Willow the Dog Ferne and Rory's Vet Tales

Hiya, I'm Fern, and today I'm just outside of Bristol in England

to meet Chloe and her family dog.

And it needs to go to the vet.

This is going to be interesting.

And I'm Rory.

I'm here at a zoo in Bristol to see how the vets here

keep some royal reptiles fit and healthy.

# Ferne and Rory telling you the story

# Of some poorly pets

# We will take them, show you how to make them better at the vet's

# Vet Tales! MEOW!

# These are our Vet Tales!

# Vet Tales! BAA!

# Ferne and Rory's Vet Tales! #

Hello, I'm Chloe!

And this is my dog called Willow.

She's a King Charles spaniel.

And she is so cute!

We play lots and lots.

I blow bubbles and she chases them.

I love giving Willow cuddles.

DING-DONG

-Hi, Chloe!

-Hi, Ferne

-You must be Georgie. Hello!

-Hi, Ferne.

-Hi, Willow!

She's beautiful.

Would you like to come in?

I'd love to!

She's so lovely, look at this belly!

How old is Willow?

Six and a half.

-So she's older than you are!

-Mm.

Is Willow like a furry big sister?

Yeah!

I heard you do something really special with Willow, don't you?

-Yeah, she goes to the doggy dentist.

-That is amazing!

You take her to the vet's to get her teeth cleaned!

-Georgie, why do you take her to the vet's?

-As she gets older,

her teeth get harder to look after and really dirty,

-so the vets keep on top of it.

-Perfect!

So between Willow to the doggy dentist,

-how else do you look after her teeth?

-Come on, I'll show you.

Come on, Willow!

Come on!

Oh, what's in here?

Doggy toothbrush, and doggy toothpaste.

Wow! And this is her special toothbrush?

-Yeah.

-How do you use it?

Well, we put the toothbrush on our finger, you put the toothpaste on,

and then we just brush Willow's teeth.

-But we don't need to brush her teeth today, do we?

-No.

Cos we are going to the vet's.

-Would you like to come, too?

-I would love to!

Shall we go? Come on!

Meet the vet!

This is Martin.

He's been a vet for over 20 years!

He once treated a lion with a sore tooth!

And helped an elephant

with an orange stuck in its throat.

Come on, Willow!

Good girl.

-Right, Willow, do you want to come through?

-Come on!

-Hi, Georgie, hi, Ferne.

-Hi.

-Hi, Chloe.

-Hi.

-How are you?

-Good.

-Good!

Thank you, Martin.

-Shall we get Willow up on the table?

-Sure.

Look at those teeth, Chloe!

-Whoa!

-I know!

So, Martin, what's first?

First thing we need to do is give her a good check over,

to make sure her heart, lungs, and belly are all good,

-and that there's no problems. Has she been well?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-She like her food?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, she does!

So we're going to have a little listen to her heart. OK?

-Oh, this'll be nice. Do you want to listen?

-Yeah?

-Can you hear it?

-Here we go. Pop those in your ears.

-Tell me, what can you hear?

-SLOW BUMPING

-Like, bump, bump, bump...

-That's right.

-Bump, bump...

Do you think it sounds good?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, good.

Also, when I listen to her heart,

I also listen to her breathing, to her lungs, so her lungs are good.

What next, before her teeth?

We'll give her a little medicine to make her a bit sleepy.

That medicine's called anaesthetic.

-But we don't go to sleep when our teeth are going to get cleaned.

-No.

So why is she?

Because she won't sit still nicely for me,

so we're going to make her just a little bit sleepy

and then I can clean all the way round her teeth.

When you go to the dentist, you lie there and go "ahh".

Do you think Willow would do that?

No! She would be like...

Yeah, that's right.

So if she's a bit sleepy, I can open her mouth and I can do it. OK.

Sounds good, doesn't it?

Shall I keep Willow company

-while she gets her anaesthetic and her teeth cleaned?

-Yeah.

-That would be lovely.

-See you later, Willow.

Let me explain.

Anaesthetics are a group of medicines

that make animals comfortable for operations, procedures or tests.

Some anaesthetic will numb an area of the body,

so the patient doesn't feel what's happening.

And sometimes it makes the patient fall into a really deep sleep.

BOING! BOING! BOING!

While Chloe and her mum wait outside,

vet Martin gets Willow ready for her anaesthetic.

Come on, Willow.

OK, sweetheart, little scratch.

That's all.

Well done, Willow.

OK?

Willow gets a small injection of liquid anaesthetic first.

And she's being the perfect patient.

Next, Willow gets more anaesthetic as a gas

through a tube in her mouth.

Willow can't feel any pain at all.

She's fast asleep.

There we go, Willow. Things are going well.

And now, vet Martin is able to start having a good look at her teeth,

and then he can start cleaning them.

This is suction, just like we get in the dentists.

Wow, you can see a difference already!

Are you just getting rid of all of the plaque and the build-up?

-Yes, you can see it coming off.

-Yes!

-Pearly white teeth in a minute.

-Yes!

Are her teeth good for a six-and- a-half-year-old King Charles?

They are good, but they're good because she comes in once a year

and has a good clean up. And then I polish them.

So polishing teeth kind of smooths them over,

-kind of puts a protective layer over them as well?

-Kind of, yeah.

So when they polish your teeth, it's not just to make you look good.

It also has a proper function.

Brushing at home is really important for dogs.

-Should you brush your dog's teeth twice a day?

-Once a day's fine.

As long as you can do it four times a week that's...

a good idea.

Martin cleans and polishes all the teeth in Willow's mouth.

So, Martin, how did Willow do?

She did great. She's had enough anaesthetic,

-that should feel quite comfortable when she wakes up.

-OK.

-So shall we leave her to wake up?

-Yes.

-There we are!

-Hey, Willow.

-Hi, Willow.

Oh, hello! Coming to say hello.

-How are you feeling?

-She did so well, didn't she?

Oh, she did really, really well.

She's a little bit sleepy still,

so if we just give her a little longer, she should be great.

Perfect. How about while Willow wakes up,

we see what else has been happening at the vet's today?

Willow isn't the only dog at the vet's today.

I'm Karen, and you're Eva,

and this is Brian. He's 18 months old.

He's at the vets today because he cut himself on wire,

and he's had his stitches in his leg,

so he's come to have them looked at today.

And Lizzie the cat has been brought in by her owner, Sharon.

Martin gives Lizzie a full check over, and her vaccinations.

It's been a busy day for Martin and his team.

Look who we have!

Willow! Willow!

Still a little bit sleepy, but hi!

Good girl.

Thank you, Martin.

-Thank you very much, Martin.

-No problem.

-Bye!

-Cheers, bye!

Chloe and Georgie, I've had such a wonderful time meeting you,

and Willow did so well in her procedure, it was great to see.

But I'd love to come and visit when she's back to her bouncing self,

-would that be OK?

-Yes.

-Thank you very much.

Let's see what Rory's been up to today.

Vet's go!

TOOT-TOOT!

This zoo has lots of different animals.

They all receive care and attention from a team of resident vets,

and I'm going to meet one of them now.

This way.

-Hi, Charlotte, hi, Kelly.

-Hi, Rory.

-Hi, Rory.

Today, you guys are going to be doing a check-up

-on a royal resident.

-That's right,

today we're doing a check-up on Taylor. Taylor is a royal python.

Wow! That looks a look like a pillowcase to me.

Yes, Taylor's travelling in a pillowcase today,

-to make sure she doesn't get damaged.

-OK.

-So here she is.

-She is beautiful!

Royal pythons are also known as ball pythons,

and they are found in parts of Africa.

They're called royal pythons because it's thought

that African kings used to wear them as giant, living necklaces,

a long time ago. Can you imagine that?

So first of all we're going to check that she's moving around OK,

and that she is nice and strong.

So when I hold her, I can feel her coils are nice and strong

-and she's nice and muscular. She's moving forward nicely.

-Yeah.

-Next, we check her body condition.

-OK.

We want to make sure she's not too fat or too thin

and you do that by running your fingers along the muscles

either side of the spine. She seems in good condition to me.

She looks absolutely gorgeous.

-Next, I want to look in her mouth.

-How do you do that with a snake?!

I'm just going to gently open her mouth with this wooden stick.

-So you can see in there it's a nice pale pink colour.

-Very pale pink.

So that all looks healthy to me.

And you can see that she's flicking her tongue in and out.

-Tasting the air.

-Yes, that's right.

So you and I see the world with our eyes,

and we use our other senses like smell and hearing as well,

and snakes are similar, but they smell with their tongue as well.

-Next thing I'm going to do is get a heart rate.

-Oh, wow!

-The heart in snakes is about a third of the way down.

-OK.

MACHINE CRACKLES

BUMP-BUMP

BUMP-BUMP

-That's incredibly slow! So is that quite normal?

-Yeah.

Snakes and other reptiles do have very slow heart rates.

We'll pop her back in her pillowcase and take her to the X-ray machine.

OK. An X-ray is like a photograph of the inside of your body.

-So we'll see her skeleton?

-That's right.

-We'll see her skeleton and maybe some of her organs as well.

-Amazing.

Charlotte and Kelly stand behind the screen to take the X-ray,

and moments later, I get to see the results.

Wow!

So on here you can see Taylor's skull,

and then the spine, with all the ribs coming off...

-All the way down.

-..all the way down.

-Amazing, aren't they, snakes?

-Absolutely incredible creatures.

Well, she has been really brave. Is there anything else?

No, that's her check-up complete.

-She's done really well.

-Yes, you've been marvellous.

Thank you very much for letting us come and see it all!

Not long ago I met Chloe, her mum Georgie,

and their lovely dog Willow, who had to get her teeth cleaned.

And now I'm back to see how they're getting on back home.

-Hi, Chloe, hi, Georgie.

-Hi, Ferne!

-Hi, Ferne!

-Hi! Hello, Willow!

-Oh, she looks great! How's she getting on, Chloe?

-Good.

-Does she still have her nice, white, shiny teeth?

-Sparkly clean.

-Perfect! And has she been playing lots?

-She's been playing loads.

Good girl, Willow. She's been so good. Shall we play with her now?

-Yeah!

-That would be fun. Come on!

Come on!

GIGGLING

So fast!

-I think Willow wants to play with some bubbles.

-Yes!

LAUGHTER

Go, go, go!

LAUGHTER

Thank you for joining us,

and finding out about Willow and her sparkly teeth!

See you next time for more Ferne and Rory's Vet Tales.

-Bye!

-Bye!

# Ferne and Rory telling you the story of some poorly pets

# We will take them, show you how to make them better at the vet's

# Vet Tales!

# These are our Vet Tales!

# Vet Tales!

# Ferne and Rory's Vet Tales! #