Episode 8 Junior Vets

Coming up on Junior Vets...

There's a double emergency at vet school...

Go, go, go.

..as alarm bells ring in the middle of surgery.

And junior vets get to grips with a sick cow.

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...

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 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.

And 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're 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 eight and my junior vets are notching up some

awesome veterinary experiences.

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

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

Let's get down to business.

Business is full-on real world vet work.

And real animal emergencies are the order of the day today

for my junior vets.

I'll be keeping tabs on everything they do.

Only those who really stand out will be in with a chance of winning

one of my vital vet work awards.

The competition for my head vet title is now opening up.

Lauren, Saira and Will have each won an impressive four

vital vet work awards.

They're closely followed by Sam and Morgan who have three awards each.

And while Amblessed only got two...

..she's won four vet skills credits,

more than any other junior vet.

Now she needs to turn her star performances in the training zone

into top-level vet work in the real world.

That's perfect.

She consistently proves she can pick things up fast and

is technically skilful.

But can she handle the unpredictable nature of veterinary life?

If Sam wants to fulfil his dream of becoming a vet,

he needs to prove to me that he can be more confident around animals.

It's good experience but it's just really scary.

He's right up there with the leaders.

Now I want to see whether he can handle the unusual

and the unexpected.

Not only does vet school have it's own animal hospitals

and vet practices, it also has it's very own working dairy farm,

which is home to over 400 cows.

Today, junior vets Sam and Lauren have a busy shift ahead of them

as they join up with farm vet Isabelle who needs to make sure

her cows are healthy.

The plan for today is that we'll go into the parlour and we'll

help the dairy men and the process of preparing the cows for milking.

I'm a vegetarian and I don't particularly like the idea

of animals being made to produce things for us.

So I felt quite worried and wary about going to a dairy farm.

Opinions aside, Lauren's right to be wary, working with any

farm animal can be hazardous.

They're clearly very large animals and they're not necessarily

aggressive, but they could be potentially dangerous.

So be aware as to where you stand.

Make sure that you don't get knocked over or you're

not in a position where you get kicked by a cow.

Cows are very big,

much bigger than I thought they were going to be, and Sam picked up

on that quite a lot and he was quite worried, as well.

So if we stand to the side and then the cows will walk past us

-in a minute. If you just stand...

-What?

I was quite scared when they were just, like, there

and they're all bashing about and pooing everywhere.

I was a bit scared.

That's massive.

The herd are coming in for milking.

This is the ideal opportunity for the junior vets to spot any

poorly-looking animals as they file past.

Just come across.

-Oh, oh, oh!

-It's OK.

-They're not going to attack you, Sam.

-That's OK. You're not going

to get hurt by them. Right, just come over here.

They're more scared of you.

At first glance, the herd seem perfectly healthy

and head to the milking stalls.

Isabelle wants Sam and Lauren to be more confident around cows

and suggests they help farmer Steve with the milking today.

Great work, Lauren.

And despite his nerves, Sam seems willing to get stuck in.

-That's it. Easy-peasy, eh?

-Yeah.

Yet again, he's facing up to his anxieties and is working well

with these huge animals.

Lauren, what's it like being this close to cows?

It's mad, it's really cool, just because they're

so big, it's just really weird, because they're just beautiful.

They're absolutely gorgeous.

I'm finding it a bit nerve-wracking, scary, cos they're just big animals.

I've seen cows before, but once you're this close to them,

-they're huge.

-Have they told you what to do when their tails go up?

-Run.

-Oh. Oh, OK, I get it.

Later, the junior vets hunt for clues to a cow's mystery illness.

Who wants to take this cow's urine?

Late last night, a very poorly patient was admitted to the

vet school's small animal hospital.

Ferret Edward had been brought in by his worried owner.

He'd stopped eating and had lost so much weight that he was

nearly unconscious.

Vet Emma Keeble gave him emergency treatment and though he

survived the night, he is still very poorly.

Junior vets Morgan and Will have been called in

to help with the investigation.

It's a bit of a detective case this one,

because we don't exactly know what's wrong with him.

He came in yesterday really not very well at all.

In fact, we actually thought he was going to die.

And he has had fluids, he's had some pain relief.

So what we're needing to find out today is why he's not been eating.

One thought is possibly his mouth.

So we'll need to have a look in there and see.

My junior vets have learnt how to handle most kinds of animals,

and they know the right questions to ask before they touch anything

-potentially dangerous.

-Is he a biter?

No, he doesn't bite at all, he's very friendly.

-Would you like to hold him?

-Yeah.

-This is a first for Morgan.

He's never seen a live ferret before,

but he really wants to help poorly Edward.

I've always wanted to actually hold a ferret.

