Episode 4 Vets 24/7

This time on Vets 24/7...

Alex is getting stuck in down on the farm.

A perk of the job is smelling things to know whether they are bad or not.

Good, good. It's all right.

The victim of a nasty accident needs a costly life-saving operation.

Just got to pay for it, now!

And Lance has some monkey business to attend to at the zoo.

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.

ANIMALS BRAY

St James' Vets have been caring for animals for over 100 years.

At the practice hospital in Swansea, an emergency admission has arrived.

Good boy. He's perked up a little bit on the drive down.

Taz, the German Shepherd, suddenly collapsed at home

and his worried owners are hoping the vets can help.

He's not been eating well for two or three days,

he perked up yesterday when I took him up to play

with my mother's German Shepherd.

-Yeah.

-This morning, his back end collapsed.

And then he collapsed, and he's not...

This is the perkiest he's been.

-Can I stay with him?

-All right.

Hello, darling, are you friendly?

Vet Becky Williams is on call to investigate.

He's a bit in shock, perhaps, hey?

I'm just checking his pulse quality,

so just checking how strong his pulse is and whether it is irregular

or whether they are intermittent with his heart rate.

It just tells me a bit about the circulation

going around his heart to his back legs.

Just trying to determine what's going on.

Just feeling to see if he's got any abdominal distension.

Any pain in his belly.

It could be, of course, lots of other things,

but that would be on high on my list.

Taz has been the family pet for over a decade.

He's been good as gold for our first examination.

I'm quite keen to do a blood test first

but also to do a scan of his belly.

Unfortunately, the most common reason for a collapse

in an old German Shepherd is a splenic tumour.

I will warn you that that is high on my list to rule out first.

We will get on and do the blood test and the scan as soon as we can.

We will have some answers within the hour for you.

OK, that's all right, Imogen will show you out

and I will be in touch as soon as we can.

-It's OK, Taz.

-Good boy.

It's a little-known fact

that there are wallabies running wild in West Wales.

Here at Manor Wildlife Park near Tenby,

exotic animals from all around the world are on display.

Caring for these animals' health takes a special type of vet.

Lance Jepson is one of the UK's leading exotics experts

and today he's on his way to the zoo.

I became a vet so I could work with these sorts of animals,

animals under my care now range from tarantulas right up to

white rhinos and tigers and giraffes,

and I just love that variety.

This morning, first on the list for Lance is a spot of monkey business.

-You're going to access it from the back of the rhino paddock?

-Yeah.

Bryn is with his parents,

he's reaching a stage now where he would be sexually mature

and would get pushed out from the breeding pair.

What we're doing is implanting him to delay his maturity.

So, we can maintain him with his parents.

It's a simple procedure,

but sedating Bryn could be difficult.

Luckily, zookeeper Gemma has a plan.

What are these for?

Just treats for Bryn. A little bit of red pepper.

I thought I could try and get him in position

for Lance to give the injection.

In the past, we have darted him.

We are going to try and hand-inject him now

cos we feel like that's going to be the most appropriate way with him.

-He does come right up against it.

-Yeah.

-Come on, Bryn.

-Good boy.

SHE CLICKS TONGUE

-Did he do it?

-Yeah.

-Good boy, Bryn.

I think it went in. See what happens, now.

Bryn. Bryn.

You can never be too sure, working with wild animals.

Yeah, thank you.

OK. Let's get him on to the mat and make sure he's all right.

OK, yeah...

-You still happy with him, Leanne?

-Sorry, yeah, yeah.

-Yeah, OK.

OK. Are you still happy, Leanne?

-Yeah.

-OK, just shout if you're not.

I want to have a listen...

Six-year-old Bryn has reached puberty early.

Wild gibbons are meant to hit maturity

around eight or nine years old,

and you can sometimes see it starting from five-ish.

Yeah, it's young compared to what gibbons would be like naturally

in the wild, but everything's slightly different in captivity.

The implant mimics a particular hormone in the body

and what that will do is it will shut down his testes

so he will not be producing any testosterone.

He'll be their little boy, their perpetual little boy.

Good boy.

Back at the practice hospital in Swansea,

another emergency has come through the doors.

Good girl. Good girl, well done.

Partner Gareth Field has been called to examine the cat's injuries.

This is Jessie, she seems to have, sort of, very badly ruptured her,

sort of, muscle wall in her abdomen.

A lot of her insides on the outside, unfortunately.

So, she is understandably really, really painful.

We're just going to assess her now and see how she's doing.

-Good girl, now.

-Good girl, it's all right, I know.

So, that at the moment is, we think,

basically her intestines and bladder that have come through

the abdominal wall,

so all of that is just hanging under the skin

so, obviously we need to get that back inside her

sooner rather than later, really.

We need to make sure she is OK for the anaesthetic, first.

Good girl.

Worried owner Elaine thinks her pet may been hit by a car.

We were calling her all day,

she never turned up for her breakfast in the morning.

And no sign of her all day long,

so as we went to bed, we went out the front

and she was under the bush.

Now, she wasn't there earlier in the day, so how she got there...

Cos she must have been hit in the morning.

We went to pick her up and she was screaming.

Good girl. Right, shall we pop her back?

If Jess is to survive, she will need an expensive operation.

But there's a problem.

They don't have insurance,

so unfortunately, they've got a fairly large bill

to be dealing with.

But they sort of understood that.

People do a lot for their animals, they will go without themselves

to give them the best treatment possible

and it's really nice to see that happens.

Jess will be kept comfortable by the team

until it's time for her to go to theatre.

Let's get this fur off your belly.

Next door, vet Becky needs to find out why family pet Taz collapsed

at home earlier today.

He's super hairy, so we've got to clip a little window on his belly

to be able to do a scan,

we wouldn't see a thing with all of this hair

in front of the scanner probe.

She suspects the dog has an abdominal tumour,

an ultrasound scan will prove if her suspicion is correct.

First thing I'm looking for is free fluid that shouldn't be there,

which I can see straightaway.

This black area here shouldn't be there.

His intestines and things are floating around in it.

So, that tells me that he's got fluid in his belly,

so that concerns me.

Good boy. You're being so good, Taz.

So, I'm just going to pop a needle into Taz's belly.

Good boy.

OK, well done, sweet pea.

What I've drawn out there is blood,

so the free fluid I can see in his abdomen

is pretty much, like, pure blood.

Unfortunately, that suggests that he has a bleeding splenic mass.

We'll have a chat to his owners and see what they want to do.

The scan confirms my suspicions

that he has got tumours in his spleen

that have been bleeding.

It's not great news, I'm afraid.

The only options we've got at the moment

are to either proceed to surgery and remove his spleen,

but the risks are quite high because of his age and because of his breed.

'I can tell you definitely not surgery,

'because it's not really going to prolong enough...'

If we're not going to go down the line of surgery,

then we would usually elect to put Taz to sleep.

-I'm so sorry.

-'That's OK.

'We're going to go home and have a cup of coffee

'and I'll ring you back.

-'Thank you.'

-OK, we'll speak to you shortly, OK.

-'Thanks.'

-Bye-bye.

She's clearly quite upset,

so she's going to just have a little bit of a drink at home

and come in and possibly say goodbye,

we'll wait for the decision when she comes in.

Back at the wildlife park,

Lance has another contraceptive implant on his to-do list.

This time, for a female lemur called Teasle.

I'm aiming for her tail,

just in case you're wondering why I'm doing circles.

But catching a lemur is not a simple task

as zookeeper Gemma is about to find out.

-They're really fast.

-Yeah.

Gemma has finally got a grip on Teasle, but she is fighting back.

-Do you need a hand?

-Yeah...

-Right, right, OK.

I've got her.

The lemur's razor-sharp teeth have left Gemma with an injury.

Go wash your hands. Get it Hibiscrubbed.

-You OK?

-Yeah!

Does that happen often?

No, that's the first time.

Did it hurt?

Yeah, I'm not going to lie.

They're still wild animals,

they are tame in the sense that they're used to being around people,

but they're not domestic, so although they look cute,

they are still potentially dangerous animals.

Good girl. I know. Good girl.

OK, that's it.

Teasle will need to be sedated, so that Lance can carry out

the contraceptive implant procedure safely.

So you can see the size of the needle to put the implant in,

it is quite a size, which is why we need to anaesthetise.

She's the main breeding female in this group,

the group have become very dominant, they breed very well here

and they've become so dominant

that it's actually starting to affect the rest of the lemurs.

So, it's kind of like a contraceptive,

it's an implant, and what it does

is it just temporarily shuts down her ovaries.

Hello. Good girl.

There we are. And...there we go.

Also under sedation at the main practice hospital is Jess the cat.

Following a road traffic accident, the cat suffered internal injuries

which will be tricky for vet Gareth to fix.

So, these are Jessie's X-rays

and I don't know how well you'll be able to see,

but this is from the sternum into the pubis,

it should be a nice straight line.

You can see the beginning of the line here and this line then stops.

That should go straight up to there, basically,

but you can probably see that this big circular structure

is down past the line, so this is her bladder

and these are her intestines that have come through the hole

that has been made when she has been hit by the car.

Obviously, when they are outside the body,

they can't always do the job that they're supposed to do

and they're at risk of getting damaged,

so we need to put them back inside her and repair things.

This surgery needs to be done fast for Jess to survive.

So Gareth has brought in colleague Richard Lawn to lend a hand.

So, she's quite painful

and we've got to get it done sooner rather than later.

There's likely to be quite bad damage internally.

So...having two of us, we'll be able to hold things

and do the procedure a bit more quickly and efficiently.

Hopefully.

This is the tear in the muscle, all this part here.

-It's tricky, isn't it?

-It's very fiddly

just to try and find the edges of the tear

and work out which bit goes back to which bit.

And, obviously, all the time,

the guts are trying to fall out and get in the way.

Out of the way, guts.

It's a little bit more tricky than I was hoping.

I thought it would be torn from the base of the pelvis,

which it is torn, but her tear extends right round the side

to the top of the body wall as well, so it's a pretty bad one, really.

So what we need to do, really, is try and put all these back in

and hopefully, when Richard ties the knots, they'll stay there.

Go for it.

Cool, that looks pretty good at the moment there.

That's closed up the main hole.

-Well done.

-Cheers, dude.

-I'll leave you to it.

See you later.

Hopefully, now everything is back in place,

she should feel a little bit happier

and act a bit more like a normal cat.

There you go.

Jess will now be taken to recovery and Gareth can update her owners on

the outcome of the operation.

It's all gone well. She's comfortable

and she seems to have come through the anaesthetic fine, which is good.

Yeah, I know, she's a nice cat, isn't she?

She's groggy at the moment but she is recovering well.

The plan with her now is we'll keep her in,

keep her loaded up with pain relief and monitoring for...

Check that she's eating and drinking, going to the toilet OK,

and hopefully looking to send her home

probably in a couple of days' time unless she does really, really well

and is back on track tomorrow.

Is that OK?

Back at the wildlife park, Teasle the lemur

is back on her feet and about to be reunited with her troupe.

A little bit wobbly, aren't you?

Park keeper Gemma, despite the bite that she received,

is not bearing a grudge.

She's lovely really. I don't blame her.

If someone tried to catch me,

I'd probably try and bite them as well.

Good boy, that's it. No hard feelings, eh?

-Someone else is awake too.

-No hard feelings.

Bryn is ready for a family reunion.

The implant that Lance has inserted should allow Bryn to live happily

with his mum and dad, for a little while longer at least.

Sometimes you have to worry if they are apart for too long.

Yes, primates can be funny things when they are separated.

Any kind of breakdown in the social bonds can be a problem.

That's just perfect. It's as if he's never been away.

Yeah, I'm happy. Well, 99% went according to plan.

You know, nobody came to any harm.

-No.

-HARM.

No, it's a good day.

Caring for sick animals is a 24/7 job for the vets.

-Bye-bye now.

-'Thanks.'

Bye-bye.

Vet Becky has given Taz's family time to come to terms with

their beloved pet's diagnosis.

So we've just heard from Taz's owners

and they've made the decision to put Taz to sleep.

They don't want to put him through abdominal surgery,

when the prognosis is so poor, really.

So we're just getting some things ready for them

to say goodbye to him.

OK.

He's a family dog.

He hates being parted from us.

He's the most intelligent, loving dog that you could ever come across.

Right then, soldier.

To put him to sleep, we give him an injection of, like,

an overdose of anaesthetic, so initially,

he'll just feel like he's falling asleep.

He'll just take some deep breaths and he'll just relax,

but it'll stop his heart within seconds, really.

OK, so that's how it happens.

-OK.

-Good boy.

If you guys are ready, I'm just going to start injecting it.

Sometimes a little bit cold, the first couple of bits and then...

Good boy.

SNIFFLING

We love you to bits.

Go catch those pussies, boy.

KISSES DOG

SNIFFLING

Good boy.

A fabulous dog, isn't he?

Yeah, he's gone. Can't hear his heart any longer.

He's nice and peaceful. He didn't know anything about that,

so that's the best you can ask for.

You've had a good old life, boy.

Being so close to the rural Gower Peninsula,

much of the practice workload involves the care of livestock.

This morning, large-animal vet Alex Franklin,

is on her way to one of her regular farms.

I'm out and about every day.

I drive round Gower and the Swansea area.

I much prefer being out and about than stuck in the surgery.

Beef cattle farmer Dai Court

has several jobs lined up for Alex today.

-What do you want to start with?

-Calves, if possible.

Yes, no problem.

So we're going to start by castrating some of the younger calves.

It's that time for them - which is never fun for anybody.

Straight up, if we can.

Lovely. Hello, boy.

BULL BELLOWS

We're just putting some local anaesthetic in

so that he's not going to know anything more about it.

It's nice to do them now

and then go out for another couple of weeks before they come back in,

so it stops any risk of infection and they just settle down

and get on with growing and they are not being boys, if you like.

So it's quite a brutal job.

Known in the trade as twist and pull.

At the moment, we're doing the twisting bit

and that causes the spermatic cord and the blood vessel

to knot each other up,

so that we don't have any bleeding afterwards.

So that's the twist.

And then the pull. There we go.

One less testicle. We have to be really careful now and make sure

these are put in a bucket and kept out of the reach

of any other animals because the dogs do get a taste for them,

but unfortunately, with the local anaesthetic in,

they would end up sleeping possibly for longer than we'd like.

So it's done as nicely as they can, isn't it?

But the trouble is they would just fight and get aggressive

if you left them, so it's the best thing for them.

Come on, boy.

And they might get aggressive with me, as well.

Twist and pull.

There's a good lad.

Definitely have bigger earrings.

A little bit tender.

Back at the main hospital...

Hello, grumpy.

..vet Richard is checking on Jess's progress

following her operation.

Surgery-wise, she's been doing really well,

but the problem is I think the bladder has suffered

a degree of damage when it was stuck outside her abdominal wall.

She hasn't really urinated by herself since.

When you squeeze her belly, it's really, really full

and is trickling out of her.

So we're having to squeeze the bladder to try and empty it

but it's not ideal - she gets quite grumpy when you do it.

-CAT SQUEALS

-She's not really tolerating having it squeezed every four hours

to keep it empty.

Saying that, she's not minding this too much.

That's about as empty as I'm going to get it now, from just squeezing

it from the outside.

It's just more complications from the trauma

that we're starting to see a few days further along.

She's not going anywhere just yet.

With long-term inpatients like Jess,

their owners are encouraged to pay them a visit.

She is asking for cuddles all the time.

She's been a real trouper here with us.

Is she still on fluids?

Yes, she's still on fluids mainly,

-because she's still not eating on her own.

-Yes.

And I'm not sure if it's because she's a bit shy of being here

or there is still a little element of pain involved.

Vet Ana Santos is hoping Elaine will be able to tempt Jess to eat.

Oh, look.

Look.

No, no, no.

She's trying to get out.

Eat a little bit?

-No?

-Oh, sweetie.

I think she's desperate to go home with you, to be honest.

I think she'll be one of those,

only start eating when you're at home.

There's nothing like the owner's fuss.

You'll be grounded now, you know that, don't you?

I'll be afraid to let her out.

Right, sweetheart? We'll be afraid to let you outside the door.

Back on Idle Acres farm, vet Alex has moved on to her next job.

I'm just getting my scanner ready, so when these cows come through,

we're going to do a vaginal examination

to check that she is clean and she's not dirty internally

and then we're going to scan her.

This is just making sure everything's as it should be.

Fertility checks like these provide vital information for farmer Dai.

Part of what we're trying to do is get them back in calf quicker,

so we're calving as a bunch because at the minute,

we're a little bit too spread out calving.

Not going to see much there.

ANIMALS BELLOW

A perk of the job is smelling things to know whether they are bad or not.

Castration looked bad.

-This is worse again.

-She doesn't smell at all.

Was she easy calving?

-Yeah.

-I'll get a better picture of it.

That circle is one of the uterine horns.

-Yes.

-And I can feel that it's much firmer, you know,

it's turgid, because she is bulling at the moment.

Bulling is when the cow is ready to be mated,

basically, or to be inseminated in these cases,

so in dogs and things like that, you call it "on heat",

but in cows, it's called "bulling".

Ready for the bull!

So this cow is in calf and I'm looking at her uterus,

which is now a pregnant uterus, so...

I currently have my hand on the calf's head,

so that's actually his skull,

but he's wriggling well.

Fingers crossed - another two months

and you'll have a lovely calf on the ground.

Thank you.

The life of a farm vet is rarely glamorous.

I just need to be careful not to introduce any of that into...

LIQUID SQUIRTS

Another perk of the job.

She's fine, Dai.

I think you have to have a passion for this job, for sure,

and sometimes you just have to grit your teeth and get on with it.

You can always have a shower at the end of the day!

Following complicated surgery,

Jess's recovery has been worryingly slow

and the longer her stay, the larger the bill

for Elaine and her husband, Kevin.

It's a relief now to see that she's coming home now, thank goodness.

Just got to pay for it now.

They've capped at 1,600, they have.

Is that going to be a struggle to find that money?

-Oh, yes.

-We've got six months

but it'll be a struggle to find it, yes.

I'm 60 now and I can take out my civil service pension,

so that's what I'm going to have to do, is take that out to pay.

You get a lump sum of money out of my pension,

so I'll take it out now rather than wait another six years

until I actually retire, so...

After a life-saving operation and eight days as an inpatient,

partner Gareth is happy to discharge Jess from their care.

Jessie obviously meant a huge deal to her owner and she was happy to,

sort of, spend the money and treat Jessie

and I'm just so glad that we could get her right in the end.

It was a fairly long journey and she's been with us

for a while but, you know,

she should go home now and make a good recovery.

A lot better. She's more lively than she's ever been!

A lot more life in her now.

My God, yes.

-Thank you. Bye.

-Bye.