Episode 2 Animal 24:7

Britain's animals are under threat.

All too often, our wildlife and domestic pets are the victims

of cruelty, persecution and neglect.

Fighting to save them is a dedicated band of people trying to protect

and care for them right around the clock.

This is Animal 24:7.

Today on Animal 24:7 -

We just want her to be healthy again, boisterous, like she usually is. And she's not.

..Has Cleo bitten off more than she can chew?

-She eats toys.

-That's what I mean.

-She is a chewer.

-Is there anything missing?

-No. Not that we know of.

The trap is set to catch a runaway dog...

The main reason I want to get it sooner than later is because of the main road.

The A17, the main road from north to south, essentially, up the coast,

is a very busy road. Lots of lorries.

..And tickets, please! The furry squatters causing travel chaos.

I just imagine someone saying to the guard, "I couldn't buy a ticket

"because there was a mouse living in the machine!" Will that wash?!

It will for the moment, yes! But hopefully not beyond today.

Cats are incredibly independent pets, and they do like to wander.

But this wandering can lead to problems.

Every year, around a quarter of a million cats

are hit by cars on our roads. And in the north of England,

the latest road casualty has just come to the vets.

It's 8am.

The waiting room at Manchester's RSPCA hospital is packed.

Dozens of sick and injured pets and their anxious owners all wanting to see the vet.

Director David Yates is holding the morning's consultations.

Thompson?

-His next patient is a young cat.

-Hiya. So what's happened with Taffy?

-He went out about half past 11 last night...

-Yeah.

-..as normal.

Came back this morning just swinging his leg.

I'm assuming he's been hit by something, I don't know.

OK.

So he walked back in, but was carrying that right back leg?

Yeah, was swinging it a bit.

He just kept yelping out, every now and again, in pain.

It doesn't take David long to realise this is a serious injury.

He's broken his leg in this place here.

It's quite a nasty fracture, that, because it's so close to the joint.

I'll listen to his chest for other injuries.

David sees a lot of pets that have been hit by cars.

He knows the obvious injury isn't always the most life-threatening.

Quite often you focus on the fractured leg,

whereas there are other injuries we need to rule out.

The way Taffy is breathing could be a sign of internal injuries.

His breathing is quite rapid at the moment, so we will X-ray his chest

to make sure there's no bruising of his lungs, for example,

or no rupture of his diaphragm.

Taffy will have to be admitted.

-All right?

-Thanks very much.

-No problem.

The cat is rushed straight through for X-rays.

The priority is to check his chest.

X-rays.

Now, the results are through.

So the diaphragm is intact.

And we can see the liver behind it and part of the spleen.

In front of the diaphragm, the heart and the lungs.

That seems reasonable.

So I am less concerned about any chest damage with that.

Taffy's vital organs have not been damaged.

Now David must decide what treatment his leg needs,

and that means more X-rays.

This is an X-ray of Taffy's back leg.

This is the tibia and this is his hock joint.

What we've got is a fracture, just at this level,

and the dislocation of the hock.

That's quite a serious injury that we've got.

What you can't see on X-ray is the fact that this bone

is poking up through the skin and is exposed and contaminated.

So that makes us less able to fix this kind of fracture.

Taffy's chest is clear, so his life isn't in danger.

However, the wounds on his back leg and the severity

of the fracture mean that we'll have to amputate his leg.

Amputation is a drastic measure, but a necessary one.

The injury's so severe, Taffy's leg cannot be saved, and infection in the bone can be deadly.

The waiting area is often filled with nervous owners and their sick pets.

Sheila Saxon has brought her dog, Cleo. She's extremely worried.

She won't eat, she won't drink. She's just sleeping.

I've had to force-feed her with a syringe, just liquid.

We just want her to be healthy again and playing and boisterous, like she usually is. And she's not.

Cleo Saxon?

Straight away, David comes up with a potential diagnosis.

Does she scavenge in any bits of rubbish?

Cleo has all the signs of a dog that has swallowed something.

-She eats toys. She is a chewer.