Edward's in the best possible hands, but the team need to know why

he's lost his appetite and need to get him eating again.

Come here, sweetheart.

Emma has a good idea where to look first.

Little bit worried about his mouth.

And maybe I could get you guys to find anything

that you're worried about there.

What would be the worst case?

Well, I suppose the worst thing that could happen with his mouth

is we could find that his teeth are really rotten and falling out.

Toothache might not seem that serious,

but if it's stopping Edward eating, it could be life-threatening.

As an owner, what can you do to make sure the ferret has clean teeth?

Owners can actually get the ferret used to cleaning teeth

and we have little toothbrushes that fit onto a finger.

And we also have meat-flavoured toothpaste,

so they can get used to that.

The other thing is feeding a dry food diet can really help.

To get a really good look inside Edward's mouth, he needs to

be unconscious for the delicate procedure.

But giving anaesthetic to a small, weak animal is very risky.

He isn't a brilliant candidate for an anaesthetic

so we're going to have to be quite quick with this and get on.

And later, the junior vets get to the root of Edward's problem.

-Can you see that that tooth there is quite wobbly?

-Oh, yeah.

Look at that. Wow.

In the small animal hospital...

Hey, darling.

..new arrival, Coco the African Grey Parrot is waiting to be seen

with owner, Glenda.

Normally chatty, Coco's lost her voice and is sounding very poorly.

She's making a rattling noise and we don't know what that noise is yet.

But she's still a bit nippy.

You show him your tongue, he'll bite it.

Junior vets Saira and Amblessed are on hand to take care of Coco today.

African grey. Well, I love parrots.

I was amazed when I first saw Coco. I wouldn't think that

I would be working with an African grey and I was just quite shocked.

Wow, he looks really friendly.

Does it bite?

What, Coco? Never(!)

Coco is under the care of exotics expert, Kevin Eatwell.

Coco had suffered from serious breathing problems in the past.

Kevin is concerned and wants the junior vets to help him examine her.

If she bites you, it's going to be really painful.

This beak is designed for cracking nuts.

We've got to be careful how we hold her, cos if she flaps,

she might injure her wing and things like that.

Right, we best get going.

First, Coco needs an X-ray, which means she has to be

anaesthetised so she stays still for the process.

And Kevin has a big job for Amblessed.

We need you to be monitoring the anaesthetic and this bird

continuously. So no distractions, no walking off.

We need you to be listening to this heartbeat and watching it breathe.

I had to measure Coco's heartbeat through the operation,

cos if it dropped, she could be in serious danger.

Saira's assisting with the X-ray and straps Coco down so they can

take a clear picture.

Need to stick the legs down, too.

But Kevin's not happy with what he sees.

There's a little bit of a shadow here, which might not be

perfectly normal. So we're going to take her through into theatre.

Something is wrong inside Coco's chest.

They need to check it right now.

We've just moved Coco from the room that we just took her

X-rays from and we've put her into the theatre.

Amblessed tries to monitor Coco's heart rate.

But a parrot's heartbeat is so fast,

it's tricky to detect small differences.

Things are getting tense in theatre.

-Have you done the anaesthetic before?

-What is this? What's that?

-That's the ET.

-What's that?

-Right, heart rate, what's happening to your heart rate?

-It's slowed down.

OK, so do you think that is something you should have told us?

Amblessed hadn't noticed that Coco's heart rate has dropped

dangerously low. Thankfully, the theatre nurse has spotted it.

So she's probably too deep under anaesthetic now

and if you're detecting a change in heart rate, that's something

you should have told us.

And things get alarming later when Coco's operation turns into a

blue light situation.

-You have to leave the building.

-Go, go, go.

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.

Today's training zone session will test my junior vets'

hand-to-eye co-ordination skills in a very unusual way.

First, farm vet Isabelle is on hand to set up this

mysterious-looking machine. And what is it?

Oh...

Yep, it's a cow's behind.

They're about to be trained on a model of a cow's bum,

used by students at Glasgow University to perfect the art

of doing internal examinations on cows.

All farm vets have to complete regular pregnancy tests on cattle.

The most straightforward way to test if one is pregnant is to put

your hand inside and feel around.

Can we have our first junior vet? Lauren.

Looking very excited, Lauren, about this challenge.

Put your arm in the back of the cow.

The junior vets need to learn exactly where to find each part

of the cow's insides by touch alone.

Move to the left and to the right.

A special device hidden inside the fake cow is linked to the screen.

So you're the blue dot in the middle here.

When they move the mechanical arm with their finger,

it moves a blue dot around.

The red bit is the uterus and the green oval shapes are the ovaries.

OK, off you go. You tell me when you're at your first point

and your second point.

My junior vets can't see the screen.

What they feel is a virtual reality of the cow's insides.

