Episode 3 Vets 24/7

This time on Vets 24/7,

Becky is called out to assist an alpaca in distress.

Every time I get it halfway in...

They're normally really placid and don't do this kind of thing!

Exotic specialist Lance Jepson meets a house-proud parrot.

Take him out hiking, do you?

-He puts the bin bags out.

-Does he?

-Every Monday night.

-That's a useful bird to have around.

-Every Monday night.

And down on the farm, it's major surgery for Ifan and Gwen.

She's a bit big. My arm's a bit short to actually shake Ifan's hand.

From Swansea to Neath and the pets that they treat -

this is the week in the life

of one of the largest veterinary practices in south Wales.

This is Vets 24/7.

Swansea, and at the St James Veterinary Practice,

the night staff have an out of hours emergency on their hands.

We've had a client come in. Their dog has been attacked by a cat.

Would you be able to pop in and have a look? OK.

We'll see you then. Thanks, bye.

Muffin, an 18-month-old Yorkshire terrier,

is in distress following the cat attack,

and so on-call vet Rebecca Lee has come

to check on the extent of her injuries.

She's not thrilled to be honest, no.

Don't seem to have a lot of mobility on the legs.

DOG WHINES It's OK.

She's not able to right herself.

And she's quite over to the one side.

I'm just a bit concerned she could have damaged her back.

DOG YELPS Some neck pain, potentially.

All right. Oh, it's all right. It's OK.

Muffin will need some pain relief

and be admitted to the hospital for further tests in the morning.

What a brave little girl!

The cost of overnight care and treatment doesn't come cheap,

so Rebecca has to tackle the delicate subject of money

with Muffin's owner, Darren.

We could be looking in the region of £400 to £500 for this episode.

How do you feel about it? What would you like to do?

You know, we've got no insurance on the dog or nothing,

so I don't know what we're going to do.

I don't want you to put her down but then I know on the other hand then,

where are you supposed to get the money from?

-It's really difficult.

-I'll have to raid the piggy banks.

Hello. All right? Yeah?

Daddy's baby.

Come and see you in the morning, yeah?

HE SIGHS

-There we are.

-Crikey.

We'll do our absolute best for her.

Hope for the best, yeah.

I haven't had to go through it before.

Muffin will have an X-ray in the morning

to see if she has broken her spine.

Being so close to rural Gower means farm animals

are a significant part of the practice workload.

Today, vet Gwen Rees is on duty.

Welcome to my office. It's not a bad view, is it? It changes every day.

Gwen's entire day will be spent at the Tucker family farm,

who've been farming for nine generations.

Do that bunch first, is it?

First up, a flock of Charollais sheep who need routine blood tests

to check their health is on championship form,

but it won't be a simple job.

We'll back him up against something. His head up.

Whoever is holding them also holds this around their throats.

-I thought I'd jam them in a corner.

-Yeah. There we are.

Right.

Oh!

That's not going to help, is it?

Bingo.

Number one of 40-ish.

Oh, my God!

I'm blood testing for a disease called maedi-visna

so to be guaranteed free of it,

which means that you can go into special shows and sales and things,

because you are free of this disease called maedi-visna,

you've got to blood test them every couple of years.

-And these are the best small flock in Wales.

-Are they?

-For the Charollais sheep competition.

-Hey! That's quite...

-I didn't know that.

-Three years running.

Shadowing Gwen for the week is Richard, a veterinary student.

This is his first chance to get some hands-on experience.

Quick stab right in and pop the thing on.

Push it in.

Perfect. Tourniquet at the same time to get a lone vein.

Beginner's luck, I think!

The more you get to do as a student, the better.

I was really lucky, I had vets who let me do a lot,

which meant that when you actually start, you hit the road running

cos you've done a lot of things before. Perfect.

You're on the ball.

I've left the nice ones for the student to do!

-Pop in the house now for a cup of tea and a cake!

-Thank you.

Let you crack on.

The practice has been caring for all kinds of creatures,

great and small, for 100 years,

and has five branches all over southwest Wales.

In the Neath clinic, exotic specialist Lance Jepson

has his first client of the day.

Creesha has brought in the family pet.

This is Shellington. He's a little horsefield tortoise.

He's not very old. He is less than a year. He was poorly.

We think he had an infection.

