Episode 6 Junior Vets

Coming up on Junior Vets...

Manfreda the stray tortoise needs urgent surgery.

Penguins and snakes get the full Junior Vet treatment at the zoo.

And the Junior Vets go it alone

as they work with poorly Casper the boxer.

When pets are poorly, wildlife gets wounded or farm animals feel unwell,

they need top vet help.

The really lucky ones come here,

to Edinburgh University's amazing super-high tech Vet School.

And now, six kids, chosen from 1,000,

have become the first ever children allowed to enrol here...

I'm all ready.

..and work alongside the school's top vets.

Who wants to take this cow's urine?

They're facing an intense training programme...

-Have you done that anaesthetic before?

-What is this? What's that?

..And are being pushed to the limit at animal hospitals,

vet practices, wildlife parks and working farms.

I'm Paul Manktelow.

It took me five hard years to train to be a vet,

but this lot have only weeks to show me what they're made of.

My Junior Vets have hardly been around animals before.

That's so cool.

Now they are facing real heavy duty vet work.

It's like everything's just so bonkers.

-That is amazing.

-That's cool.

Have they got the stomach to succeed?

I feel like a real vet.

And can they stay calm under extreme pressure?

Six raw recruits.

But I can only choose...

One winner.

The first ever Junior Vet to win the prestigious Head Vet title...

Is...

Day six. My Junior Vets have completed half of their training.

And every single one is now in with a real chance of winning

the Head Vet title.

Junior Vets, you're smiling and you have a right to.

It was impossible to pick out a single winner in the last

set of challenges.

You all performed to an exceptionally high standard.

Today's pairings are...

Amblessed and Lauren.

Saira and Will.

Morgan and Sam.

There's a packed day of vet work ahead

working with real animals that need their help.

I'll be keeping a close eye on everything they do,

so I can decide who will win today's all important Vital Vet Work award.

And get one step closer to the coveted Head Vet title.

The competition is now really close.

Sam's had a mixed start.

He got off to a flier helping Brie the pony

but then reacted badly to the surgery on Stella's leg.

Since then he's dug in and dealt with exotic lumps

and an upside-down pony like a true pro.

Sam's still got time to prove he's up there amongst the leaders.

Lauren might have had a slowish start,

but she's now showing me her full potential.

A brilliant understanding of vet work

has earned her two Vital Vet Work awards in a row,

and she is really racking up the skills credits too.

She is now on a roll, and she's within touching

distance of the current leaders, Saira and Will.

At the Vet School Small Animal Hospital,

an unusual stray patient needing urgent attention is being

brought in by Scottish SPCA officer Lee Williams.

And Lauren and Amblessed are the Junior Vets

standing by to receive the mystery case.

Aww, tortoise!

You're absolutely right.

What's her name?

We've called her Manfreda.

So how did you come across the tortoise?

We got a call from the member of the public who had noticed her

walking down the side of the road or pavement.

We don't know whether she has been deliberately abandoned

or whether she's strayed.

Oww.

No-one knows how long she had been roaming the streets

and she could be injured or poorly.

I felt quite, like, determined to find out what was wrong with her

and put it right.

Because obviously she was homeless and no-one really cared.

My Junior Vets must complete an immediate examination.

Well, she can clearly move her legs, so she's fine there.

So shall we have a look in her eyes?

She's got quite small eyes.

Is it clear or cloudy?

They're not streaming, they're both the same as well.

And Lauren spots something unusual.

-Can you see there is a bump on that side?

-Yeah.

That sides like straight. And then there's like a bump there.

When I saw the lump on the side of Manfreda's head

I was quite worried especially because it looked quite painful.

That is quite big, isn't it?

Yeah.

This side is straight but she has a bump on that side of her.

So that's not normal.

The Junior Vets call in exotics expert Kevin Eatwell for advice.

That is her eardrum.

So her eardrum sits on the side of her head,

if you go back and look at this side,

You can see the swelling that we've got here is right on that eardrum.

What is most likely to be happening there is we've probably got

infection behind it and that's probably going to be surgical.

We may have to go in and remove this infection.

Kevin's setting up the little tortoise on the CT scan there.

I've never seen something like that before.

This super hi-tech scanner uses high-powered X-ray beams

which Will pass painlessly through Manfreda.

A computer then receives information from the scanner and uses it

to produce a picture of what's hidden behind Manfreda's shell.

