Episode 12 More Creatures Great and Small

We Brits love our animals.

From livestock in the fields...

-COW MOOS

-..to pooches in the park.

It's the job of the nation's vets to keep them healthy.

Whether consulting in the countryside...

There is something very nice about being next to a nice cow.

..or horsing around in the stables.

You've got lots in there that you're storing for later,

haven't you? Cheeky boy.

They're passionate about their patients.

Hello, miss.

Let's have you, monster. There we go.

On call when the animals need them most.

If we leave it any longer,

he is almost certainly not going to make it.

They're the dedicated vets,

patching up pets and caring every day

for more creatures great and small.

HORSE NEIGHS

Coming up, in Teesdale,

Rosie gets to grips with a concussed tawny owl...

-Are you OK?

-God...

Oh, it's gone right in.

..Kerry treats a horse with a badly cut face...

I might try stapling it.

And in Dunfermline, Adam has a tough case with a much-loved Staffy.

-There's no point in worrying about what we don't know.

-OK.

Right. I know... Don't worry, all right?

Teesdale in County Durham,

320 square miles of rolling hills, lush meadows and woodlands.

At the mixed practice in Barnard Castle,

they treat animals great and small, domestic and wild.

He just hisses at me.

Being a good girl.

Let's have you, monster. There we go.

25-year-old vet Rosie has worked here for two years.

Let's have a look at these ears. DOG SQUEALS

I always wanted to be a vet.

It started from a young age, a sort of obsession with animals.

Every day I'm learning on this job.

There's always something new comes through the door.

And today's no different.

We've got a tawny owl coming in.

We're not really sure what's happened. Possibly hit by a car.

50,000 breeding pair of tawny owls live in Britain's woodlands.

Their exceptional vision, hearing and powerful talons make them

highly effective night predators.

The injured owl is brought in by retired vet Neville,

who worked at the practice for almost 30 years.

Neville now rescues birds of prey.

-All right, what have we got?

-This is a typical, typical case.

-This is a bump by a car.

-Ah, yes.

-Concussion.

-OK.

Don't think he's going to leap out. He's...

He's got a bad head, but he's far from right.

Hmm-hmm. Yeah. He's very quiet.

Even so, with their sharp talons, owls need careful handling.

He's got me. He has got me.

Are you OK? Oh, it's gone right in.

They do. They meet in the middle.

That's it.

-Oh, God.

-Not so bad.

-Not bleeding yet.

-Anyway, we've got both feet now.

-Yeah, OK.

LAUGHING: Are you all right?

The owl can recover from concussion,

but he won't survive if the joints in his wings are damaged.

Here we go.

And if we...

let him use them.

That one is just a little less...

-Hanging down a little bit, isn't it?

-Yeah. Just down a bit.

But I think... Look, he's so bright in the eye.

-Yeah. He's still trying to use them, isn't he?

-Yes.

-That's good.

Yeah. He seems very stable there actually, that wing.

And the fact that he can actually raise it...

He's got good tone in it as well.

If there's anything broken at all they just tend to hang down loose.

The feathering all looks OK as well, doesn't it?

Let's get him in and we'll get him through and feed him up.

Yeah, brilliant.

No damaged wings means he could be nurtured back to health...

..and Neville's the man for the job.

He rehabilitates birds of prey in his garden aviary.

You get a great buzz, seeing them well

and then being able to release them back to the wild.

It's a wonderful feeling.

We must have rehabilitated, I would guess,

a couple of hundred birds of prey.

One of Neville's nocturnal ex-patients still

comes to see him in his garden.

He does tend to look out for a little snack...

..most evenings.

Here we go.

And sometimes we'll give him two or three chicks.

Wow!

It is just such a wonderful privilege, really,

to be that far from a wild tawny owl.

We hope they return to their patch, and it's very satisfying

knowing that they're rehabilitated back to the wild.

And here he comes.

Wow!

Now Neville and Rosie hope to help

the concussed owl by building up his strength.

The biggest part of the recuperation of these birds is just to

get their strength back,

so feeding them is vitally important.

