Episode 9 Junior Vets

Coming up on Junior Vets...

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

Zoe the giant schnauzer arrives with serious breathing difficulties.

And Pollux the itching alpaca has a mystery illness

that needs investigating.

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 hi 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 nine. My junior vets' training is nearly complete.

And the competition for the head vet title is reaching a dramatic climax.

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

Will and Saira. Amblessed and Lauren.

Sam and Morgan. Let's get down to business.

With the end of the competition so close, I've got a feeling

they're going to do everything they can to impress me.

Vet work can be unpredictable and sometimes unpleasant.

I want to see my junior vets go above and beyond the call of duty

to help me decide which of them will win today's vital vet work awards.

Morgan has really started pushing himself,

but he can still hold back when he's out of his comfort zone,

so I'm looking for even more confidence with his patients today.

If he carries on like this, he poses a real challenge to

current leaders Lauren and Will.

In Will's last job, he showed he can handle the unexpected when

the fire alarm bell rang during surgery.

SIREN WAILS

He's a great communicator...

How long has his eyes been like this, then?

..and happy to get hands on whenever it's needed.

All of these are essential skills if you want to make it as a vet.

West Grange House, Dunfermline,

home to five animals not normally found grazing

in the Scottish countryside.

These are alpacas and owner Julie bought them to protect her chickens.

It may sound strange but their screeching scares off foxes

that snoop round her chicken coops.

But today, one of the alpacas is looking very unwell.

Pollux's fur is patchy and his skin is red and sore.

He could be seriously ill and needs an urgent inspection.

Thankfully, Pollux has an A-team on his side today.

Vet Eve Callaghan has called in Sam and Morgan as her assistants.

This is another first for my junior vets -

working with big South American beasts.

When they said we were going to see alpacas, it was surprise

because I didn't know what alpacas were.

They kind of remind me of a camel or a llama

or something like that.

Yeah, that's right, exactly. Little llamas, aren't they?

They're called camelids, so they're in the same family as camels.

Alpacas are timid creatures,

so Eve's tempting the herd with tasty treats.

Come, alpacas. Come on.

And it's working!

Oh, wow.

I really liked dealing with the alpacas.

They had a funny personality, funny but strange.

With Pollux and his pals safely in the inspection pen,

the vet team now need to work out why Pollux looks so ill.

I'm just holding Pollux still so he doesn't run away

and we're just about to do a health check on him.

First, a dental examination.

And I'm delighted to see Morgan volunteer and get stuck in.

-Every now and then you'd hear...

-SPITTING NOISE

Gums and teeth look in good shape, so no clues there.

Now Sam feels Pollux for any lumps and bumps that might be signs

of injury or disease.

-No, I don't see anything abnormal.

-Neither do I.

The examination hasn't solved Pollux's problem,

so my junior vets decide to check his temperature.

But you can't put a thermometer in an alpaca's mouth.

He'd munch it up.

There's a much safer place to take his temperature.

We had to put the thermometer up the alpaca's bum.

I kindly volunteered to do that job.

Good boy.

I just let him get on with it.

-So 37.2 degrees.

-Sounds OK.

Pollux's temperature is fine,

and the junior vets are no closer to finding out what's making him

so poorly. His problem could be caused by parasites.

These are tiny creatures that live inside other animals

and can make them ill. They're going to need a poo sample.

-Sound like a plan.

-Yep.

And later, vet Eve decides which junior vet will help her

-retrieve the all-important poo.

-You can do it.

In the small animal hospital, Zoe, an eight-year-old giant schnauzer,

needs urgent expert help.

Hello, darling. Good girl. Just a lovely dog, aren't you?

You're a lovely dog.

Zoe was brought in after her worried owners noticed that she was

really struggling to breathe.

Lauren and Amblessed are part of the veterinary team that will be

trying to work out what's wrong.

-She could have just swallowed a stick or something.

-Yeah.

