually lost a little weight, so that's good. So he originally, when he first came in, weighed 1.21 kilos. Then he went down to 1.17. Now he's down to 1.16. So that's good. He could stand to lose just maybe a little bit more weight. He's doing really well, and he's lost some weight, and he's happy and healthy. We'll just continue to monitor him and see how he does. Doing all right there, honey? So the most satisfying things as a veterinarian is animals come in, they can be in pain, sick, distressed. And it's indescribable when we're able to do something for them and make them more comfortable and send them back home with their owners.