Episode 2 Junior Vets on Call

Pets, wildlife, and farm animals across the UK are in trouble.

But don't worry, because coming to the rescue

are today's team of junior vets on call.

Today, feisty little meerkats.

A big, friendly puppy.

And... Oi, moggy, what are you up to?!

Here I am, going for a stroll in the park,

a safari park home to 700 wild animals

ranging from huge elephants to venomous snakes.

And someone has to make sure that they're all doing all right.

It's not going to be me. Junior vets, where are you?

-BOTH:

-Junior vets, standing by.

Whatever it takes, I'll do it. Even the horrible jobs.

I love animals, but penguins confuse me.

Yes, here I am with two junior vets, Amar and Rawan.

-Welcome, girls.

-Hi.

-Now, Amar, are you up for picking up some doo-doo today?

-Yes!

Sure? Some of these animals are huge,

-That means huge doo-doo.

-Yeah!

OK, then. Now, Rawan, I hear you've got a problem with penguins.

-What's the problem, man?

-You know their wings?

-They don't even use them to fly, so why do they need wings?

-Go on!

What are you walking and struggling for when you need to be rushing?

Animals are in need of help.

The animals here at Knowsley Safari in Merseyside

aren't the sort you find in your average household. Oh, no.

They all need vetting, which is sometimes easier said than done.

Because even the smallest of patients can be a handful.

Vet Jen has called the junior vets

to tackle some little fellas with a big attitude.

Hi. I'm Rawan, I'm ten years old.

-Hi, Rawan.

-I can't wait to be working with you.

-Hi there.

-I'm Amar.

Hi, Amar, I'm Jen. And these guys in here are your patients.

Oh, meerkats! I love these little guys. Of course, in the city,

they're called names like Sergei and Oleg and wear housecoats.

In the wild, though, it's very different.

They hang about in groups, and take it in turns to keep an eye out

for dangerous animals that might want to eat them.

What's the matter with them?

There's a couple of these meerkats that need their toenails trimming.

We're going to need to catch them up.

We need to check their microchips are working.

We need to make sure they're otherwise healthy,

and we need to give a pedicure.

We were so excited to work with a little animal such as that.

And so cute.

In the sun-baked African desert,

meerkats spend their time digging about in the sand,

which means their claws stay nice and trim.

But in Merseyside, they need a helping hand.

How do you catch a meerkat? They seem so nervous.

Well, you need a guy with some very quick reactions.

So you're the man I've been hearing about, yeah?

-Yes, I guess so.

-That's you, yeah?

-Yeah.

-OK.

-Master catcher.

-So they say.

-Oh, right. Let's see them moves.

-Let's go for it.

They're fast, but when these meerkats get furious,

they pack a powerful bite, so expert handling is vital.

All right, Craig, show us your magic, man.

In with the tasty snacks, and boom. Simples!

That's what I'm talking about.

They don't call him the "meer-catcher" for nothing!

-He's more scared of you than you are of him.

-He is.

-He is.

-But then it's going to bite.

Come on, junior vet, this moody meerkat needs a toe claw trim,

and I ain't doing it.

It might be little, but its teeth looked really sharp.

Just on the tip, OK?

-Are you going to come and do some?

-I'm scared I might do it too far.

-OK, well, I'll hold his foot.

-Come on, Rawan, get stuck in.

That's it, perfect. Well done.

This machine scans a special number inside the meerkat

so we know which one has been treated.

A bit like the things at the supermarket. Boop.

Scanning, clipping...overseeing.

One down, one to go.

-This one's much angrier.

-Yeah!

Step aside, I've got this one, junior vets.

Boom! This guy is FDXB 981.

Amar goes in for the next trim.

-Boom.

-Brilliant.

MEERKAT HISSES

-They're not cute any more.

-I think I don't want a meerkat.

Cross that off the list, man.

I don't think you're on his list either, Rawan.

Got a bit of a temper, hasn't he? Sweet he ain't.

Let's get this little fella back to his mates.

Your work here is done.

I'm in the north-east today, heading to a veterinary practice

dealing with animals of all shapes and sizes

that are in need of urgent veterinary care.