OK guys, the CT scan is finished so we can now come and look at

the images on the computer and see what's wrong with this tortoise.

The team's looking for any other problems

aside from the ear infection.

What do you see sort of coming through on there?

-Can you see anything?

-Like grey splodges.

And what do you think these splodges might be?

-Erm...

-Are they the lungs?

That's the lungs and that looks like normal lung tissue.

The lungs look really nice on that particular view.

You could see underneath her shell. So that allowed us

to see that there was nothing wrong with her breathing.

But her infected ear needs sorting out - fast.

The Junior Vets must now scrub in and prepare to help Kevin

with the tricky operation.

Later, the scale of Manfreda's ear problem is revealed.

So that's the stuff that needs to come out.

This is Casper, a slightly deaf boxer,

who's come for a check-up at a vet's practice

a few miles away from Vet School.

His owner Mrs Hedrick thinks Casper has been

a bit down in the mouth recently.

She normally leaves her much-loved pet

in the capable hands of vet Adam Tjole.

But today, Adam is handing over full responsibility

to my junior vets Saira and Will.

They have no idea what might be wrong with Casper,

and will need to use every bit of their Vet School training

to get to the bottom of his possible ailments.

I'm a bit nervous because we've actually got

to go up to Mrs Hedrick now, who I've never seen or met before.

But I suppose you've just got to do it.

They'll be completely on their own.

But Adam has a camera set up that will allow us

to watch their every move as they complete Casper's consultation.

Here they come, look.

Hi, Mrs Hedrick.

I'm Will.

He's greeting her nicely. That's good.

-And who's this? MRS HEDRICK:

-This is Casper.

-Hi, Casper.

-We'll do a general check-up on him.

-ADAM:

-The two of them are both making the dog

and the owner feel at ease, which is really important.

'Poorly pets can't explain what is wrong with them.

'So asking an owner the right kind of questions

'is an essential vet skill.'

It was quite challenging to work out what was wrong with Casper,

because we were on our own.

Will's spotted Casper's sore-looking eyes.

How long has his eyes been like this, then?

Because they look a bit red, don't they?

Good question.

He has a recurring problem with his eyes.

And Will's all ears now.

I think there is a little bit of wax

but Will just be easy to clean out, so that's good.

Will's reassuring the dog there, isn't he?

-I think he's working his way around the dog really well.

-Yeah.

I'm not sure about Saira if she's doing very much, is she?

Saira arrived at Vet School very scared of dogs

and seems happy for Will to take the lead.

I did kind of take a little bit of a step back

and Will kind of just took off.

My mind kind of went a bit blank cos I was a bit nervous.

Has he been eating properly and things like that?

And running around.

-MRS HEDRICK:

-He has a special diet that's been chicken and rice.

She asked a good question there about the food.

Has he had any operations or any major things before then?

Yes, he had an operation in February.

And what was that on? Was that on his eyes?

No, no, that was on his leg.

Is that where he has had his operation?

Yeah, it's growing again.

How much has it been growing recently?

It's growing quickly.

Growing quickly?

Will's line of questioning has paid off.

He now knows Casper had a lump removed by Adam six months earlier.

And it seems to have returned.

Are you surprised how quickly they got to that?

They've been really confident, they've not got nervous,

they've asked all the right questions,

and they've got the answers that we've required, so, brilliant.

I think we are going to have to get a second look on its eyes.

They look to be just really sore especially around the socket area.

And with the leg we need to make sure that it's not been

infected or anything.

Impressive work so far!

We're going to take Casper back to Adam

and report back to him what we found.

And hopefully we're on the money, but we'll see.

Later, Will and Saira get to work to make poorly Casper better.

Steady, steady, that's it.

Just 20 minutes from Vet School

is a colony of 30 rockhopper penguins.

Edinburgh Zoo's Romain Pizzi is on his way to check on Mr Green.

A rock hopper with a poorly looking eye.

Junior Vets Sam and Morgan will be assisting him today.

They've been given special permission

to work behind the scenes here.

As soon as he said penguins I thought like, yes!

But the boys need to tread carefully.

Penguins will try to protect their home from intruders...

Hello...

..with these snappy beaks.

So see if you can see him.

Just take small steps and they won't panic.

There's penguins everywhere.

It was so funny, it was the funniest thing,

cos all the penguins were like squawking around us.

