6 Craziest Bondi Vet Patients Ever | Bondi Vet

Chris is back in Bondi and his first two patients of the day are absolute glamours. Josie and Chizzy's extreme makeovers are all part of a day's work for their owner Christine. I have the grooming school so I teach people how to groom their dogs. Hi, how are you going? Good, I'm Christine. Hey Christine, I'm Chris. Hello, you two. This is Chizzy and this is Josie. They've come dressed for the occasion. They're pretty bright, aren't they? I love it. Yeah. All right, well come on through. Come on. We actually don't get a lot of dogs that come in here with painted, sculpted fur possums attached to them. This is new. They look amazing. Thank you. These creative canines are here for their annual vaccinations. I'm just deciding to be charged for seeing one patient or two. But first, Chris gets a rundown on these unique works of art. It's the dreamcatcher from Possum Magic. Is there another creature on the other side? Yes, he's got a koala on the other side. He's just a walking Australian encyclopedia of wildlife really, isn't he? This creative grooming can really polarise people. Some people love it while others seem to think it's quite ridiculous. I don't really have a problem with it because to me, it's just another way for people to show their love towards their animals. I grew up with a poodle. Can I show you a picture of Claude? You can. Just let me know where I was going right or wrong. I used to have a poodle who I used to dress up in some pretty crazy gear. So maybe I'm not that different. What do you think about that? It's very cute. How old was he? He was old enough to know that he shouldn't have been dressed like that. Yeah. And so was I. I was old enough to know I shouldn't have done it to him. It's OK. It's going to make it, I think. The possum's OK. Chris's consult with the perfectly quaffed poodles is continuing. So he looks pretty healthy as well as stunning. He's all the parts. So I'll give him his vaccination now. Great. So you can transform dogs into anything and the styling brings out their confidence. What would you do with Rusty? Rusty is the Brown family's loyal Kelpie. What we do now is tribal art. Tribal art. We could carve in, yeah, like tribal or skulls or crossbones or all sorts of things. I can't help but wonder whether Rusty would like this creative grooming. Rusty, this could be the start of something very, very special. All right, we're going to think about it. So this is Josie. So she is Mrs Jizzy, is that right? Yeah, they're friends. Friends. Close friends. Her boyfriend's more into fashion than she is. Yeah, he's got some more bling, hasn't he? Questions being asked about your man. Seriously. With the glamorous duo's health checks and vaccinations completed, Christine pulls out one last surprise for Chris. You know, a lot of other dogs would just shake those off straight away, but you know that you're really working those, don't you? Yeah, she says I might as well milk it. Okay, well thank you. They're both done. Thank you very much and look forward to seeing you and Rusty up on the farm. He can't wait, yeah. Okay, thank you. All right. Come on. I think this creative grooming is fine, provided you're using it on the right sort of dogs. Poodles love to be fussed over, will sit there all day, perfect for it. Try it on a cattle dog, probably a different reaction. I had a visit in the clinic from a lady just the other day with a bird that is behaving quite strangely. It's attacking people, it's also having its feathers fall out. Now, I need to see this bird in its natural environment, so we're going to go and pay a visit right now. Hello, Chrissy. Chris, how are you? Thank you for coming so quickly. Look at you. This is Harry. You're a mess. He's a shocker, isn't he? Harry is the pampered pet of the equally colourful Chrissy. Geez, he's raw there, isn't he? He is, yeah. And his back, look. That's extraordinary, isn't it? He's totally bare there. He is. He's like a plucked chook. I was going to say plucked turk. Give it chooks every time. Yeah, I know. I can't work out why his feathers are coming out. It's one of the worst cases I've ever seen and now the first thing I'm suspicious about is the diet. I need to know exactly what Chrissy's feeding him. These are his... Beans? They are pulses. I soak them overnight. This is his red palm oil, his seed, his millet sticks, his unsalted cashews. He washes it down with just a little glass of bubbles occasionally with mummy. Mummy would insist upon that, wouldn't she? And whatever he doesn't finish, you probably have to finish, right? Absolutely. I know I spoil him but I can't help it. I love him. He's my baby. I could eat him. He's so gorgeous. But going bald isn't Harry's only problem. He hates Chrissy's husband John and is not afraid to let him know it. Will you leave me alone? Go on, go. Tell you what, I hate that parrot. It's got to go. It's either him or me. Look at the feathers go up. That's not a good look, Harry. Despite a life of luxury, Harry the parrot has had a serious feather loss problem for the past four years. Draw more