I think that's the uterus.

OK.

I think that's the ovary.

Lauren finds the body parts immediately.

Off you go.

But it's a struggle for Saira.

And Sam.

Is that the uterus?

And neither identify any of the anatomy.

The junior vets are not only judged on their ability to find

the uterus and ovaries...

Is that the uterus?

..but also on how they use the kit.

-Get yourself in the middle. Yep.

-Yep.

The machine is very delicate and requires small, gentle

movements from Morgan.

-Is that the first bit?

-All right, well done.

-Is that the right ovary?

-Excellent.

So who knows their cows inside out?

Lauren, Amblessed and Morgan all identified the uterus and

both ovaries, and handled the equipment brilliantly.

So all three win 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 the vet school dairy farm, one of the cows is struggling

to produce milk.

Vet Isabelle is worried that it means she's in pain.

Junior vets Sam and Lauren are helping her investigate the problem.

First, a smelly and messy test which might just give up some clues

to the cow's health problem.

Who wants to take this cow's urine?

-Me.

-I want to do it.

Oh, there seems to be a dilemma here.

We're going to have to decide.

We both wanted to take the wee sample. I don't know why.

I wanted to get stuck in with collecting the wee from the cow.

And, in fact, me and Sam had a little bit of a disagreement

about who was going to do it.

BOTH: Rock, paper, scissors?

Go on, then.

Rock, paper, scissors.

Oh. Damn.

So the way to try and make this cow pee is to actually give her

a little bit of stimulation just under her tail.

It looks strange, but this is a guaranteed way of getting that

all-important wee sample.

Well, to get the wee sample, I had to massage near its bum.

It wasn't very nice.

-Keep going. Keep going.

-Well done.

Ooh, yay!

-That's one urine sample.

-Yep.

And if you just dip that stick in the urine for a couple of seconds.

That's right. OK.

Now to test the sample.

So what would be the most worrying?

-When they go really dark purple.

-OK.

-OK.

The test shows up no obvious illnesses.

-So that's it for a urine sample.

-OK.

Right.

My junior vets are still no closer to working out why the cow

is not producing milk properly.

Now it's Lauren's turn. They need a milk sample for more tests,

but it's not as easy as it sounds.

Keep going. Just let it go and let it fill up again.

Let it fill up.

I'm not very good at this.

That was Lauren's first ever try at milking a cow.

I'm impressed. She gets our sample in no time.

Can you do a couple more? That's it.

If the cow has an udder infection, this chemical

will make the milk thick. If she's OK, it will stay liquid-y.

What do we want to happen?

We actually just want it to just stay fluid.

One of the samples turns lumpy. Not good.

It indicates the cow has an infection called mastitis,

an inflammation of the udders which can be really painful.

So we've been able now to identify that there is a problem with

this cow's udder, that she's got an infection in there,

and that her two hindquarters definitely are inflamed.

Thankfully, it should be easily treatable

with a cow-size dose of antibiotics.

What we'll do is we'll prescribe some antibiotics, the farmer

will administer these over the next couple of days,

and this cow should return to normal milk production.

-So that's our job done here.

-Brilliant.

-OK, great.

It's been a brilliant junior vet performance

from both Lauren and Sam.

Today, working on the farm has been a whole different experience.

I don't know whether it's been exciting,

good, or a mixture of both, but it's certainly been interesting.

And an update on our cow - she's now pain-free, healthy,

and producing lots of milk every day.

Back over at the small animal hospital, Morgan and Will

are trying to help Edward the ferret.

He arrived late last night seriously ill and underweight, and there was

a real worry he wouldn't survive.

Vet Emma Keeble suspects that a dental problem may be the issue,

and that because it's so painful to eat, Edward's been starving.

This one, can you see that that tooth there is quite wobbly?

-Look at that.

-Oh, yeah.

-Wow.

The other tooth, you see that might have fractured a bit

because that looks a bit dark and discoloured.

So we'll have a look at that, as well.

Poor Edward's teeth are in a terrible state.

One is beyond repair and needs removing.

So I think we may have found our problem here.

It should be a quick and painless procedure.

If I just give a gentle tug, we've just loosened the ligament around it.

Job done.

There we go.

And the junior vets can get a closer look at the tiny tooth that's

caused such a huge problem.

I was really happy that removing that tooth

meant that we saved his life.

With the broken tooth removed,

the team take full advantage of Edward being under anaesthetic and

give the rest of his teeth a good clean to prevent further problems.

That's great.

Will does a great job on the first few.

And Morgan makes sure the others are gleaming.

That's it, brilliant.

With the operation successfully complete,

Edward just needs an antibiotic injection before waking up.

But then...

..alarm bells ring.

FIRE ALARM WAILS

We could hear the fire alarm, I was really shocked.

