Jessie, Doris and Coco The Pets Factor

DOG BARKS

I'm Stacey Dooley and I'm mad about animals.

But seeing them poorly breaks my heart.

Luckily, there are amazing vets all over the country,

dedicated to making them feel better.

Meet rookie vet Rory...

Oh, I do love a friendly rabbit.

It smells like dog sick.

Eurgh!

Every pet's best friend, Cheryl.

Hello.

Ow! That really hurt!

The coolest vet in town, Cat.

Come on, honey. Well, that's fine,

you just sweep the floor while you come on in.

And always caring, gentle James.

Aren't you gorgeous?

Oh! You can see what I mean!

They're the vets with The Pets Factor.

Coming up on today's show,

Cheryl's under pressure to perform major surgery on a very old pet.

I'm really nervous about this.

I would hate for anything to go wrong.

Vet Cat helps a dog who's partial to eating pants.

The washing basket's always there, isn't it, Perce?

Just right for a snack if you're feeling hungry.

And Rory's patient gets in a bit of a flap.

I know, I know, I know.

First, let's join Cheryl in Essex.

Hello!

Cheryl's always inundated with loads of different animals.

Rabbits.

Dogs.

Cats.

Foxes.

No matter what animal, big or small...

How is she? She's good.

..if they need help, we'll do everything we can.

Relax, relax.

From routine operations to severe problems, Cheryl treats them all.

Aren't you so cute?

And booked in with her today is Jessie the Jack Russell.

It might not look like it,

but this chirpy terrier needs some serious surgery.

-Shall we have a cup of tea?

-JESSIE BARKS

Jessie is a granny in dog years

and owner Karen knows that there's nothing this old girl likes more

than a nice, soothing cuppa.

She has one every day.

Is that nice?

Despite Jessie's old age,

she's no doddery doggie.

And can give any young pup a run for their money.

But recently something has been slowing her down.

Yes.

Jessie has developed two huge growths on her belly.

Say please. Say please.

They've been growing for months and now the larger one

is as big as a grapefruit.

Give me your paw.

Good girl.

She needs them removing, and fast.

We know it will make her so much more comfortable not having this big

thing underneath her.

It's a risky operation, but a risk worth taking.

She has got plenty of life still left in her.

There are many more cups of tea left for her to drink, yes.

Hopefully Cheryl's got the kettle on.

Hello, Jess.

-JESSIE WHINES

-I know.

It does seem like she knows, doesn't it?

She's putting a brave face on it

because that's what Jack Russells do,

but you can tell she's nervous.

Although there are lots of risks taking Jessie to surgery,

the size of her lump means we are left with no other choice.

I'll do everything, obviously, that we can,

and fingers crossed everything will go well.

I want to say to you, "Oh, she'll definitely be fine,"

but there are a lot of risks and...

-I know.

-She might not be fine, you know?

Now Karen has to wait all day until she hears

how Jessie's surgery has gone.

I'll see you later.

While Cheryl faces one of the riskiest operations she's ever done.

Bye-bye, baby.

You're quite heavy for a little dog, aren't you?

I'm really feeling the pressure,

but I have to just keep reminding myself

what a difference the surgery is going to make to her.

Join us later as Jessie undergoes a life-changing operation.

DOG BARKS

Next, we're with Rory in south London.

She trusts me, don't you?

He sees all sorts of animals in the practice.

Oh, wow, look at him!

And not just cute, furry ones.

I'm still waiting for the day

someone brings me a giraffe or an elephant or something.

Well, he's in luck today.

His next patient is a little out of the ordinary.

Meet Doris the chicken.

Hi, Doris, how are you today?

Owner Meg and dad Ian know that even chickens need check-ups.

Still important to take the chickens to the vet

cos they're like any other animal, they still need to be looked after.

But Doris is not your average chicken.

For starters, back at home her best friend is Lola the cat.

She is very unique cos lots of other chickens you'll see,

they're very chickeny, but she'll run around the garden,

rolling around in mud.

And when she thinks nobody's looking,

Doris has a very naughty habit...

DORIS CLUCKS

..of sneaking into the kitchen and getting her beak into Lola's grub.

Doris!

And when she's finished poaching Lola's breakfast...

..she gets cracking with everyone else's.

Doris has been laying yummy eggs for years and years.

Fried, boiled, scrambled or sunny side up.

And that's no yolk.

But something is up because this old bird hasn't laid for months.

And to add to her woes, she's losing her feathers.

Doris seems very out of sorts,

but hopefully Rory knows exactly what's wrong.

Doris, please.

Chickens make really, really lovely pets, but unlike a dog or a cat,

you don't cuddle them all the time

so it's quite easy to miss if they're not well.

Yep, doesn't look like Doris is the cuddling type.

I know. You don't want to come out. I know you don't want to come out.

There we go. Well done.

Let's have a little listen to her ticker.

Perfect.

Do you want to have a listen? Pop those in your ears.

-Cool.

-It's really quick, isn't it?

I think she's kind of nervous.

Yeah, definitely.

Also, generally, the smaller the animal,

the quicker the heart rate.

For an old bird, she's definitely got a good chicken ticker!

But what about those scruffy feathers?

Doris's feathers look a complete mess.

But don't worry, that's completely normal.

Once a year, chickens change their feathers and that's called moulting.

You can see where her lovely new little feathers

-are coming through, can't you?

-Yeah.

Doris seems to be in good shape,

but Rory still needs to bottom out why she's not laying.

Join us later when things get messy.

Oh, look at that.

Bit of a protest from Doris.

She doesn't want to come to the vet again.

And in Sheffield,

we meet the hungry hound with a taste for forbidden foods.

She was eating a whole box of grapes.

Back to Essex with Cheryl and Jessie the Jack Russell.

Hi, Jessie.

Jessie is an old dog

who's young at heart.

But she is being slowed down by a series of nasty growths.

She's got two huge lumps on her belly

which are making her feel totally rubbish.

And now she's booked in for a life-changing surgery

to have them removed.

I'm really nervous about this cos she's so well,

I'd hate for anything to go wrong.

The longer Jessie's under anaesthetic,

the more risk she has of not making it.

You've got to be really brave for one scary needle.

Good girl, good girl. There you go.

So it's really important that we do this operation as quickly as we can,

to just get those lumps removed.

It is such a big lump.

Now Jessie is safely under,

the team wastes no time in getting her into theatre,

and Cheryl and vet nurse Sarah

get straight to work on removing the larger lump.

This one's the one giving her pain.

This huge growth doesn't want to budge, and to make matters worse,

there's a big vein that Cheryl has to carefully cut around.

Massive, isn't it?

Absolutely!

But that's not the only problem.

Just a little bit worried about her heart rate.

Cos it's... It's dropping.

The stress of surgery is already proving too much

for Jessie and her heart rate is plummeting.

Every second counts.

Sometimes, I feel like I can't work fast enough

when a patient's in distress, but my experience has taught me

to keep a cool head and focus on the task.

But after some skilful surgery...

Time for that big moment.

..Cheryl successfully removes the larger of the two lumps.

-PARROT SQUAWKS

-If you're squeamish, look away now!

Yep, it doesn't look pretty.

-It's horrible, isn't it?

-It's huge.

But it's fascinating if you fancy a career as a vet.

For anyone else...

..it's safe to open your eyes again.

That's a much better-sounding heart rate, isn't it?

-It's better now, yeah.

-Good.

And with the worst over,

Jessie's body almost instantly starts to recover.

The larger lump was a challenge,

but the smaller one comes off in seconds.

Wow, that was a lot easier, wasn't it?

This one's more cosmetic than anything else.

The wounds are stitched and Jessie heads off to recover.

It's really important now to keep her warm.

Just make her comfortable now.

And sit with her until she's fully awake.

Good girl.

I'm so relieved she survived the surgery.

I just hope she makes it through recovery.

Stick around to see how Jessie gets on

now those lumps have been removed.

Wow, that was a snog.

Let's go to Sheffield to see Cat the vet.

The city's pets are always getting themselves into a pickle,

especially when it comes to eating things they shouldn't.

Try not to worry. As soon as we've got him here

and we've made him sick, he'll be absolutely fine, OK?

There is no end to the strange things pets will eat.

The dog had eaten a child's doll.

Ask any vet, we all have a tale to tell.

The X-ray was awesome because it just looked like it was pregnant.

There was just a tiny little baby floating about in it.

Golf balls, toys, hair elastics.

Sometimes I think I've seen it all.

Well, this might be a new one.

Owner Danny is here with Percy the King Charles spaniel,

who has acquired a taste for something rather unusual.

He's ate a pair of pants before in the past and he's done it again.

Can't believe you've eaten some more pants!

Don't be embarrassed, Percy.

No-one's judging you here.

Would you like a biscuit to wash those pants down?

Would you?

At some point or other, potentially in the past fortnight,

he's eaten a pair of pants, or a bit of a pair of pants.

The washing basket's always there, isn't it, Perce?

Just right for a snack if you're feeling hungry.

It sounds funny, but it could be really serious.

We might even have to operate.

So how has he been tummy-wise?

Any vomiting? Any diarrhoea?

Everything's fine, eating, toilet, exactly the same.

Everything's fine. He has been sick once but that's because he's been

trying to eat grass.

Is there anything Percy doesn't eat?

If something gets stuck in the intestinal system,

so in the guts themselves, you will always see signs.

There will be vomiting, there will be pain,

so I think he's going to be fine, yeah.

I think so.

If Percy had got something stuck,

we would definitely know about it after two weeks,

so I'm fairly confident that he's pooed them out.

Looks like it's a lucky escape for Percy the pants eater.

You really should quit that habit, though, Percy.

Sometimes, though, pets eat human food that can be really dangerous.

Coffee, chocolate, grapes and raisins can all be fatal,

so we need to see those pets as soon as possible.

Cue Coco, a Labrador with a big appetite

who's making a reluctant trip to the vets.

This is Coco and today she was eating a whole box of grapes,

which is really bad for dogs,

so we're just coming in to see for her to be made to be sick.

Eva and Coco are only too familiar with the process.

This hungry hound has an impressive track record.

She did it on Christmas Day,

she unwrapped my sister's really fancy chocolate that she got

and was really, really sick,

and she's eaten Royal icing once and her poo was blue,

so she likes food and doesn't really mind

if it will cause her harm or not.

Coco knows the drill.

It's an injection to make her sick,

then nursing assistant Emily has the lovely job of making sure nature

takes its course.

Hopefully it will dissolve, come up and she'll just vomit.

Then I've got to clean it up, yeah.

But it seems Coco has got amazing self-control.

She's thinking about it.

-Has she been sick yet?

-No.

It usually works within about five... Up to five minutes,

but it's been quite a while now.

It must not be a nice feeling.

It's coming.

Jackpot.

Looks like she's eaten them whole.

You're not kidding, Emily.

They could practically go back in the fruit bowl.

Are you a greedy girl, Coco?

That was a lot of grapes, wasn't it?

Have you learned your lesson, Coco?

Probably not.

There you go.

It's back to London with Rory

and his latest patient, Doris the chicken.

Doris used to lay loads of eggs, but she hasn't laid any for months.

And she's starting to get into a bit of a flap.

I know, I know, I know.

Doris, Doris. Enough.

Owner Meg and dad Ian have brought her in

so Rory can give her a thorough chicken checkup.

When you're training at vet school,

you have to know everything about every animal,

so when you remember something specific about a chicken,

I get quite proud of myself.

So that's called her comb.

-Yeah.

-And this here is called her wattle.

All chicken owners must check the comb hasn't gone pale and floppy

as that's the sign they're not well,

and may also be why they're not laying eggs.

We want her comb to be standing right up on her head

and it's nice and red as well.

-Going to the toilet OK?

-I think so, yeah.

Perfect. I know it's not the nicest thing to look at, is it?

Oh, look at that.

Bit of a protest from Doris.

Yuck!

Tell you what, let's clean that up.

Whoa, it's not good.

Excuse me.

Well, Doris's downstairs is A-OK

and it looks like she's in EGGS-ellent shape.

Hopefully, keep those fingers crossed, she'll start laying again.

-Yeah.

-All righty?

-Free eggs.

-Exactly.

-How do you like your eggs?

-I like them scrambled.

Good choice. Well done, there we go.

Nice.

They're all escaping!

Back to Essex, with Cheryl and Jessie the Jack Russell.

Little old lady Jessie has had major surgery to remove two big lumps on

her belly, but as the anaesthetic wears off,

she's gradually coming around to her normal chatty self.

Come here, Jess. Good girl.

JESSIE WHINES

I know.

You've got to have your medicine. Yes.

When you've just finished doing really risky surgery on

someone's beloved pet,

one of the best bits is seeing them alive and well

at the end of the day.

The nerve-racking wait is over for owners Karen and Peter,

who have come to take her back home.

And there's your mummy.

Come on. Yes.

I'm so, so happy for Jessie.

What she needs now is a long lie down and a nice cup of tea.

She's been ever such a good girl.

-I know, that horrible thing's all gone, yes.

-Yes.

-Oh! We're so happy she's OK.

-So are we.

-I know.

-All right?

-OK.

-She's been a little pleasure.

-All right.

-Bye.

-OK, bye.

Bye, Jess!

Without those lumps weighing her down,

things are looking up for Jessie.

She's a tough old thing.

I'm amazed, she's amazing.

And she's back to being her sprightly, playful self.

What a brave little trooper she is,

and isn't it great to see her looking so happy, too?

It's also an EGGS-tra happy ending for Doris the chicken, too.

All her feathers have grown back.

She's laying again.

Happy days.

Next time on The Pets Factor, there's a real emergency for James.

What's happened?

Oh, gosh, that is quite deep, isn't it?

And Cheryl treats a tiny dog...

SHE BARKS

..with a big attitude.

You're so feisty, aren't you?