Just pop it in...

There we go. It's a good sign

when they swallow and he's not swallowing.

He's still a bit ga-ga.

At times, if they are too weak, you have to force feed them

small bits straight down the mouth.

And eventually, when they gain their strength,

they'll happily feed on their own accord.

There we go.

-He swallowed. Did you see?

-That's great.

That's a good sign. Licking his lips.

SHE LAUGHS

It'll just be a case of giving them some rest,

some peace and quiet on his own,

and just leaving him to it and feeding him again later on.

There we go.

He's got a little way to go.

Given time, hopefully, this owl too will be released back to the wild.

In Dunfermline, at Inglis Small Animal Hospital,

the vets and nurses see over 100 patients a day.

Gorgeous. Hello, Ozzie. Just come for a check-up.

Hello, handsome!

You look much better today.

Today, senior vet Adam is on surgery duty...

-How are we getting on?

-Good. We're ready to go.

..which comes with added pressure.

You can see how precious people's pets are to them.

They have everything wrapped up in it emotionally,

so our connection to the owners is really important.

And someone's whose pet is very precious is Mark.

He's owned Sasha, his Staffy, for two years.

She has turned out to be a fantastic dog.

She's just... She's just not got a bad bone in her body.

Shall I get my gun?

-Bang!

-HE LAUGHS

I'd give my life for that dog.

Sasha, come on. Come here.

'I developed a condition, agoraphobia.'

I have a fear of lots of people around me.

I don't really go out very much.

But with her, I can concentrate my attentions on her...

..so I'm not thinking about the crowd of people

that I'm just about to meet.

Because of her, I've got a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

I don't know what it would be like without her.

I really don't.

Mark genuinely holds Sasha in huge esteem, and Sasha Mark as well,

and that relationship has probably helped Mark through many rough times.

And then it's when you really understand how important

animals can be to people's lives,

and you feel a huge responsibility to make sure that that animal is

getting the best care.

But Mark's concerned. He's noticed a growth that could be a tumour.

Sasha's got a little lump on her lip that I discovered,

and Adam and his team are going to remove it this morning.

You know, obviously I'm worried.

Come on then, darling. Come on.

'She's never been into the vets. She doesn't know what's going on.'

Right. I'll just take your wee lead.

This is the bit that she'll no' be happy about,

when I walk out the door.

She'll go through here though, and she'll get loads of pets.

Eh? You'll be quite happy to come with me.

-You be a good girl.

-Aw.

See you later. Be a good girl.

You're a clever girl. You're all right.

-How's Mr Grayson?

-He was a wee bit nervous about leaving Sasha.

OK. All right, Sasha. You're very precious, aren't you?

Adam knows there's a strong chance the growth could be cancerous.

Usually, if it's something benign,

it will have started to have gone away.

There can be some really aggressive tumours in the mouth.

We have to get these lumps out fast because they can be nasty, tumours.

And if we leave them in,

they can potentially spread to other parts of the body.

The only way to find out is to send the lump off for a biopsy.

Sasha's anaesthetised for surgery.

You snoring?

In Barnard Castle, it's a little more hopeful for vet Rosie.

After a week of close monitoring and feeding,

the concussed tawny owl is ready for a bigger house.

OK. He's having a good old bite on my fingers here.

He's not impressed at all.

He is able to stand upright, but he's quite angry at the moment.

He's having a good look at me. SHE LAUGHS

But all in all, he's looking nice and bright.

So I think we're definitely OK to be taking him over to the aviary today,

and see if he can spread his wings

and have a bit of a nicer time over there.

Rosie takes the owl to retired vet and mentor Neville.

-Hi, Neville.

-Come in.

-Now this is it.

-This is great.

-Very importantly, we've got a great big bird bath.

-Bath waiting.

-He'll love that.

-He will jump in that at some point today.

And he'll look awfully bedraggled, but tomorrow he'll look a picture,

-I promise you.

-Oh, excellent. Good stuff.

-What about we try up here?

-Yeah.

Go on. There we go.

He'll be much happier in here.

He's settled down on that perch, so that's a good sign.

He's not 100% yet, so a few days in here will do him the world of good.

So fingers crossed.

Hopefully it won't be too long before the owl can be released

Surrounded by over 800 square miles of County Durham countryside,

Castle Vets also has over 1,000 horses on their books.

Equine vet Kerry is often out in the field.

-Little bit of a snotty nose there.

-Yeah.

I like to see a variety of different people, different horses.

These teeth at the front here, you've got lots of food that you're storing.

We see little ponies for kids.

We see competition horses,

harness race horses, just a good mix.

Kerry is on her way to the village of Evenwood to treat a horse

with a badly cut face.

Horses injure themselves all the time out in the field.

Wounds and stitch-ups are very common.

They need to be stitched really quite quickly,

so normally we'd say within about six hours.

Alison's owned 18-year-old Jilly for five years.

She's a very good horse. She'll take anything on.

Show jumping, cross-country... I've done a bit of dressage with her.

She's starting to get a bit old in life now, aren't you?

She's 18 now.

She'll probably do next year, and then we're

thinking of retiring her and letting her enjoy the field a bit more.

DOGS BARK

All right, darling. OK.

Hello, darling. Oh, deary me. What have we been up to?

We've made a bit of a mess, haven't we? SHE LAUGHS

Do we know how she's done it, or just out in the field?

-I think she's caught it on that, on the top of the frame.

-Oh, right, OK.

There's a lot of hairs.

She's very tall, as you can see.

She chucks her head about, getting impatient waiting for her breakfast.

She's very accident prone.

These superficial ones I'm not overly worried about. They will...

They'll just be fine. They're just to keep clean, really.

That one there, we can stitch and do stuff with that.

And we'll see what it's like to pull together once she's sedated...

Cos you've not always got a lot of skin.

It can be difficult to stitch them. Sometimes its easier to staple them.

That's fine. Right, I'll just grab some sedation for her.

With Jilly so agitated, Kerry will sedate her before injecting

the wound with anaesthetic.

This is just a sedative to make her go to sleep

so there is less chance of me getting the needle anywhere near her eye.

And it also allows to have a good look at her

because she's quite wound up this morning.

SHE LAUGHS

-Are you doing your miserable face?

-Yeah.

The injection calms Jilly down and makes her lower her head,

making it easier to clip and clean the deep cut.

Sedation's a wonderful thing.

SHE LAUGHS

I know, sweetheart. Shh, shh, shh, shh.

The lucky thing is she's missed her eye.

I know. That's the... Yeah.

-I mean, even that one there is pretty close.

-Yeah.

It's quite important to get the local anaesthetic in so she can't feel it.

Kerry numbs the edges of the cut.

We might try stapling it.

'Her head wounds are really great cos you've not got that much skin

'to work with to stitch together.'

Then she closes it up.

STAPLE SNAPS 'It's quicker for the horse.

'It's over and done with before they have time

'to think about it and wake up.'

That's come together beautifully.

I'm glad I didn't bother trying to stitch it.

Right, missy, that's that lot all done.

Jilly was very well-behaved. She did need some sedation to keep her still,

but I think I would for that as well.

And I'm sure that wound will heal nicely

now that it's stapled together.

COWS MOO

In Dunfermline, at the small animal hospital,

vet Adam is about to operate on Sasha to remove a potentially

cancerous lump from her mouth.

We have to get these lumps out fast because they can be nasty tumours.

Her owner Mark suffers from agoraphobia and depends on her.

I don't know what it would be like without her.

I really don't.

Adam is removing the lump and will send it for a biopsy

to find out if it is cancerous.

I'm concerned about the nature of the actual growth.

I have to make sure I remove as much of the matter as possible

because if it is something nasty,

we don't want any regrowth to happen locally.

OK.

I want to get good margins so the laboratory people can actually say,

"There's no cancer cells in those margins," if it is cancerous.

Coming away really nicely.

Now Adam needs to sew up the wound carefully.

Around the mouth is a muscle, which means you can purse your lips,

so we need to make sure we don't damage that

so Sasha can close her mouth properly.

Her dad is so much in love with her that if I don't get it right,

I've got a feeling he'll be really upset with me.

And it's the last stitch.

So...

We'll start waking Sasha up.

30 minutes and the surgery is over.

The surgery went really well.

My only concern now is what that lump comes back as.

A few hours later, Sasha's raring to go home.

DOG WHINES

Mark can't wait to see her.

Hello, baby girl! Hello, baby girl. Hello.

Who's that?

Oh...

-Hello, my baby girl.

-Thank you.

Now there's an anxious wait for the results of the biopsy.

Oh, that's my girl.

Don't worry, all right?

I'm going to see you in a couple of days' time

and we can go through the results together.

-OK. But there's no point in worrying about what we don't know.

-OK.

We've got some tablets for you as well. Well, for her!

I haven't got any tablets for you!

I could do with a couple myself, actually, I think.

It's so multi-faceted, our job.

It's not just about making animals better.

Sometimes it's about helping people

through the really tough times and it so sad.

The amount of tears shed every day here, there's a huge amount,

enough to fill probably a bath every day.

It's all right. Don't worry. You look after her...

-and she looks after you.

-She does, aye.

DOG WHINES

There we go. On you go, then. Come on, then.

That's my girl. We'll go back up again.

There's another concerned dog-owner in Barnard Castle.

The tables have turned for equine vet Kerry,

who's in the waiting room with her 18-month-old Labrador.

Rolo's eaten something he shouldn't have.

Here's the offending article. So not all of it's missing,

but a fair chunk of it is.

I am quite worried about him.

And being a horse vet, this is way out of my area now.

I'm very irrational when it's my own dog.

Luckily Kerry knows someone who can take the reins,

small animal vet Helen.

Come on, Rolo.

I'm not feeling an obvious lower body blockage at the moment.

But...he could have something that's moving through and causing him

some gut pain, and may or may not cause a blockage.

Helen needs to take his temperature...

..but Rolo won't play ball.

Come on. Come on. SHE LAUGHS

What was that all about?

His temperature's normal.

Potentially we could have him in and sedate him and X-ray his tummy.

Being a vet herself, Kerry understands the risks.

If it is causing a blockage, he will need to have surgery to take it out.

So...could be very serious.

Could be nothing or could be very serious.

-Do you want that back?

-No...

Don't want to see it ever again.

-Come on then.

-It is a life-threatening problem.

The pressure of the object wedged in the intestines can cause

the intestines to start to die off round it.

I think, as a vet,

we know the worst-case scenario before they go in.

I'm very worried about him at the moment.

Helen sedates Rolo to keep him still for the X-ray.

If the X-ray confirms Kerry's worst fears,

Rolo will need a serious operation.

Two weeks earlier, a concussed tawny owl

was brought to the practice by retired vet Neville.

-He's got a bad head.

-Oh, yes, you can see.

After regaining strength,

the owl was moved to Neville's garden aviary.

A few days in here will do him the world of good.

SHEEP BLEAT

Today, Rosie and Neville are hoping to release the owl

near where he was found.

Well, this is... I think this is a lovely spot.

This is quite exciting.

This is the first owl I've ever released back into the wild,

so I hope it goes well.

We don't always get it right.

We don't how strong he'll fly.

I suspect he'll fly pretty well.

Of course, at this time of night,

-he's starting to wake up a bit, isn't he?

-Yes.

He'll come alive about now, yeah. Yeah.

-Are we ready to go?

-Well, I think...

we're ready to go.

-Cast him up in the air.

-OK.

-Oh, look at that.

-That's super.

But the owl disappears from sight.

Has he gone to a fence post there?

-I don't know.

-I think he is, yeah.

-Shall we have a look?

-He's just gone into that hedge, I think, yeah.

The owl's now vulnerable to predators on the ground.

(Neville.) Neville.

(He's here.)

-You got him?

-He's sitting there, yeah.

