Toni the Tortoise Ferne and Rory's Vet Tales

Hello, I'm Rory. I'm in Berkshire to meet Isabelle

and her tortoise, Toni, who's off to the vet's. And we can go along too.

And I'm Ferne.

I'll be finding out how the vets here at a wildlife park in Kent

are keeping their water-loving residents happy 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

# These are our Vet Tales

# Vet Tales

# Ferne and Rory's Vet Tales. #

Hiya, I'm Isabelle.

This is my sister, Megan.

We have a pet tortoise called Toni.

This is where Toni lives.

She likes going in the garden, too.

She likes her bath.

We love Toni the tortoise.

-Hello, Rory!

-Hello, Isabelle! And you must be Laura.

-Hi, Rory.

Do you want to see our tortoise?

-I'd love to. Shall we go?

-Yeah.

-Come on, then.

Wow, look at Toni!

-How old is she?

-She's three or four years old.

Wow! So, actually, she's quite young for a tortoise

because some can be over 100 years old!

-Now, she's a very special tortoise, isn't she?

-Yeah.

-Why is that?

-Because she's a rescue tortoise.

-Yes, that right. Because she was hurt by a fox, wasn't she?

-Yeah.

Oh, poor tortoise. But you have rescued her,

taken her in and now she looks like she's doing fantastically well.

I hear she's off to the vet's today - why's that?

Because she's got to have a hibernation check.

Do you know what hibernation means?

It means they go to sleep.

Yes! Some animals, including certain kinds of tortoise, hibernate

and that means that they go into a long, deep sleep for the winter.

If you're going to the vet's, I'd love to come along, too.

-Is that OK?

-Yeah.

-Come on, then!

This is vet Sam.

She's been a vet for six years.

As a student, Sam operated on a tiger!

GRRR!

And once, she had to X-ray a Newfoundland dog who had

eaten a mobile phone!

Toni!

Hi!

Hello, Sam.

-Right, shall we get Toni out?

-Hi, Toni.

Sam, it's been six months since Toni was injured by the fox -

how is she getting on?

She's done very well. She got bitten on her shell,

-and you can see here...

-Oh, yeah, look at that.

..but we gave her medicine, and she's bounced back!

Certainly happy to have a wander around!

How do you check over a tortoise?

First, we need to find out, has she been eating

-and drinking well, Isabelle?

-Yep.

-Perfect.

Then we make sure she doesn't have a runny nose or runny eyes.

Can you see any bogeys?

That looks good, doesn't it? Next, we check inside her mouth.

-There we go.

-Look at that!

We're looking to make sure her tongue's nice and pink and

there's no discharge, no sign of infection

and it all looks nice and clear.

-You're happy with that?

-Very happy.

Next, we will watch her move and make sure she's walking nicely.

She's fast, isn't she?

She's really fast! She's off!

-She's got strong legs.

-What are you checking?

You're looking for the strength of the muscles?

Yes, and that she has muscle condition and she's not too skinny.

Then we want to make sure her injuries are healing.

-OK. There's more injuries here, as well?

-Yes, at the back here.

-It can take tens of years for these to grow out.

-Really?

-So she'll have scars for a long time.

-Wow.

-But she's healed nicely.

Next thing, we're going to weigh her.

There we go.

-She's 600g.

-Is that good?

-Yeah, it's a good weight for her size.

Then the last thing we will do is check her shell

so we're going to have a good feel, make sure there's no squidgy bits.

Does it hurt her?

No, it doesn't hurt at all - we're not squeezing her too hard.

Can Toni hibernate?

She looks like she's ready to hibernate,

but we've got a few more checks to do first.

Some animals have a long, deep sleep through wintertime

to survive the cold temperatures.

This is called hibernating.

Hibernation is a time of inactivity

where the animal's body temperature lowers

and their breathing and other organs slow down.

Once they've finished hibernating, their bodies will return to normal

and they will waken and start to eat and drink again.

Sam, what else do we need to do to check that Toni's

-ready for hibernation?

-From her checks so far,

she's looking really healthy.

But I'd like to take an X-ray to check she's healthy on the inside.

Right, an X-ray is like a picture of the inside of your body

so you can see if there's anything to do before she hibernates.

-Exactly.

-Great.

-I'll take her off now, then.

-See you soon, Toni!

-We'll see you in a bit.

-See you in a bit!

Toni is carefully secured to a lead plate

so she doesn't walk away during the X-ray.

Once Toni's ready, vet Sam leaves the room to take the X-ray.

And now she can check the results.

That's her X-ray done, let's have a look.

Excellent, let's see how she's looking.

-Wow!

-So there you go, that's inside Toni.

-We can see her bone density is all nice and strong.

-OK.

She doesn't have any eggs inside her, so she's not pregnant,

so she's fine to hibernate.

-The last thing we're going to do is measure her.

-Cool.

So you're just drawing a line at the top and the bottom.

The top and bottom of her shell.

-So she is 13 centimetres.

-OK.

And then we plot that onto our graph.

And her weight was 600...

..so we can see that she's absolutely perfect for hibernation.

