My name is Marty Halina.

I'm the head veterinarian here at Vancouver Korean Marine Mammal Rescue Society.

Welcome to our first Instagram live.

So I know you're all here to see me.

So I'm just going to spend a good half an hour just talking about veterinary stuff.

And oh, wait, I guess there's this guy, a girl, actually, I should say.

So today we are going to do one of the things that I really just don't like too much.

And that's, we're going to go ahead and give this little girl a checkup.

So this sea otter, he has yet unnamed, is about four to five weeks of age.

She came to us about eight days ago and was found likely orphaned, no mom around.

These guys are very, very dependent on their mom for everything when they're little.

Grooming, feeding, moving around.

They don't dive on their own.

They do move around on their own, but they don't dive on their own.

And so when they come into our facility as an orphan, they are under 24 hour care.

It's very, very intensive.

The volunteers and our staff are working tirelessly.

I do nothing except for this incredibly tiresome chore, which is to have a really good look at our little girl here.

So let's just do a few little things here.

We're going to check lymph nodes.

I know this is really terrible for me as it is for this one.

Axillaries.

Just looking for signs of infection.

We're going to count the limbs.

We've got one, two, three, four.

That's a little joke.

We know she's had four.

We're going to take a little pause here.

I know.

Oh, are you helping?

Now, one thing these guys can get is nasal mites.

Oh, what?

What?

Stop.

Well, don't bite anything else.

So we're just going to do a little eye check.

I know.

I know.

I know.

And then one thing these guys get is nasal mites.

So we're just going to have a really good look up there.

Make sure she doesn't have any nasal mites.

They're kind of gross, kind of yucky.

Not a huge problem, but can make them cough and sneeze and irritate the mucous membranes of the nasal passages and set them up for pneumonias later.

So, oh, just kidding.

All right.

So the other big thing for these guys is that hair coat needs to be perfect.

These guys, unlike a lot of the other marine mammals that we deal with, don't have a blubber layer.

Their insulation is 100% due to this hair coat.

And these guys can have 600,000 to a million hairs per square inch.

And as a pup, those hairs need to be near perfect.

That allows them to float when mom leaves them to go forage.

And of course, insulates them from the cold water of the water that they live in.

So when they're in here, mom's not around.

So that grooming turns to us.

Now, our guys are awesome.

Our staff is amazing, but they are no match for mom.

So it takes a lot of meticulous care.

It takes a lot longer than mom would normally care.

And there are a couple of little mats happening here.

So I'll just take note of those and make sure the staff is well aware of that.

So definitely getting our two-fers in.

These guys have huge crushing power when they get older.

These guys eat a lot of invertebrates, particularly things with shells.

They can take apart a crab or clam or mussels and just devastate them.

So now we're having fun.

Now we're having fun with the physical exam.

So I think unfortunately, it's this nasty disfigurement that people are quite worried about.

They're not a very pretty creature and we worry about them.

No, I mean, this thing is about the cutest thing that you can ever imagine.

I know.

Plus you like me.

You don't like that camera.

All right.

Body condition.

We check weight twice a day.

Really important for me when I'm looking at how we're taking care of these guys is I want to see weight gain right away.

These guys have a huge metabolic rate.

Again, having to do with that thermoregulation, but also with her growth, of course.

So lots and lots of food needs to go in.

I want to make sure it's going in.

I want to make sure it's coming out properly and we want to make sure there's good weight gain.

Let's do a little abdominal feel here.

Make sure nothing's impacting.

Quick ear check.

Let's distract you with my thumb in your mouth.

And of course, they like a good squeeze on the nose.

Okay.

All right, you guys, that's pretty much it for my exam.

It's probably time for something else fun for this little girl.

And yeah, we'll turn it over to you guys.

If you have any questions, I've got myself.

We have Lindsay over here who's our hospital manager and facility manager for our Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Society.

We're here for the next little bit.

Please ask away.

Okay, so lots of questions popping up here.

Yes, she is adorable.

I guess, why does an otter who lives most of their time in water need to get dried and groomed?

Well, as I think I mentioned before, it really is that hair coat that provides the insulation, allows them to survive at sea, and that hair needs to be perfect.

So if you'll notice, even at the aquarium, our otters that live there, if they're not eating, they're not sleeping, then they are grooming constantly.

And that's the same in the wild.

Now, normally mom would groom this girl, but she's not around obviously, so it's up to us.

So grooming, getting these hairs all straightened up, all dried up, that's very, very important for her.

Here's a question for you, Marty.

How's your belly button?

My belly button?

Oh, my belly button seems fine.

How's her belly button?

Oh, well, that's actually really important.

So one of our last sea otters that was here actually had a prolapsed belly button, essentially a herniation of the umbilicus that was coming up.

So that did require surgical care.

I believe that actually wasn't mentioned and shown on one of our TV programs.

It was a pretty exciting surgery for us to do on a little otter.