blood, come on. He also has a vendetta against Chrissy's husband John. Why are you so nasty? Harry's hatred of John seems to start out as outright aggression but then it turns into something quite dysfunctional. Now he's having his way with my hand. Oh, he is too. You're not jealous, are you Chrissy? No, I'm just, I've never seen him do it before. What's Chris gonna think of us? It may look like love is in the air but Harry's amorous gyrations are anything but. This is aggression on a new level. Normally he's just flapping his wings, biting you. But that is the most aggressive and most dominant-minded gesture he can give you. You never see that. That is amazing. You know, it's actually similar to what a dog does when he's trying to show dominance but I've never ever seen a bird do that before. It's just bizarre. Now I'm pretty sure that Harry's violent jealousy towards John is the cause of all this mass feather fallout but I need to know for sure. I think we should set up a little sting. Okay, so we're almost ready to go. Camera's set up. One final request. Yes. Just a little hug, a little kiss and then we leave. I'll explain later. In front of Harry. Darling. This is going to send him into a frenzy. Bye Harry. Bye. I feel so bad we're playing a trick on Harry but we've got to find a solution. I mean if we don't he's going to be completely bald. Harry. Bye. Harry, we're back. Feathers. Oh my god. Back at the Parrot Pleasure Dome, pet detective Chris is trying to find out why Harry is losing his feathers. Let's find out. We've got the camera so come on over here and let's have a look at what we've found. So we've just left the house and he's at home alone and there he goes. Right there. So while you're out or you're in bed and he's alone this is what he's doing. Harry is the total attention seeker. This is self-mutilation for the sympathy vote. He's doing it to himself. He's pulling the feathers himself. He's pulling his own feathers out. Why? So under his wings, on his belly, on his legs he's targeting those areas with that sharp beak of his and pulling those feathers until they come out. Chrissy is in shock. After four years of wondering why her pampered parrot is dropping feathers she's just discovered he's plucking them himself. So why is he doing it? Why? He's that frustrated and he's got nothing else to take his frustration out on apart from himself. You two are more than just friends in his eyes. He's in love with me. He's in love with you. But he doesn't want to have sex with me. No. Whenever he's not with you, you're with John. He's competition. And he's smart enough to know that. He can tell a male from a female. Right. Using his sense of smell. Don't even try it. The question is, how do I stop it? I can't be with him 24-7. Can I? I can't take him to bed with me. I can't take him shopping with me. What do I do? We're going to put him on. Are you serious? We're going to put him on Prozac. Oh my god. And this will work? Prozac is used all around the world for dogs, cats and birds to ease their anxiety issues. It works by increasing the level of serotonin in the brain, which is the feel-good hormone. They feel better about the world. And I hope, in Harry's case, it's going to stop him getting to that breaking point. So I've got to add Prozac now to all his food. Food is another thing. He's eating too much as well. Just give him some seed. Small amount. Give him some greens like spinach, broccoli. He's going to become the biggest loser. Isn't he? Well, Harry, it's you and me. Oh, this is as close as I can get. Marie, this isn't the normal Marie. I know. Chris's torrid day is not over yet. That evening, another call-out. She ate the life at the entire bottom of it, which is about a metre and a half long. Worried cousins Genevieve and Hilary are almost certain their Pomeranian Marie has swallowed some bikini string. The fact she's got her back arched says that she certainly saw there. She's letting me feel all of it apart from one area. You hear that sound? Oh. The two 19-year-olds arrived home to find their six-month-old puppy vomiting. I didn't hear a peep out of it and I actually thought someone took her because it was that quiet. Hilary and Genevieve are two of our most colourful, interesting clients. What's that? This is like when you're a baby and you have a blanket and you like grow up and you take it with you. That's what Marie does with her hat. You have to understand they not only love this dog, they live their lives through Marie. And I just said to her, Marie, I don't think you're old enough yet to handle a mobile phone. So Twitter's out of the question and she has her own sombrero which can be seen on her Facebook page. She has 81 friends at the moment, including Chris. It's just hard to actually keep quite a serious mind. You do actually have to keep a focus and realise that you've got a sick dog here. Chris is hoping x-rays will help him confirm if the swimwear string is causing a blockage. It's like a drawstring. It pulls tight and actually locks that intestine up into a loop. And if that's the case, that intestine can actually die, die off and that can be really serious really quickly. Chris is hoping x-rays will confirm whether or not six-month-old Marie has swallowed a large section of bikini string. The unfortunate thing about a swimming costume is that it doesn't show up in x-rays. It's not like bone, but the characteristic signs of blockage or an internal problem are a gas buildup and also an intestine that is all tightly coiled up. You know, it's basically uncomfortable and it's inflamed. Do you want to come through and have a look at Marie? I'll show the x-rays as well. The problem I face is that I know how much Marie means to them and they're going to be looking for an answer right now. The other problem I have is that I don't have one. But what happens if you choose to operate and then it's not in there? Exactly. This dog's essentially my baby. Hilary bought her for me in all seriousness. Genevieve's brother died about six months ago. Obviously, she was beside herself and we just moved out together. I mean, we don't do anything without Marie. The other day, we went and saw a sidekick and Marie came with us. And he's been to the museum, the art gallery. She saw Spider-Man. She's pretty much one of us. I have a laugh with the girls about the way they treat Marie. But when you know what they've been through, it makes you understand why that little dog is so important to them. Marie will have to stay in the clinic overnight and the girls have decided she needs VIP treatment. Are we able to bring stuff? What do you mean by a few things? The cousins have arrived back at the Bondi Clinic with their own special care package for their sick puppy, Marie. All right, let's go and find a place for it all. Okay. Am I meant to be reading that to her tonight? If you could, we're just a picture. I've marked the page where we're up to. Come on, let's go. Hilary and Genevieve believe the six-month-old puppy has eaten some bikini string. It appears to have caused a serious blockage. Is she going to say Hail Mary? No, we'll leave the religion for a camera. Good night, squish. So if anything happens during the night, if there's any change, I'll let you know. But if she remains stable, we'll talk in the morning and then decide whether she goes to surgery. Nothing's changed. She probably will go to surgery first thing. So she was a graduate of puppy school? Yeah, she did really well. Really? Yeah. You'll understand why I'm questioning that. She's not happy. She must be sore or something. Yeah, I think she is. The next morning, Chris and head vet nurse Neil are confronted with a very cranky, sore Marie. The Pomeranian's condition has deteriorated overnight. More x-rays are taken, but they're still inconclusive. This is the big issue. We cannot be sure that that cord is actually inside Marie. Yet Marie looks worse. So what do you do? I know the concept of her surgery probably doesn't appeal to you too much. It's a bit daunting. Yeah, but the concept of... I'd rather her go in and be overdone within an hour than be in pain for three days. Yeah, exactly. That's my thinking. Marie, did we bring you some flowers? Look! As you would if anyone was sick, you come bearing gifts. So we bought red flowers, the tulips, which are Marie's favourite, and a get well balloon, which hopefully she won't chew and ingest. My only worry is the girls don't truly realise just how serious this surgery is. The big unknown is what we see when we get in there. Is there a cord? And if there is a cord, what sort of damage has it done? Is it causing basically the intestine to die off? If that's the case, we've got a big surgery. Yeah, nothing yet. Chris has been forced to open up Marie to find out whether a piece of swimwear cord is causing a dangerous blockage. All right, so there's a little bit of swimsuit actually inside her seagant. Now, if it's been sitting there and essentially fermenting and causing irritation, then that may explain why she's been sick. It's almost like appendicitis for a dog. It's proof at last that Marie did make a meal of that bikini. But there is some good news. The thing is where it caused the problem is actually pretty close to home. It's only got to go down the rest of the colon and then it's out. So rather than making a cut and actually potentially causing an infection, I'm actually going to milk it through the colon so it only has maybe a few centimetres to travel and actually then leave the body. With the bikini string almost out, it's now up to Marie to finish the job herself. The wait begins. Bit of privacy, please. Two days later, the bikini munching Marie finally answers the call of nature. Nice little present. Yeah, now I've got to go through and look for it. The answer could be in the bag. Chris has only found a small portion of the swimwear cord that went missing. Just the thickness and the fact it's got that elastic there. It's swimming costume, without a doubt. Where the rest is remains a mystery. Later, Chris carries out a special house call. Hi, thank you. Oh, look how excited she is. Yeah, just gently, gently, gently. Hilary and Genevieve have bought Marie a new bed for the