Angelina and Raphael the Guinea Pigs Ferne and Rory's Vet Tales

Hiya. I'm Ferne. I'm in Manchester, in England, to go to a school that

has gorgeous guinea pigs, and they're getting a visit

from the vet. This is going to be great.

And I'm Rory. I'm here at a safari park in Stirling, in Scotland,

to see how the vet here cares for the birds of prey.

# 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! #

Hi, I'm Lily.

Hi, I'm Amelia.

Our class has two guinea pigs.

They're called Angelina and Raphael.

We look after them.

They're so cute.

We love them very much.

# Everybody do this, do this, do this

# Everybody do this left, right, great. #

Hello, everybody.

-ALL:

-Hi, Ferne.

That was such a fantastic song. I loved it.

-Hi, Miss Smith.

-Hi, Ferne. Would you like to meet

-our class guinea pigs?

-Yes, please, that would be awesome.

-Where are they?

-We'll show you.

-You'll show me? Thank you.

-See you soon.

-Bye.

-Bye. Bye-bye.

Look at these gorgeous guinea pigs.

You girls are so lucky to have them in your classroom.

-Do you like having guinea pigs?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Which one is Raphael?

The one with the hair fringe.

He's got lots of hair. Angelina's the smooth one, and

-Raphael's the really big, fluffy one?

-Mm-hm.

They are absolutely gorgeous.

Guinea pigs are part of the rodent family,

like mice and rats, and they are some of my favourite animals.

-Shall we get one out for a cuddle?

-Come on out now.

-Go.

There we go. Hello. GUINEA PIG SQUEAKS

-Would you like to hold her?

-Ah.

-And I'll just close the cage.

-Well done.

-Nice girl.

Wow, she is fantastic, isn't she?

Look how friendly she is.

What is your favourite thing to do when you look after the guinea pigs?

-I love holding them.

-I love feeding them.

-Yeah.

Do you like feeding them? They love chewing on things, don't they?

Is that guinea pigs chatting to you?

-Can I hold Angelina?

-Yeah.

-Well, they are looking fantastic,

but I hear that sometimes someone has to come and visit them.

-Who's that?

-Vet Kate's coming.

-Did you hear that, Angelina?

Vet Kate's coming to see if you're OK. Fantastic.

GUINEA PIG SQUEAKS

This is vet Kate.

She knew she wanted to be a vet

when she was five years old.

She has once helped a very large swan.

And when she treats ferrets,

she finds them really smelly.

-Morning, guys.

-Hi, Kate.

-Hi, Kate.

-Hi.

-It's really special

that you get to come to the school to check out the guinea pigs.

-It's fantastic.

-Oh, thank you for having me. It's really cool

-cos I can show you what I do.

-Which guinea pigs should we start with?

-Angelina.

-Angelina.

-Good idea.

-Fantastic. Oh, look at her.

-Where do you need to start?

-We're going to use this special torch

-to look into her eyes there.

-Why do you use the torch?

So I can see right to the back of her eyes and make sure that she can

see me, and I'm looking to make sure there's no signs of infection,

so sometimes they get like snotty discharge and crusty bits,

and soreness, so we can see that when we've a look.

Her eyes are really clear, so now we look the nose for snot, to make sure

that that's nice and clean. Have a look at those big teeth.

Wow. Can you see those teeth? They are massive.

Wow. Rodents' teeth never stop growing, so that's why

they need lots of things in their cage that they can gnaw on.

-So, Angelina's teeth are looking good.

-Really, really good.

Ears, OK. Again, we're looking for infection of sinus.

Next up, we're going to use this. Do you know what this is called?

-A stethoscope.

-That's right. This is a stethoscope.

And I use this to listen to her heart and her lungs.

HEART BEATS

Guinea pigs have fast hard rates because they're little, but she's

nice and relaxed, and that's cool.

Would you like to have a listen as well? Hear her heart there.

-What does it sound like, Lily?

-SHE TAPS RHYTHMICALLY

-It's really fast, isn't it?

-I heard that.

Can you hear that? Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick...

How do you think her heart sounds, Emilia? Is it a healthy heart?

-Yeah.

-I think it's a healthy heart as well.

-Well done.

So then, the next job on the list is to feel her tummy.

What do you feel for in her tummy?

So, we're making sure she's comfortable,

and we're making sure that she hasn't got any food stuck.

-She's got quite a chubby tummy, doesn't she?

-She does yes,

but guinea pigs often do, so it's fine.

And actually, although she's got a bit of extra, she's not too bad.

-So she can have treats?

-I think so. The next thing we've to do,

and she may not like us doing this, but we've to flip over and just have

a very quick look at her tum-tum. We're checking to make

sure she's clean, so that's perfect.

Angelina is looking great, and now it's Raphael's turn.

She gets the same check over from Vet Kate.

Eyes.

Nose.

Teeth.

Ears.

Heart and lungs.

And tummy.

Is Raphael as chubby as Angelina?

She isn't as chubby, no. She's a nice weight.

She's got lots more fluff, hasn't she?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

That's why I love Raphael's fringe.

Yeah, I love Raphael's fringe, too.

She's got a tiny little bit of matted fur there, so we ought to

just help her out with that, and I think she could do with a claw clip,

but other than that, ten out of ten on the health front.

-Ten out of ten.

-Yay!

SHE LAUGHS

Let me explain.

Guinea pigs' nails grow just like ours.

So, without regular trimming, it could lead to them overgrowing and

curling into their foot pads, which could be very sore for them.

Each nail has a blood vessel, known as the quick, which is pink or red

in colour. So it's important to let your vet or someone experienced trim

your guinea pig's nails so they are always cut in the correct place.

