Episode 1 Vets 24/7

This time on Vets 24/7,

Kevin has an emergency call-out to a horse in trouble.

You can see by how much he's sweated.

His heart rate is really high.

Chelsea the cat is being cared for

after a suspected road traffic accident.

If he's continuing to leak urine, it can be fatal.

And Geraint treats a dog with a mystery cough.

-He's retching like, this.

-SHE IMITATES RETCHING

-It's a good impression!

-LAUGHTER

From Swansea to Neath, and the pets that they treat,

on duty night and day,

with the veterinary surgeons of

one of the largest practices in South Wales,

this is Vets 24/7.

The St James Veterinary Practice has been caring for all creatures,

great and small, for over 100 years.

At the practice hospital in Swansea,

the doors are opening for another busy morning clinic

for partner Gareth Field.

-BUZZING OF VACUUM CLEANER

-It's all glamorous this job(!)

Not very good at it, am I? That'll be OK.

She don't know what's in store,

do you?

Hi. Here for Maddy?

-Being dragged in.

-Maddy the Rottweiler is in with owners

Chris and Becky for an operation on her knee later today.

Come in.

-How you doing?

-All right. I have to sit down, my back's...

Don't worry, don't worry.

-The wrong dog for a bad back, isn't it?

-Yeah, she's...

Good girl. We've taken X-rays of her, and she has ruptured her

cruciate ligament in her knee, so, unfortunately...

this is sort of like a knee here, and the cruciate ligaments are

sort of inside the knee joint and

usually they hold them nice and solid, but because hers is broken,

when she's walking, it's basically grating on the knee.

So that's going to be painful for her.

So, the plan today

is basically operation, we're going to go and open the knee joint,

clean out any damaged part inside

-the joint and then we're going to sort of cut the bone.

-Yes.

And, in effect, we are sort of breaking her leg and re-setting it.

-So...

-My best friend.

-She's got to have it done.

-That's it, isn't it?

I had a Rottweiler before this one and she had the same operation.

She was called Molly. This is Maddy. The other one was Molly.

You've got still a memory of her on you, haven't you?

Yes, I have. She's on my arm there.

Bless. Oh, look.

There she is. I've also got her in the house, in a box,

because I had her cremated, so...

Come here, Mads. Do you want to bring her through?

Maddy's complicated surgery doesn't come cheap.

It will cost over £2,000

and it's not been easy for her owners to find the money.

-Can I give you £1,000, please?

-Yes, of course.

-I'm hoping it'll go through on the card.

-OK.

-If it doesn't, I can only give you £500.

-HE LAUGHS

-You managed to get the money together?

-Yes.

Yeah. The wife's still got her car.

Emptied everything.

Even Becky's piggy bank.

-Nothing in there.

-LAUGHTER

Oh, it went through!

Being so close to the rural Gower Peninsula,

much of the practice work involves the care of livestock.

Today, large animal vet Kevin Jones is on his rounds.

It's nice to be out on a day like this though, isn't it,

when you've got views like that?

For Kevin, the changing face of farming in Wales means he's seen

a move away from traditional agriculture.

We're going to see some reindeer now, so a reindeer herd in Gower.

They've got the reindeer herd because they do a lot of stuff

around Christmas time. They grow Christmas trees and things.

So it's a huge attraction to everyone about that time of year.

This Welsh winter wonderland is home to 24 reindeer.

But farmer Rob Morgan is worried about one of the herd.

She's quite quiet, isn't she?

Pudding has been struggling with an eye infection.

-How old is she?

-I think she's about ten now.

She's had quite a lot of calves.

OK. OK.

How's it looking?

There is an improvement since last week.

-Is there?

-But it's still... it's still quite cloudy.

-We've still got oedema there.

-Yeah.

Yeah, I think as well as the cream in the eye, I think we'll go for

the injection as well today, just because it's been

rumbling on a little bit.

It's going to make her eye quite white after this.

She takes some hanging on to there?

Yeah, but you can see why the Scandinavian reindeer farmers

are losing eyes and stuff like that. It's just through this...