But this one has got a fine belly button.

Everything's in the right place.

Marty, I saw a question about whether you use a different stethoscope for this little one versus a human one.

Nope, this is a human stethoscope.

So sometimes the size of the bell varies, but we, this one's a little bit feisty to use the stethoscope on right now.

We'll wait until she's asleep and not noisy, and then she might not eat the stethoscope while we're doing things.

So I don't know, should we let her go for a swim or?

I think a swim would be great.

A swim is exactly what the doctor ordered for this little monster.

There's a couple comments here about you, Marty.

Dr. Marty annoys the animals just as much as he does his staff.

Yeah, no, I'm fantastic at annoying the veterinary staff.

It's something I've been working on for a lot of years, and I think I've perfected it, quite honestly.

Okay, yeah, agreed.

Agreed.

One final one before we go swimming.

We want to touch base on her name.

Does she have one yet?

She does not.

We definitely have some good suggestions and more pouring in.

I think for fun, what we're going to try and do is set it up for kind of a vote.

So I think in the next few days, keep on the lookout.

We'll have a few names out there, and we're going to ask all of our friends out there in the world and fans of this otter to go ahead and give her a name.

I think it's time for a swim.

I think so too, because I'm about to lose all of my fingers quickly.

You want to take her?

I will take her.

Come here, monster.

All righty, someone's feisty.

So saltwater pool.

I know.

And time for a little swim.

So she is really becoming more and more of an otter every day.

You know, even the last eight days, we've seen her confidence in the water grow, seen her ability to groom herself, improve a lot almost on a daily basis.

And she's, yeah, she's really coming along.

She's definitely following the milestones we've set for her.

Now, there is a lot that can still go wrong.

So this process is very, very intensive.

Again, a lot of staff required lots of things that can still go wrong and lots of potential things that we haven't just recognized that could be going on with her as yet.

So lots and lots of work to be done.

But so far, pretty happy with her.

So she swims on her side, which is sort of strange.

She gets a little waterlogged.

And any other questions while we're waiting?

So Marty, what should people do if they see marine mammals this summer when they're on the beach or on the boat?

Well, hopefully not.

Most marine mammals around here are doing perfectly normal things in perfectly normal places.

If folks do see an animal that they feel is in distress or acting abnormally, it's really important to go ahead and give either the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans a call on their hotline or go ahead and call our facility hotline.

And we'll go ahead and work through what you're seeing, ask you a bunch of and mount appropriate response if necessary.

So a question here about what her weight is.

I believe she's at 2.5, no, 2.7 kilograms as of today.

So definitely a good weight gain.

Now we're seeing a little bit of what happens on the other end of a sea otter.

So she's being fed a specialized formula that is based around a commercial veterinary grade carnivore milk replacer that's mixed with clams mostly and a puppy formula.

Well, that was the milk matrix.

Yeah.

Thanks for that.

You're welcome.

I have a more important job to do.

Yeah, you do.

And we have our special matter collecting net there, which is awfully handy.

There's probably going to be a little bit more there.

As we know, what goes in must come out to a certain extent.

And another question here, what's the noise she's making and why?

Well, that's an otter call.

That would be the call she would make for her mom.

Mostly it's, I'm here, I'm excited, things are happening and just kind of normal sea otter pup vocalization, especially when she's excited and doing stuff.

When they're born, do they have teeth?

I see a few little attempts to groom there, which is really good, right?

So look at her.

She's using her paws.

Just, just starting to, there you go.

Just starting to get into it, which is awesome.

Good size.

Yep.

Get head shakes like that and a good few squeaks.

Let us know your lungs are working.

We love it.

Are they born with teeth?

They're not formed exactly with teeth, but they erupt very, very quickly.

So her teeth is only about five weeks old and definitely they're starting to come out.

Another one, actually for yourself, what kind of training did you have to become a veterinarian with the Vancouver Aquarium?

Oh geez.

Yeah.

So definitely there was a bit of school involved.

I got my veterinary degree at the Ontario Veterinary College.

So that usually means an undergraduate degree and then some app applying to veterinary school and then successfully graduating from that program, getting licensed as a veterinarian.

And then for folks who really want to get into this field as veterinarians, really it's a matter of starting to specialize.

So there's a specialty board in the American College of Zoological Medicine, which grants you the right to call yourself a specialist after publishing a number of things and getting approved to take the exam and then of course passing the exam.

Most of us have graduate degrees that we did after vet school, master's, PhDs, that sort of thing.

And then the clinical training, internships, residency.

So yeah, it's a good long road, but very much worth it.

And the staff and volunteers, what's their background?

Some of them.

Oh geez.

Yeah.

So most of our staff here, we have two veterinarians, myself, as well as what we call our veterinary fellow, who's a young veterinarian, fully licensed, starting to go to specialization that spends a year with us, kind of doing advanced training.