Episode 7 Junior Vets

Coming up on Junior Vets.

Tuppence the Jack Russell, receives high-tech treatment,

a pair of crocs get a bit bothered when the vet team enter their lair

and junior vets power up to help Trixie the pony.

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...

It's day seven and my junior vets are shaping up

to be top vets in the making.

Now they're hungry for even bigger vet work challenges.

And I'm not going to disappoint them.

Junior Vets, welcome back to vet school. Today's working pairs are...

..Will and Amblessed. Saira and Sam. Lauren and Morgan.

Let's get down to business.

Today they're going to handle some cool kit

and some very tricky patients.

And I'll be getting updates on everything they do.

Only the very best junior vets will win today's all important

Vital Vet Work award, helping me decide who I'll name Head Vet.

The race for the title is hotting up.

Joint leader Will is on fire.

He's won the last four Vital Vet Work awards.

Can you see any green patches on his eye?

Yeah, I can see a little bit.

He's a brilliant communicator...

Junior vet receiving, over.

..and takes every job, big or small, in his stride.

Morgan started more slowly

but he's now knuckling down and is beginning to impress me.

He's had some great flashes of inspiration.

-What do you think that is there?

-Could it be the bladder?

That's correct. Good man.

And, last time, tackled his fears of snakes full on.

Do you want to hold his body?

If he continues like this,

there's no reason why he can't catch current leaders Will and Saira.

At the Five Sisters Zoo in West Lothian,

Saira and Sam have a big job on their hands...

Come on in.

..with these snappy, dangerous reptiles.

What have we got for you here?

Crocodiles.

Crocodiles! That is so bad.

-Scary looking?

-Yeah.

Well, you are about to go...

in there.

No, thanks.

Bob and Bindi are West African dwarf crocodiles

and my junior vets need to help exotic animal vet

Kevin Eatwell take an important blood sample from the pair.

They're looking at us as if to say, "I don't like you."

West African dwarf croc numbers are dropping in the wild,

so they're being specially bred in European zoos

in an effort to protect the species.

Today's blood sample will decide

if Bob and Bindi can be part of the very important project.

I was absolutely mortified.

We were standing outside its enclosure just looking at them

and they were staring at us.

I was really scared.

This is Sam and Saira's toughest challenge so far.

These are extremely dangerous animals.

So when you go in there, you need to work very fast.

You need to work as part of that team and you need to be

very observant and make sure you know where the danger is. OK?

-OK.

-OK.

-OK, in you go.

It's not just those razor-sharp teeth that are dangerous,

Bob and Bindi's strong tails can also cause a lot of damage.

Before the vet team enter the crocodile's lair,

specially-trained handlers help secure those powerful jaws.

It's so dangerous, isn't it?

Yeah, very dangerous.

They've just restrained the crocodile and they're taping up

the mouth and they've got the tail, which is dangerous.

Both me and Sam were dead nervous

when we went into the crocodile enclosure.

Right, Junior Vets, you can come in.

We didn't know how the crocodiles would react

and they looked quite vicious and deadly.

Now that Bob and Bindi are secure and calm,

Sam and Saira can start their work.

I want you to check the chip is in place in the back of its head.

They need to make sure they know which sample is from which croc.

So Saira has to scan a computer chip that's been inserted

-under their skin.

-So if you can write down the chip number.

To join the breeding programme,

both crocodiles need to be in perfect health.

First Kevin looks at Bob's razor-sharp teeth.

These are quite old.

This is not a job for the junior vets.

So you can see these are pushing in here.

It did have some damage down here, but they look OK.

-We've lost a tooth here, look.

-Yeah.

-But they're not actually too bad.

Great. Bob's teeth are in decent shape,

and that's a good sign of a healthy croc.

Now Kevin and his team move on to Bob's tail.

This is where they'll attempt to take the blood sample from.

He needs Sam's help for this.

Covered in sort of mud and water and things so we're going to try

and keep this as clean as we can do.

I thought we'd just be there helping pass things, but obviously not.

I was just really scared.

It won't be easy.

Bob's tail is covered in really thick bony scales.

And now Kevin needs Sam to keep a firm grip on it!

I need you to help me hold this tail still.

I need you to hold the tail like that for me

because he's going to be lively.

Sam keeps hold

as Kevin tries to find an entry point between those hard scales.

We can't see veins in these, we just have to kind of know where they are.

It's a heavy tail.

It's a very heavy and strong tail.

Got it! Kevin takes the all-important blood sample from Bob.

Right, that's going straight into an EDTA pot.

But Sam's work isn't done yet.

He must make sure Bob is safely restrained

while Kevin completes his work.

Do you want me to let go of the tail?

No, you are not letting go of the tail, you are continuing to

restrain the tail now because you're helping Becky keep him still.

Bob can now be returned to his pool.

But that's only half of the work done.

The junior vets have still got to deal with Bob's partner Bindi.

And she is much feistier!

Coming up. Bindi puts up a big struggle.

And Sam feels the fear.

Tower Farm riding stables on the outskirts of Edinburgh,

home to 15-year-old Trixie.

Trixie's owner thinks her Welsh pony may have a problem with her teeth

and has called in a top veterinary team to investigate.

Lauren and Morgan are joining up with equine vet Matt Hanks

to help fix Trixie's teeth.

Right, the first thing we're going to do is check this horse's heart

to make sure that it's all nice and healthy. OK?

My junior vets are now fully trained in using a stethoscope.

Can you hear the heart, Lauren?

-Oh, yeah, I can now.

-OK.

If Trixie's heart is healthy, it will be beating at between 35

and 45 beats per minute.

I think it's about 40.

Perfect, that sounds very healthy. Good job.

We want to look in the horse's mouth, look at the colour

of the gums because the heart pumps the blood around the body.

We want to make sure that the blood is getting to the end of the body.

And that means a gum inspection.

-Do you want me to go first?

-No, it doesn't matter.

-Over to Morgan.

-Hands there, Morgan.

But Morgan has refused messy jobs in the past.

Are you not bothered by the smell? I'm going to be sick.

-Are you sure you don't want a feel?

-No, I don't.

That's the smelly one.

I thought that we were just going to look.

Excellent.

But I had to put my hand in, which I was uncomfortable with.

Nice and pink. Lovely. Good job.

Happy with that.

Trixie's gums look and feel in good shape.

Good girl.

But the team need a close-up inspection of her teeth.

Trixie's a little nervous so she's given a sedative to relax her.

All done.

While Trixie starts to relax, Matt needs to be sure

the junior vets understand the equipment that they will be using.

So the first thing we've got is a gag, and this thing here

goes into Trixie's mouth and it's going to open her mouth up

so we can then look at her teeth safely without getting bitten.

Then what we're going to be doing is we're going to be rasping her teeth.

So what is rasping?

The problem is we feed our horses good diets.

So rather than having to grind their food as they would do in the wild,

all they need to do is move their mouth up and down

and it doesn't knock the sharp points off.

So we had to do it for them.

We can also use machines such as this.

And this has got a rotating disk on the end...

which will grind her teeth down.

I was quite worried that I would hurt Trixie

just because it's a big mechanical thing.

This really is a big job for my junior vets.

They have got the tools, but can they complete the work successfully?

Later, the team power up in an attempt to treat Trixie's gnashers!

At the vet school's small animal hospital,

Tuppence has arrived for treatment.

This brave little Jack Russell comes here every week for treatment

that could save his life.

You wouldn't know it, but Tuppence is a very poorly pet.

When he was born, he wasn't breathing

but they managed to revive him

and he hasn't had anything wrong with him whatsoever

until this spindle cell was discovered in his eye.

Tuppence suffers from a rare form of cancer called spindle cell sarcoma.

And he's already had an eye removed.

And today he has junior vets Amblessed and Will at his side

to help him through his next round of treatment.