It's quite a specialist job to do. You get the hang of it in the end.

Do you want to go to the wall, or are you OK there with that?

I'll be fine. All right? OK?

Lovely. Yeah, she can go.

LAUGHTER

We've had to put some cream in there.

Yeah, and that's the antibiotic cream in the eye?

Yeah. It's just about getting it in and getting it all

-over the eye, which is why I'd rather...

-I can see it, yeah.

..why I'd rather get a bit more than...

so she's got the coverage.

I'll put these out with the rest of the boys.

Not all visits to the vet are planned.

-DOG WHINES

-You can get yourself comfy now.

-CAT YOWLS

-I know, I know.

Back at the practice hospital,

vet Sarah Martin is dealing with an emergency admission.

Chelsea came in on Thursday night,

and had been hit by a car

and does have some fractures in her pelvis,

but she also has some issues with

suspected damage to the tube in between her kidney and bladder,

so she's had some X-rays and things yesterday and some investigations.

They found there was some evidence of suspected urine in the abdomen.

His main problem now, though, is the urinary side of things, cos...

DOG BARKS

If he's continuing to leak urine, it can be fatal.

Worried owners, Sarah and son Dafydd,

have been called in to discuss their pet's diagnosis.

You know the accident, do you think it is a car,

or do you think somebody has gone and sort of kicked him?

I think it's probably been a car, to be honest.

That's usually the most common thing.

Usually, to fracture his pelvis and things the way he has done,

that is enough trauma to kind of damage the kidneys as well.

Hopefully rest is going to be the thing to do.

When his back's better, will he be able to be playful again?

He should be, yeah. So, cats are really good at getting better.

They're really good at healing back together.

So we'll need to take things day by day at the moment.

Goodnight, Chelsea. See you tomorrow.

-You missing him, yeah?

-Yeah.

-All right.

-Thanks.

-No problem at all.

-Thank you.

-Thank you for looking after my kitten.

-Aww. Bye.

-Bye.

Good girl.

Yes, you're a good girl, aren't you? Hmm? OK.

Down the corridor, Maddy is being prepped for theatre.

She's a nice dog, isn't she?

You going to go to sleep for us?

Don't worry.

Good girl, good girl. There we go.

-MADDY SNORES

-Definitely asleep. Snoring.

As a surgeon, Gareth performs around 20 of these ruptured cruciate

ligament repairs a year.

It is quite a difficult procedure.

As I say, not every vet practice by a long means would do this.

You can't ever relax, that's the problem.

Sort of, three hours will be high stress and concentration, really.

Because of the demands of this procedure,

Gareth has drafted in fellow partner David Steel.

This is inside the knee joint here.

This is the ruptured cruciate ligament.

You can see it's all frayed.

That's why the knee is so unstable,

so we'll now remove that sort of damaged piece of ligament.

That's good.

This is a heavy-duty operation.

-Heavy on the power tools.

-DRILL BUZZES

Yeah. That looks good there.

-Happy?

-Yeah.

The jig now acts as an external sort of frame, holding the bone in

alignment, so we've got a pin in this section, a pin in this section.

So, in theory, once you make a cut here,

the two shouldn't move apart or move away from each other.

So now we have to cut the bone,

so this is potentially the scary bit.

What I want to do is make sure we break it correctly and put it back

together correctly.

-Happy?

-OK.

There.

Yeah, it's quite a brutal operation, unfortunately,

that has to be done.

So far she's doing well.

I say the dog's doing well, I should say we're doing OK.

HE LAUGHS

This is the plate that we're going to leave in place now to hold

the fracture in position whilst it heals.

You think it looks all right, don't you?

-Looks right, yeah.

-Yeah.

Yeah, that looks good.

With the surgical steel plate secured,

Maddy can now be stitched up and taken to recovery.

The practice has six clinics with 25 vets caring for domestic pets

all across South Wales.

Here at the Neath branch, there's a busy waiting room

for partner Geraint Jones.

Morning. My name's Geraint.

How you doing? Pleased to meet you. All right.

In need of his help today is Jazzi the Saluki, and his owner Nicola.

What can I do for Jazzi?

Right. About two or three times a week,

he's getting a really nasty cough.

-OK.

-Now then, I've got it on video,

-if you want to have a quick look at it.

-Yes, OK, fine. Yep.

It's like a coughing fit.

With a bit of retching at the end.

-OK.

-And I'm a little bit concerned,

and he's getting panic attacks with it.

He's breathing quite heavily there through his nose, isn't he?

So does it get any worse than that at all, or...?

Yeah, it gets worse than that.

At the end, normally he's retching like this...

SHE IMITATES RETCHING

-LAUGHTER

-That's a good impression.

-OK.

-His sort of breathing and heart does seem to be very irregular.

So you can't see him breathe or...?

-I can't see him breathe.

-Can't feel a heartbeat?

I can't see a heartbeat. Nothing.

-Gosh!

-And I'm panicking in the middle of the night

then thinking, "Oh!" Light on and...

-Yeah. I'll have a look at him now and I'll check him over, OK?

-OK.

-JAZZI FLINCHES

-Whoops!

So he's got a bit of sensitivity there in his throat.

So when I'm squeezing his throat he's kind of coughing a little bit.

So there must be a little bit of inflammation going on.

That suggests to me that it's probably more likely to be

a lung problem rather than a heart problem.

-Right.

-OK? Probably the best thing to do is take an X-ray

of his chest and probably get more

-information in terms of knowing what to treat him with.

-OK.

-Right.

-All right? Thanks, guys. See you next week.

-OK. Bye-bye.

-Go on, you.

I'm worried, yeah.

I wanted to catch the worst attack that he had.

So I've got the camera around by the side of me,

in bed, in the living room.

Let's hope they do find something

and soon enough to do something about it.

As clinics finish for the day, at the main practice hospital,

treatment continues for the inpatients 24/7.

Well done. Aren't you brave?

Chelsea the cat is about to have an abdominal scan.

DOG BARKS

Vet Sarah is keen to see how damaged the cat's kidneys are,

following his road traffic accident a few days ago.

So what we're looking at with Chelsea now is, when they scanned

him yesterday, they found there was some free fluid in his abdomen that

shouldn't be there, and there are concerns that from the way his

bloods were, that he ruptured his ureter.

So we're going to have a little look

now and see whether there is any more free fluid.

If it was to be building up,

then that would be a bit of a worry.

So this is the area that we were a bit concerned about.

This is the area sort of up around his kidneys.

On that sort of left kidney,

it does look slightly abnormal and it's a little bit of a different

shape than the other side, but there

doesn't look to be any more free fluid around it, so far.

So that's good news for Chelsea that things certainly aren't looking any

worse there, so the fluid looks like it's actually resolved.

There's only a very small bit that I could find, there.

So, fingers crossed, hopefully he's heading in the right direction.

Also staying in overnight is Maddy the Rottweiler.

She's recovering from her knee operation

and before he clocks off duty, Gareth checks her latest X-rays.

This is the leg after the operation.

We've cut the bone, here,

and we've rotated it round so you can see this is a step here

and a step here and what that has done, is it has flattened

the knee joint quite a lot.

The angle is much less steep than it was initially, and you've got this

plate, here, which is sort of stabilising the knee.

She'll make, hopefully, a 90% recovery,

be an active dog again with no pain.

It's good.

Being a vet is not a nine-to-five job.

Every night, the practice has three vets on call for emergencies.

Tonight, Beauty, an elderly horse, is in trouble, and worried owner

Maureen has called large animal vet Kevin for assistance.

Oh, buddy.

I'm going to just have a listen to his heart first thing

and see how he's doing there.

All right, all right.

Just going to take a listen to your heart. Good boy.

The thing that concerns me a little bit is you can see by how much he

sweated, what's been going on and it hasn't been raining all day today.

-No.

-So this is all sweat.

His heart rate is really high, OK?

-At the moment, his is 80...

-Oh!

-..so it's really high.

It is showing that he is in a little bit of discomfort

at the moment and pain. Now, there's lots of things that can cause colic,

-as I'm sure you're aware.

-Yeah.

The things that we really worry about that would require surgery is

if there's any sort of twists in the gut, anything to stop it moving.

I would rather have him put down than have surgery.

Yeah. Absolutely. OK.

It would be sensible.

Yeah, absolutely, and I think a lot of people would make the same

decision, as well. I'm going to give him a strong painkiller.

If he doesn't respond to that painkiller, then, you know,

-it might be kinder to put him to sleep.

-Oh, I know, yeah.

If you don't want me to do further investigations now,

-if you don't want me to...

-Shall we leave it till the morning?

We can't leave it till the morning,

-no, we can't leave it till the morning.

-Just have a painkiller.

-So how long have you had him?

-Since he was born.

-Since he was born?

-And his mother since he was born.

Oh, gosh. It's a fair old time, isn't it?

-23 he was in April.

-23 years. OK.

Good boy, there we go.

Good boy.

It's how he develops and how he responds to this that we have to

-make our decision.

-Yeah.

OK. Now, with his age and everything else,

if he doesn't respond to this, I think, you know...

All right, OK.

It's morning clinic at the hospital in Swansea.

Nicola and her coughing dog, Jazzi,

have been referred here for exploratory tests.

He's basically my substitute child, so that's how much he means to me.

Hopefully if he's going to have some treatment,

then let's get it done and dusted.

How's he doing, Sarah?

Partner Geraint Jones

will be using a bronchoscope camera to see deep inside Jazzi's airways.

MACHINE BEEPS

So we're just inside Jazzi's lungs now.

You can see it's slightly inflamed,

but there's no mucus or anything in the actual airway itself.

So that's good.

So this is the little sort of catheter that is going down into

the scope and that's going to allow

us to take a sample from one of the lungs.

That's the sample, there, that we've taken from his lungs.

So it looks like there's some cells

in there because it's a different colour.

So what we'll do is we'll send this to the lab now,

and if there is a specific bacteria in there,

we'll treat the bacterial infection as well.

It's a waiting game for Jazzi

and for Chelsea the cat.

Could we just try standing him on the floor very gently? Just...

We don't want him to run anywhere.

Good lad.

His kidney function is improving, but his mobility is

limited and Gareth is continuing to monitor his progress.

Are you doing anything or not? You don't want to do anything.

No?

Come on.

We'd like him to be able to stand and just see if he can walk at all

but I think he's a bit worried at the moment.

He's just sort of sat there and not doing a great deal.

No, I don't think he's going to, is he?

Good lad.

Oh, you having a wee on us?

So he can move both his legs when you...

All right, all right! ..bring him to a table.

He's using them there to try and stand, so that's good.

I think he's still a bit painful and just doesn't want to do a great deal

at the moment. So what I'll do, I'll speak to Sarah and just decide

if we keep him in for a bit longer for pain relief or when he's

probably not quite ready to go home just yet.

Fine.

Pets become part of the family.

And that is something that large animal vet Kevin understands,

having two four-legged friends of his own.

They're very quiet today. Aren't you?

He likes to watch where we're going.

Toby actually came into a vets that I used to work at and

I ended up taking him on from that point, really.

But he loves his life, don't you, buddy?

Eh? Yes, it's so nice to have them around. You know, they're a big part

of my life and it's just so nice I can bring them to work with me.

The first stop on Kevin's rounds today is to check on Beauty,

the elderly horse with chronic colic.

If things haven't improved overnight, owner Maureen

faces a difficult decision.

-He's looking depressed, isn't he?

-Yeah, he is.

Hiya, boy. OK.

Yeah, he's uncomfortable. The heart rate is back to where we were,

so he's back to square one. OK, so we've got...

You know, we could try again with the painkillers but I don't think...

We might be in a similar position in a couple of hours' time and I think,

given his age and everything else, I think, I think...

-Time to say goodbye.

-OK. OK, all right.

There's no rush, now, right? OK?

So when you're ready, OK?

Goodbye, baby.

OK?

Right.

There you go. You're all right.

Yeah, he has gone.

I'll give you a couple of minutes with him. All right?

I'll just get my box.

-You did the right thing, though.

-Yeah.

-Are you OK?

It doesn't ever get any easier.

I think, you know, if it did start getting easy, I think,

you know, I maybe wouldn't be the right person for the job.

It's really sad.

Yeah.

Witnessing the circle of life is a daily occurrence for a vet.

And at the practice hospital,

a special delivery is on the way with partner Geraint.

OK, right, then.

So we've got Fran who is a French Bulldog who's having a Caesarean.

80% of French Bulldogs have to undergo a Caesarean section.

These are all the puppies within the uterus.

The shape of the breed makes it difficult to deliver a litter naturally.

-Ready for these?

-Yeah!

-How many are we on, now?

-Seven.

Seven, is it?

Are you coming to help, Sarah?

-It's all hands on deck.

-How many is it?

-We're up to nine.

-Nine?

Wow! That's a big litter.

-Ready?

-Thank you.

Certainly enough variety of colours amongst them, isn't there?

Got one of every kind.

Is there any more in there?

I don't think so. I think that's it now.

This one is number ten.

-Do you want another one?

-No, we're good.

-Very good.

It's all about the teamwork.

All hands on deck. It's just another day at the office.

Geraint has successfully helped mum Fran deliver ten healthy puppies.

This one is the last one out

so he's a little bit slower but

they all seem OK, otherwise.

Hopefully, these new-borns will find loving homes.

Just like Jazzi the Saluki has with her owner Nicola, in Neath.

The test results are back

and it turns out that her pet has bronchitis.

Come on then, Jazz. Tablet time.

Here you go. Come on.

Open your mouth.

Come on.

Swallow, come on.

Come on.

This will help with his general breathing problems.

Come on.

Swallow. We just...

There we are. One more, Jazz, and that's it, done.

You can have a little treat, then.

Two, three...

It's been a big worry, to be honest.

As you can see he's panting away, here.

His breathing has been irregular.

It looks as if he's going to be on medication for the rest of his life.

Money is a struggle and I've got to think now about where I can cut back

so that I can make sure I look after him.

It's going to be tough but,

well, life is tough, isn't it, at the end of the day?

The thing is, whilst I've got a lot of good friends,

it's when you are stuck in the house all day without the dog for company,

it would be absolutely awful because he is the most important thing in my

life and...

..I honestly don't know what would happen if I lost him.

Another pet who is waiting to be reunited with his family is Chelsea.

But before he can be discharged,

Gareth needs to check his latest X-ray results.

He's got some injuries. It's just working out

if they are bad enough for a need for surgery to repair.

This is his pelvis, here,

and it looks like he's dislocated the sacroiliac joint.

So basically where his pelvis attaches to the spine.

This bone here should be attached further back

and similarly on this side.

He's done well enough that we won't need to do surgery in this case.

It's good news for the little boy. He'll have Chelsea home.

What Chelsea needs now is tender loving care

and to continue his recovery at home with Dafydd and his mum.

Hello.

-There you go.

-Hello.

You are coming back home.

Are you happy now? I've missed you.

I think he's missed you as well.

Also ready for discharge is Maddy

who is back on her feet following her knee operation.

Hello, Maddy, hello.

Hello, how are you doing?

Yes. Good girl.

Seems comfortable?

-Yes.

-How are you doing?

How are you doing? All right, all right, don't panic.

Just gently bend her leg.

Good girl. That is looking good.

The wound looks good. She's letting me move it a little bit,

which is nice and overall she's doing quite well.

She's relatively happy.

There we are.

Right.

It's good news for Maddy

but her operation has come at a cost for owner Chris.

We've emptied the piggy banks and

could have put a new roof on the house for what it's costing,

which the wife keeps reminding me, but she's worth it.

She's worth every penny.

My dog, my baby, see?

My best friend.

Hello.

Hi. Hello.

Hello.

It's quite amazing to see what people will do

because they love their pets so much and they'll go without themselves

to provide the care they want to give to their pets.

-Lovely stuff.

-Oh, great, thank you so much.

-That's all right.

-Bye.