big occasion. Seriously, though, you do have to keep it quiet because she will pop those stitches out if she keeps on running around. She does that a lot. All right, I'll see you later. Thank you so much, Chris. We really appreciate it. And Marie does as well. We'll definitely be sending updates. Yeah, I know. I'll miss you all. Thank you, Chris. We'll see you soon. You, Marie. Bye. Bye-bye. Bye. You know, I normally take time out of the clinic to go and visit art galleries, but today, there's a pretty good reason. My saviour of the day, Chris. How are you? Oh, man, good to see you. Very good to see you. Pressure on too early, right? No, no, no, but hey, man, anything that's going to help my bird is fantastic for me, so. Chris is responding to a call for help from local gallery owner Maurizio. This is Dr Chris. Hey, pretty. Can you say hello? His best friend, Pretty the Galah, has suddenly developed an unusual growth, and Maurizio is concerned. Now, you're worried about this lump, is that the story? On the right leg there, yeah. The moment I laid my eyes on Pretty straight away, I can see the lump. It's a big size. We're talking about sort of that? Yeah, exactly. It's a few centimetres. It's confusing the hell out of me. Okay, but it has come up fairly quickly. It's only in the last three months. How old is he now? He was 42 around September last year, so he's going on 43. Wow. 43, yeah, I've had him since I was 11 years old. Jeez. Old story. He's a big part of your life then. A huge part of my life. He's been with me the whole time. Every day, I literally talk to him over the phone if I'm away. Someone will hold a phone to him, and yeah, he's a big part of the family. There are a couple of things that worry me. He is getting on. Yeah. And look, in the same way as in people, the older they get, the more likely you are to have, I guess, more serious health problems. Exactly, issues. So look, I think probably the best thing is to get in there with him. Need to get a good look at that lump, but also importantly, get a feel of that lump too. Exactly, yeah. A lump that appears pretty suddenly is cause for enough concern as it is, but when you add on top of that, the fact that Pretty is 42 years old, which is really middle to late age for galahs, yeah, I've got reason to be concerned. Seeing the lump that's formed in the amount, in the quick time that it has, it concerns me a hell of a lot. It's okay. Baby, I'll get you. It's okay. There's no denying it. To truly assess what is going on with this lump, I need to get in there and have a good look for myself. Baby. Given the fact that Pretty hasn't been handled for a number of years, it's not going to be easy. He's got the dominant position. Hasn't he? If anyone gets close enough to him, he very much defends himself. It's going to be very interesting. See, Pretty, what you don't realise is that I've brought in my number one bird controlling device. Currently, everything is in Pretty's favour. He's got the height advantage. He knows all the hiding spots and he's got a pretty sharp beak. You ever feel like he backs up against the wall, Chris? Never. But what he doesn't realise is I've got the towel. Good boy. So we'll just keep you nice and relaxed there, buddy. With Pretty beginning to fret, Chris has to work fast. Even though I've successfully managed to catch Pretty, the fact is we cannot delay this examination. It has to be done quickly because stress for a 42-year-old bird could be fatal. We're looking at about three centimetres by three centimetres. It's movable. See that? Looking at it, it is a tumour. There's no doubt about that. So probably the most important thing is to get a sample of that. And the chances of me being able to catch Pretty again are pretty small. So everything has to be done right now, including taking a sample of that lump. There we go. Hopefully in that sample, there'll be enough to tell us exactly what type of cell is sitting in that lump. And from there, we know what we're dealing with. After feeling this lump, I've got no doubt that it is a tumour. But what kind of tumour and what this tumour really means to Pretty and Maurizio is still a mystery. Have a look down here. So just picking up this. This is all his food scraps. Yes. Everything that he's eaten. If you go through it all, sunflower seed, sunflower seed. He is having breakfast, lunch, dinner, sunflower seeds. Yeah, mostly. So this is important. And this may actually be relating back to what we're seeing right now. I'm going to take that sample back to the vet clinic. I'm going to analyse that. But I've got a funny feeling right now that what's in my hand is as big a deal as what's in that syringe. All right. So I'll let you know as soon as I have some news. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I'll see you soon. Not sure if he wants to see you soon. I'm not going to make eye contact with him right now. We're clearly not talking. I'm always optimistic, but he is a bird of a certain age. But I am worried about it. Definitely. Yes. All right. That's what we've got. Really, when you're dealing with a 42-year-old bird, I guess anything is possible when it comes to a lump. So I'm nervous because we just don't really know what we're dealing with here. And there's a lot of emotion at play. At the Bondi Clinic, Chris is about to test the cell sample taken from Pretty the Galah. It looks like a kid's science project, but what I'm doing is actually using different coloured stains to essentially illuminate different parts of this sample. By doing that, I'll get a clearer picture about what's happening. OK, let's take a look. That's interesting. So wherever I go, I'm seeing two things. Red blood cells, which are obviously meant to be there. But these white-looking cells, and they are everywhere. And even though they look like they're thousands of bubbles of nothing, they are something. And what they are is fat cells. And right now, that's all I need to know. Pretty, look who's here. Hey, Pretty. Il Dottore. Hello, how are you? In Willara, Maurizio is about to find out what the future holds for his best mate of 42 years, Pretty the Galah. So I've got the results from that sample we took. It is a lipoma. Essentially, Pretty has a lump there that's made up of fat cells. Now, that can continue to grow, and it can get to the point where it starts to affect his life. What's happening is that he's eating like a king. He's eating sunflower seeds day in, day out. They're all over the base of his cage there, which are 30, 40% fat. So for him, he's eating all the calories he can possibly squeeze into that little body of his. But he's doing nothing about burning them off. And what happens in a Galah's body when they get to this sort of stage, is they actually start to produce these fatty lumps almost out of desperation as a way of sending the fat somewhere. So I could get in there now and operate, remove this lump. But he's 42 years old. What I think is going to be as effective is doing something else. So this is essentially the best medicine we can buy for Pretty right now. Take these. Silverbeet. Spinach. Well, wonder drug. Some kale. Kale. All right. So that is going to be what keeps him happy during the day. Not happy with this. And then one thing I have to ask you too, let's for argument's sakes, not for argument's sakes, he loves his pasta. He loves pasta. Tell me this. He really loves pasta. Maurizio is now telling me everything that he's ever fed Pretty. It's like some sort of confessional. And it's shocking. So what else does he love? He likes steak too. He likes the fat off the steak as well. If I can give him sort of spinach and ricotta in the latte, he doesn't mind it. But he likes a good veal tortellini. Baby, tell him that you like pasta. Tell him, it's not my fault. Will you say something in my defence? The tricky thing here is that Maurizio truly believes that he's been doing the right thing for Pretty by giving him what he sees as being a balanced diet. But there's no other way of looking at it. Pretty and Maurizio have ultimately been feeding this tumour. So he's going to eat himself skinny with this correct diet. He's not going to like me. He's going to get a dessert spoon of millet. Stalk there. Pretty's path to enlightenment is pretty simple. A dessert spoon of millet twice a day. And then green veggies, kale, silverbeet, spinach, readily available. Do those and Pretty will be sitting pretty. It's just hard to imagine going from pasta, cannoli, steak, fish, chicken, nuts, fruit to what, three different types of grass, basically? A little bit of millet seed. It's going to be very interesting. Very, very interesting. But the reality is simple. Unless Maurizio stops feeding Pretty fatty food and puts him on a strict diet, the senior citizen won't survive. You have to promise me, no matter how much he complains, no matter how much he talks to you, no matter how much he probably asks. And he will. Possibly in Italian for pasta. Exactly. You cannot give in. Because if you give in, you shorten his life. Yeah, exactly. Look, whatever needs to be done, needs to be done. As you said, you know, it would be ridiculous to take his life to this extent and not let him live it out. Do you just go, it's a bit of a, you know, an Italian thing when you sort of go, yeah, baby. What's going on? Oh, that's going to be difficult. Definitely going to be difficult. Difficult versus health and life. There's going to be no comparison between the two. So I have to do something about it and we are. This Italian Australian is now eating salad. Pretty's already diving headfirst into his new diet and his life plan. But I really feel like the big test here is Maurizio. If he can not give in to temptation, if he can stay strong, then we've got a real hope of shrinking his tumour. Thank you, Dr. Chris. You know, I don't think anyone enjoys being on a diet, but with Pretty, the hope was it would actually help him avoid a surgery. I'm just not sure he's going to appreciate that fact. If I say you haven't been eating your grains, you know what you're going to get, don't you? More biopsies. It's been four months since Chris last saw Pretty and Maurizio. Hey, Dr. Chris. How are you? Good, man, how are you? I'm good, I'm good. I'm not checking up, but I am checking up. Now Chris is back to see whether these two best mates have stuck to the prescribed diet and whether the tumour on Pretty's leg has shrunk. Pretty used to being on a diet of almost everything. But the highlights? Cashews, pasta, ravioli, sunflower seeds, salami. Now, just kale, spinach, silverbeet and millet. I think you look amazing. I just want to prove it to myself. There's not much of a swelling there that is in his leg. Whereas before, there was a real separation. There was a separation, yeah. There was a big, thick bubble coming up. But it was, I mean, it was huge before. He looks healthier. Anyone would think that healthy living has its advantages. Eat your greens. Even for someone like me who works with animals all the time, I find it amazing that you can actually shrink down a tumour just by using the right food. But it's exactly what's happened with Pretty. It's great news for both Pretty and Maurizio. As hard as it has been to stick to this diet, I'm very happy, obviously, that I've seen the tumour go down myself. Well, I'm happy because he's going to have a longer life and hopefully a better quality of life. Chris, thank you. I do appreciate it very much. Good luck. For Maurizio and Pretty, they've been together for 42 years and thankfully this simple change in his diet could give them 42 more years. The Bondi Clinic attracts a chair of colourful characters and today Mr Pettibone and his devoted owner Henry are on their way in to see Dr Chris. Henry and his West Highland white terrier are inseparable. Henry on his Harley, happy to play chauffeur and Mr Pettibone riding pillion, backpack style. You all right? Come on. Dogs riding around on motorbikes isn't new. You look in the country and plenty of kelpies do it. But in the city, as a West Highland white terrier, facing backwards in a backpack, that's never been done before. Neil, how are you? Nigel, thank you, nice to see you. Good to see you again. Yeah, where's Mr Pettibone? He's here waiting for you. Thanks, Zach. Usual happy self. Hello, little fella. So happy there. All right. I need to see Chris. Back in trouble. All right, great. Just take a seat and I'll let him know you're here. Want him on the scars? Yeah, we'll pop him on. Great, thanks. I don't have a car and I was shopping for some pet food for him when he was a puppy. And I saw the harness and I thought, I wonder if I could put him in that and get him on the bike. And I checked out the laws. And then the first ride out, I had a friend with me who's a keen animal lover and he rode behind. And I said, I want you to be dead honest about how he responds to it all. And he rode behind and he said, it looks like he just dug up a bone. Which made me really happy. Want to hop on the scars? Hop up. Sit. Good boy. Put a bit of weight on. 10-6, Neil. He appears a little bit nervous, which is funny because we come along here at a fair clip sometimes and within the speed limit, of course. But he gets around on the back of a large motorbike quite comfortably. But coming to the vet, he just is a little bit too, I don't know about this. Pepe, kiss. Give me a kiss. Mr. Pettibone, give me a kiss. Oh, are you kidding? Mr. Pettibone suddenly isn't in the mood for kisses. He knows something is up. How are you, Henry? Chris. Hi, good to see you. Good to see you again. That's the way. Mr. Pettibone's back to see you. He's on four legs instead of two wheels. He's left them out in the front. Say hello to Chris. Yes. Hey, buddy. Come on through. Come in with him. Come on. Good boy. Excuse me. Tom, we can't offer you motorized transport now. You have to do it all by yourself. Mr. Pettibone. You're going to have to come with us now. Go on. Even though this biker dog isn't wearing a leather jacket or the patches or doesn't have the tats, he's still showing every bit of attitude we'd expect. He does want to see the vet. Maybe one day we'll go riding together. Come on. It is a postie bike. Maybe that was the hesitation. Fair enough. Come on, let's go. Good boy. How's he been? All right, apart from that ear. I've just been on holidays, come back. And it was a problem again. So I thought I'd better bring him in and let you have a look at it. And there's also just below your hand is, he seems to have developed a lump, which I'd like to know about. Down there it is. All right, let's look at this lump first. I'm feeling worried sick to the stomach at this moment. I've lost a dog to cancer before. And frankly, having that dog put down was the worst thing I've ever had to do in my life. I'm terrified of what that lump could be. Let's look at this lump first, because they can come up, I guess, reasonably quickly, but they have this very distinctive feel to them. Mr Pettibone is one of Chris's regular patients at the Bondi Clinic. Devoted owner Henry has just pointed out a newly formed lump on his little mate's chest. How old is he now? About eight and a half. I'm terrified that it could be something horrible. I've lost a dog to cancer before. So despite everything, I'm feeling very, very