-That's what I mean.

-Is there anything missing?

-No. Not that we know of.

David's first job is to check if he can feel anything strange in Cleo's stomach.

-If you offered her food, is she interested in it?

-No.

-She just walks away?

-Yes.

Initial examinations are inconclusive.

More tests are going to be needed.

You're not aware of anything she's eaten?

I'm not aware of anything, but I can't say she hasn't.

It means Sheila is going to have to leave her beloved Cleo behind,

and it's going to be a wrench.

We'll have to take her in and have a better feel and maybe X-ray.

-What you mean, take her in?

-Take her into the hospital.

-She'll be coming home, won't she?

-Not immediately, no.

-I don't think she'd stay.

-Well, we don't know what...

No, no, I want her to be better, I'm just a bit bothered.

-I don't think she'll settle.

-Unless you can fit in a kennel with her!

I would!

Let's pop her down and we'll take her through.

-Are you all right?

-Yeah.

OK. All right.

Sheila's emotion sets off Cleo, too.

-She's crying.

-See you later on.

DOG WHINES

After a shot of sedation, Cleo's rushed straight through for X-rays.

David's hoping they'll show if anything is stuck in her stomach.

These pieces can get locked inside. That can cause damage to the lining of the tummy,

or the intestine, which will make a dog vomit and refuse its food.

In this case, we've got a problem that's been going on for a week.

If the dog swallowed something a week ago, it may have serious damage to the gut.

In some situations, animals can die.

After several minutes, the results are back.

And they clearly show a foreign body.

It's rare that an X-ray is so clear.

Looking at the X-ray, it shows up as a white, dense structure.

It's quite a size.

David can see a hexagonal shape.

He has no idea what it is.

In front of the foreign material, we can see some gas shadows,

that's where the normal passage of food along the intestine's been blocked.

I'm quite concerned.

We don't know what the bowel is going to be like, what damage that will be.

So we need to take Cleo in surgery, remove the foreign material, and see how she recovers.

Only a delicate and complicated operation will give David the answers.

Coming up:

Could this be the cause of Cleo's problems?

I would imagine that Cleo enjoyed the texture of this.

You can see why a dog would swallow something like this.

..And catching the invaders squatting in a ticket machine...

I've got one! I've got one.

See, look, they're cute as anything.

But you don't want them in your ticket machine, do you?!

Most owners keep their pets in the comfort of their own homes.

Some people, however, choose to keep their animals in rather more unusual places.

When these bizarre homes can affect an animal's welfare, though,

the RSPCA is on hand to investigate.

In Spalding, Lincolnshire, there's a report that a pet is living in an unusual home.

RSPCA officer Justin Stubbs has been told

that a dog is being kept in a rabbit hutch.

It may seem unlikely that such a large pet

could be kept in such a small house, but in the back garden...

I've just turned up and found a Jack Russell in a completely inappropriate, small rabbit run.

Which, although it's probably not quite illegal as such, it's wrong and it's inappropriate.

I'm determined to get the owner to take it out of there and keep it out of there, hopefully.

It's 3 o'clock, and Justin thinks the owner may be on the school run.

His theory is right.

20 minutes later, the owner comes home.

Hiya. I've had a call about the Jack Russell...

The owner, Sarah, explains that Candy is only kept in the cage

for short periods of time, when they go out.

So basically, she's 14, and she's very incontinent.

And if you leave her in the house, she goes in every room.

What I'd like to see, if you could find a way of doing it, is getting something bigger.

That's a rabbit run, and you've got a Jack Russell in there, which is, to be honest, just too big for that run.

I'd really love to come back in a couple of weeks or so,

and I find her in something a bit bigger.

-That's no problem.

-Yeah? Can you find a way of doing that?

-Yes, that's no problem.

-OK. Is she friendly?

-Yes.

-Can I just get my hands on her?

-Yeah.

-Justin is keen to give Candy a quick health check.

Hello, darling. There you go. The man wants to see you.

-Hey, Candy. Hello, darling. Hello.

-She's ever so friendly.

