Eggwina the Chicken Ferne and Rory's Vet Tales

I'm Rory. I'm in Essex in England to meet Charlie

and his feathered friends,

one of whom is going to the vet's today. This will be interesting.

And I'm Ferne.

I'm at a zoo in Whipsnade to find out how the vets

are looking after some of their gorgeous new arrivals.

# 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. # BAA!

# Ferne and Rory's Vet Tales. #

CHICKENS CLUCK

Hi, I'm Charlie, and this is my little brother Jack.

These are our chickens.

We have six.

Some even lay eggs.

Eggwina is my favourite.

She likes to sit on my lap.

She's a rescue chicken, so I give her so much love.

-Hello, Rory.

-Hi, Charlie, hi, Karen.

-Hi, Rory.

-You can come and see my chicken, Eggwina.

I'd love to. Let's go.

Wow! Look at all these lovely chickens.

-Are they all girls?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, I thought so.

Female chickens are called hens once they start laying eggs,

and male chickens are known as cockerels or as cocks.

What's this very special chicken house called?

-A coop.

-Absolutely right. It's a chicken coop -

the name of a chicken's house. Who do we have here?

-That one's Taylor.

-With the fancy hairdo?

-Yes.

-I love it.

-And that one's called Charlie.

-Charlie, just like you!

-And who else? Who's under here?

-And Eggwina.

-Eggwina, there she is!

Isn't she lovely?

I would quite like to get a closer look at our friend Eggwina,

-because that's who I'm here to see, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Let's take her out.

Let's go and sit down.

Tell me about Eggwina. What's going on with her?

She's got a poor chest and we don't know what's happened to her.

She does, doesn't she? Some feathers have come out,

-it's quite red. She's a rescue chicken?

-Yeah.

You've taken her in and looked after her, it's lovely.

It's an important thing.

You need to keep an eye on your pets

to make sure their looks or behaviour don't change too much -

it could mean they're getting poorly and need medical attention.

-What's the plan today?

-We're taking her to the vet's.

-Awesome. I'd love to come. Is that OK?

-Yeah.

-Let's take her. Come on.

This is Ben. He's been a vet for eight years.

His favourite animal is the manatee -

and he once had to remove a pair of pants

from a Cavalier King Charles spaniel's tummy.

-Hello, Ben.

-How are you doing?

-All right.

Good to see you. Hi, Rory. And how's Eggwina been doing?

All right, but she's still got a little bit of a poor chest.

A bit of redness on her chest still?

-OK.

-So you've seen Eggwina recently, Ben?

That's right, yes, about a week ago.

She had red patches all over her skin

and some areas that didn't have any feathers on.

What would you say it is? Why's it all red?

There's a few things that can cause redness and loss of feathers.

-Sometimes it can be related to parasites.

-OK.

We started off trying with some parasite treatment,

some drops that we put across her skin.

It looks like things are looking a bit better so far.

This area at the front's still quite red -

there was a lot of redness there before,

and it's still a bit red,

-but there's definitely some improvement.

-Yeah.

So, Eggwina has been treated for parasites. Let me explain.

A parasite is another name for a tiny organism or creature

that lives on or inside an animal.

The parasite gets its food and shelter from the animal,

and the animal is known as the host.

Some parasites can cause disease, which can harm the animal,

so it's best to get rid of the nasty ones.

I think the next thing we should do, to start off,

we can look at some of these feathers under the microscope,

make sure there's no sign of anything else going on -

but there's signs of new feathers starting to grow.

Look at this! Can you see the new feathers coming in?

-Amazing.

-When they grow through, we should get some nice coverage there.

They look quite funny when they've not grown in yet.

Like a tube with the feather coming out of the top.

Some of the parasites and things living on the skin

are really small, so you can't see them just with your eyes.

If we look under the microscope it makes them big so we can see -

hopefully there won't be anything there,

but we can check that the treatment's done the job.

Let's have a look under the microscope and see what we can see.

Ben's having a look at one of Eggwina's feathers

-to see if there's any parasites.

-All looks nice.

-Yeah?

No sign of anything there.

-Do you want to have a look, Charlie?

-Yes.

-Jump up.

-What can you see?

-Straight lines and light.

Let me see. That is very cool.

Ben, are you happy with that?

Brilliant - no sign of any parasites now.

-I think we're on the right track.

-Awesome. OK.

-Excellent.

-Let's go.

So, you've had a good look at Eggwina, Ben.

What's the next step?

The next thing is to give an injection of an anti-inflammatory

to make her more comfortable.

An anti-inflammatory takes down the swelling and redness,

so that should help make her feel better.

-It's not going to hurt too much, is it, Ben?

-Not at all.

-Have you had an injection before, Charlie?

-Yes.

-Was it sore?

-No.

It wasn't sore? That's good. So, this should be OK for Eggwina?

-That's good. Here comes the injection.

-Right, here we go.

We can just do it in this area here.

Right, so, that should be it.

OK. Right. Not a problem at all.

She was very brave there! She didn't even move, hardly.

What can I do to help Eggwina at home?

We'll give you some drops to do at home

so you can carry on giving her the medication,

making sure she's nice and comfortable, if that's all right.

An injection today and then some drops at home.

You can do that? Excellent. How long do you think that'll take?

We'll do it for about a week and see how things go after that.

-We'll have another check after a week and see what's happening.

-OK.

Eggwina, I hope you get better soon.

I think that's going to help very much.

While we get this lady ready to go back to the coop,

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

There were lots of different animals

for Ben and the team of vets and nurses to see today.

Baxter, a West Highland terrier,

had a grass seed that was stuck in his paw removed.

Tiny Tim, a Netherland dwarf rabbit,

came in to have his teeth checked...

..and Pippa, a Staffy cross, had an appointment

to get her nails trimmed.

All in a day's work for the staff at this busy vet's.

Charlie, I've had an awesome time meeting you

and your very cool chickens.

-Can I come back soon and see how Eggwina's getting on?

-Yeah.

-Is that OK?

-Yeah.

-Awesome. Now, I wonder what Ferne's been up to.

BEEP! BEEP!

At this zoo in Whipsnade, they look after lots of different animals.

Today, one of the vets who helps care for them, Nick,

is going to introduce me to two very special new arrivals.

This way.

This is very exciting, because I hear you've had

some babies born at the zoo recently.

It's true. Two white storks, which are about to arrive now.

Fantastic! They're beautiful.

They're so much bigger than I thought.

It's amazing. They're just over six weeks old.

They've still got some growing to do, but they'll be enormous.

-We want to check they're fit and well.

-Perfect.

We're doing a physical exam from their beak to their tail.

-Great. Shall we get started?

-We need to check their eyes

to make sure they're healthy and haven't got any scratches.

That looks completely normal. Can I have a look inside your mouth?

What are you looking for?

Make sure that there's no fungal plaques or anything.

Making sure there's nothing growing that could make them ill?

Yes, we want to feel down the neck to check the tubes

that go down to their lungs and stomach are all OK.

What are you listening for with that?

I can hear the heart beating quite nicely,

I can hear air moving through their air sac and lung system,

and that all sounds completely normal.

-That's all good.

-So far, so good.

-I'm just feeling their chest

to see how well developed these muscles are.

That feels good. They're in good body condition.

They've been practising their flight?

Yes, which we want, flapping and getting strong.

I'll take one of these wings out, we can extend it a long way.

-Wow.

-This is the equivalent of their elbow.

-Beautiful.

-They are still quite pale, these feathers.

That looks good, and that extends and flexes properly.

You can see the legs are starting to change colour.

Still quite grey higher up, then lower down they get pinker.

Make sure their feet are healthy. These look good, nice and supple.

We also want to take a bit of blood from this bird,

to see whether it's a boy or girl.

-So you can't tell by just looking at them?

-They all look identical.

Well done.

So this chick's blood will be sent away,

and get tests to find out whether it's a boy or girl.

Does taking the blood hurt them?

There's a tiny pricking sensation when you put the needle in.

As soon as it's in, it's not painful any more.

-That's why the bird's so calm.

-Yeah. It's done really well.

I think someone else is excited for their checkup next!

The other stork chick gets the same checkup, and in a few weeks,

they will be big enough to join the adult storks at the zoo.

Nick, it's been great meeting you

and finding out how you take care of these white stork chicks.

-Thank you so much.

-Pleasure.

Not too long ago, I visited Charlie and his pet chickens.

One of them, Eggwina, was poorly and had a rash on her tummy.

I'm back to see how she's getting on.

Hi, Charlie, hi, Karen.

-Hello, Rory.

-Hi, Rory!

-And this must be little brother Jack.

High five! Yeah!

-So how's Eggwina doing?

-All right. She's still got a bit of a rash.

I think we should take a closer look.

-Yeah.

-Let's head in.

-OK, Charlie, where's Eggwina?

-She's the one in the corner.

Right. I'll fetch her.

OK. Got her.

I can see that Eggwina's rash is still there,

but the vet says if she is still quite happy,

it's nothing too much to worry about.

She's really happy, Rory.

She's roaming around and pecking away.

Those little brown spikes

look like they might be new feathers coming through.

She's probably going to be OK, I think.

Well, she is doing fantastic.

Charlie, I've had a great time meeting you,

and the wonderful Eggwina the chicken.

-Thanks for having me.

-Thank you for coming.

You're very welcome. Hope you've had fun

finding out about Eggwina the marvellous chicken.

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. #