nervous today. It's okay. Owners are always incredibly concerned when they see a lump on their dog or cat. And with good reason. Sometimes lumps can mean really bad news. I'm pretty sure I know what that is. See, a lot of dogs, once they reach a certain age, they're quite prone to developing little lumps called lipomas, which are fatty lumps. Right. They're quite soft, because essentially that is filled with fat. Big question is, are they dangerous? They shouldn't be. Good. I love that dog more than life itself. And my head just went to the worst scenario. Let me get a little sample out of that. We'll see what we find. Okay. You can feel a lump all you like. But the only way of knowing for sure is by sticking a needle into that lump and drawing some cells out. It's okay. Good boy. Good little fella. It's all right. Extra smoked salmon this afternoon for you. Good boy. Did you say smoked salmon? I did say smoked salmon. It doesn't really go with the image, does it? Come on. Don't tell anyone. All right. So that's a pretty decent sample there. You can see it's quite clear. So also when I put it across the slide there, it streaks across and then it gathers into droplets. Right. Okay. Oh, I see that now. Yeah. It's one of the simplest facts of science that oil and water don't mix. So if this is from a fatty lump and full of oil, then putting a few droplets of water on it and mixing them together should tell us if it is actually fat. See that? Yeah. So we've got an oil slick on top of that. You can see that very clearly. So that's a pretty rough test and I'll still look under the microscope to make sure. But the thing is that oil and water don't mix. So it's a reassuring indicator for him? Yeah. So that should be a fatty lump. Right. When Chris took the sample out of the lump and explained to me it was a fatty lump, as he so technically called it, my heart returned to a normal rhythm. I was so glad because I was so nervous that it could have been something horrible. But at this stage, I'm feeling a lot more relief that it's just something fairly innocuous. But Mr Pettibone isn't out of the wars just yet. Okay, so these ears. Okay, his right ear is flared up again. I was away for a bit and my daughter was looking after him and she did a fairly good job but the infection seems to have gotten away a bit. The infection seems to have gotten away a bit. Okay, so he's finding that to be quite sore and is he rubbing at it? Scratching at it, shaking his head recurringly. Yeah, okay. At the Bondi Clinic, Chris is investigating Mr Pettibone's persistent ear infection. What I find interesting about this is that it's flared up when you've been away. Right. Now, obviously you have been around to look after him but the one thing that helps ease out, the one thing that prevents infection in ears is ventilation, is airflow. Right. When you're away, what doesn't he have? He doesn't have the rides on your bike. He doesn't have the bike. What you probably find is that when he's on the back of that bike, it's the best natural ear cleaner and ear dryer you can possibly hope for. Because that wind rushes through his hair and dries out any moisture sitting in those ears. When you're away and it doesn't happen, this happens. The fact that Mr Pettibone's ear on this side hangs a little bit lower, I'm sure is actually playing a part because what it's doing is reducing how much ventilation, how much airflow this ear gets. Maybe that's the whole thing. It's not the image. It's the ear. He says it's his best medicine. Look at that. Self-healing mutt. Who would have thought? So we'll just put some drops in there now. This is the part he doesn't like. Along with the drops, Chris is also cleaning out the Westie's ear. Just give that a little bit of a... I think that face says it all, doesn't it? These drops will work incredibly well to take out some of the inflammation but also treat the infection. That's looking a lot better there. That's looking great. Very clean. What's that scientific word you used? Gunk? I think it was gunk. Yeah. Yeah, all the gunk seems to have gone. You can look it up if you like. It's in all the major vet textbooks. Oh, fantastic. Mr Pettibone was apprehensive about coming in here in the first place but he shouldn't have worried. What I've done is actually hook him up with more bike time. That's got to be good news. You ready to roll? It's time for him to hit the road and he hits the road in style. See you later, Henry. You've got a waiting room full of hot chicks. These Chinese silky chickens are the pampered pets of the equally colourful Chrissie. I think the whole world needs more colour. I love colour and what I do to the chickens, it doesn't hurt them. It's completely and utterly harmless. They are shampooed in Pantene, conditioned in Pantene and then I put food colouring which is totally harmless to them, harmless to me and then I blow dry them. And that's how we get our little coloured chickens. I knew it was you. Who else does this? Good to see you. You too. Now who can I grab? You can grab this one if you'd like, yeah. Okay. Fabulous. And that one. Chrissie's