SHORI (off-screen): Hmm, there you go.
Good boy!
DR. OAKLEY (off-screen): Hi, Shori.
SHORI (off-screen): Hi, Dr. Oakley.
DR. OAKLEY (off-screen): Hi, Skittles. How are you?
Uh-oh. You’re limping.
SHORI (off-screen): Yeah.
DR. OAKLEY: What happened with Skittles?
SHORI (off-screen): I don’t know.
DR. OAKLEY: Okay.
SHORI (off-screen): I came here today because my dog, Skittles,
who’s almost 12, just seemed to start having some hip issues.
And when he went to jump in the truck, he didn’t make it.
Since then he can’t even keep his balance, really.
DR. OAKLEY: Is it the right one? SHORI (off-screen): Yeah.
DR. OAKLEY: Yeah, his right hind.
Okay, I thought I saw it just when he stood up.
We’ll kind of move him around a little bit.
Sierra, can you walk him towards me?
SIERRA: Skittles! Come on!
SHORI (off-screen): Skittles grew up here in Haines.
It’s bear country.
Two days ago, he ran two bears off of me
on the Chilkoot fishing.
Without my dog, I believe
I would have probably been tasted at the least.
SIERRA (off-screen): Come on!
SHORI: So he’s my bear dog, and I need him.
DR. OAKLEY (off-screen): The knee is, yeah, a little bit, kind of wonky.
He also looks a little sore to me in his front elbows,
both of them at different times.
I can do some feels, but I might want to also take a quick x-ray,
if that’s okay with you, so we can figure it out.
SHORI (off-screen): Absolutely.
DR. OAKLEY: And then you also have two kitties, I see, for me.
SHORI (off-screen): I do.
DR. OAKLEY: I haven’t met these kitties, have I?
SHORI: You haven’t. Maynard and Naked.
DR. OAKLEY: Maynard and Naked.
SHORI: Yeah. They are brothers,
and they’re just over a year old.
DR. OAKLEY (off-screen): And so why is this little kitty named Naked?
SHORI: Ah, um, well, it was actually my daughter’s cat,
but she loves the fact that she can scream,
“I’m gonna go get Naked.”
(laughter)
And that’s how we ended up with a naked cat.
DR. OAKLEY (off-screen): That’s pretty awesome.
SHORI: Yeah. We have fun with it.
DR. OAKLEY: Yeah. Sounds like it.
And what’s going on with these guys?
SHORI (off-screen): Maynard needs shots and checkup.
DR. OAKLEY (off-screen): Okay.
SHORI: Naked has a preexisting condition.
DR. OAKLEY: That was the heart issue, right?
SHORI: Yes. DR. OAKLEY: Mm-hmm.
SHORI: I’m hoping you can, at least,
maybe give me a second opinion on.
DR. OAKLEY (off-screen): Oh, okay.
We’ll do his exam and get started on that for sure.
SHORI (off-screen): Okay.
DR. OAKLEY: All right, we’ll take the creatures in
and, ooh, they’re heavy.
SIERRA (off-screen): Come on! DR. OAKLEY (off-screen): Oof!
SHORI: My biggest fear is that my bear dog is gonna be retired,
like permanently,
and not able to just, you know, go out even to be out.
DR. OAKLEY (off-screen): There he is!
Skittles, how are ya?
SHORI: Um…
what I hope will happen is nothing serious.
DR. OAKLEY (off-screen): All righty.
We’re gonna get a couple x-rays of his elbows and knees.
So for Skittles, there’s a couple different things
that can be going on.
I mean, a dog can have arthritis
wherever there’s pressure in the joint.
Um, they also have like a flat little ligament
that cushions both the bones.
You can get a tear in that little meniscus.
So, since I’m not seeing anything obvious in the gait,
it’s best for me now to do an x-ray.
That made you so nervous.
I’m so sorry.
Good boy.
You just hold tight.
Let’s see if we can spread these elbows.
With an x-ray, I can actually look at both the upper bone,
the femur, and the tibia, and even the patella,
which all make up the knee joint.
(beep)
Okay, back up a bit.
But I can also see if the knee joint itself
is kind of swollen.
Like, I’ll actually see if it’s expanded with fluid.
I’m gonna come have a peak.
You stay with him, okay?
See what I got so far.
That looks great.
There’s definitely some arthritis there.
Yeah, so look at the tibia.
The top of it’s all rough and icky.
The x-rays look good.
They look like he’s got arthritis,
which I’m not super surprised, due to his age.
When dogs have arthritis,
sometimes they’ll get up really obviously stiff,
and then they’ll sort of work through it
as they kind of warm up and move around.
Good boy!
I’m just gonna try to put his leg through the motion.
No swelling.
I’m gonna send him home with some anti-inflammatories
that can help with that little bit of arthritis that I see.
He’s actually in awesome shape,
like, and, and, yeah, he’s got a little bit of a limp,
but he’s got, you know,
he just seems like he’s got so much life left in him.
So it’s just gonna be rest and some anti-inflammatories to keep him quiet.