-Yeah, he is looking better.

-He is, isn't he?

-He is a lot more kind of...

-What is his appetite like?

Well, when I give him food, he is having a good feed.

I'm just going to have a sample of this, because I can...

..and I'll look at that under the microscope.

-Be a couple of minutes.

-No problem.

OK. Right. We've got a faecal sample from this tortoise.

We are primarily looking for any parasites.

I think...

..we have them in abundance.

Small numbers can be normal

but in captivity sometimes things go out of kilter.

Partly because of diet and maybe because of incorrect environment,

and things start to favour the parasite and you get huge numbers.

-There are some worms.

-Oh, right.

We've also got some protozoal parasites,

single cell parasites, OK? They are in very large numbers.

-I think we're going to need to treat. And I can do that now. OK?

-OK.

-That's fine.

-So I need to pop something down his throat.

That's where I need it to be.

Lance injects a deworming drug directly into Shellington's stomach,

which should soon rid the tortoise of his infection.

-There we are.

-Thank you.

In Swansea, at the practice hospital,

Muffin is awaiting tests after being viciously attacked by a cat.

But before going ahead, vet Becky Bradshaw needs to know

if her owners are in a position to pay the bill.

I'm ringing, really, to check that we are happy, really,

obviously to keep her in, keep her comfortable,

and we were going to do an X-ray to rule out that she hasn't

broken any of the bones in her neck as well.

If we are talking about a £400 bill but she's going to get better,

is that going to be something you are willing to pay?

Is that OK?

Lovely. All right. Thanks, Sara. I'll speak to you later. Bye-bye, now.

Was that about paying? That must be a difficult conversation?

Yes, it's a difficult conversation.

Paying £400 or £500 for a one-year-old dog that can live

until she is 12 and be fine, then they are happy to do that,

but if it's £500 for a dog that you think you are going to put to sleep

in three days, that is a different decision to make.

Muffin's X-rays will determine the extent of her injuries

and the true costs of any further treatment.

So this is her cervical vertebrae in her neck.

You've got... This is where your disk sits in your spine.

I think we're looking at a disk putting pressure on the spine,

rather than a fracture,

which is probably better news for Muffin, really.

The plan of action is to continue with pain relief and rest

and review her as we go along, really,

and hopefully the cord compression will improve rather than deteriorate.

It's good news for Muffin, but she's not out of the woods yet.

Recovery from nerve damage can be a long process.

On Gower, vet Gwen is running some pregnancy tests

at the Tucker dairy farm.

And she has the latest hi tech gadget for the job.

This is the best piece of kit that we own as a practice, I'd say.

I love it. It's fantastic. So it's an ultrasound machine.

That is the probe. I get to see the picture on my goggles,

but it also Bluetooths over to the screen there.

-I remember the old vets used to do it manually, by hand.

-Yeah, yeah.

-All by touch and feel.

-I can do it by hand as well, thank you very much!

What have we got here?

There we are. Yeah. She is definitely in calf. See the heart beating?

Very good news, yeah.

As long as the rest of them are like that, we should be laughing.

I've always really liked fertility work.

I know it's not the cleanest or tidiest of jobs.

It isn't the most glamorous either, but it's just really satisfying.

-She's in calf.

-Very good news, yeah.

Well, you're not going to be desperately disappointed today.

-She's in calf.

-Good. Very happy with that.

Before Gwen finishes for the day,

Will wants her to take a look at Daisy.

You can tell by the eyes and everything, she's just not...

-Her eyes are a bit sunk.

-They are, aren't they?

-She's not 100% right.

Since giving birth three weeks ago,

the cow's condition has deteriorated.

Gwen's got a good idea what the problem is.

If you flick the side of her and you listen at the same time,

you hear, like, a metallic ping. It's a twisted stomach.

If Daisy's stomach is left untreated,

it could be life-threatening.

Surgery is the sort of definitive answer.

What's the success rate?

Success rate with surgery is about 80%. 70% to 80%.

-I'll find out a price for you and stuff.

-Yes.

We asked to know how much it's going to cost but at the end of the day,

the animal is more important to us, so she will be treated.

Gwen will have to return to the farm in a few days' time

to operate on Daisy.

All right? How are you doing?

Lance Jepson has spent the last 20 years

specialising in exotic animals.

Today Hooper, an eclectus parrot, is in for an annual check-up

with his owners Jackie and Neil.

Are you going to step up? Step up on me. That's it.

-Take him out hiking, do you?

-He puts the bin bags out.

-Does he?

-Every Monday night.

-That's a useful bird to have around.

Every Monday night, he puts the bin bags out.

He spends most of the time just following Neil around on the floor.

And they are wooden floors.

I was going to say that they look fine and feel fine.

-It's just his beak. He's having a bit of difficulty preening.

-OK.

We'll take that...we'll take that back a bit.

I'm going to hand him back to you

cos I need to shoot off and organise a nurse to give me a hand.

OK? Good boy.

Right. I'll be two seconds.

Tell me about him doing the bins?

Every Monday, it's just to give him exercise.

We put the bin bags together and I say, "Come on then."

We've got a passageway to the pavement and at 9.30pm or 10pm,

he comes all the way down and all the way back.

It does his nails for him cos he's walking on concrete.

And many times we see people walking with a dog and they look at me like,

"Who am I talking to?"

Little green thing runs along the floor.

Then we go, "Thank you." And then we go back.

I could pick them up in one go but it takes me three trips -

up and down, up and down - and he follows me all the time.

I don't know why eclectus... I've probably said this before,

why they're not more popular, because they're so gorgeous.

-Parrots should not be popular anyway.

-Yeah. That's a fair point.

But you're right, parrots just don't make good pets. Yeah.

-It's unfair, I think.

-We will be a few minutes.

-No worries.

It's going to be a funny noise but you've had this done before.

DRILL WHIRS

That's just shortened it,

so now what we're going to do is just try and reshape it a bit.

There we are. So that's just reshaped that.

I'm not prepared to take any more back there.

It's a little bit uneven down the side there

but he will work on that himself.

-Hiya.

-So I've taken that back as far as I dare

-and I've just reshaped it a little bit as well.

-Yeah. That's good.

-He can destroy even more things easier now.

-Yeah.

-PARROT CHIRPS

-That's better, isn't it?

-You'll preen better now.

-OK.

-Thank you very much.

-Good. Thank you.

It's the middle of the night, and vet Becky

is on call at an alpaca farm in Felindre, near Morriston.

I need to have a little look at your botty again.

Owner Steve Heatherington

wants her to check on Alys, who's suffered a rectal prolapse.

-Let's have a little look. It is quite swollen there.

-It is, isn't it?

Yeah, it is. All right, darling. I know.

It's not particularly comfortable, is it?

It is pretty swollen.

-Steady, now. Don't spit. Thank you.

-All right.

It is a very important part of her body.

Have to be careful that we don't damage it trying to pop it back in.

-OK.

-It's a bit like a balloon. You push one side and it pops out again.

-Pops out the other end.

-Don't. Don't spit on me.

-All right, sweet pea.

Trying to help you. Stay. Stay.

Pushing the alpaca's bottom back into place

is the only real treatment Becky can offer.

-But Alys is not impressed.

-No, no, no!

All the time! Every time I get it halfway in...

-ALPACA SPITS

-Ah!

-Sorry.

-Oh, yes!

They're normally really placid and don't do this kind of thing!

Finally, Becky's perseverance pays off.

My hand is in her bottom. It's in. OK?

-I'm just going to hold it here for a second.

-Good girl. Well done.

So we've popped it back in.

I'm just putting my hand in her bottom,

which doesn't look dignified, but I'm going to hold it in for a few minutes

cos if I take my hand out too quick it will come out with it.

That's what it should look like.

She potentially will push it out again,

so we'll definitely stitch this one in. OK?

I'm putting what we call a purse string suture in,

which effectively is like a drawstring to close her bottom.

Fingers crossed she'll keep it in and I won't have to come back out.

That's the idea. Yeah.

What Alys needs now is a good night's sleep and, all being well,

that goes for Becky too.

It's a case of if I can get into bed and have a few hours' sleep

before tomorrow's work, then it's a bonus.

And hopefully this might be the last call of the night,

but only time will tell!

The following morning, Alys is back running with the pack.

So how are you? Are you all right?

Good girl!

Becky's veterinary handiwork seems to have done the trick.

OK. I know. I'm sorry, sweetheart. Come on then.

So the swelling has gone down and it's not protruding again,

which is great.

The stitches seem to have worked.

At the main hospital in Swansea,

Becky is back on duty and Muffin is ready for discharge.

OK. Here we go.

Her owners Darren and Sara can't wait to get her back.

All right, then. We'll lie you down on the table,

cos she's more comfortable when she lies down on her side.

My darling! I know.

She's better than I thought she'd be, actually.

I thought she'd be a lot more painful

-but I think she's improved already.

-You are like a baby. So spoilt.

Do you want to give her a little bit of a cuddle? I can scoop her up.

I think that's what she wants, she wants to be in your arms.

Keep her that side, that's it, and just keep against you flat.

-That's it. Lovely.

-If it was the worst scenario today,

we were going to say, "Put her down."

Which, luckily, we didn't have to.

We couldn't afford the bill because it was on about...

You know, last night, it could cost thousands of pounds.

Really, it's the next couple of days that will tell us

if she's going to continue to improve,

which I think that is the way she is going to go, really.

You turn around to face her that way. That's it.

It looks like she is happy, happy to lie on that side, you see.

-Wants a rest, does she?

-Yeah.

That is all she needs, rest and pain relief, really. And lots of TLC.

She looks much better than she was last night, doesn't she?

-Thanks to the vet, see.

-Scared your mam to death.

-Scared your mam to death.

-Thanks very much.

-Ta-ta.

-Bye.

It's quite challenging at times.

You diagnose problems in animals, you make them better

and you get them to go home, you know, and be their healthy selves

at home again and that is the really rewarding part of the job.

In reception waiting to see the exotic specialist

are Kim and Shelia.

I think this is probably the third or fourth visit to Lance

and Persephone here, this terrapin,

has had a very serious operation, a major one,

having a kind of hysterectomy, and her gut inspected.

She's 53 years old.

-There we are. You see?

-He is coming, is he?

-That's her operation.

-Hi.

-There we are.

-Hello again.

-Lance, will you take her?

-I will take her.

That's not a problem. Thank you. Will you follow me through?

Since Persephone's complex surgery with Lance Jepson,

the terrapin has become constipated.

What I found was this section of gut

which had this fairly firm faeces in...

And you massaged it.

I massaged it to start to break it up and we know she did pass a bit

the following day, but what we are waiting

for her to do is to have a big poo.

-Over the last three days, she has eaten four prawns.

-Good.

If she is not getting rid

of the remains of these prawns she has eaten, then...

-That's it. That's interesting.

-That is the question in my mind.

What we will do, we will take an X-ray. I'll be two seconds.

We're both doctors, so we tend to bother him rather a lot.

But he is always very nice and polite.

A new X-ray will help determine

whether Persephone's blockage is on the move.

We're good to go.

Last time, we had more gas, so maybe things are getting past it.

It's encouraging that it is eating

but we can still just make out where this blockage is.

To help things on the way,

Lance is going to give the terrapin a laxative.

Go on, girl. That's it.

With tortoises, I'm usually quite happy

to stick my fingers in their mouth, but with a terrapin, less so.

Terrapins are carnivores and they have got quite a sharp beak.

That has gone in. I'll take her back and have a chat with the owners now.

OK. Right. Here she is. We will have a look at the X-ray.

-Are you going to show us?

-I am indeed.

-So we can still see a blockage there.

-It's still there?

-Still there.

But Rome wasn't built in a day. These things do take time.

-I'm just hoping you won't have to cut her open again.

-That...

It'll take a lot to get me to cut her open again! OK. All right, then.

Thank you very much, Lance.

On Gower, at Tuckers dairy farm,

Daisy, the cow with the twisted stomach,

is about to be operated on by vet Gwen.

She's got the tinkles as well as the pain.

It's a major piece of surgery,

so she's called on partner Ifan Lloyd to give a helping hand.

Nice to be doing this job when it's daylight here.

It's usually two o'clock in the morning!

A local anaesthetic into the side of the cow.

-Just watch, because I might jump back.

-It's all right.

Firstly, Gwen needs to make an incision into the abdomen

to reach to the chamber of the stomach that is twisted.

AIR ESCAPES Can you hear that?

That's the vacuum that I've just opened up

by going into her belly.

-Do you want to put your hand in?

-What have you got there?

You can get your arm in and around to the other side.

-It is still quite full.

-Yeah. She's eating, isn't she?

How much of it is guesswork when you've got your hands in there?

-None of it is guesswork!

-About 95%!

-It...

It's more of a 3D puzzle that you work out.

Having a good knowledge of anatomy is the thing.

Otherwise it all just feels like squidgy bits.

Can't really get much of a hold on it.

The vets are finding it difficult to turn the stomach,

so a decision is made to open the cow up on the opposite side.

Then they can manipulate it from both positions.

I'm just going to be passing it

from my side over to Ifan's side.

She's a bit big. My arm's a bit short to actually shake Ifan's hand.

-Can you actually get to the bottom there, Gwen?

-Yeah.

I've pushed the fat down as much as I can.

I can't feel any tugging on it yet though.

-There you go.

-Is that tugging?

-Yeah.

-Am I pulling, there?

-Give a tug.

Yeah.

There she goes. Hang on.

-How's that? Will that string it?

-Yeah.

-OK.

With the stomach back in position,

Ifan anchors it down with a few stitches.

It is quite amazing that you're doing this.

She's open both sides and we've both had our arms

up to the armpit in her and she's just standing there.

She's got a bit of sedation and she's got local anaesthetic

but I'm pretty sure I'd be protesting a fair bit more than she is.

Finished.

The operation has turned out to be a complete success

as six hours later, Daisy is on her way to the milking parlour.

She's still in a bit of shock from the operation

but looking a bit brighter.

Within five days,

her milk will be able to go back for human consumption,

so hopefully she'll keep picking up.

As long as she keeps improving now, each day, I'll be really happy.

Back home in Swansea,

Persephone the terrapin seems to be enjoying her convalescence.

Let's see whether I can give her a bit more.

Good girl!

It's almost a prawn, so I am quite satisfied with that.

Here you go.

'I bought her in a pet shop. It cost me sixpence.'

Without thinking about the consequences, you know,

which has extended to 53 years now.

But, I mean, she is not a very demanding animal in a sense.

But Persephone has had her moments -

she has been known to make a run for it.

I heard this desperate voice saying, "Persephone is in the pond!"

I put my bikini on, I went down and I tell you,

it's like a skating rink down there.

I crawled round this whole pond in my hands and knees in my bikini

and eventually I felt something unusual there.

And there she was, upside down.

So I got her out, I put her there as a gift

and you should see his smiling face!

I said, "Never again! You do it next time!"

-She's making her way out now.

-No, she won't.

Persephone eventually made a full recovery.

It's been a few days since Muffin left hospital

and she's back for a checkup.

How are you doing? I'm Gareth. Are you OK?

-So this is Gucci, the mum.

-That's the mum, yeah.

-Shall I put her on the floor? Will she be OK?

-Yes.

You all right? There we are.

-And this is Muffin, is it?

-Yeah.

-How is she getting on?

-She's doing brill.

-Doing well, is she? OK.

Pop her down. Steady, steady, steady, steady.

-She still likes to lay, you know, on the one side.

-Yeah.

-Is she managing to walk about at all?

-Yeah, she is doing fine.

-She hasn't cried once.

-Good girl.

When she first came home, she was just dragging herself along...

-So she is getting better?

-Yeah, she's walking and then laying down.

Nerve injuries can take months to get better.

Usually four to six weeks,

just to get probably where we are going to get to.

-I think she's going to be a viable little dog, isn't she?

-Yeah.

-Perfect.

-Good girl.

-All right, then.

-Thank you very much.

-Take care. Bye-bye.

Muffin's had a lucky escape.

Things could have ended up very different for her

and her owners, Darren and Sara.

We are out of work at the moment

and it is a struggle as it is, with four children as well.

But I will definitely be taking out cover on all of them now, yeah.

They're our babies. We love them to bits.

-They mean the world, they do.

-They do, yeah.

Next time on Vets 24/7,

partner Ifan Lloyd is taking no chances with some angry cows.

Calm down, dear!

Vet Sarah Martin has got her hands full with a special delivery.

-It's like One Born Every Minute, isn't it?

-Yeah!

And Alex Franklin needs a strong stomach

as she tries to save a pony with colic.

It's not a very nice smell down there, and taste, I must say.