Oscar the Cat Ferne and Rory's Vet Tales

Hello, I'm Rory. I'm in the London Borough of Bromley

to meet Sophia and her special cat.

It's off to the vets and we can go, too.

I'm Ferne. I'll be finding out how the vets at a wildlife park in Kent

help to keep the animals 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 vets

# Vet Tales, these are our Vet Tales

# Vet Tales Ferne and Rory's Vet Tales. #

Hello. My name is Sophia and this is my little brother Oliver.

I have a pet cat called Oscar. I've had him since I was little.

He's different than some cats

because he has three legs instead of four.

He's great at running and jumping, though.

And I love him very much.

-Hello, Rory.

-Hi, Sophia. Hi, Matt.

-Hiya, Rory, you all right?

-Do you want to come and meet my pet Oscar?

-I'd love to. Exciting!

-What a gorgeous cat!

-You can stroke him, if you like.

I would definitely like to. Oh, he is amazing!

-Do you know what sort of cat he is?

-A Bengal cat.

-Absolutely right.

Bengal cats have this lovely coat with great markings,

and they're usually very friendly.

Sophia, I've noticed he is missing a leg at the back. What happened?

He had a little accident and the vets had to remove his leg.

-Oh, poor boy! But he's doing OK now, isn't he?

-Yeah.

He's doing better than OK. Look at his face! He's smiling at you!

When a body part has to be removed medically,

it's called amputation, and this can happen to animals and humans.

It can take us a long time to adjust,

but animals get used to it quite quickly.

You have to keep a close eye on their overall health,

but especially their weight.

So, Sophia, what do you do to look after this guy?

We feed him and give him water, and we play with him a lot.

Those things are all very important indeed.

You take him to the vet regularly for check-ups, don't you?

-I heard he's going today.

-Yes, Rory. Do you want to come?

-I'd love to.

-We should get ready, shouldn't we?

-Yeah.

-Let's go.

Meet The Vet!

This is vet Kylie.

She knew she wanted to be a vet when she was just five years old.

One time, she stitched up an elephant's trunk in South Africa,

and has performed surgery on a very prickly hedgehog.

-Hello!

-Hi!

-There we go.

-Hello. Have you got Oscar there?

-Yeah, we do.

-Would you like to come through?

-Lead the way.

-Hello, Kylie.

-Hello, Kylie.

-Hi, guys.

-What can we do for Oscar today?

-A checkup.

He looks like he might want to have a sleep.

He's very relaxed.

Let's see if Oscar will let us have a look at his teeth.

-Oh, wow!

-Yeah.

-And what are you looking for in the teeth?

We're checking they're clean and that he's not got any disease.

So we'll have a listen to his heart now, as well.

-Meow!

-Hello!

It's OK. He's very chatty.

Do you want to put those in your ears,

and you can have a little listen.

It sounds like...rolling down the hill, but very fast.

THEY CHUCKLE

RORY AND KYLIE: Ba-doom-ba-doom-ba-doom.

Is that what you're looking for?

We want to check it's a nice rhythm,

-and his heart sounds fine.

-Marvellous!

We'll have a little check of his coat.

We're just looking for any signs of fleas or any sore patches.

But he's got a lovely coat. It's very shiny.

-And the other thing with Oscar is he's lost his back right leg.

-Yes.

That happened a few years ago, didn't it, Sophia? Yeah.

-But he walks fine on three legs, doesn't he?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Even though Oscar has three legs, he can climb up the fences.

-Can he? Wow!

-What an amazing guy.

We'll check how he feels along his back and back leg.

When they've only got one back leg, they can use that a bit too much

and they sometimes get a bit sore.

He's a little bit fidgety when we get to that area of his spine.

-See that. Yes.

-He has a lot more muscle than normal on his left leg

because he's using that instead of his right one.

He generally looks in good health. I'm very happy with him.

The important thing when they only have three legs

is that they don't get overweight.

It might be helpful as he's got a bit of stiffness in his back

to take him for some physio.

Let Me Explain.

Physio is short for physiotherapy -

a treatment that helps an animal move their joints or muscles

when it's been affected by injury, illness or disability.

The physio uses exercises to help strengthen the animal's body

and help them get stronger.

Lots of animals can have physiotherapy -

cats, dogs and even some larger animals.

Looking at the muscles, maybe a massage?

Yeah. Some manipulations, and massage would be really helpful.

-He might enjoy that.

-He loves being stroked.

-He's such a good boy, isn't he?

-Great.

Well, I tell you what, while we get this guy ready for his physio,

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

Today At The Vets!

It's a busy day at the vets, with lots of dogs visiting.

Rusty, the King Charles spaniel, has come in to have his teeth cleaned.

Milo has had sore legs recently,

so Kylie is checking to make sure he's feeling better.

Bolty has been brought in to get some medicine for her ears.

Bo the bulldog is about to have a litter of puppies,

so she's in to check everything is going well.

But it's not just dogs.

A rescue centre has also brought in some of their cats for a checkup.

They all look to be nice and healthy.

Let's open out the bed for him to lay on.

We've gone back to Sophia's house to meet Melissa,

who's preparing a cat physiotherapy session for Oscar.

You are an animal physiotherapist, which is a very cool job.

What are you going to be doing for Oscar today?

We'll be looking at his muscles, making sure they're healthy

and that he's able to run around and jump and do all the normal things.

So we do some stroking first of all to warm everything up.

This is quite a good job, stroking cats.

THEY LAUGH

That's a nice rub right along the spine.

Does this hurt him? Is there any pain here?

No, no, it doesn't hurt him at all.

-It should just make him more comfortable.

-OK.

He's stroking you with his tail. Did you see that?

So I'm just stroking the leg to warm up the skin.

What's next, then, Melissa?

We're going to do some exercises with him which will hopefully

help strengthen his leg and keep everything working healthily.

OK, great. This is a wobble board. Why's it called that?

It's called a wobble board because they wobble on it

and it just helps their muscles to get strength.

And now for Oscar's next exercise, stepping over poles.

This will help strengthen coordination in his back leg.

Coordination is like balance, and using his legs in the right order.

Good boy! And this way.

Well done! Well done! What a good boy!

Have you got something else he can play with where?

The last thing is an infrared light we run over the muscles.

It helps them keep nice and healthy

-and stop and tightness from reoccurring.

-OK.

So, what are the next steps, Melissa, for Oscar?

He should have regular massage sessions

just to make sure his muscles keep nice and loose and healthy,

-and continue with some of the exercises.

-Cool.

-Sophia, can you do that?

-Of course.

I will keep playing with him.

That is perfect. That's going to keep him fit and healthy.

Thank you for letting me come and meet your awesome cat Oscar.

I'd love to come back and see how he's getting on soon.

Yes, please, Rory.

That's brilliant.

Now, I wonder what Ferne's been up to today?

Vets Go!

BEEP-BEEP!

This wildlife park is home to lots of animals.

Today, I'm going to meet vet Rachel

and one of the park's fluffiest residents.

-So, who's this?

-This is Teddy,

-and Teddy is one of our three arctic foxes.

-He is beautiful!

Arctic foxes are well known for their white coats,

but that's what they get in winter.

In the summer, they shed their fur and go this dark colour.

Their coat is half as thick, so they don't get too warm.

Why are you seeing Teddy today?

Teddy has short ulna syndrome, which means that he had a twisted leg.

-Is that in the front of his leg?

-Down the bottom, down here.

He had an accident when he was a little cub before he came here,

which means he damaged one of the bones in the lower leg.

Unfortunately, as the other bone carried on growing,

it twisted the leg around, so it has this crooked appearance.

So what I'm looking for...

Good boy. ..is just to see if it bends nicely, which it does.

We want to make sure there's a full range of movement

and that his elbow is moving nicely.

He doesn't seem to have any signs of pain in that elbow

or any worries in the lower part of his leg.

OK. So, what's next for Teddy?

He's going to have a little clinical examination.

Just a little onceover.

He's being a little bit of a fidget today. That's it.

Nice sharp teeth there.

We want to make sure those teeth are nice and haven't got much plaque.

What are you feeling for with his body?

We check for any creepy-crawlies that live within the coat

that could make him itchy or make his skin become sore.

-Like fleas or ticks?

-Exactly.

Foxes are very closely related to our pet dogs and they can get

a lot of the same creepy-crawlies in their coat that our pets can.

And we just check his feet, make sure his claws aren't too long.

They're OK at the moment because they do like to dig a lot.

This really thick fur is perfect for keeping their feet cosy

when they live in their freezing habitats.

His body and feet are looking great. What else do you need to do?

To keep his coat looking good and to make sure

we've got no parasites and stop him getting any,

we need to do a drop of liquid

that goes just on his skin between his fur, and that's it.

-As simple as that.

-Well done! He's desperate to get going.

-Let's let him go.

-Let's have a look at you.

-He's quick, even with his bendy leg.

-Definitely. He copes very nicely.

He's looking good. He's sussing out his lunch.

I don't blame him.

It has been wonderful seeing Teddy and seeing how you look after him.

-Thank you very much.

-No problem.

Recently, I visited Sophia and her three-legged cat Oscar.

He's been getting physiotherapy

and I can't wait to see how he's been getting on.

-Hi, everyone.

-Hi, Rory.

-Hiya, Rory.

Ollie, how has Oscar been getting on?

-He's been a really good boy.

-Aw, that's good.

-And what do you think, Sophia?

-He's been playing and running a lot.

-Would you like to play with him now?

-Of course I would. Come on.

OLLIE AND SOPHIA LAUGH

OLLIE AND SOPHIA LAUGH

Thank you for joining us

and finding out all about this amazing cat Oscar.

Se you next time for more 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 vets

# Vet Tales, these are our Vet Tales

# Vet Tales Ferne and Rory's Vet Tales. #