But how Will the team locate the sore-eyed Mr Green,

when he looks exactly the same

as the 29 other resident penguins he lives with?

Can you move please? You're kind of in the way.

This is really cool, isn't it?

-Shall we communicate?

-HE PRETENDS TO SQUAWK

We had to find a penguin

with the green and black ring around its foot.

Just as the rockhoppers begin to lose their patience

with the search team, Sam spots Mr Green.

There we go.

They look quite cute and cuddly,

but they can actually give you quite a nasty nip.

And they can be quite grumpy. Come on.

Rockhopper by name, rockhopper by nature.

So this little guy has been having problems with a weepy sore eye

so we're going to have a quick look now.

We're gonna get some drops for you to put in with a little dye

that will show us if there is any ulcers or an injury

where another penguin maybe has pecked them in the eye.

Adding dye will make any scratches or injuries on the eyeball

change colour. Over to Sam for this one.

You have to squeeze it. It has to be quite a big drop.

-OK.

-Come on. Come on.

It was quite nerve-racking when I was putting the drop in

because the penguin just couldn't keep still.

Make a big squeeze so that there's a drop that falls onto the eye.

Sam carefully drops the dye into the first eye.

Yeah, ready, go, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. Brilliant.

But Morgan is finding the other eye more challenging.

There we go. Yep, oop, you missed.

Don't get too close to the eye cos you'll injure it.

It must drop onto the eye.

Third time lucky or otherwise I'll have to do it.

There you go, perfect.

But he finally completes the job.

So has Mr Green suffered any injuries?

-We shine a little light on the eye.

-And there's nothing there.

And there's no marks on there so he hasn't been pecked on the eye.

Perfect. He's not badly injured.

Romain thinks the rockhopper has had nothing more than a sore, runny eye!

And Mr Green is rewarded with a soothing bath in the plunge pool.

There we go.

Later, Sam and Morgan's next patient is a fanged predator!

Don't keep your face right over here

because he's all uptight. He'll come shooting out towards your face.

My Junior Vets are completing an intensive training programme

here at Vet School.

Each session is designed to prepare them

for handling real animals in real situations.

For impressive training zone performances,

I give out Vet Skill Credits.

Along with the all-important Vital Vet Work awards,

these will help me decide who will eventually be named Head Vet.

And today's training zone session will test

my Junior Vets' practical skills and their animal handling abilities.

They have already learned

how important dressings are to injured animals.

They protect healing wounds from infection

and prevent pets picking at stitches.

For this test, I've recruited three willing volunteers.

Awww.

Real dogs!

Meet Copper, Otis and Alfie.

It's a real dog!

Right, Junior Vets, let the challenge begin.

Working as a team...

Good boy.

..the Junior Vets must neatly bandage one paw per pair.

We do this one.

Will and Saira show great team work skills from the off...

So it needs to be quite small, as it's got a small foot.

..and hatch a plan to bandage Otis...

-And you do this one and I'll do the last two, yeah?

-Yep.

..who looks more than happy with their work so far.

Bend that down.

Lauren occupies Alfie while Amblessed works quickly

and neatly on the dressing.

-And then round, yeah.

-OK.

Morgan, I'll just prepare the stuff, Morgan?

-Morgan? Morgan?

-Yeah.

Come and prepare the stuff with me.

Sam needs Morgan's help

if they are ever going to finish Copper's bandage.

Put that there.

OK.

A good bandage fits snugly around the wound.

I think I have done it a little loose.

I would take that off and start again, actually.

That's too loose. So it's a restart for Team Otis.

And just go round.

Junior Vets, you've got a couple of minutes left.

This is a tricky test.

And Morgan looks like he's losing his rag a little.

Alfie doesn't know what all the fuss is about.

Good boy.

His Junior Vets, Lauren and Amblessed, are the first to finish.

OK everyone, that's a wrap!

Blame it on you.

I heard that, Morgan!

Don't blame it on the dog.

So who did the neatest bandaging and kept their dog calm in the process?

I loved seeing Lauren and Amblessed work so tightly

and precisely together.

So I'm giving them a Vet Skill Credit each.

You can see how you get on as a virtual vet

in the Junior Vets game on the CBBC website.

And don't forget to look for the special game code

at the end of today's show!

In the Vet School Small Animal Hospital,

Manfreda the abandoned tortoise is about to have surgery to remove

an infected lump from her head.

