Episode 5 Junior Vets on Call

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

But don't worry, cos coming to the rescue

are today's team of junior vets on call.

Today...

baby birds need help.

An unlucky rabbit's foot.

And oops! Down, boy!

Ouch.

Boom! All the animals that are here -

the dogs, cats, goats, sheep, mice -

they're all perfectly fine. No help needed whatsoever.

Ha! So I'm out. Peace.

Who am I kidding? Junior vets, who's on call today?

-BOTH:

-Junior vets standing by.

My cat has a special skill.

I've got a Jackahuahua. Bet you don't know what that is.

Jackahuahua? Rami, what's a Jackahuahua?

That sounds like a word you made up or a sound an electric guitar makes.

Like wah-wah-wah-wah!

It's a Jack Russell and a Chihuahua.

They're bred to go down rabbit holes.

Ah, it's a designer dog.

And, Inigo, I heard you've got the cleanest cat in the world.

-Explain.

-He taught himself to wee in the loo.

-Oh, right. Does he flush it as well?

-No. Unfortunately not.

He isn't that clean.

Right, let's go fix some animals, shall we?

-Let's do this.

-Let's go.

And there are always loads to fix here at

the Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare in Sussex.

This place takes in over 1,500 unwanted animals every year.

And here's one now.

She's called Poppy. She's 11 years old.

She got brought into the home three weeks ago.

And she's already got a new home, so that's brilliant.

-Quick turnaround.

-Well done, Poppy.

I'm actually a dog person, for having a dog,

but Poppy is the nicest cat I've met.

Yeah, she was really cute.

So, if Poppy is all sorted with a new home,

how can we help vet Annalise today?

She's just got quite dirty teeth.

So we need to clean them before she goes,

otherwise she can get lots of disease, OK, within her mouth.

'Now, let's face it, no-one likes the dentist.

'But cats, well, they hate it.

'So Poppy is going to need an injection

'to make her sleep through this.'

The first thing we need to do is listen to her heart.

That's extremely fast, actually.

I wasn't expecting it to quite be like that.

'Just like us, cats have baby teeth that fall out when they're young.

'As we all know,

'you've got to take extra care of your grown-up gnashers. Ha!

'But no-one's done that for poor Poppy.'

You can see that they're quite dirty there.

'She could need some taken out today.'

We've given her a general check over.

'And thankfully, Poppy's OK for that anaesthetic jab on her leg.

'That's it, Rami, get it cleaned.'

That's fantastic.

We've got quite a lot of dirt come off there.

So make sure it's nice and clean cos we're putting it into the vein.

'What's up, Inigo. Are you OK, mate?'

I have a little bit of a thing with needles. So if I do that...

THEY LAUGH

..there's a reason.

-I might...

-Do you want to take a seat?

-Yeah.

Thank you.

You couldn't look, could you?

No. I didn't want to, like, slow down the operation in any way.

So I just went and sat down.

I love cats and I have a strange phobia of needles.

When I saw the needle go in,

I just had to sit down and have a lot of water.

'But Poppy needs help.

'Let's hope Inigo can make it back for the check-up.'

Wild animals get themselves into all sorts of trouble.

And they can't just pick up the phone

and call the emergency services.

But they do have this place to pick them up,

fix them up and drop them back home.

Sounds like a big job. Junior vets, you know the score.

-BOTH:

-Junior vets standing by.

I stayed up all night to help my cat give birth.

I love my guinea pigs and all other animals.

-Shall we go and help some animals?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-OK. Let's do it.

There's nothing hush-hush about what goes on here

at Secret World in Somerset.

It's all about saving British wildlife.

And boss, Pauline, needs junior vet help.

Hi, Georgia and Lauren, my wildlife vets. That's brilliant, actually,

cos we haven't got a lot of time.

We've just had four little, tiny baby birds come in.

So are you ready to come and do some work? OK?

Come on then.

'Check out these babies.

'These little starlings have lost their mum.

'They need us, and fast.'

-How old are they?

-They're about five days old, I should imagine.

Cos actually, things in the wild grow very, very quickly.

Georgia, do you want to pick one of them up. Just very carefully.

