Episode 7 Junior Vets

Today on Junior Vets...

a thoroughbred horse is turned upside down for surgery.

Competition horses stay the right way up for vet checks

and a sick lion is down and then up for a hi-tech examination.

I'm Alex Riley and this is Junior Vets.

Pets...

wildlife...

farm animals -

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.

As if I just did that!

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

..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...

Ah! Junior vets, there you are.

Now today, you've all got some very heavy-duty vet work

and none of you are going to be doing it here at vet school.

You're all going to be going miles away, off site.

OK, today's pairs are as follows. Jamie, you're with Bonte.

Robyn and Nyatepe.

Josh and Molly.

Go on, then, off you go.

Show me what you can do.

Bonte's already shown me what she can do.

She put in a solid shift in surgery last time

then looked after her partner, Molly, when she felt a bit wobbly.

-Are you all right, Molly?

-Yes, thanks.

But I'm keen to see how well Bonte handles today's big job,

because it's like nothing she's had to deal with so far.

Robyn treats every one of her patients with the same level

of care and attention, be it a chicken, a kitten or a cow.

It feels a bit surreal!

Top vets love her work, but will she keep everything together

when her patients get all, well, dangerous and man-eatery?

At our Northumbria vets in Morpeth, six-year-old horse Leo

is about to have treatment for a serious injury.

He had a nasty fall in a horse trial,

with owner Alexandria, four weeks ago.

I fell off.

He turned the wrong way and then he jumped into some water

and swam across the lake.

Then, when he got out, he was really, really lame.

She's unsure how serious Leo's leg injury is, but she soon won't be.

Why? Because super vet horse surgeon Cedric has got this one.

Cedric travels the world mending horses.

Today, he has two able assistants, Jamie and Bonte.

Leo's leg might look OK from the outside

but Cedric needs my junior vets' help to look inside

the injured hock joint, which is a bit like a human ankle.

So what I'm going to do, I'm going to use this ultrasound scanner.

-Just press very gently.

-Yep.

We're going to run the probe just down a little bit.

-Is that like...

-Yes.

-..the bone there?

-That's it. You can see

something very interesting there.

When we done the ultrasound, there was a little bit of, er...

-Like a bone fragment.

-Quite far away from the actual bone.

-Is that it there?

-Yeah. That's it.

This fragment has broken off into the joint,

so, like a pebble in a shoe, that could be causing a bit

of soreness in this horse's ankle.

But it's not quite as simple as removing a pebble from a shoe.

Leo needs full-on surgery to remove that bit of bone.

If we're lucky or we're clever, we can find it and pull it out.

Brace yourselves, junior vets.

Trust me, this op is going to be like nothing you've

ever experienced in your life.

Do you think he's OK?

Leo's anaesthetised.

The team need to ease him onto the floor very carefully

or this serious leg injury could become a whole lot worse.

-WHISPERS:

-You can see he's getting drowsy.

-WHISPERS:

-Yeah, he's starting to shut his eyes a bit.

Phew! Leo's safely unconscious.

But now he needs moving into theatre.

Got to come down.

Jamie, over to you for this mega-job.

That's right, Jamie is in charge

and he's got full control of the hoist...

Keep going up, keep going up.

..that's going to lift Leo onto the operating table.

It was amazing, controlling the hoist.

I mean, it was such a simple control, but it done so much...

-Yeah.

-All you had to do was, like, press a button and, like...

-And you were, like, "Oh, oh, oh!"

-"What do I do? What do I do?"

OK, that's fine. OK, let's lock him in, shall we?

Right, down again, Jamie. That's it.

Let's get going a bit faster. Keep it on time, please.

This part of the procedure is critical.

Leo needs to be carefully scrubbed for surgery.

It's a lot more prep than I thought.

If even the tiniest amount of germs remain on him, it could

infect the surgery wound and that could cause serious problems.

Let it drop, let it drop. OK. And you're fine.

Just stay where you are. That's good.

I was quite nervous before the operation,

because it was quite a major one.

-Does it feel comfortable?

-Yeah.

But Cedric talked us through it.

-All right then, are we ready to rock'n'roll?

-Yeah.

Leo's ready. The vet team scrub in.

Surgery is about to get under way.

OK. Let's go through the theatre.

Later, Leo's injury looks a whole lot worse on the inside

than it does on the out.

It is a bit more difficult than you'd expect it.

The fragment is in quite a tricky place to get to.

At the Yorkshire Wildlife Park,

there's a truly incredible job waiting for Robyn and Nyatepe.

This is Alan Tevendale,

he's the vet here at Yorkshire Wildlife Park

and he's going to tell you what we're going to be doing today.

We're going to be doing an MRI scan on one of our lions here.

-OK?

-Aww!

-Oh my...!

Yep, You heard right, Robyn.

You're working with a lion today.

You're going to be helping me with the health checks.

Be doing some blood sampling, doing the anaesthetic and such.

-So, are you ready to help me?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Excellent!

-Are we really doing a lion?

-Yeah.

-I thought we were doing meerkats.

Right, OK, let's get cracking.

What did you think when we found out we were working with lions?

I was so scared, but I was scared, but excited, at the same time,

but more scared, because, like, it's a lion!

These majestic big cats were rescued three years ago...

..from a miserable life at a Romanian zoo.

We've got Johnny in here

and he's had a great big tummyful of food this morning.

They lived in cramped cages and were really underweight. They get well

fed here, though, and that's the first job of the day for my juniors.

They eat lots and lots of proper red meat now,

so they're on a proper diet.

Breakfast time, you lot.

One, two, three.

But there's one lion that can't eat this morning,

because he faces an important procedure today.

Dani arrived at the park unable to walk properly.

He has a damaged spine

and the team here are worried his condition is getting worse.

If the lion's spine got any worse, then he'll have to be put to sleep.

Dani needs a full body scan, to see just how poorly he is.

But how do you get a fully-grown lion to a place

where he could be scanned?

You don't. You take a giant mobile scanner to the lion.

200kg Dani needs to be carried into the mobile MRI scanner,

so the team can take a close look at his spine.

No doubt about it,

this is an extremely dangerous mission.

Every single part of the plan has to be carefully worked through.

Obviously, we need to be very aware of what we're dealing with.

This briefing is so important. Pay attention, you two.

We've got our junior vets with us,

who are going to be helping Alan and Andrew with the procedure.

If you see something you're not sure about, please speak.

You're not going to be stupid by saying, "Is it fully under?"

Please say whatever you see. We would much rather be aware.

We have a plan of attack.

The team are ready to make their move.

Everything, and everyone, is in place.

Dani needs to be unconscious for his scan,

so head vet Andrew moves in...

..and anaesthetises the big cat with a tranquiliser dart.

Aww!

Don't worry, Robyn, it doesn't hurt and he's soon out for the count.

The vets enter the lion's den, to make final preparations.

And later, just the small task of moving a massive lion

into a mobile scanner, yikes!

I can't believe I'm holding its tail.

In the grounds of this stately home,

top-class horses are competing in the Hopetoun Horse Trials.

Horse trials are a bit like a sports day for top horses.

There are races and all sorts of chances to compete,

show off and win prizes.

Check these two out.

Molly and Josh have special permission to join up with

vet Tim, from Waterlane Equine Vets,

at one of the fanciest events in the Scottish horsey calendar.

We're down at the dressage arena here, which is the first phase

of the competition. So, the horses will come down here from the lorry

park and then we need to make sure that they're fit to compete.

OK.

I felt really important checking all the horses

and seeing if they were OK.

There are thoroughbreds from all over the UK here,

even Olympic medal winners!

But even the top horses can't compete

until the vet team give them the OK.

Molly, could you just go round to the other side

-and check the number on the bridle?

-Yeah.

254. SS Jet.

Yep, that's SS Jet ID'd and almost ready to compete,

but is he fit and healthy?

Make sure he's moving properly, junior vets.

So, what we're looking at is his movement and his attitude.

-So, he's trotting round there with his ears forward...

-Yeah.

..looking at his legs moving, that he's not hobbling,

-he's not dragging the leg.

-I think he looks really well.

-Yeah.

-He's moving freely.

Yeah, I'm happy.

-You too, happy, Molly?

-Yeah.

Right, vet team. You've got work to do.

-Yeah, I think that one's fine.

-Pretty fine.

-OK, you can go warm up.

Thank you very much.

278.

Whoa, there!

Looks like Molly's spotted a problem with a dressage horse.

-Is it me or did it seems to be...?

-What?

I don't know, just then it seemed to go a bit wobbly.

Some of the horses were doing this really weird thing.

So, I kept saying to Josh,

"Ooh, I don't think that one's OK". But then we found out that actually

that was planned and that is what they were supposed to be doing.

Too right.

That's top-end dressage horse riding, Molly, and that's

Olympic medallist, Nicola Wilson, busting some top horsey moves.

I'd forget about being a competition judge, if I were you,

and get back to the vet work. Horses need sorting.

Later, Josh and Molly are on call at the dangerous cross-country,

when a tiny horse joins the competition.

Look at it! It's a fast dog!

Ah, yes, I knew it was a dog(!)

Back at the Northumberland vets, Bonte and Jamie are facing up

to a huge upside-down operation.

-All right, Bonte?

-Ready? Yeah.

-OK, right, then.

Six-year-old Leo is a competition horse,

just like the ones Molly and Josh are looking after.

He was badly injured during a recent horse trial.

Vet Cedric and his team need to remove a loose bone fragment

that they've discovered in Leo's leg.

There's a lot of equipment for this surgery.

If this op doesn't go to plan, Leo may never compete again.

Right. Time, please. I need you to keep an eye on the time for me,

cos it's quite tight, this one.

Bonte, can you get us another couple of clips, please?

-Yeah, here's one.

-There's two more to do now.

There was a lot of pressure, wasn't it? Cos we had to obviously

get the fracture out quick.

Why is it so important that we move quickly?

Because a horse can only be anaesthetised for a certain amount

of time, so we've got to be really fast.

An ultrasound scan showed the bone fragment was tiny.

So, we know from the scan, there's something hiding in here, basically.

They need to insert a miniature camera, called an endoscope,

to try and locate it.

It's a little skin incision.

One, two, three. Pop!

Camera's going in. Let's have the lights down, please.

And as soon as they see the inside of Leo's leg on the monitor...

-Pretty cool, hey?

-I know, it's amazing.

..the extent of his injury becomes clear.

So, first comment is this joint is inflamed.

-So, can you see the redness at the top?

-Yeah.

Can you see some haemorrhage there, too? Some bleeding.

Oh, yeah, it's not as you would expect it to be.

No, so this joint definitely has been damaged.

Right then. If someone can hold the camera for me, just there.

Bonte is now Cedric's eyes inside Leo's leg.

Get it in the middle of the screen, Bonte, that's good.

But finding the piece of bone isn't proving easy.

It is a bit more difficult than you'd expect it.

The fragment's in quite a tricky place to get to.

You know, I've got a sneaky feeling our fragment is hiding

in all this tissue here.

Right then. Do you want to do some grabbing, Jamie?

Wow! Jamie has his hands on the graspers.

If what we think is correct, this thing should come out in a oner.

On the count of three, we're going to pull, OK?

When we got control of the graspers, we pulled it...

One, two, three, pull.

..and it come straight out.

Got it. They've removed the tiny bit of bone

that has been causing Leo so much pain.

So Jamie, you've managed to remove the fragment. Here it is.

Well done. Fantastic. And well done, you, Bonte, as well,

for putting the scope in the right position, as well.

It's surprising how something so small can cause something so big.

Yeah, I know.

A quick look at an X-ray from before

confirms my junior vets' handiwork. The bit of bone is definitely out.

Fantastic! OK, let's go and finish off, then, shall we?

So, how's the horse doing?

Check this out!

Cedric's so impressed, he's letting Bonte finish Leo's stitching.

Just push it right through. Perfect, OK.

Swab again, please, Jamie.

Jamie cleans up...

That's lovely. OK. All done!

..and Leo can be moved to his padded recovery room.

This is the most critical point in the whole procedure.

The problem with a horse is, because they're so big,

if they don't recover properly, they can break their legs and break their

necks, so it's very important, this part, to get the horse up smoothly.

Yeah.

-It's like a stone wall, but it's still shaking.

-Yeah.

Cos when he like bumped against it, we were like, "Whoa!"

Then with one heave, big Leo finds his feet.

Oh! Good boy!

Good boy!

Good boy. Now, that's perfect now.

Your work here's done, junior vets. What do you reckon, Cedric?