I thought it was a practice but it turned out to be real.

Everyone needs to leave the building. Immediately.

And that includes the recovering Edward.

It turns out that one of the students accidentally left

a piece of toast in the toaster.

-I can't believe that. What day we've had!

-I know.

A bit nerve-wracking after we knew it was coming out of that

-anaesthetic and we had to come out.

-It was. Did you feel that yourselves?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, I mean, that's really on the cutting edge, isn't it?

Impressive work from both junior vets.

Will and Morgan stayed calm when others might have panicked.

And Edward came through his eventful surgery just fine.

I think the end result of Edward being OK

showed that we did quite well. And although all the drama happened,

we still pulled through and managed to make him OK.

They were both sort of interested.

They were both trying to help as much as possible

and having a go with the polisher, which was brilliant.

But really considering they've never done anything like that before

in their life, they were both amazing.

And the very latest news on Edward - he's now back to his normal weight

and eating plenty.

At the small animal hospital,

Coco the parrot is undergoing an operation to find out

what's wrong with her chest.

Saira and Amblessed are assisting vet Kevin Eatwell.

Earlier in the op, Coco's heart rate dropped dangerously low,

but now she's stable.

Kevin makes a small hole in Coco's chest so a tiny camera scope

can be inserted. And it soon identifies the problem.

This should be clear, the grey stuff is abnormal

so we do have some airsacculitis here.

It looks like air sacs in Coco's lungs are infected,

and this explains why she's lost her voice and has a wheezy cough.

We've had a look. Her air bags aren't looking so normal,

so we're going to give her some antibiotics for that.

But as the operation reaches its final stages...

..the fire alarm that disrupted

the end of Edward the ferret's op strikes.

If you're in the middle of an operation like this,

-and then it goes off...?

-Providing we know where we're going to get out

and we know how long it's going to take us, we can continue.

Coco is still asleep and has an open wound in her chest.

The team must work extremely fast.

Just thinking, we've got to do some serious vet work now,

and then the fire alarm goes off.

Human safety comes first at vet school. They can only carry on

for a few more seconds.

And now Coco's heart rate has dropped dangerously low again.

Is the heart rate dropping? How low?

I don't know, it's just gone slower.

We're just checking her heart rate

and her respiration rate now, checking she's still alive.

-She's still breathing all right.

-The chest is rising.

Keep listening. Keep her ventilated.

The emergency evacuation procedure kicks in.

Coco's still under anaesthetic but the wound has been stitched.

-Now it's time to go.

-We have to leave the building.

Everybody has to go. That door there.

Go, go, go.

Keep going.

We had to rush outside while I was just about the finish the operation.

We just had to make sure that the parrot was OK.

Is she going to be all right?

They're soon given the all clear to go back inside,

and Coco is showing signs of life.

I think he was just kind of slowly opening his eyes, quite unsure

but then he opened his eyes and he was all right.

Coco has had a traumatic experience,

and is put inside an incubator to keep her nice and warm.

That was an unusual day at vet school and tested my junior vets

more than I ever expected.

The most difficult thing for me was monitoring the heartbeat

because when it was really fast, it was really hard to count.

It was quite relieving to know that the bird was safe.

And the good news is that despite all the drama, Coco made a

full recovery and is now back home.

Good vets need to be able to handle the unusual and the unexpected.

Today, all of my junior vets proved they have what it takes.

But my vital vet work awards are only given to performances

above and beyond the call of veterinary duty.

Sam and Lauren handled dairy farm vet work very well.

Sam overcame his nerves and they worked together to help a cow

with a painful problem.

But it was a fire alarm that provided an ultimate test

for two of my teams.

Saira and Amblessed were brilliant with Coco

and threw themselves into surgery.

But a little more focus was needed on more than one occasion.

Morgan and Will also had to contend with the fire alarm.

They handled the pressure well and I was particularly impressed

by Will's delicate touch and compassion for his patient.

It's impossible to pick out an individual winner today

but my decision has been made.

Three junior vets stood out today. And they were...

Lauren, Sam and Will.

Brilliant vet work, well done, guys.

All three junior vets stepped up to the mark when it was asked of them.

All put their patients before themselves today and fully deserve

their vital vet work awards.

I think I won today because I was inquisitive, and as well as it

benefiting my knowledge, it also went towards helping the ferret.

I was growing in confidence with the cows

and I think we did a really good job.

We really enjoyed ourselves

and that just came together as being really good.

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

- field 131 - to unlock a special case in your very own waiting room.

Next time on Junior Vets...

Tino the horse has a painful limp that needs urgent attention.

Zoe the dog arrives with serious breathing difficulties.

And Pollux the poorly alpaca gets much-needed junior vet treatment.

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