'Hey, Georgia's not mucking about.

'She's straight in there and getting these little guys weighed.'

You felt really under pressure because they were so small.

Looks like he's got a little afro.

To be fair, it took a long time to grow mine as well.

So I'm a bit jealous it only took him five days to grow his.

What does that read, Georgia, on the top there?

-He weighs 30g.

-Brilliant, so he's going to become White Head

because we're going to put a little dot on his... Oh!

'Whoa! Hang on a sec, Pauline. Graffiti on baby birds?'

He has got rather a big drop,

but at least we can see quite obviously you're White Head.

'I knew that. These are markings to ID the birds.

'It doesn't hurt them,

'but White Head wants revenge for messing his little 'fro up.'

-He pooed on my hand.

-He has pooed on you, hasn't he?

-Yep.

He says, "If you're going to put a white mark on my head,

"I'll put a white mark on your hand."

It pooed on my hand but I was able to cope with it cos that's

what happens to vets most of the time.

'With Mum not around to feed these little orphans,

'they need important nutrients to survive.'

I'm going to give him just a little bit of additive from here.

Little bit. That's it, that's brilliant. Yep.

Lovely. Put that in. Then just mix it round for me.

'The junior vets have to make sure all the birds have some grub,

'and no-one is left out.'

-Which one's that one?

-That's No Mark.

-Right.

Lovely. Try and get a different one if you can each time.

Just so that we're going round and round.

It was really hard because some wanted a lot more than the others.

-That was White Head.

-White Head just wants all the food, to be fair.

Yeah.

'Everything seems to be going smoothly.

'But in a wildlife hospital, drama can be just around the corner.'

This is carnage.

There's a dove on the loose. Just tried to land in my hair.

The junior vets don't seem flustered.

They're like, "Yeah, there's a bird flying around."

'Whoops! She's off again. But the junior vets stay focused.'

The hours were critical so we had to feed the birds

instead of worrying about the bird flying around.

So, without this kind of care that the junior vets are helping to give,

-what chance would these little chicks have?

-Very little.

And it's very important to get them feeding as soon as they come in.

And the girls have managed that very, very well. That's brilliant.

'Nice work. That's four baby starlings vetted.'

'At the rescue centre,

'Rami and Inigo are helping vet Annalise

'with Poppy the cat's dental.'

That's it, Poppy.

Easy. Whoa.

'Hey, easy, Poppy. It's for your own good, girl.

'This is why she needs a jab to make her unconscious for the treatment.'

Good girl, Poppy.

'Inigo's not a big fan of needles either.

'So he's sitting this one out. For now.'

Pfffft. I just really didn't feel that good.

I think Rami's doing OK, knowing her,

because she's very brave with that kind of stuff.

'Oh, look. But there's no keeping this junior vet down.

'He's back.'

-Hi, Inigo. Come back in. How are you feeling?

-Much better now.

Yeah? Brilliant.

Well done.

It was very brave of you to come back in.

Well, thank you.

And I did feel a bit dodgy and I had had a wobble,

but I did just want to help Poppy.

Cos she was so sweet.

Is it dangerous or...?

The general anaesthetic? It is a risk.

It's always a risk.

We try to minimise those risks by checking the animal beforehand.

Making sure their heart's OK.

It's quite tough and nerve-racking being there.

'Don't worry. Inigo's doing a great job of keeping Poppy healthy

'as she gets sleepy.'

If you look at this chamber here,

you can see that the drip's started now.

So that means that you've unblocked it and it's now flowing down there.

-OK.

-Into her vein. And into her. OK?

'The next important job is to make sure Poppy really is unconscious.

'Was that it? What? Just a poke in the eye?'

So, when you touch there, she doesn't react.

So she's nice and sleepy.

'Ah, OK. Nice. Now she needs to be kept at the right

'level of sleepiness during the treatment.

'And Rami's on gas control.'

Excellent. That's brilliant. She's at two and a half now.

We've got the anaesthetic how we want it

for the rest of the procedure, so we can start to begin now.

We'll be back in a while, Poppy. But first, over to Barker.

What do you truth-seekers want to know today?

Come on, we've got all the answers. Lucy, you're up.

Is it true that slugs share 70% of their DNA with humans?

Well, Lucy, DNA is like our own computer code that makes us

what we are.

Our closest relatives are chimps. We share 99% of our DNA with them.

Mindblowingly, we do indeed share 70% with slugs.

But to be fair, we also share 50% with bananas.

That is bananas, Johnny. Eh?

At the wildlife hospital, volunteer Mrs Hester

has brought in a baby animal in need of urgent help.

Don't worry, Mrs Hester. Junior vets Lauren and Georgia are on this.

-Hello.

-What have we got here?

I've got a baby rabbit. I think it's in someone's garden it was found.

It had been abandoned.

-We'll take it from here.

-Lovely.

-See you soon. Bye.

-Bye-bye.

Reception to Georgia.

Go ahead.

We have a casualty in reception.

OK, thanks.

The poor little rabbit's in shock.

The junior vets need to help carer Josie by quickly telling her

what they know.

What's the story with this one?

It was found in someone's back garden.

They think that it was caught by a cat.

Emergencies are quite scary at first

because you don't know when they come in

if it's going to be a serious injury or not very serious.

Now we have to have a general check.

And we need to look from head to toe when we're assessing our animals.

So, can you see any difference with its eyes?

-Do they look all clear and OK?

-Yeah, they look clear.

And the nose, is there any blood coming from the nose?

-Or is it just clear?

-Yes, it's quite clear.

You can have a look at the ears. Any blood?

-No?

-Right. Then we'll look at the feet.

-Can you see any wounds?

-Yes. There's a...

-Quite a big wound there.

OK.

If we didn't treat it and it went back out in the wild,

it could probably die.

That's a big wound for a little rabbit.

But he's in safe hands now.

-We could tell the rabbit was scared, couldn't we?

-Yeah.

We were quite scared as well,

cos we wanted to make sure the rabbit was OK.

This is a cleaning solution. You just need to gently wipe down. OK?

Good stuff, Georgia. Let's get that wound sorted.

OK. Brilliant. That's absolutely perfect.

Then it's off to the recovery room to make him nice and cosy.

I'm putting straw at the back so it can have a good place to hide.

If it gets scared, then it can always go back.

This little rabbit's had a really traumatic time.

But thanks to Lauren and Georgia's confident work,

he seems to be finding his feet.

It's really cute, isn't it?

One much happier bunny vetted.

In East Sussex, Rami and Inigo are into a bit of dentistry.

After just three weeks at the rescue centre,

Poppy has a new home to go to.

But she needs her choppers sorting

to prevent infection that could make her really ill.

That tooth there is the canine tooth.

It has been broken.

It didn't look too good.

It was kind of scummy, manky, it had plaque on top.

It could possibly be giving Poppy a lot of pain.

So there is important work to do.

But hang on, what's up with Inigo?

I think I'm getting up a bit too early each time.

It was so annoying.

I mean, I couldn't physically control it in any way.

I just had to kind of let it be.

To be honest, I'm not quite sure what's happening

because I don't really feel worried or scared or anything like that,

that might cause you to be faint.

That's exactly how I felt

when I first came into a veterinary practice.

It's nothing in your head. It was purely a physical sensation.

So it's perfectly normal, don't worry.

See, it happens to the best, Inigo.

Annalise is a top vet.

I might have to see this.

And he is back again!

This is a real team effort.

-It seems to dent in a little bit...

-Yeah, exactly.

I think you did really well, because when I was out of the room,

you were on your own. And without my help, you

managed to do all the stuff that I couldn't do cos I was feeling dodgy.

Which shows...a good person.

Thank you.

Poppy's dirty teeth need a proper clean.

If you could do that for me, that would be brilliant.

I'll try and use my best gloved dexterity.

Yes, it's difficult with gloves on, isn't it?

Inigo's loaded the paste. Now Rami's giving them the power polish.

That was really fun.

Just like, whizzing around.

-We are cat dentists.

-Yeah.

It had its own toothpaste, which I found quite strange.

Right, thank you.

It's going well. But Annalise has spotted something.

This dental treatment is about to become dental surgery.

OK, so this tooth here, you can see it's quite diseased.

This tooth needs to come out,

otherwise it's going to cause a problem.

So we need to drill into the tooth and divide the roots in two.

And then remove them.

This doesn't sound nice.

But Rami and Inigo clearly have the stomach for this stuff now.

And that's the tooth. Ha!

The teeth are looking a lot cleaner and healthier.

-Yeah.

-So thank you very much for your help.

This should make Poppy's life a lot better now.

And prevent future problems with her teeth.

It was a good experience.

Yeah, not many 11-year-olds get to do this.

It's not long before Poppy comes round. Breath sweet, teeth sorted.

'I was really happy to see that Poppy was better'

and we helped make her better.

Well done, guys. Poppy is all ready for her new home.

That's another patient vetted.

'From a cat's mouth to the other end of a dog.

'Why are they all so fascinated with each other's bottoms?

'No idea, Johnny.

'With Barker, it's because he's full of animal videos.'

-BOTH:

-# Doggy, lift, lift lift that tail up

# Doggy, lift, lift lift that tail up

# Lift, lift it up

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

Here, don't get too excited.

We're about to meet Joshua, who has a dog called Harry,

who is a Muggle and does magic tricks.

-No way.

-Yeah, man.

-A Muggle?

Hi, this is my dog, Henry.

He's a Puggle.

A Puggle, Inel. A Puggle.

Which means that he's a Pug crossed with a Beagle.

Never!

Well, huh, it's still brilliant, though. Eh? Watch.

I've taught him some tricks.

Sit.

Play.

Paw.

Up.

Sit. Play.

Paw.

Good boy. Sit.

Stay.

Come here. Good boy.

So, that's my dog, Henry. He's quite cheeky. Bye.

-BOTH:

-Bye.

Here, I wonder if he lives on Privet Drive.

What?

Oh, I give up.

At the rescue centre, cases come in thick and fast.

Now vet nurse Sarah needs Rami

and Inigo's help with their youngest patients.

Oooooh!

These are three-week-old puppies.

-They were just adorable. And so small.

-They were so cute.

Unfortunately, they were rejected by their mother,

so they've had to come to be hand-reared.

Aw, they really are cute.

But they need a good junior vet health check before they can

get re-homed.

Take it away, Inigo.

I noticed that their eyes are a little bit tinted.

Is there a particular reason for that or is that just...?

They are normally all born with sort of blue tints to their eyes

and then the colour develops later.

Good start.

You need to check their eyes, ears, mouth, coat,

and they're keen to investigate you too.

This one keeps licking my fingers.

Yep, vet work is always tougher when patients are all wriggly.

Pinkness under the skin there.

I had it in my hands but it was crawling onto my shoulder.

I was about to bring it back down but it jumped off.

-Oh!

-PUPPY YELPS

I was just doing the check-ups on mine

and then I suddenly saw you go...

Like that kind of shocked pose,

where you're completely petrified, like...

Oh, no need to panic, Rami. The pup's fine.

It was such a relief to see it was OK.

We were told that puppies are designed to be bouncy, apparently.

Phew! But are they all good to go?

So, do you think these guys are fit for re-homing soon?

Yep.

Aw, six cute little puppies vetted.

'At the wildlife hospital,

'vet Dee has another urgent case for Georgia and Lauren.

'This badger came in last night after being hit by a car.

'Junior vets, this poor, little fella needs your help.'

Today, we are going to be doing an anaesthetic.

It means we can have a closer look

and we'll be really sure that everything is OK.

BADGER WHINES

The badger was really scared, wasn't he?

Yeah. He didn't know why he was around all the people.

'Georgia, you've got a vital job. Monitoring the badger's heart.'

I can hear boom-boom, boom-boom.

That's completely normal and that's what we want to hear.

You had to concentrate really hard

when you were checking his heartbeat, didn't you?

Yeah. Cos we didn't want him to die in the middle of it.

'The big worry is the badger's jaw.

'If it's broken, it could be the end of the road for him.'

The reason why that's a big deal is,

obviously if he's been caught by a car and hit somewhere,

that's where you could get an injury.

And if a badger can't bite

and can't chew properly he obviously is going to struggle to eat.

And eventually wastes away.

'Please be OK, little badger.'

If he had a broken jaw, it would be really hard for him

to survive because he wouldn't be able to look after himself.

Just lifting up the jaw. I'll check in here.

Usually, if there was a fracture on a badger cub,

you would expect to see damage to the ears and the eyes.

Everything looks OK with this little man.

'Great news. But, junior vets, there is another job for you.

'It's nonstop, this wildlife vetting.'

The next thing we want to do is have a good look over.

If I ask you two to start looking for ticks.

Ticks are parasites on badgers.

'Ew! Getting rid of bloodsucking ticks isn't nice. Or easy.'

Trying to get it is the tricky part.

'But they can be harmful to wildlife.'

Does this make anyone else's hair start itching?

I hope they are not on me right now.

'So it's a big tick for these two.'

Perfect. That's exactly what we want.

This little one is ready to be woken up.

'Helping injured animals back into the wild is the best

'part of the job for the hospital boss, Pauline.

'And Lauren can deliver the vet team's good news.'

We checked the jaw and it's completely fine.

There is nothing wrong with it.

That's lovely. Thank you ever so much.

It's so nice to know that he is going to be OK. Thank you.

'On the road to recovery - one tick-free badger vetted.'

At the rescue centre, they don't just save your regular pets.

Check out these chickens.

-So many chickens.

-So many chickens.

-They are planning to eat us all.

There is literally chickens everywhere.

Yep, there are hundreds of them. Why so many, Cassie?

At 18 months, the farming industry don't want them any more for

egg laying because the eggs aren't absolutely supermarket perfect.

So, if they don't come here, to places like this, to get rescued,

unfortunately, a lot of them end up in the meat industry.

So we try and take as many as possible,

cos they make brilliant pets.

Ha! Well, I never knew that.

Nice handling skills, Rami.

Brilliant.

And the junior vets will be needing a firm grip for today's

chicken treatment.

CHICKENS SQUAWK

You were the chicken tamer.

Junior vet, you know what you are doing, don't you?

-Oops. Hopefully.

-THEY LAUGH

Yeah.

And they just decided to hit me in the face with their wings

all the time.

I think she wants to break free.

They were cheeky chickens.

This powder should sort out all the lice that can get in chickens'

feathers and make them really ill.

Just rub it all over.

And underneath the wing.

And unfortunately, you also need to get it over the back end of it.

-So you need to rub that.

-Oh!

Powdering a chicken's bottom is a very strange experience.

But you have to do what you can to help the animal,

because it will help it get along and have a happy, long life.

Too right, Inigo.

Pesky parasites like bottoms but they won't like this powdery stuff.

So, who is feeling strong?

I am. Yay!

Cassie's got a plan that means the chickens can treat themselves.

Inigo just needs to mix the powder into some sand and boom,

it's a chicken dust bath.

Brilliant. Well done.

And they will be able to have their own little shower.

Your new chicken shower. Only 29.99. Or probably cheaper.

Right, guys. What fantastic stuff you've been doing here today.

So well done, Rami and Inigo.

Yeah, thanks, guys. You've been absolutely brilliant.

-Yeah.

-Well, it's not every day you go into a massive enclosure with

millions of chickens all coming to try and eat you.

Do you think they would make great pets?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

'Job done. That's one, two, three... Hundreds of chickens. Ha! Vetted.'

Junior vets, you've done us proud today.

-We have a casualty in reception.

-OK, thanks.

-We are cat dentists.

-Yes.

She has quite a big wound there.

CHICKENS SQUAWK

I think you've done fantastically well,

because while I was in there,

I was really starting to itch a little bit.

About that. I can actually see one there.

Do you want me to get my tweezers? I think I'm an expert by now.

-What, there's a tick...?

-Yeah.

Uh... Right. I'm getting very nervous.

This is a great day for British wildlife but no, I think

I'll go and deal with this tick on my own.

Well, this little lot have all been dealt with.

They've been well and truly vetted.

Fancy getting vetting yourself?

Well, head to the CBBC website right now and start earning hearts

and points by helping the animals that need you.