And it could have got irritated and everything down there.

And then the other thing is it could be is a tumour.

Zoe was quite distressed with the breathing

and I suppose that made me quite distressed, as well.

Surgeon Sam Woods is leading the investigation.

Hello, Zoe. Let's have a bit of a look, don't we? Hello, you.

Sam is very concerned about Zoe...

-You said she's having a few breathing problems.

-Yeah.

So I think we should have a listen to her chest.

..and asks my junior vets to check her lungs.

Well, I can hear this really, really loud booming sound.

I can hear her panting but it doesn't sound as loud.

Doesn't sound as loud, OK.

Zoe doesn't sound at all well.

So Sam decides they need to get a proper look

inside Zoe's chest and throat. Not an easy thing to do.

If you open the mouth you can see the tongue.

They move the tongue around a lot and it's very,

very difficult to get to the very back of the throat.

So how do you think we might further investigate this?

-X-rays?

-X-rays, yeah.

Because I've used X-ray before,

I knew that X-rays are really helpful

so I was really hopeful for Zoe.

-Here.

-Good girl.

-All right.

First, the team give Zoe anaesthetic to make sure she stays

unconscious and still.

Right, so I think we're ready to go up to the X-ray.

Zoe is carefully positioned.

Slide that under there like that.

And within minutes, the X-ray images

are ready for inspection by Lauren and Amblessed. They must work fast.

Here's her neck here.

Lauren takes the lead and shows some awesome anatomy knowledge.

-There's the...

-Windpipe, yeah.

-The windpipe, the trachea. And so you can see the larynx.

-Yeah.

And that's the epiglottis, that thing there.

But they can't find any obvious problems on the X-ray.

So Sam and the junior vets need to come up with another plan of attack.

And later, Zoe faces surgery as the team discover why she's

having problems breathing.

It's quite difficult to be 100% sure what is going on in this dog.

20 miles from vet school, I'm with Saira and Will on an

important call out.

Our patient is Tino,

a Connemara horse who normally wins loads of prizes at

competitions and trials.

But Tino's owner, 14-year-old Douglas, has spotted his horse

has been limping and is worried about what's wrong.

Heading up the team is equine expert, Matt Hanks.

Well, today, we're going to be looking at a horse that has

possibility hurt its tendons.

Now, tendons are involved in moving bones about.

So when your hand does this...

tendons in your arm and pulling down and moving your fingers.

Now, the horse has got exactly the same thing

when it stands on its legs.

So we're going to see if he's torn anything at all.

If Tino has suffered a tendon injury, his running and

jumping days could be over.

So what do you use Tino for?

We had a few competitions coming up but when we found out

the problem, phoned the vets straightaway to come see him.

He was worried, as we all were,

cos we knew his life was on the line and his career.

My junior vets need to work out how serious Tino's injury is.

So what we're looking for is a head bob.

In a horse, when they put their sound foot down, they'll put

more weight on it. Then when they put there lame foot to the floor,

they'll lift up slightly. So you're looking for that kind of head bob.

All right? So keep a close eye on him.

Well, at first, it was quite difficult to spot

which leg was the bad one.

We were watching for the lame leg, so Douglas walked Tino up and down.

There was definitely a little bit of a limp on one of his legs.

His left leg looks to be a bit wandering and a bit sort of unsure.

Yeah.

Really good observational skills from my junior vets.

They know which leg is troubling Tino but now they need to

find out what's wrong with it.

The left leg is Tino's sore leg.

He was slightly lame there, yeah.

So that's the leg we need to concentrate on and scan today.

Well done, you, well done.

Later, Will and Saira try to discover how bad Tino's leg is.

And inside will be where the tearing has occurred, where the blood is.

My junior vets are completing an intensive training programme

here at vet school.

And it's here in the training zone where they pick up the skills

that will help them in real vet work situations.

For impressive training zone performances,

I give out vet skills credits.