Ah, she's in lovely nick. Good teeth.

And despite being an old girl at 14, she's in great shape.

It's not illegal to keep a dog outside, but they do need room

-to exercise, and a warm, dry bed.

-Does it have the right environment to express its normal behaviour?

-No, it's in a tiny cage.

-Right.

But you know that you're going to go with something bigger. So...

And that's that, basically.

But apart from her living arrangements, Candy is healthy and clearly well loved.

'Everything was clean...'

shelter and water and so on. She has accepted that

something bigger would be a lot better for the dog.

And hopefully within a couple of weeks or so, she's promised

she'll get a nice big shed for her and the dog will be a lot happier.

So, yeah, I'm sure she will.

Nice people, nice pets, obviously well-loved family pets.

So they're just now on board and they're going to do that bit extra for her, hopefully.

Justin will return here in two weeks to make sure things have improved.

For 11 days, a dog has been fending for herself and living rough in the sparse Lincolnshire countryside.

Sally, a rescue dog, escaped after being picked up from a local animal centre by her new owners.

When they first got it home, and opened their car boot,

the first thing it did was to jump out and run off.

Partly because of the situation that the dog's come from, it's very, very nervous.

And at the minute, nobody can get within 100 yards of it.

Sally has had a really rough start in life.

She was rescued by the RSPCA eight months ago.

She was skinny, bedraggled, and had been a victim of severe neglect.

Now that she's lost in the wild, she needs the RSPCA's help again.

Justin has been trying to catch Sally in an animal trap for over a week, but to no avail.

As it stands at the minute, it's not going anywhere near the trap.

But it is setting up a feeding pattern at another house nearby,

so I'm just going to go over there to see if we can't...

organise a better way of catching it, move the trap to a different place, or something.

In the vain hope that we can - hopefully not the vain hope - that we can catch this dog.

As time has passed, Justin has become more and more worried about Sally.

He's hoping this new lead will help him find this missing pet.

Hello. RSPCA. I've come about the dog.

Sally has been visiting Ken and Rita's home for three days.

They've been leaving food for the hungry wanderer ever since.

The first day we saw him was Saturday.

And then all day Sunday, he was...

-SHE was round here nearly all the time.

-Yeah.

And during the evening, the night,

been jumping up the door.

OK. So all these muddy marks are from the dog jumping up?

That's from last night, yes.

It's meant to be nervous. The fact it's jumping up at just your door...

-Yes, yeah. Open the door, she's gone.

-Right.

Justin decides to set a trap.

Just a couple of these clips.

This is the closest anyone has ever got to Sally.

Spring loaded door...

It could be his best chance of catching her.

As soon as he touches it...

it closes behind him.

As every day passes, Sally will be growing weaker and more nervous,

but there's also an added danger.

The main reason I want to get it sooner than later is because of the main roads.

The A17, the main road from north to south,

is a very busy road, lots of lorries and we're only 200 yards off the A17.

That's the main reason I want to get it caught as soon as possible.

The trap is set,

but will this frightened and elusive dog take the bait?

Coming up, Taffy the tabby facing a life with just three legs.

Because it's quite a young cat they usually do very well

with three legs, they feel very comfortable.

Commuters have become used to their plans

occasionally being disrupted by nature,

maybe the wrong kind of snow or leaves on the line.

But here, at Little Kimble,

it's some pesky wildlife causing a little trouble.

'The next train at platform one is the 11:18 service...'

Les Stocker from Tiggywinkles treats more than 10,000 animals every year.

But today's call near Aylesbury is one of the most unusual he's ever had to deal with.

Les, there's a list of ingredients here.

We have two sets of gauntlets, a massive net, a big stick,

a cute little box - what's this all about?

Well, it's an animal that's really quite dangerous

and can do you quite a lot of damage, so hence the gauntlets.

So these are genuinely for our own protection?

Yes, very much so, and the cute little box is to put them in.

Right, so it's not that big if it's going to fit in this box.

What are we talking about here, Les?

We're talking about what we call glis glis up here,

which is an edible dormouse.

I've heard of them, but I've never seen one.

They're lovely little characters,

they could bite the living daylights out of you.

We get a lot of them around here.

They're like little squirrels and they get into things

and they can gnaw away like any rodent can.

How can a mouse be possibly interfering

with the workings of a train?

Well, it's quite a big mouse, it must be this long,

and for some reason they're moving in here,

and we don't know where they're coming from, how they're getting

in there, but they just go in to this ticket machine.

-For the station manager, finding these uninvited guests...

-Hello, Mark.

..came as a bit of a shock.

They've taken refuge in there and the seem to want to stay.

And it seems these squatters are causing travel chaos for commuters.

At the moment the machine doesn't work so people can't buy a ticket?

That's right. We've got people travelling for free from Little Kimble just at the moment.

I just imagine someone saying to the guard, "I couldn't buy a ticket

because there was a mouse living in the machine". Is that going to wash?

It will for the moment, yes, but hopefully not beyond today.

'As Les prepares to do battle with the rogue rodents,

'there's a tell-tale noise coming from the machine.'

Is it my imagination or can I actually hear something from here?

SQUEAKING

There's a definite squeak.

Ah.

We'll have a look first to see what the enemy's like.

So, Mark, if you want to just open up the door for us.

-No worries.

-OK.

This feels absurd, I can feel the adrenalin pumping

and we're just about to get a mouse.

Alright, ready to have a look?

Here we go.

There, look, look at that face. Look at it.

Finally, we're face to face with the enemy.

I think he's stealing the ticket.

I'll go in this way. No, I can't get in that way. Not easy, is it?

Now he's gone down a hole down there.

'The next battle is getting hold of them.'

He's gone down here. I've got one.

They're cute as anything,

but you don't want them in your ticket machine, do you?

'And they may be small, but these little blighters certainly mean business.'

Got a nasty little bite, doesn't it?

I can see the determination in his eyes, look at that.

What is the story behind these?

At the beginning of the 20th century, Rothschild brought them over from Middle Europe and they escaped,

and they like here around the Chilterns,

so they do very, very well.

So they've become pretty widespread around here?

I think they're part of the natural population now, because they've been here over 100 years.

And they're called edible dormice.

Yeah, the Romans used to eat them.

Not the Romans in Britain, but in middle Europe. That's why they're called edible dormice.

They're also called fat dormice,

because you can see they're quite fat.

'But these invaders are not native to Britain.'

They're amazing creatures, just look at the tail.

'Which means Les faces a problem.'

We can't release them because the powers to be don't like them,

I don't think, so we've got to take them back and we've got a glis glis

colony back at Tiggywinkles and they'll live in the glis glis colony, I'm afraid.

So rather than going on their away-day

on the train they'll be having a long retirement with you, will they?

They will, unless British Airways give us a plane to fly them to Romania.

-They can live with us.

-They'll have a good life, though?

-Oh yes.

-OK, let's go.

-Thanks Mark.

-Thank you very much.

Thanks, Mark, we'll see you soon.

It's time to get the creature's back to Tiggy's,

but no sooner are we on the road

than we're called to another rescue.

This time it's to a pair of Canada geese stuck behind a fence.

OK, this looks like it.

-Quite a tight spot in there, isn't it?

-It is, isn't it?

I can see...

Hello. Ooh, easy, easy.

'They're clearly distressed, and geese can deliver a powerful peck at the best of times.'

How do you get hold of a goose without it getting hold of you?

We should be able to get it by the neck, and grab its wings as quick as you can.

If I go down this way I can pass them up.

You've got to get their wings under, Tom,

or else they will flap you with them.

Grab him round the shoulder, that's the baby.

-I haven't quite got it.

-OK.

I've got it, I've got it.

Got him? We'll get him packed.

'That's one down...'

We have a goose.

'Time to get his friend.'

I can see you. I might be able to get him through here.

Come this way. Gotcha.

There's a science to this - grab anything you can get hold of.

That was a bit of a struggle getting them out of that little tight spot they were in.