Oh, well, it's a very high-stress situation

and I thought both of them, you know, really showed true colours there

and came through them very well, so I'm definitely impressed.

Oh, it was amazing!

Like, we got really hands-on in that.

-I feel really proud.

-Yeah. And me.

I think we did really well.

And now, anxious owner Alexandria

is back to find out how it's all gone.

The operation was really successful.

And, hopefully, he'll be able to get back to competing soon.

Oh, brilliant! Thank you.

I was terrified this morning, so I'm really grateful to the junior vets.

Thank you, Bonte and Jamie. Good boy!

Back at the Wildlife Park in Yorkshire,

Robyn and Nyatepe are facing their biggest challenge to date.

Dani the lion has a damaged spine

and the team are concerned it's getting worse and he might be

in pain. If it is, sadly, he may have to be put to sleep.

Today, he's being moved to a mobile MRI unit, for an all important scan.

Dani's now unconscious and Robyn is helping keep track

of his vital signs, to make sure he stays that way.

Nobody wants this mighty lion waking up all grumpy in such a tight space.

I feel like I've been given a lot of responsibility to do now.

I'm feeling a bit worried, in case I do something wrong.

Vet Andrew makes a final check on Dani.

Yeah, that's all right.

And the rest of the team can enter.

It's one of them things where you know you should feel scared,

but you actually don't, because you were around so many people that...

-Yeah, exactly.

-..knew exactly what they were doing

so you were more excited than scared, really.

One, two, three, up.

Check this out. They're actually carrying a lion!

I can't believe I'm holding its tail.

Time is tight.

It's dangerous for Dani to stay anaesthetised for too long,

but more dangerous for everyone else, if he wakes up.

It's quite scary.

I was just thinking, if it woke up, I would be gone!

Dani is upside down and perfectly positioned on the MRI scanner.

And my junior vets are about to find out the true extent

of Dani's spine damage.

These are the images we've taken today and these are the images

that we took three years ago, when we scanned Dani previously.

-Can you see that the spinal cord starts to change shape?

-Yeah.

It starts to go to a, sort of, kidney bean shape

and then, it becomes, you can see where the spinal cord is squashed.

Does anything run through it? Through the spinal cord?

What runs through the spinal cord is all the nerves that connect

Dani's head to his legs.

So, does he walk funny because of the nerves?

That's why he walks funny, because some of the nerves in here

-have been squashed.

-So ,do you think after time,

he's going to have to be put down or he's going to die?

There is a possibility he might need to be put down,

if he gets so wobbly that he can't cope with life.

So there's nothing really that you can do?

At this stage, no. We've just got to hope he does as well as possible.

The team can't cure Dani's injury,

but he doesn't have to be put to sleep and the scanner has shown

he has even gained a bit of strength in his legs.

While Dani's still unconscious, the vet team use this rare opportunity

to give him a complete health check.

Do you want to come round this way?

Robyn and Alan take a blood sample...

That's it. Really firmly there. That's really good.

..while Nyatepe checks Dani's body for any other problems.

It's so heavy!

It was quite incredible that I had a lion's paw in my hand

and it was really cool.

Great! There's no sign of any other health issues.

Yeah. OK, then, guys. Thank you very much for your help.

But Robyn isn't leaving Dani's side yet.

I wanted to make sure that we, like, checked over everything,

to make sure he was OK.

I'm waiting for the lion to wake up,

so I can record how long he was on anaesthetic for.

Who's impressed you, Andrew?

Robyn was really intensely interested and started taking notes

and wrote down anything we asked her to write down

and asked if she could write anything down.

That's great. I see a future vet there, actually.

I think today's made me realise that vet work

-isn't all about cuddling dogs and stuff.

-Yeah!

It's not always good news and most of the time, you can make them

better, but in cases like this, there isn't nothing really you can

do to help them, so you're, sort of, seeing the side of vet work where

you need to try and keep...

Stop yourself from getting upset about it.

It's quite bad, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be.

He can still live for quite a bit of time.

It was one of the best days of my life, this.

Back at the horse trials, Josh and Molly are part of the vet team

that's making sure the horsey competitors

are healthy enough to take part.

My junior vets have now teamed up with vet Will, from Clyde Vet Group

Equine Hospital, as the crowds gather

for the toughest event of all - cross-country.

Josh and Molly, it's probably the most dangerous part of the whole

three-day eventing, so we have to be very much on our toes,

ready to react to anything that might happen out there.

What kind of stuff have you seen?

Sometimes, on the cross-country course,

because the fences are very rigid, it can get a cut or a bad bruise.

-Horrible things, like broken legs, can happen.

-Yeah.

But these are all the things that are risks of this type of sport.

I was a little bit nervous, like, when I was checking them,

because I didn't know if I'd done it right.

It was really hard, cos they were coming through really fast

and when one would come, we had to be really quick.

-This one looks...

-Really well.

Yeah, although quite tired, cos it's just stopped at the corner.

-Will.

-Yes?

-I think it looks tired.

Yeah, this one's quite tired, isn't it?

A good rest and a sugary treat should do the trick.

Ah, it's lovely and sweaty.

Oh, he says, he's not sure. There he goes.

He knows what they are, anyway. Thank you very much.

Aw, I stroked him. He was lovely.

-He was sweaty.

-He knows what they are, doesn't he?

Horses crossing the finishing line are getting a junior vet check -

even the really tiny ones.

Wait a minute, that's not a horse!

It's a fast dog.

-ANNOUNCER:

-The steward's now chasing a dog,

but I think the dog's going a little faster than the steward!

It's all go here.

They're coming quite quick and fast now.

Things are really hotting up.

All of these horses have covered over 3km at high speed,

so the chances of overheating are high.

-Look at all the veins!

-Yeah, I think it's cos of the heat.

Molly is keen to get some water, to cool the horses down.

I spilled it all down myself.

Hmm, maybe a bit too keen!

Oh, look at me! Oh, my gosh!

Lovely, very refreshing. Well done, Molly!

Finally, the last horse crosses the finishing line.

Fingers crossed, it's come home safely.

We've had quite a quiet day.

Not too many horses injuries. From my point of view,

that's been a really good success.

Thank you very much for all your help, actually.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

-I've had a really good day.

Ah, thanks. That's lovely.

Can you just look this way, please?

It's congratulations to the winner, but what does vet Will

think of my junior vets' efforts?

Josh and Molly have done so well today. I think they would make

great vets when they're older. You know, they've got so much enthusiasm

for it and certainly not frightened to get their hands dirty

and get right in there, so that's brilliant.

We worked well.

We wanted to help the horses and to check if they were OK.

What vets do, they wait around for an emergency

or something to happen.

-If something had happened, we'd have been straight there.

-Straight there!

Everyone's been out and about today, but they're all back at base,

sparkly clean, tidy and germ-free.

I've had a chance to weigh up their vet-work efforts.

The head vet decision is a long way off.

For now, I have to choose today's stand-out vet.

You're all still very much in contention

for the title of head vet, OK?

So, there's everything to play for.

Keep on at this level and intensity

and it's going to be extremely difficult to choose a winner.

Josh and Molly had a right old run-around

at the la-di-da horse event. They were stood by for action,

but thankfully, all competitions were completed without injury.

Nyatepe and Robyn helped get poorly lion Dani inside an MRI scanner

for an all-over body check.

Incredible attention to detail from Robyn all day long.

And Bonte and Jamie didn't hang around when injured horse Leo

needed upside-down surgery on his serious leg injury.

After a lot of thought,

I've decided to pick my first-ever single winner today.

This person is vet of the day, because of the amount of effort

that they put in. So much effort that the lead vet on the day

was incredibly impressed by their performance.

And, for that reason, today's vet of the day

is Robyn!

APPLAUSE

Very well done. It was fantastic, Robyn. Superb.

She could be turning into a front runner for the head vet title,

this one.

Yes! I can't believe the vet was saying, like, he thinks I'm going

to be a vet and all that and that he was impressed and stuff

and I won it on my own, as well, so it makes you feel quite special.

It was a clean sweep for Robyn and a bit of sweeping clean

for these unlucky, though very gracious, losers.

It was a big animal and she was very brave.

Fancy getting vetting yourself?

Well, get over the CBBC website right now.

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

Next time on Junior Vets...

Puppy Willow needs help with a worrying infection.

Has competition horse Jack got painful ulcers in his tummy?

And it gets close up and far too personal for me,

when the penguins need vet care.

Oomph!