It's busy in there. I think I'm going to need some help.

Junior vets, where are you?

-BOTH:

-Junior vets, standing by.

My dog hides under the table when we show him his lead.

We had a horse which was too unpredictable, so we had to sell it.

Plenty of patients to fix up today.

DOG BARKS

And it seems Jason the vet is bringing one in with him.

-Hi, junior vets.

-BOTH:

-Hello.

We've got a really important case today.

And it's really important because it's my own dog.

He's coming in for an operation today,

and I want you to lead the case.

OK, Jason, unleash the hound.

-His name's Riley.

-Hello.

Believe it or not, Riley is a puppy.

He's come in for a routine operation

that will stop him having more puppies.

First, we need to make sure he's nice and healthy before his surgery.

-What colour are his gums?

-Pink. Nice and pink.

What's next on our list?

-BOTH:

-Eyes.

-Yeah, very good.

-What do you think about his pupils?

-They're bluey.

-Yeah.

-Yeah. Do you think that's normal?

-No.

-No.

-Is that what's wrong with him?

That's one of the things that's wrong with him. Very good.

Quite easily missed, so you did very well to pick that up.

Good spot, junior vets.

Riley's had an illness called cataracts,

which makes everything blurry.

I felt really sorry for Riley, because he was really young

and had eye problems at that age.

-He must have been really confused, as well.

-You expect it to be older.

How bad could they get? Could they lead him to go completely blind?

Pretty much. I think... He's got pretty poor sight as it is.

It's getting worse, so he's starting to bump into things

that he perhaps wasn't when I first got him.

And that can be quite upsetting for a young dog.

I suspect that's what these scars are on his nose.

I think he's bumped into things that he shouldn't have done.

So the importance of seeing today how bad his cataracts are,

and it'll give me an idea...

I can keep monitoring and see if they're getting worse, as well.

It's also a bit of a mystery

why a young dog like Riley has this condition.

Right, girls, we've got some really important tests to do now.

-Yeah.

-Some blood tests and some eye examinations.

OK, Jason, if anyone can get to the bottom of Riley's problems,

it's Anya and Ellie.

Right, junior vets, we should do some pretty important tests now.

These tests will tell us if Riley needs urgent surgery.

We need this big, bouncy puppy a bit calmer for all this vet stuff.

So gets to work with the clippers, because Riley needs an injection.

-OK...

-Good boy, Riley.

Yeah, good boy.

Now, he might yelp.

RILEY WHINES

Felt really sorry for him,

because it sounded like he was in loads of pain.

And we couldn't do anything except reassure him.

-Bless him.

-Didn't like that, did you?

Nice bedside manner, Anya and Ellie. I think Riley's calming down.

-Good boy.

-Brilliant.

Ellie's eye drops and this magnifying lens

will make everything look much bigger and easier to examine.

-Can you see how grey...?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

And that tells me a couple of things.

The whole of his lens is affected,

which is probably why his eyesight is so poor.

Yeah, it's all grey, isn't it?

Poor old Riley.

This doesn't look good.

No wonder he's been banging into things.

What's next, Jason?

-This is what we call a tonometer.

-Yeah, OK.

This little bit of kit's probably worth about £1,500.

-All right.

-And they don't like being dropped.

-OK.

-There's no pressure.

-OK.

-Don't drop it.

-OK.

This fancy and expensive bit of kit

will tell us how bad Riley's eyes are.

Because he's already got defects in his eyes,

he could have pressure issues in his eyes.

And high pressure in the eye is very serious.

He could go blind, and it could be very painful.

The pressure's on now, junior vets.

Nice and calm, Riley.

Let's do this.

Gently.

Even though he's had his eyes numbed, I was still, like, shaking.

-Is that it?

-One more for luck.

Please make it good news for Riley.

90, so his pressure is OK.

So that's good news.

Basically, because he's got relatively normal pressure

in his eye, that means his eye is stable for the minute,

and he's not going to need urgent surgery.

Burning questions, loads of them.

And they all need answering.

OK, let's do this.

Laksman is our latest truth seeker.

I've got a question that I'm burning to ask you.

Is there anything such as a liger,

the crossbreed of a lion and a tiger?

If so, please can you tell me.

A liger?

Well, believe it or not, it's true.

Not at... Well, would you look at that!

Yeah, I know!

The liger had a tiger mum and lion daddy.

Wow! Whatever next?

A zebra crossed with a donkey?

A zonkey?

Actually, Johnny, I think you'll find that's a zedonk.

Now, I HAVE seen everything.

In Newcastle, it looks like junior vets Anya and Ellie

are still getting to the bottom of Riley the puppy's eye problem.

-There we go.

-Vet Jason is worried that a nasty condition

called diabetes is causing his poor eyesight.

This would be bad news for a young dog like Riley.

There we go.

Just screw the cap on.

The blood sample will reveal all.

That'll go up to the lab and we'll run blood tests on there,

and we'll probably have the results back later on.

Once we took it we were hoping that it would be the right level.

And it would be positive results for Riley and for Jason.

Because it's another added thing

that you need to worry about if it was bad.

Whilst we're waiting for the results,

Riley can have the surgery he came in for.

It's an important operation to stop him

having unwanted pups.

That's the anaesthetic going in.

Riley is in a deep sleep now.

Let's get him ready.

That tube will help him breathe.

Easy does it, Anya.

It's quite difficult, this.

-Down into there's his airway.

-OK.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

-Keep going?

-Yeah.

Brilliant.

You're a dog clipping expert now, Ellie.

-Good job.

-Thank you.

Right, now we need the surgical site scrubbed.

-We're going to take him to theatre now.

-OK.

It's already been a full-on day of vet work.

Now for surgery.

Tell us if you feel a little bit sick or faint.

Let me know and I'll get one of the nurses

to take you out of the theatre, OK?

My prediction -

Johnny will be the one to go, if anyone.

When you're vetting at a busy safari park,

you never know what sort of creature is going to need your help.

Oh, hello.

Hey, Sammy. Who do we have here?

This is Cavalo.

He's our tapir here at Knowsley.

-It looked like...

-A pig?

A mini elephant.

Yeah, it actually was kind of a mini elephant

because of its long nose.

But working with an animal that you don't even know what it is

is very scary, at best.

These guys are from South America, or Central America.

So how come one's here?

They're part of our breeding programme.

We actually hold a bachelor group of males.

Their nose looks like an elephant's trunk.

Yes, a lot of people do say that they're a little elephant baby.

But, no, these guys are one of a kind.

They are prone to getting footcare problems.

So in the dry season, they can tend to crack.

But on rainy days like this, it's not too bad.

But we've just had really dry days.

So they get, like, corns and bunions and all that, yeah?

Yeah, so we're just treating them with some coconut oil.

I use the same stuff.

Cavalo's dad Shaun is getting treated first,

but the junior vets have got to find him.

Well, call him, then.

-BOTH:

-Shaun!!!

You have to be louder, girls.

-Here we go.

-Oi, Shaun!!! Come on, Shaun.

One of those days, sweat at it!

Shaun!

Into the treatment room, Shaun.

Now, get this - some tapirs like Shaun love a little tickle.

If we can hit the right spot, Shaun will be putty in our hands.

-There's a good boy.

-Give him a good tickle, girls.

No?

That's it. 'We're not messing around here.

'There is a real vet reason we're doing this.'

At the moment, we are trying to tickle him

because we're trying to get him to lie down

so we can do his feet.

It's just creating that bond between us,

just in case we have to do any vet procedures.

It's just kind of nice for him.

Oh, you like that.

You like that.

He's being a bit stubborn. He doesn't want to lie down.

Yeah, he's definitely being stubborn.

Come on, Shaun, mate, we need to treat your feet.

He just ain't in the mood today.

He wouldn't lie down.

And, like, he was distracted and busy.

He's a wild animal, remember.

We can't force him, or he might be scared of vets in the future.

I don't think he wants to lie down, does he, girls?

-No.

-I don't think he wants his feet to be checked out.