Along with the all important vital vet work awards, these will

help me decide who will eventually be crowned head vet.

This training zone session will test my junior vets' surgery skills.

Vet's have to remove all kinds of lumps from poorly pets.

Accurate work means less scar tissue

and prettier pets returned to their owners.

Helping me demonstrate lump removal technique is surgeon Ana Marques.

Using...

a supermarket chicken!

'Each chicken has had a wax lump placed under its skin and it

'needs to be removed.'

So the first thing is to identify the lump.

'First, Ana measures the lump and

'then slices around it with a scalpel.'

Spread the skin with your fingers,

cutting away always from your fingers.

'Next, she uses scissors to cut the lump free.'

So that's the lump.

'And finally, stitches up the wound.'

Perfect, and this is done.

Right, junior vets, you've seen how it's done. Let the challenge begin.

'The teams are off to a good start.

'They've all successfully measured the surgery site, which is

'vital to make sure the entire lump is removed.'

If I stretch like that, is that easier?

Yeah, that's much easier, thanks.

'But vegetarian Lauren isn't enjoying this job at all.'

-Does it feel weird?

-Oh, it feels horrible.

'Now the hard part - precisely removing the wax lump.

'My junior vets are being supervised by experts and

'have all the right equipment.

'Please don't even think about having a go at this yourself.'

So you always cut away from your fingers, yeah.

'Handling the scalpel proves to be a bit tricky for Morgan.'

And stop there. Stop. Your hand needs to be at the top

and you need to be cutting down, away from your fingers.

'All three teams have removed their lumps.

'Next, they need to stitch up the hole.

'I'm expecting to see good needle skills here.'

Can you cut, please?

'Stitching is a skill my junior vets have already learnt here in

'the training zone.

'Nice, neat knots from Lauren and Amblessed!'

Wrap it round. See, we're pros at this now.

'You certainly are, Lauren. Very impressive!

'But a little heavy-handed with the stitching from Will and Saira.'

It's ripping through.

Oh, no! it's gone through, it's too short.

-It is a bit tricky, this one.

-Yeah.

'So which team sussed surgical work?'

All right, junior vets, time is up. Please step away from your tables.

Thanks to their super-steady slicing and neat knotting,

Lauren and Amblessed have proved to be a cut above the rest

and bag another vet skills 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.

Junior vets Amblessed and Lauren are trying to help eight-year-old

Zoe in the small animal hospital.

The giant schnauzer arrived with breathing problems.

X-ray images haven't revealed what's wrong.

So if you can help just to roll her up on her chest and on to her tummy.

So surgeon Sam woods decides to use a tiny camera, called an

endoscope, to get a close-up look of Zoe's throat.

So use the scope to have a look.

And it reveals the cause of Zoe's problem -

a large lump right at the back of the poor dog's throat.

So the mass is basically just through the larynx, it's on her right side.

Sam was quite concerned cos she wasn't quite sure what it was.

It was quite big and it was clearly affecting her quite badly.

It's quite difficult to be a 100% sure what is

going on in this dog. We need to take the whole thing out.

Surgeon Sam must operate immediately.

-Do you want me to turn that round?

-Yeah. That would be lovely.

First, the team need to do a tracheotomy.

A small cut is made in Zoe's windpipe and a tube is inserted that

will supply oxygen and anaesthetic gas right through the procedure.

Is that what they use when they have those, like, in hospitals

-when they have those tubes here?

-Yeah, that's exactly it.

It did feel like we had to do it quite urgently

because, obviously, breathing is a really a big thing.

So now you have anaesthetic going straight into the windpipe.

Yep, absolutely. Straight through that tube that we've just put in.

This is a tricky operation. Sam must work at speed.

She now can get right inside Zoe's throat and the lump is removed

within a few minutes and it's sent off for testing.

Amblessed and Lauren prepare a recovery bed for Zoe.

I think this is going to make Zoe comfortable for her recovery.

-Do you?

-It will keep her warm and everything with the heat pad,

and then she will be nice and comfy in her little soft bed.

-Brilliant. Done?

-Yep.

-Yep, cool.

Next morning, Zoe is awake and surprisingly lively.

She's just so cute.

She's recovered without any problems.

Her breathing's a lot, lot better now.

She's hopefully going to make a full recovery.

Hopefully, when the lab results come back, it won't be anything serious.

Yeah, hopefully, it will be good news.

My junior vets took great care of Zoe before, during and after her op.

Lauren did very well. She's very confident with Zoe,

very keen to get involved.

Lots of questions, lots of very good questions.

As Amblessed got involved, I think she did very well

when she settled into things. As a team, they did well.

But it's not brilliant news for poor Zoe.

Sadly, her lump has returned

and treatment continues to try cure her.

Good luck, old girl.

Miaow!

Back at the stables, Saira and Will are working with

Tino the Connemara horse, and they've worked out which of his legs

is giving him pain.

His left leg looks to be a bit wandering

and a bit, sort of, unsure.

That's the leg we need to concentrate on and scan today.

Vet Matt Hanks is worried that Tino has torn a ligament in his

left leg, and it could put an end to his competition riding.

We need to see inside Tino's leg, but there's no need to return to

vet school for this job.

Matt has brought his super-portable ultrasound scanner

and we can help Tino in the comfort of his own stable.

If Tino's leg is very painful, he might panic when he's touched.

So we need to give him a sedative to relax him and make him drowsy.

Saira, how can you tell that Tino's sedated now?

Well, he's really drowsy and his head's gone, like, he dropped it

really low and his eyes look like they're almost shut, in a way.

He's closing them. And he's not as lively as he was before.

To prepare Tino for his scan, the junior vets need to carefully

clip some of the hair from his legs.

If we can get a nice good contact against the skin for the ultrasound.

Will takes the ultrasound scanner probe

and shows his experience from the off.

OK, that's it.

-Just about there?

-Just about there.

I think it's really great that we use all of this equipment,

it was just amazing.

And straightaway, Will's handiwork reveals great news.

There's no evidence of serious damage to Tino's tendon.

So if the leg was lame, would there be blood in the tendons or black?

That's right, yeah, so you'd have... rather than the tendon being

a big circle, it would be a hollow like this,

so it would look like a doughnut.

And inside will be where the tearing has occurred, where the blood is.

There's no sign of a tear or internal bleeding.

So why is Tino limping?

The team need to compare the injured leg with one of Tino's good ones.

If there's a big difference, his injury could still be serious.

-Can you see how similar that looks?

-Yeah, yeah.

You see that on the same spot and they look exactly the same.

That is just what we wanted to see.

Tino has just got a nasty sprain and hasn't torn anything.

-That's good.

-Good news. Tino is going to be just fine.

Brilliant news for Tino and owner Douglas.

Him being there watching it all, that helped him because he knew

that his horse was all right and he'd been in the right hands.

It's a really, really good result for Tino, isn't it?

And hopefully, he'll be back in the field as soon as soon as possible.

-You happy, Will?

-Yeah.

I really did start to feel like a proper vet

because all my knowledge was coming together.

Tino has a minor sprain and no surgery is required -

a better outcome than Matt and the junior vets could have imagined.

We felt quite relieved, I think, both of us did, that the

leg was fine because it could have been quite serious for Tino.

I think they did really well today.

They both had really good anatomy skills. I was really impressed with

them, that they actually understood what was going on inside the leg.

I felt quite proud of myself cos it showed that the weeks up to

today had been sort of helpful because I've obviously learnt

an eye for detail and I think that's really helped.

And the latest news on Tino? He's back competing and has already

won a competition with owner Douglas.

Back at West Grange Farm,

Pollux the poorly alpaca has patchy fur and painfully sore-looking skin.

Vet Eve and her junior vet assistants, Sam and Morgan,

are hopefully about to get to the bottom of his mystery illness.

-You can do it.

-I think that you would be good at it, Morgan.

-I'm not well. I'm not well.

-I think you would be.

They need to get a poo sample from Pollux.

Eve needs a willing assistant

and Morgan plucks up the courage to help.

You had to put a finger up the bum and pull out the poo.

OK, you have to be very gentle. I'll need a finger.

He's a little hesitant but he sticks with it.

I'm feeling quite...embarrassed.

This is all part of medicine.

-Does it feel nice and warm?

-Yeah.

Morgan is definitely learning how to deal

with the yuckier side of vet work.

Can you feel any in there?

It was disgusting. It was hot and all squidgy.

Bleurgh!

But he's struggling to get the poo sample.

Are you sure you tried? Because I can see some on your glove.

-Try again.

-I've got some, I just can't get it out.

-That's OK, just take your time.

-I can't actually get it out.

You can't get it out, no problem.

Morgan was doing so well.

I'm a bit disappointed to see him give up so early.

I couldn't do it.

Hopefully, partner Sam can complete the job.

OK, Sam?

So I took over from poo duty.

Lots of little bowels in there, isn't there?

That was extreme.

You must be getting the hang of this.

Finally, a poo sample is retrieved...

That's great. Thank you very much.

..and is ready to be sent off for tests.

But as the team wrap up, they notice that Pollux is rubbing his

face against the fence.

-Oh, yeah. He was scratching a lot.

-Scratching a lot.

It could be an important clue.

-He could be much itchier than the others.

-Yeah.

Morgan needs to scrape a sample of skin from under Pollux's fur

so it can be tested for tiny creatures known as parasites

that might be causing him to scratch.

Job done!

Sam grabbed the difficult poo sample and Morgan got the skin sample.

So I think we'll send these off to the lab, see what comes back

and then we'll get this skin condition treated. So well done.

The procedure today went really well, actually, I thought.

I thought the boys were great.

There was a bit of teamwork there, definitely.

I think Sam got on well. I think he's very interested.

Oh, wow.

Potentially, has a career in veterinary

and tried to do things thoroughly.

That was really cool.

I think we've helped the animal because it looked quite ill.

So I think we've done a good job by getting the samples.

And hopefully, we can find out what's going wrong and help it.

And the good news is that one of the tests came back

with signs of parasite eggs.

After a course of medicine, Pollux is no longer itching

and is looking great!

My junior vets have risen to every kind of veterinary challenge

I put in front of them.

They all want to win the head vet title, but helping animals

is their first priority.

Lauren and Amblessed really cared for Zoe the giant schnauzer.

Lauren particularly showed me just how much she'd learnt at vet school

when she examined her patient's X-ray.

Will and Saira used their new skills to get to the

bottom of Tino's leg problem.

And who'd have thought that before she came to vet school,

Saira had never been near a horse?

Morgan and Sam had an unusual case and both had to do unpleasant

things to help Pollux the alpaca.

Sam really took getting stuck in to a new level.

Top veterinary work.

But I only give the best performances vital vet work awards

and I'm looking for who has given their absolute all

to helping animals today.

Cracking effort, all of you.

But one junior vet stood out above the rest.

They overcame their initial wariness

and got stuck in beyond the call of duty.

Sam. You are today's top vet. Brilliant effort.

Sam's new-found confidence with large animals is awesome.

He never gives up and has faced up to so many fears.

He really is proving he's got what it takes.

A very well-deserved vital vet work award.

I think I was quite confident with the alpacas.

I just got stuck in and I think I did a good job.

Think you've got the skills to make it as a top vet?

Get over to the Junior Vets game on the CBBC website now

and use today's game code, spike 966,

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

Next time on Junior Vets...

There's a final chance to catch up with some grateful old friends,

and one last ever chance to impress me

before I decide who will win the head vet title.

It's one of the toughest decisions I'll ever have to make.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd