Episode 8 Junior Vets on Call

Pets, wildlife and all sorts of other creatures are in trouble.

The nation's vets and animal carers need assistance.

-And now thanks to you lot... BOTH:

-They've got it.

When we yelled, "Help," you didn't let us down.

And we've built a network of volunteer junior vets...

On call and standing by...

Ready to jump in...

And fix up ill and injured animals.

-Whatever they are...

-Wherever they are.

Coming up today, a dog with a painful hip.

A baby emu.

And is sweet Jasper really the chicken killer?

Wow. This place is awesome.

The sick and injured animals here are receiving some seriously

hi tech healing treatments.

There is just one thing missing. Junior vets, where are you?

BOTH: Junior vets standing by.

I really want to help animals, but I know it's not going to be easy.

I'm really keen to help.

I just hope I can handle it if an animal gets operated on.

So is there anything, junior vets,

that you're particularly nervous or excited about?

Well, I'm a bit nervous of the bloody surgeries

and maybe the operations.

I'm a bit nervous about maybe hurting the animals on accident,

like, messing up.

Well, guys, I don't think there's too much to worry about.

I think the animals will be thankful that you're even here

to help in the first place.

So, junior vets, you ready to get on with this?

-BOTH: Yeah.

-OK, let's do it.

Pets coming to Fitzpatrick Referrals aren't half lucky.

They get treated with some of the vet world's top gizmos,

gadgets and brilliant new ideas.

Whoa! That's Supervet Noel!

What you got for Josh and Sebastian today, Noel?

So, say hi to the junior vets, Chip.

They're going to help me fix you today.

Chip the Border collie is four years old.

He's got a nasty condition called arthritis in his hip.

He's in a lot of pain. Poor lad.

He was affected by arthritis on both of those joints, both hip joints.

And I've replaced the left one, so that should be perfectly good.

The right one on the other hand is probably quite sore,

so we're going to check that now.

Chip was in pain. You could really, really tell, couldn't you?

Yeah, I hope that I can make him better.

Aw, poor Chip's in a bit of a pickle.

All right, big fella.

Don't worry, Brenda. We'll get this sorted.

Poor Chip, poor Chip. Poor boy. OK, that's fine.

It's not nice to see a dog in pain

-because Chip was a really nice dog to us, isn't it, Josh?

-Yeah.

What would this mean for Chip's life, these kinds of problems?

It really affects a dog's life because every day when they wake up

they feel stiff, they feel sore and they don't really want to exercise

and life isn't very good for them.

'So what can we do to help, Noel?'

So what we're going to do, junior vets,

is effectively replace the hip joint with metal and plastic.

That's so cool.

So will that mean Chip is in less pain?

The procedure that my new junior vet assistants are going to help me with

is going to revolutionise Chip's life.

Wow! Noel is an expert at this surgery,

but there's no guarantee it will go to plan.

All right. Here we go. All right, Chip.

Don't worry, Brenda, my junior vets will look after him well.

Oh, so many birds. Do you know what I've seen?

12 wonky beaks, 6 twisted talons

and a goose with an overgrown bim-bam.

I think that's a technical term anyway.

Junior vets, where are you?

BOTH: Junior vets standing by.

I can't decide whether to be a doctor or a vet.

I once helped an animal give birth.

Yes, yes, junior vets. Now, Natalie, I heard you helped give birth.

-What's that about?

-Yeah, well, I live on a dairy farm

and I helped my dad get a calf out of its mother's stomach.

-Ooh, was that nasty?

-Horrible.

-Yeah, I thought so.

And, Hajar, I hear you're not quite sure whether

you want to be a doctor or a vet, so I'm going to help you out.

If I was to trip over a dog, and we both broke our legs,

who you going to help first?

-You.

-Obviously.

But also we're going to help out some animals today.

-Are you two ready for that? BOTH:

-Yeah.

-Let's do it.

I hope Hajar and Natalie are ready for this

because Birdland in Gloucestershire is...

Wait for it. ..a land full of birds. What's up first?

All right, junior vets,

-your first patients are in that cabin right there.

-Whoa.

Does that sound a bit scary?

I mean, I ain't going to open up that door.

-I mean, Natalie's just volunteered herself.

-No.

So she's going to go and do it.

Oh, hello. A Caribbean flamingo.

She's normally outside with her mates,

but she's had to be separated from them for her treatment today.

What do you think about that as your first patient?

Pretty cool.

I was really excited because a flamingo is something you don't

really get to be close to or near.

They were really fluorescent pink and they were really bright.

They are well cool. And do you know what?

Caribbean flamingos are actually the brightest ones of the lot.

Check this too.

Every flamingo in the country should have a unique ID code.

And our patient is called...

HXN.

Such a pretty name. It really suits her.

We know that this is a female, born in 1985.

Wow, that makes her more than twice as old as my junior vets.

And if she's looked after right she could live to 70.

Hang on, junior vets. Have you spotted a problem with her feet?

Go ahead and have a feel at the bottom of her foot.

-It's, like, soft, but there's rough bits here.

-Yeah.

It's almost like you think with their legs it's going to be smooth,

but it's not, it's dry and scaly.

But they're really cute. I want one.

If you see swelling like this,

that could be a sign that something else is going on,

whether there's a little bit of infection or a condition

that we call bumblefoot, which is essentially when it's just been

standing on some surfaces that are maybe a little too rough.

When we saw the feet they were really rough.

We really wanted to help her to try and make them

as comfortable as possible.

Hm, seems there's definitely some trouble afoot here.

Ha-ha! INEL CLEARS THROAT

We challenge you lot to ask us a tough animal question.

Come on, give it up?

I want to know if butterflies actually taste with their feet.

It sounds crazy. It's really hard to believe.

OK, thank you for listening.

With manners like that, Isaac, we'd be rude not to help.

Back very soon with your answer.

This is Chip,

the lovely Border collie who needs a life-changing hip operation.

And junior vets Josh and Sebastian are on it.

Noel, what's up first?

The first step is where we give the injection into the leg.

Chip's in a lot of pain and he needs a brand-new metal hip.

He's going to have to be unconscious for this operation.

And we're going to put a liquid in here

that's going to make Chip all sleepy. OK?

The closer we got to surgery it got more and more intense

because you know what you're going to do next.

How do you think Chip's feeling at the moment?

BOTH: Scared.

I guess it's important for us to stay calm as well.

If you don't stay calm the dog doesn't stay calm.

The anaesthetic's in and Chip's soon sound asleep.

Over to you, junior vets.

Just peel that off. That's it. Brilliant.

Sebastian's hooking Chip up to the heart monitor.

If you just want to stick that around.

It's really important he stays warm throughout his surgery,

so Josh is on it.

Hey, nobody wants a cold Chip.

Is that a danger, then, that he could become too cold?

They can get hyperthermia whilst under anaesthetic

cos they can't regulate their body temperature very well.

So we need to check Chip isn't too cold

and I think Josh might know just where that thermometer needs to go.

Will it have to go in the mouth, or up the...?

It goes up the bottom, I'm afraid.

I thought so.

He already had one in his mouth.

It was weird, but we had to do it.

Any surgery is risky, so the preparation is really important.

How are the junior vets doing?

Excellent, assistant. Excellent.

Sounds like you're in safe hands, Chip.

How's his heart rate, Sebastian?

So you should have a lub, dub. Lub, dub. Lub, dub.

-Yeah.

-Phew! It's all going well.

So what's next?

Oh, another injection! What's this one for?

It's so he won't feel his legs even on recovery,

he won't be able to walk for a little while.

-You OK? You feeling a bit ill?

-No, I just don't want to look.

I'll look at it, but it just looks painful.

Yeah. This stuff isn't easy, Josh,

but you've got Chip into great shape for surgery.

Ready to go?

I'm looking forward to it.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it as well.

-But it looks like it's going to be a big job.

-Yeah, I know.

The fancy flamingo with the foot problem.

Don't worry, old girl, junior vets Hajar

and Natalie are leaping in feet first.

On the feet, we were looking for bumblefoot.

And it sounds like a made-up word, but it is actually a real thing.

Yeah.

So these are the bits that we're talking about.

The kind of bumblefoot lesions.

Ooh, painful! Is there a cream for that?

-I'll give you the cream.

-Oh, yeah, there is!

There you go. And just put a bit of cream on.

-Just on there?

-Yeah, that's it.

That looks soothing. Feeling better, Mrs Flamingo?

Did we get that one over there as well?

Good job, girls.

Giving the flamingo a foot rub was really weird.

It's not like putting cream on your hands or anything.

Excellent, junior vets. Well done. Perfect.

It was really amazing to be up close to a flamingo

and it was nice that we could help her to get better.

That's like wearing slippers now, I bet.

Next!

Oh, feisty one.

-And name, please, Natalie?

-HXP.

Right. And what are we looking for here?

We'll check his wings

because it looks like he's had a bit of a wing problem in the past.

Will that cause him any problems?

-This, up here?

-Yeah.

-Nope.

-Is it like a bad hairdo or something?

A bit of bedhead, I suppose.

You didn't warn him he was going to be on TV.

Actually, our second patient is recovering from a bruised wing.

Hold your nerve, Natalie.

-How does it sound?

-Fast.

That's going to be pretty normal for a bird.

Their heartbeat is very fast.

Whoa! It's well fast. It's like... Drrrr!

-We can look at his eyes.

-They look clear.

I'll tell you what I can see. Two junior vets who don't miss a trick.

He's pretty healthy.

-He's a healthy bird.

-There we go.

-All right.

You're good to go, Mr Flamingo.

And what are you two up to now?

Hold up, girls. Hold up, girls.

Oh, no! Flamingo stampede!

They're running towards me!

Earlier Isaac and Paddy tickled our trivia taste buds with this...

I want to know if butterflies actually taste with their feet?

It sounds crazy. It's really hard to believe.

Well, Isaac, you better believe it.

Whoa! Wait a minute, Johnny. So they taste with their feet?

What about that long tube tongue thing they have?

Well, they use their proboscis to drink plant juices like nectar.

Pro-pro-pro...! Their what?!

That's the long tube thing, Inel,

but their taste sensors are actually on the bottom of their feet,

and just by standing on a leaf they can tell if it's good

for laying their eggs on or as a food for their baby caterpillars.

Oh, you clever old butterflies.

Remember Chip?

He's in theatre about to have a hip replacement

which could change his life forever.

OK, junior vet, put your hand right there. Good.

Stay right there.

So what would happen, Noel,

if say Josh had to scratch his nose or something?

Don't move cos if you move this could all go horribly wrong.

The most important job is to hold that there.

Exactly there. Good, stay right there.

OK, right. Yeah, hold it right there.

Don't move.

The bag is sucking down around Chip's body.

He's being locked into position.

Excellent. High five. Good job.

Noel's really good, he's really chatty.

And when he was in the room things calm down

cos we know that he's a trained specialist.

-Are we looking good, Josh?

-Yeah.

OK, there we go. Good job.

It was like our first surgery we've ever done

and it's quite intense, wasn't it?

Yeah, we felt very special to be part of a great team.

We're doing to dislocate the hip now.

I'm going to put this big spoon underneath the hip

and I'm going to pop it out.

Is it safe to look yet?

OK, guys, here's where you come in.

Noel normally does this bit on his own,

but the junior vets are his extra eyes today.

Their standing at different angles

making sure the drill is perfectly straight and level.

Tell me when it's straight. Talk to me, Josh.

-Down.

-Down?

-Yeah.

-Down more?

-Down more.

They can't afford to make any mistakes.

And I was really nervous cos you knew it had to be dead straight

or he wouldn't be able to walk or be in pain again.

OK, talk to me, Sebastian?

-To the left a bit.

-Left a bit?

-Yeah.

-Left a bit?

-Stop.

He trusted us to do a special job. It was really tense.

OK, guys, are we in position?

-Yeah, that looks good to me.

-Sebastian?

-Yeah.

-All right, here we go. We good? BOTH:

-Yeah.

-Well done, guys.

-Phew! That was tense.

'ello, 'ello. Who's this pretty girl, then?

Any idea who this is, junior vets?

Hello, Mango.

I want to take her home.

Oh, yeah, it's Mango the parrot, and she can't go home with you, Hajar,

she's a star attraction here mixing with the visitors.

Alistair, how can we help Mango?

She's being handled a lot by members of the public.

We want to make sure she's in top condition physically

and we'll check her behaviour as well.

You can see why they're called the yellow-shouldered Amazon.

Yeah, cos they have a yellow shoulder.

That is just gorgeous.

Oh, she's a pretty girl all right.

And do you know something else?

As well as being highly intelligent,

these parrots can live to the age of 80!

The first thing we noticed when we saw her was her collars,

they were really bright and vibrant.

She went on my shoulder and pecked my ear.

I feel like a pirate. Aargh!

That's funny.

So she might be all bright and colourful,

-but I think she also does have a bit of a mischievous side.

-Yeah.

Aargh!

Eh, I think Mango's really taken to me.

HE BEATBOXES

Stop messing about, junior vets, we have work to do.

Good dancing.

We don't want the claws being too sharp so she doesn't scratch people.

We're just basically going to give her a pedicure.

In the wild they blunt them naturally climbing on branches

and things like that.

And human skin isn't that sharp, so that's why we've got to do that.

Trimming a parrot's claws, I don't think... It's a bit bonkers

and no-one would really think you'd be able to do it.

Have a feel of that. Do you think that feels sharp still?

It feels blunt.

Right, that's her claws clipped. But something else needs a trim.

As she flies off, she's not used to finding food.

Oh, so by clipping her wings you're protecting her in the long run?

-Yeah, that's it.

-Cos she might go flying around wondering.

We've got a responsibility to her.

-If she escapes, she probably wouldn't survive.

-OK.

Steady hands needed here, Natalie.

Just go straight across?

Yeah, continue that line across.

And that tidies that up.

And, as I say, it's just like having a haircut.

Cutting the feathers, it was a lot of pressure to try and get it right.

Yeah, but you did really good keeping your cool and everything.

Mango's looking mighty fine now.

So thanks for your help with her.

Ready to face her public.

Shall we go, Mango?

HE BEATBOXES

Treat our doggy mobile Barker with a nice full tank of fuel

and he plays us brilliant videos of you lot and your pets.

Barker, drivies!

# Doggy, lift, lift, lift your tail up

# Doggy, lift, lift, lift your tail up

Oh, yeah.

# Lift, lift it up

# Lift it up and show us what you got. #

Olivia, tell us about your pet.

Most awesome pet is definitely Jasper.

He kills everything.

Even the woman next door.

Oh, my gosh! I'm going to call the police!

Calm down, man. Just keep watching.

Even the woman next door came and started crying saying,

"He's killed my chickens!"

Luckily, it popped up later and it wasn't him. Was it?

See? Nothing to worry about.

Hm, I'm not so sure.

-Jasper looks pretty guilty to me.

-Nonsense. Anyway, sh.

Kiera's got a question for us.

I want to ask you about the birds and the bees.

Well...

We used to get birds in our bird box every year,

but then one summer bees drove them out

and made their own nest in there.

Oh, bees drove them out.

I didn't know bees could drive. You learn something new every day.

Sometimes I despair. I really do.

But now for some weird reason the bird won't go in it.

We've cleaned it out and everything. Why?

I've got it, Johnny.

Maybe the birds are still trapped in the bumblebee cars.

Eh, no, Inel.

You're actually lucky to have had bees nesting in your bird box,

Kiera.

Bees are very important to the environment.

Anything we can do to help them survive is a good thing.

The birds have probably found somewhere else to nest,

but that doesn't mean they might not return one day.

-Yeah, as soon as they get out of those cars.

-Buzz off, Inel.

Junior vets Josh and Sebastian are helping vet Noel

give Chip the dog a new hip.

Hopefully this surgery will end Chip's painful joint problems

and he'll have a much better life.

CLANGING

And this is a critical part of the operation.

Oh, come on. Keep the noise down, Noel.

It was quite loud and it wasn't very much a vet surgery any more,

it was more like a building site.

It was weird because me and Josh was like, "Oh, my goodness.

"What's he doing?"

Noel, what's happening?

So I hit a little glitch.

Whoa! Is Chip going to be OK?

I was like, "Oh, no! It's gone wrong."

Don't panic yet, Josh, the question seems to be, does the new hip fit?

So this is a stem that goes into the thigh bone.

The neck wasn't long enough, so I cut a little horse shoe that made

the neck longer and then we're going to pop it back inside

a brand-new socket giving Chip a brand-new hip.

So the new hip joint wasn't quite the right size,

but Noel's adapted it. Very clever.

-We knew that Noel would sort it out.

-You see?

This is what happens when you team up one of the country's top vets

with the junior vets.

Glitches get, er...unglitched.

But it's too early to celebrate success just yet.

This is the crucial bit. Things could go badly wrong right now.

It's definitely beaky and feathery around here,

but where are Hajar and Natalie going now?

If you come down this end we've got our latest pride and joy.

THEY GASP

-Oh, it's so cute. Is that an emu chick?

-It is.

In the wild, it's dad emu that sits on the eggs

and cares for the hatchlings.

So where's this little chick's daddy, Alistair?

We've hand reared it

because, as an egg, it was laid in the middle of winter,

so it was too cold for Dad to be sat on the floor keeping eggs warm.

Ah, bless.

We're going to give it a health check.

Couple of reasons, being a long legged bird that spends

a lot of time on its feet we want to make sure its legs are all right.

This check is for our chick's own good, but he doesn't know that.

Poor little fella.

So this is, "Dad, come and save me."

Even though it's been hand reared it's not used to being handled.

Would it peck you?

We were really nervous when it came to looking after it.

But we had a job to do, so we had to keep our cool.

Where are the wings?

The wings... If I can find them. The wing is basically there.

If someone wants to hold that out, that's the wing just there.

-That's tiny!

-They don't fly, they don't need wings.

Emus can't fly, so they're designed to have good strong legs

so they can scarper at speeds of nearly 50km an hour.

Right, junior vets, do you think the legs look all right?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

I know I'm holding them tight,

but they look nice and straight, aren't they?

We were really pleased when we found out they were straight

because if they grew wonky then they would have trouble walking around.

Have you got some suggestions for names?

Do you think it's a boy or a girl?

I've got a great name.

Inel...Junior.

He likes it.

-I think Elly.

-It's like I'm not here.

-Dave.

-Dave?

What do you think, emu chick?

Nah, you don't like that, do you? You want to go with Inel Junior.

Yeah. Yes!

It's been decided, guys. It's been decided.

Right, junior vets, are we giving Inel Junior the full bill of health?

BOTH: Yes.

Inel looks fine.

-Inel Junior.

-Thank you. It's catching on.

It's the crucial bit of Chip the Border collie's surgery.

Junior vets Josh and Sebastian

and the team could be about to change his life.

Can Noel fix Chip's new hip in place?

That's the new head of the thigh bone.

I'm going to put that into the new socket.

You ready? OK, here we go.

That looks really painful.

There was a lot of pressure in the room,

both us and probably Noel as well,

because it's really important, anything can go wrong.

There you go. Pop in.

Excellent. We got the hip in.

Phew! Noel seems happy. Chip's surgery is almost over.

Oh, that's cool.

-What do you think? Did I do an OK job?

-Yeah, brilliant.

-You see this socket there?

-Yeah.

-You see the head there?

-Yeah.

-Looks pretty cool, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

-New hip, huh?

He created all of these things

and it was just amazing to see something like that.

-You want to do that one day?

-Yeah.

Good man. I hope you will.

-Get a dog out of pain, right?

-Yeah.

That's all we want to do.

And you did it, lads.

Cos just 36 hours later, check out Chip!

Looking forward to a much more active happier life.

It was amazing knowing Chip wasn't in any more pain now

because everything's done right.

He's a great dog

and it was great to know that he's going to be all right.

Now that's what I call junior vetted.

Brilliant junior vetting from everyone today.

Josh and Sebastian were men of steel

as they helped Supervet Noel give Chip a new hip.

Josh and Sebastian did fantastic today.

I was really impressed with them.

The thing that blew me away, the most exciting bit for me,

was when they saw the hip in place.

It was like this light bulb came on in their head,

and even though we were all scrubbed up and all masked up,

you could see their eyes widening.

And for me that's just a moment of pure magic.

And Hajar and Natalie never got in a flap.

They took to bird vet work like flamingos to water.

Oh, I tell you what, girls, what a day.

Particular highlight for me, finding out about Inel Junior.

-Eh, what if it's a girl?

-What about if it's a girl?

What are you going to call it?

Inela, obviously.

Right, let's get the flap out of here.

Thank you, junior vets, this lot are loving your work.