Twiggy and Tom the Ponies Ferne and Rory's Vet Tales

Hiya, I'm Ferne, and today, I'm in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales

to see Chloe and Ella and their beautiful pony,

who needs to see the vet for a very special reason.

And I'm Rory, and I'm here at a zoo in Bristol to see how the vets here

keep an eye on lots of different 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 vet's

# Vet Tales, these are our Vet Tales

# Vet Tales

# Ferne and Rory's Vet Tales. #

Hello, my name's Chloe.

Hello, my name's Ella.

We have lots of ponies at Nana's. Look how beautiful they are.

This is Twiggy. She's ten years old.

We love feeding her and stroking her.

We like riding the ponies, too.

Trotting is my favourite.

I just love our ponies.

-Hello.

-Hello. This is Twiggy.

-Hi, Twiggy. She is beautiful!

-How are you, Chloe and Ella?

-Good.

-Good.

-Good?

-Hiya, Nana.

-Hello.

-What type of pony is Twiggy?

-She's a Welsh part-bred.

-Well, she's fantastic.

What happened to her eye? She's missing one.

She lost her eye when she was two.

But she's OK, isn't she?

-Yeah.

-There's something really special about Twiggy, isn't there?

She's got a baby in her tummy.

Does she? Twiggy's pregnant? That is lovely!

Horses and ponies can be pregnant for about 11 months,

and that is almost a full year.

Do you know what a baby horse or pony is called?

-A foal.

-That's right.

It's amazing that she has a foal growing in there, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Sometimes we like to feel her baby moving in her tummy.

How do you do that? Will you come around and show me?

-Yeah.

-Wow. So what do we do?

-You put your hands on her tummy.

And we just try and feel for some movement?

It's important to get permission before doing this,

and make sure you feel very gently.

I can feel it moving!

This is so special!

Well done, Twiggy.

Do you want the foal to be a boy or a girl?

-A boy.

-A girl.

Oh! Ooh! We'll have to find out, won't we?

But Twiggy's looking quite big now.

When's she due to give birth to her foal?

In one week.

Wow! Are you excited?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-The vet needs to check Twiggy before she has her baby.

And I heard the vet is someone special.

-Who is it?

-She's our mummy.

-That's great!

The girls' mum is going to give Twiggy a check-up in the morning,

so we'll take her back to her stable to get some rest overnight.

Last night, when we were sleeping, Twiggy wasn't sleeping,

because she actually gave birth to her foal!

How amazing is that? It's come early!

That is so exciting.

-It is!

-I can't wait to see it.

We're going to join your mum while she gives the new foal a check over.

Come on!

Sara has been a vet for 13 years.

She once had to remove a T-shirt from inside a dog's tummy.

And she also helped a springer spaniel

who got a tin of tuna stuck to its tongue.

Here we are!

Are you ready?

Look at that.

-Isn't it lovely?

-Yeah.

She's so little, and she's got long legs.

-The foal has a snip on its nose.

-Is that the little white bit?

-Yeah.

-It is? It's adorable!

Girls, would you like to come and stroke the foal?

Yeah.

Be nice and slow and gentle.

This is magical.

The foal is a lot taller than I thought it would be.

This is really special, that we get to do this.

It's really beautiful.

And it was a real surprise, wasn't it?

Cos we weren't expecting this foal for another week.

Mummy needs to give the foal a check over.

Do you guys want to go and stand by the door and watch Mummy do it?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-She's fluffy.

Sara is going to do a vet check

on the foal to make sure that everything is OK.

So what do you need to check first, Sara?

So we always check the eyes,

to make sure they haven't got too much bruising on them

from where they were born.

There's a little bit of redness on that eye,

but that's absolutely fine.

So we'll open the mouth now and have a look inside.

The gums are really nice and pink, which is really good.

If you look really closely,

you can see the first teeth coming through the gums there -

those tiny white dots.

Wow! How long will it take before the teeth come through?

Only about three days.

-Wow!

-So, next, we'll have a listen to the chest.

-Is this for their heart?

-This is for the heart.

That's nice and steady. Nice and strong.

Now we'll have a look at the tummy button.

-The tummy button?

-The tummy button.

So this is where the foal was attached to the inside of Twiggy.

And if you look really closely, you can see that stump there.

Oh, wow! OK.

So that's quite dry already.

Sometimes, you can put some iodine on there

to help dry that up a bit quicker.

It prevents any bacteria going in and causing an infection.

Great. Bacteria are nasty bugs that can sometimes make you a bit ill,

so it's better to stop them from getting into the tummy button.

And all that we've got left to do now is see if it's a boy or a girl.

-Fantastic!

-We'll lift the tail...

-..and it's a boy!

-Hey!

-It's a boy!

-It's a boy!

-Oh...

A little boy. You've got a strong boy, Twiggy.

The foal starts as a tiny egg inside the mare, which is the female pony.

The egg will grow and grow, and start to become a little foal,

getting bigger and bigger until it's born.

Foals can walk within a few hours after they are born.

Isn't that amazing?

The foal is doing really well,

but now vet Sara wants to check on Twiggy,

just to make sure that she's doing OK.

Sara, what's first?

-We'll start with her mouth, as well.

-Great. So, what are you looking for?

So, checking that her gums are nice and pink, as well.

And that indicates that she hasn't had any bleeding into her tummy

-after she's had the foal.

-They look great, don't they?

-They look fab.

-Well done!

-Good girl.

Next, we'll have a look and see if she's got plenty of milk.

-OK.

-So we need to check her udder, make sure it's nice and full,

which it is, and the teats are nice and wet,

which shows that the foal's been sucking plenty.

-Great, so she's got plenty of milk for the foal?

-Plenty of milk there.

The udder is where the foal will get its milk from,

and this is all it will eat for a while.

It's good that he's drinking loads of milk, isn't it, girls?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-So what next for Twiggy and the foal?

We need to leave Twiggy and her foal together in the stable

for the next 24 hours, just so they can spend precious time together,

-and get to know one another.

-Lovely.

Well, girls, I have a really important question to ask.

What are you going to name this little boy?

-Tom.

-That is a great name!

-He looks like a Tom, doesn't he, Sara?

-He does.

While we leave Twiggy and Tom in peace to get to know each other,

let's see who else vet Sara saw on the farm today.

There were lots of other ponies for vet Sara to look at at the stables.

Twiggy wasn't the only pregnant pony.

Jitters had a check-up to make sure the foal growing inside her

was doing OK.

Topsy got some eye drops for an infection

after being bitten by a horsefly.

A couple more days, and she'll be right as rain.

And Sara checked on Pip,

who had a sore part of her hoof removed a few days ago.

Girls, I've had such a wonderful time meeting you,

beautiful Twiggy, and brand-new Tom.

He was such a surprise, wasn't he?

-Yeah.

-I would love to come back soon and see how they're getting on.

-Would that be OK?

-Yes.

-Yes, please, Ferne.

-Thank you very much.

I wonder what Rory's been up to today.

This zoo in Bristol has lots of different animals,

and they all receive care and attention

from a team of resident vets.

And I'm going to meet one of them now.

-Hi, Charlotte. Hi, Kelly.

-Hi, Rory.

-Hi, Rory.

I hear we're going to give a check-up to a little reptile today.

Yes, that's right. So today, we're going to be checking Carrick,

who's a chuckwalla,

and that's a type of a lizard that's related to iguanas.

Oh, awesome!

Oh, hello! What a beautiful creature.

Carrick is a western chuckwalla,

and they're normally found in western America and northern Mexico,

so they like warmer places.

And you can see he's got a darker body, and quite a light tail,

and that's to blend in with the rocky areas

where they normally live.

So what are you going to check first, Charlotte?

So, first of all, we're going to have a look at his skin,

make sure it's in good condition.

Reptiles shed their skin,

so we've got pieces of the skin you can see still attached to his tail.

-OK.

-And that's quite normal in lizards.

They do shed in small pieces rather than in one piece like a snake.

You can see some of the little bits of skin just here

that have come off, and the new skin underneath.

The next thing that's important to look at is his body condition.

So we want to make sure he's not too fat or too thin.

And they do have quite a flat body, so this shape is normal.

He's not too fat. And you might notice that he's only got one eye.

Oh, yes, this eye's missing.

So we were worried about this other eye a few years ago,

because it was quite bulgy,

and we were worried it might have a disease.

It was causing him some discomfort, so we took it out,

and he's been OK since.

-OK, he's been quite happy?

-Yes, yeah. He's quite happy with one eye.

I'll just turn him over for a moment

-so you can see these little white dots on his legs.

-Yeah.

Those are called femoral pores.

Sometimes, the white bit can get overgrown,

-and they can get a bit of an infection.

-OK.

And is that how you tell if they're male or female?

Yeah, so in lots of lizards,

these femoral pores are much bigger in the males.

-Yeah.

-So now, if he'll let us, we'll have a look in his mouth.

-OK.

-So you can just see it's all nice and pink in there.

-Yeah.

-And there's no white spots or any other signs

-that there might be an infection in there or anything like that.

-OK.

So that all looks nice and healthy.

-We'll have a listen to his heart, using this ultrasound probe.

-Wow!

Wow! HEART BEATS

It's actually not very fast, and that's quite normal for a reptile,

right, to have a slower heart rate than a mammal?

-Yes.

-A slower pace of life.

We're going to try and get a blood sample from his tail.

OK, you're just cleaning it off first?

Yeah, I'm just wiping his tail with a little bit of disinfectant there.

Well done. There we go. It's not too sore for him, is it?

-No, it's just a small needle we're using.

-OK.

So what are you going to look for in the blood, Charlotte?

We'll run some blood tests on him,

just to check that his internal organs are working properly,

so things like his liver and kidneys.

-OK, he's done.

-Well done!

You have been an excellent patient, Carrick.

And thank you very much, Charlotte and Kelly,

-for showing us your vet checks today.

-No worries.

Recently, I met Chloe and Ella, and their pony, Twiggy,

who gave birth to a beautiful foal called Tom.

And now I'm back to see how they're all doing,

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

I bet he's grown!

-Hiya, Chloe. Hi, Ella.

-Hiya, Ferne.

-Hi, Ferne.

Tom has grown, hasn't he?

-He's growing big and strong.

-He is, isn't he?

-Yeah.

-And he's a lot less wobbly on his legs than last time.

He's got teeth coming through.

-Really?

-He does.

His first teeth have actually come through.

Oh, wow!

Look at those! He's got four whole teeth!

That's wonderful. So has he been eating some grass?

Yeah. He pinches food from Twiggy's manger when we feed her.

-Does he?

-Yeah.

No wonder he's growing so big and strong!

So is it just the two of them in this field?

It's a bonding field, so other ponies don't bother them.

So they can spend time getting to know each other

without the other ponies disturbing them. That's great.

It's been really nice being back and seeing you again.

-Thank you!

-You're welcome, Ferne.

Thank you, Ferne.

Thank you for joining us

and finding out all about these lovely ponies, Twiggy and Tom.

See 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 vet's

# Vet Tales, these are our Vet Tales

# Vet Tales

# Ferne and Rory's Vet Tales. #