-He shouldn't be doing that.

-No.

Why do you think that's happened?

-I don't know.

-Panic?

-Cos he certainly flew OK.

-He did. Quite strongly.

-Decisions, decisions.

-Hmm-hmm.

If you let a bird of prey loose that isn't up to hunting,

-he's going to starve to death.

-Yeah, yeah.

I mean, we've got to think of the owl and what's best for him.

And there are foxes and cats and things about,

so it's not worth taking the risk, just leaving him sitting there.

With the owl looking stronger, Neville is hopeful.

He's certainly a different bird

from the one who arrived two weeks ago today.

-He certainly is.

-SHE LAUGHS

Ow.

Much different.

-Much stronger.

-Let's put him back in the box.

-Yeah, let's.

Build his strength up and try again.

But with winter approaching, they'll have to wait

until spring to give him the best chance.

At the practice, small animal vet Helen is analysing Rolo's

X-rays for dangerous blockages.

He was brought in by vet Kerry after swallowing part of his plastic toy.

I'm not feeling an obvious lower body...

If it is causing a blockage,

he will need to have surgery to have it taken out.

There's obviously little bits here that he's potentially eaten,

which could, timing wise, easily be the bits of plastic.

But there's no evidence...

of a foreign body that's causing a blockage.

I think watch and wait for 24 hours probably.

Helen heads straight to Rolo's anxious owner,

who's in the equine office.

-He's fine.

-Oh, good.

-He's coming round.

-Thank you.

-You can have some lunch now...

-Yes, and stop stressing.

-There's no sign of a small intestinal blockage.

-Good.

What looks suspicious are probably bits of plastic showing up.

-You're going to be on poo-monitoring duty for a bit.

-Yeah.

He's still asleep but he's starting to come round.

Kerry is soon reunited with Rolo.

Hello. He says, "I want to get out."

You're a good boy. DOG WHINES

What a good boy. 'Absolutely thrilled to be taking him home.'

We'll go and have a little cuddle on the sofa this afternoon, I think.

Let's go home. Come on, then. Are you ready?

Are you ready?

You're ready. Come on, then.

And three days later...

There was a blue spiky toy in his poo,

so I was pleased to see it because at least then we knew it was out.

And I'm sure he was pleased it was out

cos it can't have been very comfortable - bless him.

Go on, then. Go on.

It's lovely to see him looking like this again.

He's found something dead or smelly to roll around in.

He really is a true Labrador. He's disgusting.

What a good boy. There we go. Steady.

Everyone's hoping for a happy result in Dunfermline, too.

It's been a week since vet Adam

removed a suspicious lump from Sasha's mouth.

There can be some really aggressive tumours in the mouth.

Her owner Mark, who suffers from agoraphobia,

has faced a nerve-racking wait.

-There's no point in worrying about what we don't know.

-OK.

Hello, Sasha. Come on, then.

Today Adam has the biopsy results.

-How have we been getting on?

-All right.

She's back to her normal bouncy self.

Brilliant. I just want to check Sasha's mouth and make sure it's OK.

-Good girl, Sasha.

-Hello, darling. Let's have a wee look at you.

I can see one tiny bit of stitch there.

But as you can see, all the stitches have dissolved now.

-The good news is the wound's healed perfectly.

-So that's it healed?

-That's it healed.

-Oh, brilliant.

-So I better tell you what the results are, hadn't I?

-Yes.

-OK.

It's good news, all right? OK?

And it does say in the report there's no cancer whatsoever in the sample,

so Sasha fights another day.

You've made me a very happy man today.

That's brilliant. Adam, that's fantastic.

So it's good news all round.

Sasha, sit. Good. Bang!

HE LAUGHS

Brilliant.

'There's no greater feeling than when the owners come in,'

and the first time you saw them they were terrified.

And then, a few days later, they're leaving

and their animal's as right as rain,

and they're looking into the future with great optimism,

and that's the best part of our job.

It's such a relief.

It's like winning the lottery. I get my dog back.

Fit and healthy and...

everything's going to be fine, aye.