-Hello.

-Oh, hello.

-Hi, I'm Will.

I'd never really seen a dog with only one eye.

-So it was sort of new to me.

-I'm Amblessed.

Pleased to meet you.

So is this Tuppence?

This is Tuppence, yes, he's just over nine years old.

I thought Tuppence was cute because he was quite playful.

So is it OK if we take her through there now?

Yes, surely.

My junior vets are teaming up with vet Iain Grant.

He's an oncologist,

a cancer expert, and has looked after Tuppence

since he first started coming here.

Tuppence doesn't have an eye.

You're right. He doesn't have his left eye.

And the reason he doesn't have his left eye is because we removed it,

and we removed it because he had a tumour on the upper eyelid.

We try to remove the cancer cells if we can with an operation.

But unfortunately we weren't able to remove them all with the operation.

In a bid to cure his cancer,

Tuppence is having super-high-tech treatment.

Deep inside vet school,

in a concrete encased bunker, lies the linear accelerator!

It uses laser-guided, high-energy radiation beams to pinpoint

and zap diseased cells.

It looks a bit scary but it could finally cure Tuppence.

And today, he's all set for another blast!

First, Tuppence is anaesthetised as he needs to be kept

perfectly still for this treatment.

My junior vets are in the heart of the control room bunker

as the medical team get everything ready.

In this area behind us, the walls are, remarkably, six feet thick,

there's six feet of concrete.

And the reason for that is that we don't want the radiation

to escape out of the room.

This high-energy radiation is potentially very harmful.

We don't want to harm the rest of Tuppence's body

we just want to damage the cancer cells

at the site of the previous tumour.

The high energy rays will be aimed using green lasers.

I hoped that the equipment would help Tuppence a lot

so that all the cancer cells would be removed.

Everything is finally in place for Tuppence's radiation therapy.

Coming up...

the junior vets get Tuppence's high-tech treatment under way.

OK, everybody's out.

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 skills credits.

And along with the all important Vital Vet Work awards,

they'll help me decide who will eventually be named head vet.

And in this training zone session,

my junior vets must learn how to handle some very unusual pets.

Vets can't always pick and choose their patients.

So there's no room for fears and phobias in the veterinary world!

If you would like to remove the drapes in front of you

to reveal your challenge.

Ahh.

God, it's massive.

Exotics animal vet Kevin has brought along

some of his favourite critters to help me train my junior vets.

What is that?

They'll need to keep calm when picking them up.

Aww.

I don't like rats.

Rodent-fearing Lauren gets things going with a huge rat!

I don't want to drop it, but I really don't like it.

It's an edgy start, but Lauren steadies her nerves and keeps hold.

It's quite soft.

The leopard gecko and bearded dragon are next up for Sam and Saira.

I'm feeling a bit nervous now.

Oh, it's really weird.

Sam's nervy around reptiles.

But Saira's gentle touch is very impressive.

It's kind of cute.

Animals sense it when people are scared.

I don't want to.

You need to handle with confidence...

It's really strong.

..as Lauren shows with her corn snake.

Morgan finally gets to grips with a royal python!

OK.

It's smelling me.

But how is Will going to cope with a bad-tempered guinea pig.

It's OK.

-Oh!

-Yep. Cross or nervous guinea pigs can nip!

It doesn't feel, like, slimy, it feels quite dry.

Will could learn something

from Amblessed's calm and collected handling skills.

And so could Morgan!

Ah, it's peeing.

What a mess!

It's weed all down his top.

Finally, everyone must take a turn with each animal

as we look for the coolest and most confident junior vets.

I'll calm her down first.

So who stayed in control when things got hairy in the training zone?

I have to hand it to Saira, confident and calm throughout.

And Lauren who bravely faced up to her fear of rats.

Both were rewarded with vet skills credits.

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.

At Tower Farm riding stables, Trixie the pony needs urgent dental work.

Luckily, junior vets Lauren and Morgan are on hand to help out.

Now you guide this into her mouth there, Lauren.

OK.

That's it, just down a bit. There we go, we're in.

Now that Trixie's sedated,

she doesn't mind at all as the junior vets get to work.

-OK.

-That's perfect there, OK.

The gag will hold her mouth safely open.

If Morgan can set it in position.

Go on, Morgan, you can do it.

Bit more. Go on.

No, I can't do it.

Back to Lauren for this one.

Oh, good job. Excellent. That's perfect.

Good girl.

That does the trick.

There you go, Morgan.

First Trixie's mouth needs a good rinse to get rid of food

trapped between her teeth.

This is weird just squirting water in a horse's mouth.

Horses' teeth never stop growing, so they need grinding down,

by a vet, at least once a year.

This job is called rasping.

We're going to go in there and try and cut some of the enamel off.

So we do it like this.

We pop it into the horse's mouth.

Find the tooth that we want to rasp. And then...

You can see it on the outside of her mouth.

-Yeah. You hear it?

-Yeah.

It won't hurt her, will it, this?

It doesn't hurt at all, so it's like trimming your fingernails.

Matt carefully files down all the jagged edges

on Trixie's teeth with the hand rasp.

And then, out come the power tools.

This feels like a job for Morgan.

You don't pull the trigger until I say.

-Yeah, I know.

-Agreed.

-Agreed.

I was nervous because I didn't want to harm Trixie whatsoever.

OK, it will go there.

Yep, perfect, stop.

I love this. This is so cool.

OK, that's the rasping done,

let's have a feel to make sure the mouth is nice and smooth.

Morgan needs to confirm they haven't left

any dangerous jagged edges on Trixie's teeth.

That's so cool.

That means reaching right to the back of Trixie's huge mouth!

Can you feel all the teeth?

Yeah. All smooth.

Good job. Have a feel, Lauren.

Yep. Wow.

And Lauren double-checks the team's heavy-duty dentistry.

Feel any sharp points?

That side is all smooth.

I've never put my hand inside a horse's mouth before.

And it was surprisingly warm.

That one's smooth as well.

-Great.

-Yep.

-Good job done. We're finished.

-Good girl.

-Excellent.

Pony dentistry done, and Trixie's teeth are now in tip top shape.

Lauren and Morgan got on really well as a team today.

Lauren took the lead and really pushed things forward.

But at the end, Morgan really pulled it out of the bag.

I found that really cool.

I liked putting my hand into the horse's mouth.

Feeling around

and then putting my hand on the teeth afterwards, smooth.

This experience has probably made me want to be a vet even more now.

And I think it's pushed me in the direction of horses now as well.

Because it's my second time with horses

And both experiences have been really, really, really good.

A truly hands-on,

HANDS-IN, veterinary experience for my junior vets.

And Trixie won't need a check-up for a whole year!

Back at Vet School, Tuppence the Jack Russell is about to have

radiation therapy.

He has spindle cell sarcoma cancer, which has led him to losing an eye.

Exposure to high energy beams can be dangerous to humans.

My junior vets Will and Amblessed are keeping watch

from the control room next door.

I was quite surprised that a really big bit of equipment

was used on a small dog

Tuppence is set.

Ready?

Everyone's out. Now the linear accelerator can be turned on.

Short bursts of high energy radiation are aimed

at the cancer cells and begin to destroy them.

It's over in seconds.

Tuppence is still unconscious and is immediately transferred to

a recovery bed with his own comfy blanket.

He usually comes round quite quickly.

My junior vets need to check Tuppence's heart and breathing.

And thankfully they give him an all clear!

He's been really well

and I think that it hasn't hugely affected him in any way.

At last, Tuppence comes round from his anaesthetic.

And is revived with a tasty biscuit.

It's important to give them a treat

because, one, they might be hungry and, two, it's the first thing

they'll remember if you give them a treat, so they won't be scared.

Tuppence is a bit wobbly,

but he's made it through yet another potentially life-saving

radiation therapy session.

This has been a completely different type of vet work for my junior vets.

Have they impressed vet Iain?

I think they were really interested, really smart,

they knew lots of good questions.

Just really, really good to work with.

It's really nice to know that you've helped Tuppence

because it makes you feel proud of yourself.

He's been really good, thank you.

Oh, that's fine, thank you very much.

-Hope to see you next time, bye.

-Yes, thank you, bye-bye.

Bye.

And the very latest news is

that Tuppence has stopped treatment for now and is feeling much better!

Over at the zoo, Sam and Saira have managed to take an important

blood sample from Bob the West African dwarf crocodile.

Out of all the animals, I think the crocodile was one that

I was least wanting to work with.

The sample will decide if Bob

and partner Bindi can be part of a breeding programme that will

help keep their species safe from extinction.

OK, you can get out.

-OK.

-Well done, matey.

-Thank you.

-Well done.

Now the team need a blood sample from Bindi.

Don't do that.

The veterinary team have dropped back to a safe distance

whilst the handling team get Bindi under control.

The vet said that she was too aggressive

so we had to come out of the enclosure.

Thankfully.

The thinking time has made Sam nervous about going

back into the croc enclosure.

Are you enjoying it, Sam?

Not really, it's just really scary. It's a good experience.

It's just really scary.

Bindi is more agitated and aggressive than her partner Bob.

Oh, you're grumpy, aren't you?

While Saira returns to take Bindi's blood,

Sam stays back to help prepare the collection tubes for the samples.

So, good old wipe with that to try and clear off all that stuff.

It feels funny.

The skin is really tough and scaly

and the whole thing's just really cool, cos I don't think

I will ever get a chance like this near to a crocodile again.

It's impossible to see Bindi's veins.

They're hidden deep under her tough, armoured skin.

What about if we try another line?

Saira helps Kevin locate a good place to insert the syringe.

The vessel runs all the way up the tail

so we have plenty of opportunities so I'm working my way.

It's very tricky, lucky she's being calm.

No matter what animal it is, I think vets have to always stay calm.

If you're nervous, then the animal's nervous

and you won't be able to handle it properly.

If you can hang on to that for me because I might need to add to it.

Success!

Sam packs away both blood samples from a comfortable distance

while Bindi rejoins Bob in the plunge pool.

Yay.

This has been a really hard day's work for my junior vets.

We got the blood samples we wanted, nobody lost any limbs.

We're all out safely so good results,

we did what we needed to do.

It went very well.

The female was just looking at us as if to say, "I don't like you."

This whole experience has just been amazing

and I think that I really want to work with animals.

Maybe I will pass on being the exotic vet.

I will stick with domestic animals.

My junior vets have experienced some extreme situations today.

I've been proud of all of them

but I can only give a Vital Vet Work award to the very best.

Amblessed and Will showed their compassionate side as Tuppence

had radiation therapy in an attempt to cure his cancer.

Saira took the lead when she and Sam bravely entered the crocodile's lair

to take blood from the terrible twosome Bob and Bindi.

Wow.

And Morgan and Lauren got stuck right in

to successfully complete Trixie's dental treatment with power tools.

It's been a very tough call but I've now made my decision.

Junior vets, I have identified two individuals,

both in the same team that were star performers today.

And those two are...

-Lauren and Morgan.

-Yes!

Great individual efforts but also excellent teamwork

from Lauren and Morgan, who both handled Trixie brilliantly.

They worked really well as a team. Top marks for determination

to get the job done means they each bag a Vital Vet Work award.

We really got stuck in to the task today

and we got our hands up the mouth and everything

and we enjoyed ourselves.

I haven't won many episodes, but to win one today was like, yeah!

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 -

TEA442 - to unlock a special case in your very own waiting room.

Next time on Junior Vets.

There's a double emergency at vet school,

as alarm bells ring in the middle of treatments

and junior vets try to get to the bottom

of a mystery illness on the vet school farm.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd