Albert the Armadillo Ferne and Rory's Vet Tales

Hello, I'm Rory. I'm near Blackpool to meet Austin,

who has some unusual animals that need help from the vet.

-This will be interesting.

-And I'm Ferne.

I'll be finding out how the vets at a zoo in Winchester

are helping to care for one of their gorgeous baby animals.

# 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. #

Hi, my name's Austin.

My dad runs a small zoo.

We have lots and lots of animals here.

Some are scaly.

Some are fluffy.

And some are even slimy.

I help look after them all.

I love animals so much.

-Hi, Rory.

-Hey, Austin. And you must be Dad, Neil. Hello.

-Hello.

Austin, you've got loads of animals here,

-including these lovely capybara and mara.

-Yes, we do.

-It's amazing!

Do you want to see some more?

-I would absolutely love to. Shall we get going?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, come on!

Austin, you have got animals from all over the world here, don't you?

Yeah, we've got an alpaca from South America

and we've got some wallabies from Australia.

-They're very cute, aren't they?

-Yeah.

-What else have you got?

We've got some little egrets.

Little egrets, where are they from?

-From all over the world.

-Beautiful. And who's this?

A snowy owl.

-They're from the Arctic, aren't they?

-Yeah.

-Gorgeous.

-We've got some black-faced ibis.

-Very nice.

There are lots of different birds and animals here at your dad's

zoo and you know so much about all of them. Right, who's in here, then?

Some vulturine guinea fowl.

Brilliant! You've got farm animals here as well. Who's in here?

We've got some sheep and we've got some chickens and a duck.

A duck as well!

You and your dad look after all these animals

so that people can come and learn all about them.

There are so many animals, Austin, how do you keep them fit

-and healthy?

-Well, a vet visits and she's coming today.

-Would you like to meet her?

-That sounds great. Brilliant.

Come on, then.

This is a vet Shona. She's been a vet for 27 years.

She often looks after exotic animals.

The most unusual creature she has treated is a seahorse who had

a gas bubble in his pouch.

And one time she treated a lizard, which was the same

length as a motorbike.

We're off to meet vet Shona,

who's taking a look at a very unusual animal.

Hello, Austin and Rory, how are you both today?

We're doing well, aren't we?

Shona, you're the zoo's vet and you look after all the animals here.

-Who is this little guy?

-This little chap is Albert

and he is a southern three-banded armadillo from Brazil.

He is very cool.

Armadillos are incredible animals with this armour on their backs.

They use the bony plates to protect themselves from predators

in the wild and he'll roll up so nothing can get to him.

So, what are you checking him for today?

Well, we're going to give Albert a health check today

-but first, we're going to weigh Albert.

-Great.

As I pick him up, Albert will naturally go into his shell.

This is him curling up into the ball? Amazing!

Perfectly adapted just to fold up in a tight ball.

It means that predators would find it very difficult to eat him.

So cool! Isn't that amazing?

-Let's put Albert on the scales and we'll see what he weighs.

-OK.

-There we go.

-How's his weight looking?

Looks good, he's 1.38 kilograms, which is similar to the last time.

And that's what you'd expect from an armadillo of his age and size?

Yes. We weigh him regularly so we can keep an eye on any changes.

-And what's next?

-We'll have a wee look at his eyes to make sure there

-is no discharge, so no pus coming out of them.

-That's nasty gunk?

Yes, that's correct. Same with his ears.

He's shivering because he's feeling a bit cold.

So we won't keep him out for too long, he needs to get back

-to his enclosure.

-Where it's nice and warm.

We could put the stethoscope to listen to Albert's heart

but I suspect he will just curl up.

If we had to do anything more serious we'd have to sedate him,

-but we don't have to do that today.

-OK.

-But we can look at his plate

we've got our machine here and I can show you the bristles on his neck.

These are specialised hairs. Do you know what are the hairs for?

-Is it to sense stuff?

-Exactly. Even though he has these plates,

he has specialised hairs like a cat's whisker,

so he can feel his way through the bushes when he's looking for food.

-Is there anything else you need to check today?

-We're going to give

-Albert a microchip.

-Have you ever seen that before?

-Never!

Let me explain...

The microchip is tiny, about the size of a grain of rice

and contains a unique number.

It's injected under the skin of the animal and sits there safely.

It doesn't hurt them and, once the chip is in place,

it can be checked with a scanner.

The microchip number is stored in a computer system along with

each animal's owners' information. Microchipping is very important

because it means each animal can be identified if lost or sick.

Firstly, we've got to prepare the area so we put some surgical spirit

on a little bit of cotton wool and we have to clean along the back

of his neck in between the plates where there's skin.

Then we're going to check his microchip to make sure this

-has a number.

-And that's an individual code only for Albert.

That's right and only Albert will have this number. So...

That's it. There we go. Good boy.

There you go. That's him.

Would you like to do it Austin?

-There you go.

-Perfect.

-And that's his number.

You've done amazingly well, Albert. Who's next, Austin?

-The baby meerkat.

-This is going to be good!

-How exciting.

Right, Albert, get you back and we can get the meerkats in.

Neil, we've got you here as an extra pair of hands to help.

They're wiggly little things, so I'll hold it and Shona will

insert the microchip and then we'll give them a health check.

-They're going to be so cute! How many meerkats have you got?

-13.

That's brilliant because meerkats are sociable animals that live in

groups known as mobs and clans, which are led by a dominant female.

These guys are a few months old, so we can microchip them?

Yes, we can only microchip an animal that's over a certain weight.

Right, let's begin the task.

Vet Shona carefully injects the microchip under the baby

-meerkat's skin and then gives it a test.

-There we go, all done.

Great, microchip done.

So, this is similar to Albert except a bit more wriggly.

-And easier to put in as well.

-Now she checks if it's a boy or a girl.

-Male.

-I think so.

-So that's a boy?

-This is a boy.

Vet Shona uses a special tool called a stethoscope to listen to

the baby meerkat's heart. Are you checking the heart rate?

Yes. They haven't been examined or handled before.

-Great, pop that one back in.

-Remember who's who.

-Have you got names for them?

-There's too many to name.

I think Rory would be a great name for a meerkat!

-Maybe we've got a Ferne here!

-Who knows?

-There we go.

-Did very well there. That was really good.

I try to be gentle. There we go. That's it. Excellent.

-Microchip's in, perfect.

-Oh, my word. You're a right wriggle-lump!

-Very noisy! All good?

-That looks good, yes, very good.

And are you going to check the sex as well, to see

-if it's a boy or a girl?

-Oh, a little boy.

-So it's not Ferne!

-No! Two Rorys.

-Two Rorys, great choice of name!

-Well, Austin, how do you think they did?

-Really good.

They were wriggly, but they were very good.

While we get these guys ready to go back to their mums,

let's see who else Shona's been helping today.

Here at the zoo, there are lots of potential patients for vet

Shona to see today.

But her first appointment is with these fruit bats.

Vet Shona puts a special ring on their leg.

Just like a microchip,

this is another way for the zoo to tell each fruit bat apart.

Next up is Bluey the blue-tongued skink.

Using this ultrasound machine,

Shona is able to listen to Bluey the skink's heart.

All sounds good.

Austin, it's been awesome meeting you and some of the amazing

animals you've got here at the zoo, including this stick insect.

I'm looking forward to coming back soon and seeing Albert

-and the meerkats to find out how they're doing. Is that cool?

-Sure!

I wonder what Ferne's been up to?

Here at this zoo near Winchester,

there are lots of animals to look after.

Today, vet Justine is going to introduce me to one of them.

Come on!

This is Denny and he's a baby white-faced saki monkey.

We're checking him over for the first time to have a close-up look

at him and we're going to microchip him so we can tell who he is in the

-future if he ever leaves here.

-Perfect.

Denny has been given some medicine called anaesthetic to make him

sleepy so Justine can check him over.

So I'm going to have a listen to his heart.

I'm checking that it's beating regularly with the anaesthetic.

I'm checking there's no problems, so it's not going too fast or too slow.

It would be very unusual because he's such a baby

but just to make sure everything's normal.

And then we'll check his hands.

Saki monkeys like Denny come from South America.

These long fingers help them to climb through the tree tops.

And this tail, would they use that then to help them climb

-and hang onto branches?

-Absolutely and for balance as well.

So, I'm feeling his tummy to check that there's no lumps and bumps that

shouldn't be there and it feels really good.

Great. And how old is he?

So he's about eight months now, so not quite a year old,

so still very young, so he's still with his mum and dad,

although he's feeding from her less these days.

So we'll have a look at his eyes, just that they're nice

and looking normal, that there's no problems there and his nose

is clear and look at those baby teeth, all lovely and clean.

-Yeah.

-So, I'm just preparing his microchip now.

-This is just a special chip that gives them a number.

-Exactly.

Then there's lots of information available on them, so who he is,

where he's from, when he was born.

That links back to his records at the zoo.

We just pop this in the scruff, like you would with a puppy or kitten.

If we can get through his lovely coat! He's got a beautiful coat.

And then when we scan him, the number comes up straight away

-so we know it's him.

-So that's Denny's ID.

And we'll just finish off by weighing him as well, so...

-Come on, Denny.

-Thank you. 1.05 kilos.

As a male, he's probably going to get a lot more bulky.

When he was born, Denny had a little brown face,

but around six weeks in, he started getting these white cheeks

and that's how you can tell the difference between boys and girls

and as he gets bigger, his cheeks are going to get even bigger, too.

-He's a fantastic monkey.

-Yeah!

-Well done, Denny.

We'll pop him back into his box and then we just keep an eye on him

-while he's waking up.

-This has been amazing and it's been wonderful

finding out the work that you do to check on saki monkeys like Denny.

Thank you very much for letting me see it. Once Denny wakes up, he can

go back to playing with his friends and family in the trees.

Not long ago, I met Austin, his dad Neil and some of the amazing

animals they look after the zoo. Now, I'm back to see how Albert

the armadillo and the meerkats are getting on.

Austin, it's so good to see you again

and brilliant to see this little guy as well, he's so cute!

-How are the meerkats doing?

-Good.

-All fine since they've had the

-microchips?

-Yes.

-What about Albert here?

-Just been running around.

That's brilliant. I think we should let him run around because he's

-keen to get down there, isn't he?

-Yeah.

-I'll pop him down.

-He's quite fast!

-Yeah!

Austin, I've had a great time meeting this little guy,

all the animals here and you as well.

-Thanks very much for having me.

-You're welcome.

I hope you've had fun finding out all about Albert the armadillo

-and the meerkats here as well.

-See you next time for more

-Ferne And Rory's Vet Tales.

-BOTH:

-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. #