Junior Vets Amblessed and Lauren are helping exotic animal vet Kevin.

They need to remove a painful pocket of pus from the tortoise's ear.

OK Lauren, I'm ready to start surgery,

-are you happy the tortoise is asleep and doing OK?

-Yep.

-What's the heart rate at the minute?

-24.

-OK.

Lauren was monitoring the anaesthetic

and I was helping with the operation.

It was quite exciting doing Manfreda's anaesthetic.

If something goes wrong, then she could die.

You see that sort of yellow stuff?

Yeah.

Your ear cavity should be empty

and what we've got here is solid yellow material.

So that's the stuff that needs to come out.

Removing the infected area is a delicate procedure

and requires Kevin's expert hands.

Are you ready for the gooey bit?

Kevin gets to the pus-filled ear.

And that basically is the pus.

And two massive pieces of pus are removed from Manfreda's tiny head.

The surgery has finished. You can now just wake up.

But before she can come round,

Manfreda needs a blast of antibiotics.

Then I'm just going to inject this under the skin.

As Manfreda is allowed to steadily wake up,

Lauren must use a pump to keep oxygen moving

through her delicate body.

And the next day, Manfreda is up and about.

Hi!

Infection-free and breathing well.

-She's doing well, isn't she?

-Yeah.

It's good to see her eating as well.

Good night, darling, bye bye.

Bye, Manfreda.

Both my Junior Vets showed real attention to detail today.

She was probably in distress with her head

and I suspect it was giving her a really bad earache,

and she probably was quite deaf from it as well.

And hopefully getting her back to full hearing

will help her in the long term,

and I think she will be much happier.

And things got even better for Manfreda.

She's now fully recovered and she has a new home!

Back at the practice near Vet School, Will and Saira have

completed their first animal consultation all by themselves.

They've given 11-year-old Casper a thorough examination.

And quizzing Casper's owner has helped them

discover problems that need investigating.

How long has his eyes been like this, then?

Because they look a bit red, don't they?

I've been watching their every move with vet Adam Tjole.

And now the Junior Vets are ready to report their findings.

Well done, guys. So what have you found for me today?

Well, other than the bloodshot eyes,

which look to be quite sore around the socket as well,

we found where he has had an operation on his leg before.

There is a scar and it seems to be swollen.

Well, I was watching you on the television,

and you did really well to find those lumps.

Will and Saira were clearly on to something.

Adam takes a closer look at Casper's leg.

You can actually see there's one lump there and there's another lump.

It's almost shows that the lump is spreading and that is a sign

that it could be something that's not particularly nice.

That's probably a lump that I would want to remove.

Saira also suspected Casper might have an eye problem.

OK, Saira, what did you find out about his eyes?

Well, they are very red,

and you can see that straight away by looking at him.

They do look a bit bloodshot.

And near the socket they seem to be a little worse.

Casper has previously suffered from something called 'dry eye'.

The team must test if the dangerous condition has returned.

So what we're going to do is we're going to put these little

strips in his eye.

Saira is using a special strip of paper that will allow them

to measure the amount of teardrops

Casper is producing from his tear ducts.

Just on the bottom there.

Yeah, that's it.

That's OK. You can pop it in there.

It's quite hard to get it in.

It was kind of tricky

because you were shoving a paper into a dog's eyeball.

One, you didn't know if it was going to hurt

and second, it was just a little bit weird.

Fantastic. See, can you see there is a blue line

-that's appearing on the eye there?

-Yeah.

-And we want a reading below 10.

That's good, it's already below 10.

So that means he's got plenty of tears.

Casper's tear ducts are fine. The 'dry eye' has not returned.

So what was causing Casper's bloodshot eyes?

-Two drops.

-Two drops.

This yellow dye might give us some clues.

Any sore areas or infections will mean it quickly changes to green.

Can you see any green patches on his eye?

Yeah, I can see a little bit.

-There's a bit.

-I think sort of in the middle.

-Yeah there's a little bit of haziness, isn't there?

-Yeah.

So he's got a slightly infected eye, so what we'll do is

we will treat that, but apart from that his eyes are pretty good.

Do you want to go and take him back to Mrs Hedrick?

-Hmm.

-Brilliant.

Both Junior Vets looked like fully qualified vets today.

-Hello, Mrs Hedrick.

-Hello.

We've looked at its eyes and they seemed to be doing fine.

They've got the right amount of tears and not dry at all.

Will was really confident, he asked the right questions,

he was really good with Casper.

I think he'll make a fantastic vet.

With regards to his leg, we found three lumps on his leg.

So if you could bring him in next week to have a check on that,

that would be great.

And Casper and a relieved Mrs Hedrick

can go home for a well-earned rest.

Over at the zoo,

Morgan and Sam are assisting vet Romain Pizzi.

Next up is a new resident who is moving here from another zoo

and is currently taking a nap in a rubbish bin!

Three...two...one.

It's not heavy. I thought it was going to be heavy.

Before they get to work with this mystery patient,

Romain gives them a safety briefing.

Don't keep your face right over here,

because he's all uptight he'll come shooting out towards your face.

So we always stand back a little bit and I'll open this towards me

just so I can see where he is.

And the reason for the safety briefing...

Ah, wow.

Our new arrival is a Taiwanese beauty snake called Petite.

This snake is a particular favourite animal of mine

so I was really, really excited. It was so cool, that.

My Junior Vets need to check Petite has no infectious

diseases before he can join the rest of the snakes here.

But there's a problem. Morgan doesn't like snakes.

At all!

When the snake first came out of the bin that it was in, I shook a bit.

-Do you want to hold his body?

-Yeah.

So what you do is you just cup your hands and let him rest on them.

You don't want to grab him or squeeze him.

Petite isn't venomous. But a bite from him would definitely hurt!

Well done for overcoming your fears, Morgan. Very brave handling.

If you want to be like a vet or a zookeeper you're obviously

going to be working with animals that you don't really like.

The Junior Vets can now start checking Petite

for signs of illness and disease.

If he's fit and healthy,

he'll be allowed to move in with the other resident snakes.

-You can see its heart beating there.

-What's that?

-Wow.

So know you're very lucky cause that's quite easy to see in him

but in some snakes the heart sits between the ribs

and we can't even see it. So we have to measure the body.

-So that is why the heart is positioned there.

-Yeah.

Petite is looking in great shape on the outside.

PETITE'S HEART BEATS SLOWLY

And is sounding all good on the inside.

We've put ultrasound gel on the snake

and we're checking the heartbeat.

It's sounding healthy.

So at the moment we're looking through the ultrasound

and we're having a look into its heart

and inside the body just to see if there is anything wrong.

Romain is happy.

Brilliant, let's pop him back in his box.

Thanks to my Junior Vets' help,

he is confident Petite is in tip-top shape, inside and out.

He'll be allowed to live out his life in the comfort

of the zoo's reptile enclosure.

Today was a very good experience

working with the penguins and the snake.

I'm not a fan of snakes, but I think I overcame my fear.

I loved working with the snake

and the penguins were really good as well.

So yeah, it definitely pushed me.

Amazing hands-on work by my Junior Vets today.

And, thanks to them, Petite has a comfortable new home!

It's getting harder and harder for me to separate my Junior Vets.

But I have to decide between them

and choose who gets today's Vital Vet Work award.

As always, Amblessed concentrated brilliantly on the job,

while Lauren showed off some impressive

anaesthetist skills in Manfreda's operation.

I loved the way Sam kept looking for new ways to get involved.

And he did a great job of motivating Morgan and helping him

overcome his snake fears.

Will and Saira made me so proud

going it alone in Casper's consultation.

It was Will who led the way and his confidence is now sky-high.

But Vital Vet Work awards are only given to

the very best performances. And I've now made my decision.

Junior Vets, three individuals stood out today.

And they are...

Will.

Sam.

And Lauren.

But it's not just me who's been impressed.

All three made a real impact on the vets they were helping.

Every one of them deserves their Vital Vet Work awards.

-It feels amazing to win.

-It's a great feeling to win, yeah.

It feels really good.

I think I won because I was enthusiastic about the animal

because I like the animal and I also think I did a good job.

I asked the right questions and it went towards saving the dog,

which was really happy.

I think we won because we were just all good and we worked well.

Think you can cut it as a top vet and make animals better?

Head over to the CBBC website now and use today's game code,

dance229, to unlock a special case in your very own waiting room!

Next time on Junior Vets...

Tuppence the dog has high-tech treatment,

crocs Bob and Bindi get a bit bothered

when the vet team enters their lair,

and Junior Vets power up to help Trixie the pony.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd