Episode 5 Junior Vets

'On Junior Vets today,

'things get all flappy and cracky,

'furry and scanny...

'..and wriggly and clippy.'

I'm Alex Riley. This is Junior Vets.

-MEOW

-'Pets,

-'wildlife,

-SQUAWK

-'farm animals...

-MOO

'all in need of expert help.

'And at Edinburgh's amazing vet school, six raw recruits

'have arrived.

'They're working alongside the school's top-notch team.'

Ah! As if I just did that!

'And they are being pushed to their very limit...'

-CLUCKS

-Whoa.

Ugh.

'..as they help to save the lives of sick and injured animals.'

'Six new junior vets...

'but I can only choose one...

'..winner.'

This year's head vet is...

-Morning, junior vets.

-ALL:

-Hi.

Now, I need to look into your eyes.

I need to see if you're up for another day of full-on vet work.

THEY GIGGLE

Yeah! I think you're probably up for it.

ALEX LAUGHS

So, today, Bonte, Josh, you're staying here.

Nyatepe and Molly, Robyn and Jamie,

you're going off to farms.

Come on then, what are you waiting for? Get off!

'I don't go out of my way to find tough jobs for my junior vets,

'honest. That's just how vet work is.

'Jamie looks after rescued animals at home but he still arrived

'at vet school with a few phobias and fears,

'mainly working with large animals,

'and the blood and gore of surgical work.'

Disgusting!

'He shouldn't have worried. He's been rock solid...so far.

'But today he faces his biggest challenge.'

Oh! Lovely.

'And his partner for this one will be get-stuck-in girl Robyn.

'When jobs get all heavy-duty, this junior vet

'usually steps up and takes charge.'

Urgh.

'But today, I'm looking to see a team player as well,

'because her buddy Jamie is going to need a fair bit of support.'

'At Gorgie City Farm, Robyn and Jamie are heading towards a

'particularly tricky vet task.'

Now, the animals we're working with today might be

a little bit of a problem for you, Jamie...

-JAMIE GIGGLES

-..because it's a goat!

My goat butted me in the stomach.

Um...

and, like, I tried to stay clear of goats after that, definitely.

OK. Well, this is Poppy.

Her hooves are in need of a trim so they don't get

all overgrown and infected.

Poppy needs you, Jamie. Are you up for helping?

Well, I think it'll be fine cos I really want to overcome

my fear of goats, so then I can actually like

go in the same garden as it and see my other animals as well.

So I think it'll be quite fun.

You'll go and see the goat,

and hopefully by the end you will overcome your fear.

And I think it's great that you're prepared

to challenge yourself in this way.

-Shall we go and meet the goat then?

-BOTH:

-Yeah.

-Come on then.

I just had to give it a go, and I have Robyn to help me.

-Hello, junior vets.

-BOTH:

-Hi.

Ah, Andy the vet. We're in safe hands here.

-Poppy the goat, we're worried she...

-Poppy?!

-Yeah.

-That's my goat's name!

OK. Is that the one that butted you?

No, that's April.

It hasn't got any horns.

ANIMALS MAKE NOISE

-So, are you pleased about that?

-Yes. He's got pointy ears.

Yeah, they're not going to hurt, are they?

An ear, you're butted with an ear.

-It's not going to hurt you that much, is it?

-No.

Not that you'll get butted.

I'm not trying to increase the tension here.

'First, Poppy is safely moved into position

'so Robyn and Jamie can get to work on those long

'and rather filthy hooves.'

-There you go, Robyn.

-Thank you.

So, I'd like you to take that flap off coming up there.

'Ah, lovely.

'Goat hooves are made of stuff similar to our nails and hair,

'so Poppy can't feel a thing here.'

I want you to scrape all that poo out for me in there, please.

Ugh, it's gone down my sleeve.

They had all bits of muck built up behind their nails,

and it was all like sheep and goat poo and everything.

'Oof, get those hands scrubbed after this job, please.

'Robyn's done. Over to you, Jamie.'

-Hello.

-Let's get you to work on here.

'This is your big moment!'

You can do this, junior vet.

-What I want you to do is to take up that flap there.

-OK.

GOAT BLEATS Start here. Yeah, good.

Get your cutter in there.

GOAT BLEATS

THEY LAUGH

-OK?

-Are you all right, Jamie?

I was really nervous because I didn't really know what to expect.

-Are you OK?

-Yeah.

How're you feeling about this at the moment? The goat.

Yes. It's all right.

She's a lot calmer than my goat would be.

You've got it. Go on, now cut. Yeah, and keep going.

'There's no stopping Jamie now.

'Pooey hooves trimmed and clean.

'And a little bit of antibiotic spray will keep those

'neat, comfy hooves all infection-free.'

'Top job, ex-goat-fearer!'

Thought you did really well. You were fantastic!

You stuck at it. You didn't seem like you were under any

stress or pressure.

-No.

-Super. Look at that.

Whoa.

Are you gonna go out and see your goats at home now?

Yeah, yeah, def...probably, yeah.

Go and give it a try.

All right then, junior vets. Erm, so, we've finished with Poppy,

so, shall we go and see Poppy's children,

-and see if they need any help?

-Ah!

-Ah!

'Yep. Later, the junior vets need

'to get their hands on Poppy's giddy kids!'

Act natural. Don't do anything that looks suspicious.

HE WHISTLES

'Ah, the Scottish countryside.

'Rolling hills, fresh air, so peaceful!'

'Oh! Apart from the 32,000 free-range chickens that live here,

and spend most of their lives out in these open fields.

Today, junior vets Molly and Nyatepe are definitely going to have

their hands full.

There are 16,000 chickens in this section alone.

There's loads of them.

We opened the door, and I just remember thinking, "Oh, my gosh!"

I have never seen that many chickens in my life!

-They're following us.

-Ha-ha!

It smelt so badly!

'The chickens normally lay an egg every day or so,

'but farm owner Kitty has noticed this isn't happening

'and some of the eggs being laid look a little odd.'

We've got a little problem here.

The egg count's down, and the shell quality's

not quite as good as what it should be.

'Vet Barry from St David's poultry team believes the issue here

'is down to worms, parasites that live inside the birds

'and make them very ill.

'He's sent away chicken poo samples to be tested at vet school,

'and has just received some bad news.'

Got some results that we got back from some samples we took last week

for worm eggs. So if we look at this...

There's a thousand eggs...worm eggs,

for every gram of faeces.

-Gram?

-Yeah. So we've got a lot of worms in these birds.

'Not good.

'A chicken with worms is more likely to catch infections and diseases

'so Barry needs my junior vets to help him give them a once over.'

'Perfect. Most of the birds are out and about in the fields.

'The bright conditions give us a good chance of spotting

'any health issues.'

We don't have to look at all of them, do we?

ALEX LAUGHS

-We do?

-How many are there, 32,000?

No, we don't have to look at them all. We're just going to get an idea.

'Catching all of these chickens...

'impossible!

'Catching one of them? Yeah, difficult.'

Which one? Which one's it going to... Whoooa!

'But it's not too long before Nyatepe

'grabs a chicken for checking.'

I tell you what, Nyatepe, you're very good at picking animals up.

Whoa! 'Well, almost.'

Yeah. It just flew out my hand, and all the dust went in my face.

-SHE SCREAMS:

-Sorry!

And they seemed to like me because that one came and landed on my head!

SHE SCREAMS

He likes you, Molly, that one. He likes you very much!

-SHE LAUGHS

-Ooh, that was funny.

'After a few hits and misses, Molly gets to grips with a chicken.'

That's it, well done. Fantastic, Molly.

How does it feel to pick up a chicken? What's it feel like?

It was quite weird.

'Now the serious business of looking for signs of illness

'can get under way.

'And later, the junior vets get cracking as they try to solve

'the chicken and egg problem.

'At the exotic animal hospital, vet Kevin has a very poorly patient

'that needs medical help.

'Oh good! Junior vets Josh and Bonte are on this case too.'

Patches is a very loved rabbit.

Oh, there you go, Patches.

'Patches is a three-year-old lop-eared rabbit.'

I thought he was really cute and, um, cuddly, really.

-OK. You're OK.

-Really jumpy.

'Kevin suspects those floppy ears are hiding a serious problem.

'Get investigating, you two.'

Well, that one's like sticking out a bit more than this side.

-OK. Josh, have a little feel as well.

-It's kind of like a lump.

Kind of like a lump, OK. Josh, have a little feel as well.

Oh, yeah. It's about here.

-There's like a lump.

-A little lump.

'The team has found a swelling around his ear which is causing

'Patches a bit of bother.'

Is it doing anything right now, like, does it affect...?

Impact his hearing, or...?

It's probably affecting his hearing, also it's probably quite painful.

'Kevin thinks Patches may have some kind of infection,

'but he's not certain, so the team need to take a closer look.

'He's a bit jumpy...the rabbit, I mean,

'so he needs a sedative drug to make him more relaxed.

'Sedating a rabbit can be risky.

'The team need to know exactly how much of the drug to give him,

'so first, they need to check his weight.'

I'll just pop him on the scales. That's lovely.

Well done, Patches. No cheating about your weight.

1.95.

1.95 kg, excellent.

Oh! He knows where he's going, doesn't he?

'Patches has a great chance of getting sorted out.

'Why?

'Because he's heading to the super, hi-tech imaging department.'

'Check this bit of kit out!

'No, it's not a big washing machine.

'It's a CT scanner that can see inside Patches' head

'and will hopefully reveal what the problem is.'

I thought it was a bit weird, because I thought they would've had

at least a smaller one for like, smaller animals.

'Later, there's urgent surgery for Patches,

'and the team hit a problem.'

Erm, we've got some haemorrhage. Another one, please.

Keep going with them. Keep feeding them to me till I say stop.

You always leave one piece!

'Junior vet Jamie is tackling his fear of goats

'on the city farm in Edinburgh with partner Robyn.

'They've dealt with mum, Poppy,

'but now her kids Alexis and Billybob need vet attention.

'But we've been told these two horned rascals can be a bit lively.'

How do we catch them then?

What's the best way? Shall we catch this one then?

'Good idea! Robyn uses Billybob's favourite snack

'so Jamie can get him under control.'

I was worried for Jamie, but then when we actually had to go

and catch them by the horns and stuff, he was really good at it.

-Thank you.

-SHE LAUGHS

-Good boy! Oooh!

-That one's reasonably well-behaved.

'Nice and still, please...

'so overgrown hooves can get sorted.'

Good. OK.

Get your... Oh, that...nah!

This team, forget it!

'Jamie's still in the running for an award but Robyn's had it!'

'Only joking.

'But Jamie IS doing amazing work here, firmly holding Billybob down

'so Robyn can fill him with vitamins.'

-Oh.

-Jamie, look at you, look at you, holding this goat.

Come on.

Come on. That's it.

Come on, have your vitamin.

Good. Pull the trigger.

Lovely. And pull it out.

And if we just rub his throat.

'It's all for your own good, Billybob.'

-GOAT SPITS Ah.

-Ew!

-Lovely!

'But seeing what's to come, sister Alexis makes a run for it.'

I think we need teamwork here.

I'll get the bucket with the feed in it, and you grab it.

OK. If you can grab hold of her for me, Jamie.

Oh! Robyn...

-Whoa.

-Ah.

-It's all gone wrong now.

Oh!

Act natural. Don't do anything that looks suspicious.

Come on. HE WHISTLES

It didn't...

I'm just wearing it out, that's why I'm not catching it.

I think I was concentrating so hard on actually like, getting the goats,

I think I just, like, forgot about my fear of goats.

-Yes! Well done!

-Very good!

'At last, Alexis is grabbed too, and can enjoy Jamie's

'top-class vet treatment - a foot trim!'

-Is that OK?

-Yeah, it looks great.

'And a shot of vitamins coming right up.'

Fire away!

-Yeah. And you rub the throat, Robyn.

-Well done, Robyn.

'And another kid goat good to grow.'

-GOAT GRUNTS

-Good girl! Good girl!

-Good girl!

'Now, that is something I didn't expect to see earlier today.'

See, you're OK.

'Well done, Jamie.'

Look at that! Jamie can't get enough of the goats now.

I know, yeah.

See, it just shows that they like me more cos they take all my leaves.

Hey, Jamie, I thought you were frightened of goats.

I thought I was too.

As the day went on, I sort of, like, got more confident with them

because I knew that they were like playing,

and meant no harm whatsoever.

I was very proud of myself.

I'm very, very impressed with Jamie overcoming his fear.

I'm also very impressed with Robyn's skill as a goat whisperer.

I think you did really well today, you know.

'Patches the rabbit arrived at vet school with a worrying lump

'on the side of his head.

'Josh, Bonte and vet Kevin are now using the CT scanner

'to get 3D images of the problem area

'so they can work out what's caused the lump.'

So, these are his teeth.

Coming in here, this is the start of the nose there.

Looks like a ghost.

'Well, it definitely looks strange, Josh.'

If we look here, it's full of air, which it should be.

-But that one hasn't got as much...

-Exactly.

OK, so you can see it all here.

We've got solid tissue within that.

This side, we don't have that infection coming across.

'Kevin thinks the lump on Patches' head has been caused

'by a nasty infection deep inside the rabbit's ear.

'It's a serious problem, and the team must take drastic action.'

We've got to basically remove this infection,

and that's going to involve us cutting open his skull at this point.

-Oh.

-We'll have to...

-Is that quite dangerous?

So, it is quite a big procedure,

and there are some very real complications from that,

in terms of nerve damage and blood vessel damage.

I didn't really know what would happen, or...

would Patches survive through it.

It's just really upsetting.

Yeah.

I thought it was a little lump or something

that they could take out easily but it wasn't.

'In theatre three, it's all systems go

'for Patches' operation.

'Our junior vets have vital roles.

'Anaesthetics are risky for little rabbits, so Bonte's in charge

'of keeping an eye on Patches' heart rate throughout the operation.'

-We've got 30 that time.

-OK.

'Josh is going to be Kevin's right-hand man.'

Get your gloves open.

'When he's got his right glove on, that is.'

This is a bit fiddly, just a bit.

'I think it's too easy doing it like that.

'Why don't they blindfold them as well and make it really difficult?'

'Actually, this careful way of putting on surgery gloves

'stops any horrible germs infecting an open wound.'

Excuse me, everybody, surgeon on his way round.

'At last, the team is in place ready to remove Patches' infected lump.

OK.

'Now it's going to be a bit bloody and messy,

'so look away if you're a little squeamish.'

So, you can see, Josh, if you look,

this is the infection that's been building up in there.

I've just got to dissect round the back of this now

to free this canal out.

MACHINE BEEPS

32 that time.

-How's your anaesthetic going, all right?

-Fine, yeah.

I'm just doing...

'So far, so good.

'They're getting to the root of the infection.'

So, it's getting to the point now where all the important vessels

and nerves are running.

'Then the team hit a problem.'

-Is that...?

-Yeah, unfortunately, I've just nipped the canal.

Can I have a cotton bud, please?

And we've got some haemorrhage.

Another one, please. Keep going.

Keep feeding them to me till I say, "Stop."

He started to bleed quite a lot.

Keep going.

'Rabbits can bleed to death really quickly.

'Josh needs to help stop the flow.'

There was quite a lot of blood, and Josh had to

pass them really quickly, and, like,

-cos it was kind of like spurting up as well, wasn't it?

-Yeah.

'Tensions are rising, as is Patches' heart rate.'

-It's going much faster now, isn't it?

-Yeah.

So it was a bit scary.

'Phew! Thanks to my junior vets' help,

the bleeding is under control.'

OK.

'Now, Josh uses a syringe to clean the area, so that Kevin

'can make sure any infected pus is removed.'

How's the monitoring then, Bonte?

It's going fine, yeah.

It went up a bit but I think it's OK now.

That's his ear canal.

And you can see, that pus is solid right down to the end point.

'Ugh! That's a big lump from a small head.

'Patches will soon feel so much better.

'I hope I do.

'But Josh and Bonte are handling it all like a couple of pros.'

You're not being put off by the bloodied cotton buds?

No. I actually enjoy it.

Very good.

It's quite a good scraping sound, isn't it?

Like when you're at the dentist, they get that spike

and scrub all the tartar off your teeth.

Ugh!

'We're done! Well, they're done.'

I felt really relieved at the end.

'My junior vets have massively impressed me!

'But what does Kevin think?'

How do you think they've done overall?

They've done great actually.

I mean, Bonte sort of took it by the horns, and got on and did it.

Josh was right in there amongst what was

a fair bit of blood and pus, and wasn't fazed by that at all.

So, yeah, so they both did very well in their task.

'Success!

'Thanks to my junior vets' help, Patches has been patched up

'beautifully.

'Check out that tiger print bandage!

'This happy bunny will be on his way home in no time.'

I thought you did very well, especially in the operation.

It was quite a tense and high-pressure environment,

and I think you both performed really, really well.

-So, well done!

-BOTH:

-Thank you.

'Molly and Nyatepe are dealing with a parasite problem

'down on the chicken farm with vet Barry.

'The team have discovered evidence of worms, and that means the birds

'are more likely to catch serious illnesses.

'So, they're giving the chickens a checkup.

'A runny nose could mean a viral infection.'

Is there any snot coming down her nose?

-Not that I can see, no.

-No. That's OK.

We'll have a look at her colour as well.

'All looking good...

'..until Nyatepe finds a chicken that doesn't look quite so chirpy.'

That chicken's just not quite healthy as the others,

just not bright red.

-Uh, does she feel quite light?

-Yeah.

Yeah. She's not in quite as good body condition as the others, then.

-Yeah.

-So she's probably not laying the eggs she should be.

'Hm. That's not good.

'These eggs need checking for signs of disease or infection...

'right now.

'Let me try and help get them focused for the job.'

So, what you guys need to do is really get your detective heads on.

But, make sure your mind doesn't get scrambled.

-THEY LAUGH

-And, look, I'm not yolking...

-HE LAUGHS

-It's important

that you try eggs-tra hard.

THEY LAUGH

I don't think you're taking this seriously.

-HE CLEARS THROAT

-'Sorry, this is a serious business.

'Vet Barry is worried the bumpy-feeling eggs might be the

'result of a virus called infectious bronchitis.

'It's not dangerous to humans but it could cause a big problem here

'if it spreads.

'The disease makes the insides of the eggs go really watery,

'so, at least there's an easy way to check for it.'

So, what I want you to do is I want you to break some eggs open

and look at the insides.

We were checking the eggs for infection,

so we cracked the eggs and...to see if they were watery.

-That's quite watery.

-Ah. Yeah, it looks quite watery, that does.

'That's not a great start.'

If there's a lot of eggs like that, then I'd worry

about some nasty viruses.

'Come on, junior vets.

'Get cracking.'

'If half of the eggs are watery, the chances are

'the chickens have the virus.'

So, we've broken ten now.

Out of ten, how many have been watery?

-Two.

-Two.

Two. So that's two out of ten.

So, the diseases which make the eggs go watery inside

are unlikely to be present here.

'A big relief.

'Barry believes the only health problem here is evidence of

'pesky parasites in the chicken's poo.

'But how exactly do you treat 32,000 chickens for worms?

'I reckon I'm about to find out.'

So that just gets mixed in with the birds' drinking water,

so, they take their medication every time they drink.

'Ah, the old "worming medicine in the drinking water" trick!

'I like it.'

I'd expect that by the time you get to about this time next week

that the birds will produce the right number of eggs,

and that the egg quality will be back where it should be,

lots of lovely, brown, good eggs.

'A great end result! Healthy eggs ready to go.

'But you're not supposed to take work home with you, junior vets!

'Do they deserve a reward, Barry?'

They did a great job of catching and picking up birds

to do a bit of an examination of them, and they were thinking as well.

Very switched on!

It was really funny when we were all just stood there,

and then suddenly it just flew.

It flew on my head, and it was just, it was just really funny!

-SHE SCREAMS

-Whoa! Ha-ha!

Every time that happens, it makes me laugh!

'My junior vets have scrubbed themselves up, and are free of

'muck, dirt and germs, as they wait for my decision

'on who should be vet of the day.'

-Junior vets!

-ALL:

-Hi.

Hang on a minute. You know what?

-What?

-You're starting to look like vets.

-THEY LAUGH

-Thank you.

-That's amazing!

There's something about you today that makes me think,

"Aye, you're starting to look the part."

'Molly and Nyatepe found themselves amongst thousands of patients

'at the chicken farm,

'but they didn't flap when poorly chickens needed treatment.'

'Jamie handled Poppy and her two kids with ease, when the goats were

'trimmed and vitamined, and Robyn was so supportive helping Jamie

'overcome his extreme goat fears.

'And Bonte and Josh had to help out with tricky, delicate surgery

'as Patches the rabbit had a big lump of painful pus removed

'from inside his head.

'A close call, but stand-out vets must be picked.'

My vets of the day are

Robyn and Jamie.

So, well done, you two.

Come on, round of applause.

'Great vet work requires great teamwork.

'These two had it by the bucket-load today.

'But this unlucky lot have a load of laundry chores to finish

'before they can rest up.'

I thought that I wanted to be a vet before it.

-Now I definitely want to be a vet.

-Yeah.

'Fancy getting vetting yourself?

'Well, get over to the CBBC website right now,

'and you'll find a special patient needing your expert help.

'Next time on Junior Vets,

'a giant goat needs darting before his hooves are soothed,

'pet chicken Houdini needs a lump to disappear,

'and homeless Border collie Joker needs a life-changing op.'