Sometimes this does happen.

So what we'll do is to try his son,

and we'll bring Cavalo back in, who you met earlier.

If we, like, swap them over, when is he going to have his?

We'll try again tomorrow.

And we'll keep on doing it as that.

This is the thing with working with wild animals, junior vets.

They do what they like.

Right, Cavalo, you're up next.

Oh, yeah, he's a tickle fan, all right.

He's loving it.

He looks asleep, doesn't he?

Right, on with the vetting.

That's his weak spot, there we go. Perfect.

That's what I'm talking about. Teamwork.

Amar is on distraction duty, while Rawan - on with the feet.

It was very squidgy, and really gross.

I'll punk it out.

Cavalo was sort of, like,

he didn't even notice we were tickling his feet.

They are prone to cracking around the heel,

and just on that soft little tissue just there.

So you're just checking in between his little toes.

Cavalo now has the softest feet in Merseyside.

-Goodnight, Cavalo.

-Bye, Cavalo.

Have a nice sleep.

All done, Cavalo.

That's what I call bedside manner, junior vets.

He is proper sparko.

Oi, Cavalo, treatment's done, mate, you can go.

Go on.

Come on, Barker, let's have a nice run out.

BARKING What's that, boy?

You've found some ace animal video treats?

Well, you know what to do, Barker.

Take it away.

# Doggy

# Doggy lift your tail up

# Doggy Doggy lift your tail up

# Doggy

# Doggy lift your tail up

# Doggy lift your tail up and show us what you've got. #

This is my cat Dash, and he has a really special trick.

An unusual habit.

He climbs up the cactus, and sometimes...

he sits on the top of it.

But most of the time, he just wants the hand

so he can get the treat.

She's not making it easy for him.

Hey, hey - keep watching. Keep watching, mate.

Like that.

Oh, nicely done, Dash.

See? How cool was that?

Very cool. Very cool.

Not cool. Not cool.

At the north-east vets,

Anya and Ellie are about to give Riley the dog

an operation to stop him having unwanted puppies.

I thought we were going to be, like, standing outside, watching...

Watching Jason do it.

-But we were actually hands on.

-Yeah.

If anything went wrong, it would be our fault.

Little incision.

This is serious stuff.

Jason needs to remove Riley's testicles so he won't have pups.

-These clamps all right here?

-Yeah, they're great.

Keep doing what you're doing.

-Wasn't as bad as I thought it was good to be.

-No.

-No.

Anya's making sure Riley's heartbeat is healthy.

I found it quite hard to focus on, like, trying to hear it

and making sure it was all good.

So what's their average heart rate?

It's between 60 and 120 for a dog.

-OK, so that's all right.

-Yeah, that's all right.

-All good.

-Is he bleeding?

-No, I don't think so.

-Safe to go?

-Yeah, it's fine.

On your head...

Look at that face!

-Yeah!

-It's fine.

Jason definitely reassured us a lot. Kept us calm.

-Yeah.

-I'm really glad he was there.

-Talked through it, as well.

-Yeah.

I can't believe how well you're doing here, junior vets.

Feeling all right, Johnny?

I'll all right, yeah, it's just... it's just different.

-Different.

-Different, yeah.

Phew! I'm glad that's over.

Now we need to stitch Riley backup.

Right, there we go. Done.

Do you want to wake him up?

If one of you wants to give them the injection?

Great.

But Riley's not out of the woods yet.

Earlier, the team took a blood sample

and sent it to the lab to test for diabetes.

-Riley is coming round really nicely now.

-OK, yeah.

We'll leave him in recovery,

and we'll perhaps go and have a look at his blood tests now.

Fingers crossed, Riley.

Right, junior vets.

Have a look at these blood results.

What I want you to have a look at

is that everything's within normal range.

Here's the sciencey bit.

If the amount of sugar in Riley's blood, known as glucose,

is too high, that's bad news.

-If we look at the glucose, that's where it should be.

-Yeah.

-So, that's good.

-So what does that mean, then?

-He's not diabetic.

-Yeah.

-So that's a good result, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-It is, yeah.

Basically, that means he's not diabetic,

-and has cataracts are probably more developmental.

-Yeah.

It was obviously such a relief to find out that Riley was OK.

-Yeah.

-He's all good.

So, basically, those blood results are really good news.

He's now castrated, so his temperament's going to be better.

-So, the future looks very bright for him.

-Yeah.

You've been a big, big part of that.

So, you've done really well today.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

Brilliant result, junior vets.

Good luck, Riley.

Back at the very rainy safari park,

the junior vets are moving on to the big stuff.

That's right - I'm talking elephants.

Hi, my name's Steve, I'm the elephant keeper here in Knowsley.

We're going to be working with the two female elephants.

I didn't believe it.

It was a nice opportunity to have, to work with an elephant.

Firstly, one of you is going to help call him over to the fence, here.

And then, when we get inside,

just going to do a bit of foot-scrubbing,

tail-scrubbing, checking his ears.

No problem, Steve!

One elephant MOT coming right up!

-Are we going to get started?

-Yeah, straightaway.

Look at this! The junior vets are up for it, Steve.

Elephant 1 to elephant 4.

Can you be ready at the gates? I want to call the girls away now.

How do we get these big girls inside for treatment?

Well, Amar is going for the old tempting treat plan.

Ashanti!

And Rawan's closing the gate behind them to keep everyone safe.

OK!

Opening gates.

This is dangerous work, Rawan.

Better be clear with your instructions.

Closing gate!

Yeah, that was clear.

I had to shout really loud so everyone knew what they were doing.

You're good at that, aren't you?

Gate safe.

Yes, I got that, Rawan.

HE SIGHS

It's too dangerous to go inside the pen to treat Ashanti,

so the keepers train her to come to them.

Ashanti's had a poorly shoulder since she was born,

and it's important that vets keep an eye on it.

She's got a slight dislocation,

so she can't lift her foot all the way through the foot port.

So what we're doing, is we've been building

the physiotherapy up, so she lifts is to a certain height.

Elephants are really good at adapting to these things.

That's the physio part of the treatment done.

Now, for a bit of cleaning to keep Ashanti's feet spick and span.

Good girl, Ashanti!

It's the first time I've ever...

..you know, like, been near an elephant.

It's the first time I've been cleaning an elephant's feet.

Good girl, Ashanti.

Ain't her trunk amazing?

It's got more than 40,000 muscles in it.

We have less than 700 in our whole body!

Incredible.

What we'll do now is get her to present her tail,

and there's two reasons we do this.

Firstly, it's so we can take any dead skin off her tail,

but also, if we ever need to give any medicine at a later date,

via her back passage,

we can lift the tail up and put our hands in if we have to.

I was very nervous to actually clean the elephant's tail.

I mean, its tail, its...bum.

They have to, like, stick it in.

It's gross. It's gross.

Come on, Rawan, this is important vetting.

I mean, what's the worst that can happen?

Shall we just give it a good scrub?

All over, really scrub it.

This will help remove all that old skin.

She's got really thick skin, so she can't feel it as such.

-PFFRRT

-Whoa!

What was that?!

Proper stinks.

I think she trumped because she doesn't like me.

It was very loud, very smelly, and very gross.

Unlucky.

I'd rather she was in that job.

Ha-ha! You know what, junior vets?

That might have been Ashanti's way of saying,

"I've had enough treatment for today." Good luck, Ashanti.

We are all better off with her being out in the fresh air, I think.

Vetted.

An almighty effort from all over the junior vets today.

Good boy.

Shaun!

You've done really well today.

PFFRRT

Whoa!

Tell you what, junior vets, today has been an education.

Learnt some stuff today.

I learnt that if you want a wild animal to do anything at all,

you've got to give him a little tickle first.

I've learnt that meerkats aren't as cute as they look.

I've learnt that never get close to an elephants' bottom,

otherwise they might trump like it just did to me.

Good advice.

Nice one, junior vets.

Another set of happy, healthy patients.

Fancy getting vetting yourself?

Well, get on the CBBC website right now

and start earning hearts and points

by helping the animals that need you.