-Right, so it's nail clipping time.

-Absolutely.

So we're just going to take the very end off there, look.

See, she's not bothered one tiny bit.

So this isn't hurting Raphael at all. It's just like us

-getting our own nails clipped.

-Good girl, Raphael.

You can see this one here, girls, is actually quite curly.

-Good girl. Good job, team. Excellent.

-Well done.

So her feet are looking a lot better,

but there's one more thing Raphael that needs, isn't there?

Yeah. She has got a little bit of a hair disaster going on.

Matting like this can be prevented by brushing long haired guinea pigs

every day, but today Kate is going to give Raphael a bit of a trim.

So this is to make sure she doesn't get any poo or wee stuck in here.

-It doesn't hurt at all.

-She's making loads of noise,

but that's cos she's a guinea pig.

This is just like us getting our own hair cut.

-I'm just going to take that little one off as well.

-Fantastic.

-Good girl.

-Raphael, that's all we were doing.

Good job, Raphael.

-Kate, how are the class guinea pigs doing?

-I'm really pleased with them.

While we take these guinea pigs for some much needed play time,

let's see what else has been happening at Kate's vets.

Back at the vet practise, Vet Kate and her team had a busy day.

Betty the Jack Russell terrier was here for a check-up.

George and Alfie the West Highland terriers were in

to have their teeth cleaned.

And Charlie the black cockapoo was in for some tests.

He had some blood samples taken before being reunited

with his owner, Ned.

Lily and Amelia,

I've had a wonderful time meeting you two and your gorgeous classroom

guinea pigs, Angelina and Raphael. I'd love to come back and see

-how they're getting on. Would that be all right?

-Yeah.

-Yes.

Thank you very much. I wonder what Rory's been up to today.

HORN HONKS

This safari park near Stirling

is home to some fantastic birds of prey.

Today I'm with head vet Paddy, as he checks up on some of these

magnificent animals.

BIRD SQUAWKS

-Rory, this is Dominic, our keeper.

-Good to meet you.

-How's it going?

-And who is this?

-This is Willow.

-She's a six-year-old female lanner falcon.

-She is an absolute beauty.

Lanner falcons are found in Africa and Asia parts of Europe,

and they're among the fastest birds in the world. What are we going to

-be doing for this lovely lady today?

-We're going to cope her beak so the

beak carries on growing, it's just like your fingertips and

-as that grows, it needs filing down.

-Okey doke. So as you say,

birds' beaks keep on growing and in the wild they'd have rocks and trees

to rub their beak against and wear it down. What have we got to do?

We're going to put a hood on her so she believes it's night-time,

-calm so she doesn't get bothered.

-Great.

-Dave's going to come across,

-He's made sure she's restrained.

-You're holding the wings tight,

-so they don't jump out.

-And I hold the head, keep the bottom part

of the beak closed and just file away.

This doesn't hurt the bird. It's like getting your fingernails done.

Paddy, how often would have to do this kind of thing on a falcon?

So it depends on what they're being fed, activity levels, so

there's no hard and fast rule about when you need to do it.

Just need to keep an eye on them. And Willow seems really calm.

-Is that your all good, Dom?

-That's it, yeah.

So just like in the wild, a nice little extra bit on the end there.

-Paddy, are you quite happy?

-Absolutely.

Nicely shapen, so that should do her fine. We're going to go have a look

at a hooded vulture, to have a look at the feet and talons.

Dom, you've got Kevin in your hands here. What's going on?

Kevin has got a small crack in one of his pads just under his toe.

And what are you going to be looking for here, Paddy?

I want to see the crack is getting smaller and there's no

swelling or infection around the area. We're going to look underneath

and pull his talons out. Just to see. This cut is just on this toe.

Just on the inside there.

A couple of weeks ago, that was a little bit red and raw and that's

-now healing up quite nicely.

-Great. So who are we going to look at next?

We're going to see the barn owl who has got a problem with his foot.

-So who have we got in here then?

-We have Nemo. He's our barn owl.

-We're going to look at his foot.

-Hello, Nemo.

-I'm just going to put

-him in a cloth to keep him nice and calm.

-What are we checking for?

Nemo had a problem with one of the talons and unfortunately it

got really badly infected and the talon dropped off.

We're just really checking to make sure that Nemo is comfortable and

that there is no swelling on the foot or any signs of any scabs

-or problems that, and everything is looking lovely.

-And he's not going

-to suffer too much from lose that talon there?

-No. If it was a back

talon like this one here then he might have a few issues perching,

but at the moment, he's got the other two, which will act fine,

so he shouldn't have any problems.

I have had an amazing time seeing all these birds of prey.

-I think they're awesome. Thank you.

-No problem.

-You're welcome.

Not long ago, I met Amelia, Lily and their class's pet guinea pigs,

Angelina and Raphael, and I'm back to see how they're getting on after

their visit from the vet.

-Hi, Ferne.

-Hi, Ferne.

Hi, girls.

-How are you?

-Good.

And how are these gorgeous guinea pigs doing?

They're looking really good.

They are so good.

They are looking wonderful.

How are they since they got their nails clipped?

-They're good and it didn't hurt at all.

-Great.

Raphael was making lots of noise, but it didn't hurt and the hair

-is looking good as well.

-Yes.

-I might have combed their hair.

-Good.

It looks like you've been taking fantastic care of these guinea pigs.

Thank you for letting me come and visit you. Thank you for joining us

and finding out all about these guinea pigs, Raphael and Angelina.

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

ALL: 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! #