How long has she got to hibernate for?

We recommend that she has a nice, long sleep through winter

until early spring.

-Wow. That is a long sleep, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Where do we need to put her to hibernate?

We recommend that you pop her in a box with some

air holes with newspaper in the bottom.

-Where do you put her?

-Somewhere cool and dry where

you can check the temperature and make sure there's enough oxygen

-so you can open the door for her.

-Thank you.

While we get Toni ready to head home,

let's see what else has been happening at the vet's today.

There are lots of animals waiting to see the vet today.

Sit there, sit down!

This is Whisper - she's my mum's hearing dog,

she helps her in daily tasks.

She's at the vet's today because, unfortunately,

she has a grass seed stuck in her paw.

Vet Sam removes the seed in theatre

so Whisper will soon be back on her feet.

Archie has come in for his booster injections,

but he's not too keen on the idea.

So the vet needs to get down to his level.

Jobie the Beagle is a rescue dog

so he's never been to the vet before,

and there are a lot of new sights and smells.

Oargh!

So how do you think Toni did today?

-She's been great.

-Yeah, I think so, too,

and it's been so interesting seeing how the vets care

for tortoises like Toni and awesome meeting you, as well.

I'd like to come back and say a big "night-night"

-to Toni before she goes for her big, long sleep. Is that OK?

-Yes, please!

Awesome. Let's see what Ferne's been up to.

BEEP, BEEP!

There are lots of different animals at this conservation park.

BAAA!

Vets like Rachel make sure they stay fit and healthy,

and I'm off to meet some of her patients.

-Hiya, Rachel!

-Hiya!

-So who have we got here - are these beavers?

-These are our beavers, yes.

-Fantastic, they're beautiful!

Beavers love the water and their fur is even waterproof.

They have this lovely, big, flat tail that helps them steer

themselves while swimming.

They can close their nostrils and ears underwater

so the water doesn't get in. What are we checking the beavers for?

We need to see if one of them is a boy or a girl

and we'll do an examination to check that they're all healthy.

-Fantastic.

-Let's go.

This beaver has been given a special medicine called anaesthetic

to help it stay asleep

so Rachel and nurse Laura can give it a health check.

Look at those teeth! They are huge!

-It's all right that they're orange, isn't it?

-Yeah, that's normal.

Those webbed feet are fantastic, aren't they?

They are, that's what helps them to swim.

-Are they fast swimmers?

-Very.

-Hee-hee-hee.

What are you looking for in her tail?

We're looking to make sure it's nice and healthy

and it's got no wounds.

We want to make sure it's firm and muscly

and there's no damage to it.

Our beaver is in great condition. So now for the next check.

We need to see if it's a boy or girl

to see if they can breed and have babies.

-Can you not look at them and tell?

-Unfortunately not, it's difficult.

One of the ways we can tell is by taking an X-ray

and see if the boys have an extra piece of bone in their body.

-We're going to have to turn the lights off now.

-OK.

And I'll leave the room while they set things up.

An X-ray takes a special picture which shows

the inside of the beaver.

Rachel and Laura leave the room to take the X-ray.

Moments later, we can see the results.

We're looking for a little piece of bone

which normally lies just about here.

So I can't see any bone in here which leads me

to believe that this beaver is a female.

-Brilliant.

-OK.

Now we know our beaver is a girl, we've got one last check to do.

They can get a nasty worm that can sometimes cause

damage to the liver, so we're going to do a quick scan

to make sure we see no sign of that.

The liver is a very special organ inside the body

and this ultrasound machine will help Rachel to look at it.

-These scans are also used on people, aren't they?

-They are, yes.

It's exactly the same as animals cos we're all the same underneath.

There's nothing I'm concerned about here.

-So she is looking like one healthy beaver?

-She's looking very good.

Fantastic, well done.

And once she wakes up again, she goes back to join her friends.

Recently, I met Isabelle

and her pet tortoise, Toni, who had to go to the vet's.

I'm back today to see how they're doing

and find out if Toni is ready for her big, long sleep.

-Hey, how are you doing, Isabelle?

-Hello, Rory.

-And you must be Megan, little sister.

-Hello, Rory!

So what are you guys up to?

We're decorating Toni's hibernation box.

-Oh, perfect, so this is where Toni's going to hibernate?

-Yeah.

Here we go...

Ooh!

Ahh.

Looks good!

OK, well, Isabelle,

I think this is looking absolutely perfect, don't you?

It looks awesome.

And now, put some newspaper in.

The newspaper, along with the holes in the lid,

make sure Toni has a comfy bed for the winter.

Now, this is all looking good for Toni to go in, so where is Toni?

She's round there.

Ah, let's go, then. Come on.

Hey, Toni! You're looking gorgeous.

-I think she's going to love this nice cosy bed here.

-Yeah.

It's been great meeting you and Toni the tremendous tortoise.

Thanks for having me.

Thank you, Rory.

You're welcome. Night-night, Toni!

And I hope you've had fun finding out about Toni the tortoise

and hibernation, too.

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. #