one of the clinic's colourful characters in every sense of the word. In there. No, wrong door. Let's go. Over the years, I've seen Chrissie for a number of problems all to do with her pets. Here we go. Close the barn door. Now it appears the chickens are next up. I've got no idea what to expect with these chickens. What is the crisis? The crisis, Chris, I have the crisis in here. This is chick number four. I have this little one isolated from these guys. This little one is losing weight dramatically. You can actually feel the keel bone and she's very sticky in her beak, white sticky in her beak. She kind of looks a little tired too. It's clear straight away, look at the yellow chicken. This is why Chrissie is so concerned because a chicken just shouldn't look like this. This quiet, you get worried. At the Bondi clinic, Chrissie is extremely concerned about her Chinese silky chicken, Goofy. She's really, really lethargic and she is sleeping a lot. Whenever I look, she's got a little head in the back, sleeping. I mean, she should be up and proud like these guys are. Yeah. Whereas she's very withdrawn. She has no energy. She doesn't look good. No, she doesn't. Whereas all the rest of Chrissie's chickens are all colourful and active and looking to create chaos, the yellow chicken is completely different. She's quiet, she's withdrawn, almost looks like she wants to go to sleep. It's strange to see anything to do with you being quiet. I know. I'm not coping. I can't cope. If I lose another one, I'll be beside myself. Last week, I lost one. There were the three of them and I had a beautiful big pink one and I lost her and I'm really concerned that whatever the pink one had may have gone to this one. Sure. Chrissie is understandably worried. Little Coco, the pink chicken, died without warning. I thought she was fine and just last week, I came out one morning and she'd gone to chook heaven. The thing with chickens is you normally don't see a lot wrong with them until it's too late. So for her to be actually showing signs of weakness right now, she must be pretty unwell. Yeah. I knew she was sick, but she's a whole lot sicker than I thought. So I just hope that I've got her here in time. Let's get a weight from her and see where we're at. Bugger lugs here. 1.6 kilograms. Big difference. So she's almost triple her weight. Almost triple. So she's eating as much as the others, would you say? Yes, absolutely. And taking fluids. Yet despite all that, she's fading away compared to the rest. Absolutely. She does look worryingly skinny there. Yeah. Let's have a look again. There are a few areas in her mouth that don't look spot on. It's all a little bit sticky. Yeah, it's sort of got that white sticky. It shouldn't smell great. No, it's terrible, isn't it? Foul smelling breath and mucus in the mouth could be a sign of infection. But Chris will need to do a full examination to see if there are any other symptoms. All right, let's have a listen to her. Listening to Goofy's heart, it sounds OK. It's when I look at her breathe that I really get worried. You can see her whole body move. Yes. Yeah. Attempt to get the air in. I just fear that perhaps the infection we're seeing around her nose is actually a small part of what's going on. I worry that she may actually have an infection further down in her air sacs, actually in sort of the equivalent of her lungs. Like pneumonia, like we get. Look how much she has to really push and suck that air in to actually get a breath. For a chicken, that's just not normal. With every breath, she burns so much energy just getting the oxygen in that sustains her, that no matter how much she eats, she's never going to eat enough to replace the energy she's burning just through doing something as simple as breathing. Any animal that breathes like this is a concern. You can see the effort she puts in just to get one single breath. She dips her head, she musters up all her strength, and with one big effort, sucks the air in as hard as she can. That's just one breath. She has to take thousands of those each day. It's no wonder that she is so stressed and she's lost weight. Okay. Well, we need to work out some treatment for her. Yep, sure do. Yeah, very quickly. With Goofy so sick and time so tight, we can't afford to choose an antibiotic that doesn't work here. That's why I'm going to use two, and that way I've got every chance of having success here. As well as antibiotics, Chris is also giving Goofy a worming treatment. The wormer obviously removes the chance that the worms are playing a part here, but the two different antibiotics are going to try to get into her system now and kill off the bacterial infection that's really starting to affect her. So how long before I see a difference? Look, hopefully within about three to four days. Right. So your big goal is to get her through the next three to four days. Okay, yep. If you can do that, then I'm confident that we're going to be okay. Fantastic. Thank you. I'm very happy with what Chris has done. So now we can just fingers crossed and pray. Say thank you, Chris. Thank you. Little smiley.