Meet Mishka, the Asthmathic Sea Otter That Uses Inhaler

Well, this is astonishingly endearing.

NBC-affiliated and Seattle-based TV station King 5 covered an interesting story at the Seattle Aquarium this week.

Seattle Aquarium "resident" Mishka (the sea otter) is believed to be the first sea other diagnosed with asthma, according to a report by King 5.

Dr. Lesanna Lahner, as per Jacksonville.com, established one-year-old Mishka's condition as "asthma" after her observed breathing difficulty when smoke caused by wildfires clouded Seattle skies.

Dr. Lahner notes, as told by Jacksonville.com, that decrease in the diversity of sea otters led to Mishka's diagnosis.

"Everytime that happens, it reduces the genetic diversity of a species, which can affect their immune system, ability to fight off diseases or deal with environmental contaminants," Lahner informs, as reported by King 5.

Dr. Lahner describes in the video: "These lungs here, you can see, have more white in them. In a normal radiograph of a sea otter, you wouldn't be able to see those things."

King 5 affirms that Mishka might depend on an inhaler for the rest of her otter life. In the same report, Mishka's  trainer, Sara Perry, is seen coaching Mishka using food. The goal is for her to push her nose on the inhaler and take a deep breath - just like a normal person diagnosed with asthma. Mishka's medicine remarkably has the same content as that of the inhaler for humans.

"We want to make this as fun as possible. Any kind of medical behavior you're training, you want to make sure it's nice and positive," says Lahner, as per King 5.

Surprisingly, Mishka the sea otter may be sharing something else with humans aside from her respiratory diagnosis.

"More and more, there starts to be this concept of what we're calling "One Health", which really states that there's a connection between the health of people and the health of other species," says Dr. Peter Rabinowitz, professor at the University of Washington in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and  the Department of Global Health, as quoted by King 5. "Sometimes those species can tell us there is a problem in the environment that could be important for human health as well," Dr. Rabinowitz notes.

Sea otters are known to be extinct in the state of Washington - although, 40 years ago, Alaskan sea otters were brought back. They were reintroduced eventually in the south and on the coasts.

Watch Mishka the sea otter here.