Vet Checks Bring Mushers One Step Closer to the Start Line
Yukon Quest mushers turned up at a warehouse in South Fairbanks again this weekend. This time, with their dog teams in tow. On Saturday, race veterinarians looked over all of the dogs signed up to run. So, what do veterinarians look for and how do they decide if a sled dog is race-ready?
Kritsy Berington guides one of her dogs through a vet check. Schwing/KUAC
Head Veterinarian, Kathleen McGill is checking over one of rookie musher Kristy Berington’s dogs. Copper is clearly named for his color. He has dark brown eyes. He is a little nervous.
“We’re gonna look at his teeth and his gums first. He’s got nice pink gums and his teeth look really good. No infections, eyes are really clear. We check lymph nodes underneath their jaw here and those look good…”
Race rules allow mushers to run up to 14 dogs. That means the vets have about 350 dogs to look over.
McGill presses her fingers into the front of Copper’s shoulder, to the right of his chest and just below the base of his neck.
“Because sled dogs wear a harness, the harnesses can impact the point of the shoulder,” she explains.
Copper has a minor cut on his foot. Berington recently ran him in another race across Alaska’a interior. He’s wearing a maroon-colored bootie on his left front paw.
“Oh yeah. Oh that’s coming along just fine,” says McGill as she looks over his paw. “That looks good. He’s not limping on it or anything?” Berington says he isn’t. The bootie is just there for protection.
McGill says injuries like this are par for the course when it comes to long-distance sled dogs. This will be her sixth year as the Quest’s head vet.
“The dogs can’t speak,” McGill explains. “They can howl and bark, but they can’t tell us where it hurts. And so we as the veterinarian team are the advocates for the dogs. The mushers know their dogs very, very well. We know the medicine and so the two of us together can do what’s best for the dogs.”
Dog care is no joke for race officials. Mushers can be disqualified from the race even before it starts if the animals aren’t in good health.
But that’s not a concern for four-time finisher Mike Ellis. He and his wife Sue won the Veterinarian’s Choice award for dog care after the 2011 Yukon Quest.
Mike Ellis comforts one of his dogs during a check up. Schwing/KUAC
“This is more coming in and showing them off,” says Ellis with a proud smile. “The team just looks perfect. They’re in great shape we don’t really have any issues. They’re ready to go.”
That sense of readiness is exactly what McGill is looking for, but she calls it B.A.R.
“Bright, Alert, Reactive,” she confirms. “f you have a your own pet dog, when you come home and that dogs greets you and is happy and is wagging his tail and wants to lick your face and he’s got bright eyes and is engaged with you, that’s what we’re looking for. But if a dog is withdrawn, typically they don’t feel good, so then we’ve got to look for something else.”
McGill is just finishing up Copper’s checkup.
“We go back and check the back, make sure they have no fat on their back… he looks good, so he’s definitely a five…”
That score, 5, is for overall body condition.
“So, on a scale of one to nine, nine being really obese, one being really skinny ready to die. So, ideal is 4 or five in there somewhere with an athletic dog,” explains McGill.
After the physical, Copper’s paperwork is finalized so he can cross the Canadian Border.
All of Kristy Berington’s dogs checked out well, which calms the nerves of the 29 year old Wisconsin- native-turned Alaskan … for now.
“Yeah, everyday it gets closer to the race, cause you know food drops are due last week, so if I forgot something, oh well I’m just screwed,” she laughs nervously. “And then now vet checks are out of the way and I only brought 14 dogs so if one didn’t pass for some bizarre reason, I would have had to start with 13 so it’s good to see that they all passed. I didn’t have any doubts that they would and so that’s over and so next step we have is the drawing banquet .”
Rookie musher, Kristy Berington smiles during a vet check. Schwing/KUAC
This is one of the final events where mushers and race personnel come together before the race begins. All Yukon Quest rookies are required to attend the official race vet checks. Veteran Quest mushers can have their own vets check their dogs.