It shows the contrast of animal rescues, doesn't it?

These Canada geese this afternoon,

and those mice in a ticket machine that this morning.

Canada geese are also not native to Britain, so can't be released.

They will have to live Tiggywinkles.

So, with our unusual foreign cargo we hit the road.

First to disembark at Tiggy's are the Canada geese.

So what's the plan here, Les, how does this work?

Just open the bags and let them out.

And you're allowed to let them out here because this is your own land?

It's my pond, yeah. They can't take off here.

Right, we'll put them in here, Tom,

this is perfect for glis glis.

Right, you little terrors.

'Now time to settle in the glis glis.

'They've swapped their ticket machine

'for a purpose-built dormouse enclosure.'

Right, one big shake, here we go, 1, 2, 3.

What do you think of this now they're in there?

I think it's perfect for them.

They can get up in the roof, that's where they like to be, up the top.

They're quite settled and they'll just find their way around.

Amazing little creatures, it just shows the variety of what Les and the team have to get up to here.

They're very well-behaved up there,

I'd go as far as to say they were well trained.

Later, Candy the Jack Russell is evicted from her unusual home.

That's what a rabbit run's for.

-Yeah, a rabbit!

-That's absolutely perfect.

It's meant to have a rabbit in there.

Young dogs love to chew things, especially when they're teething,

so owners will often buy them toys to keep them happy.

And while this might keep them off the furniture for a bit, it can lead to other problems.

Cleo came into hospital after a week of being unable to eat and drink properly.

She's a dog that loves to chew.

David suspected she'd swallowed something she shouldn't have.

-Does she scavenge and eat bits of rubbish or anything?

-No.

And he was right.

Looking at the X-ray it's showing up as a white, dense structure.

It's quite a size.

X-rays clearly showed a hexagonal object stuck in her gut.

This needed to be removed.

Only a little inflation on that the cuff. No.

Could you chuck us the rat toothed forceps?

After just a few minutes, David finds that hexagonal object he spotted on the X-rays.

But he still doesn't know what it is.

It's something rubbery.

Cleo chews everything and anything, so David wants

to check there's nothing else inside that shouldn't be there.

We passed the stomach tube to check there was nothing blocking the

oesophagus and to make sure that food could pass into the stomach.

The stomach and feels OK, and we've checked everything

beyond stomach all the way to the rectum. There doesn't appear to be another foreign body.

What we're going to do now is put a little patch

over the top of where we've stitched the intestine,

and then close up.

The operation is now over.

After being stitched up David can turn his attention to the object that's caused all the problems.

Now that we've rinsed the foreign body off, it looks like

some piece of rubber, I don't know where it's come from.

You could see when we were opening up the dog

the intestine has a size something similar to that.

It can stretch a bit, obviously, because it's muscular,

so something like this can be swallowed,

but will block the intestines further down.

This is just the kind of critical size that will cause problems for a dog.

I would imagine that Cleo quite enjoyed the texture of this,

so you can see why a dog would swallow something like this,

it probably enjoyed the sensation of chewing that.

Cleo will be left to come round from her surgery.

The operation went well, but before she can go home

she's going to have to prove she can eat and drink on her own.

Taffy the cat was brought into Manchester after being hit by a car.

His leg was so badly damaged it couldn't be saved.

The wounds on the back leg and the severity of the fracture mean we have to amputate.

Taffy's anaesthetised and prepared for this big operation.

Now Russian surgeon, Sergei, begins the procedure.

All the time, Nurse Laura Gorton, must ensure Taffy remains stable.

The cat's doing OK. I'm monitoring his heartbeat

and respiration to make sure he's deep enough under the anaesthetic.

This is major surgery, but although drastic, Sergei thinks Taffy will soon go on to have a good life.

Because it's a very nasty fracture it's not repairable.

There's just one option for this cat because it's quite a young cat, and

they usually do very well with three legs, they feel very comfortable.

It's a long procedure.

All the major blood vessels need to be clamped

before the leg can be removed.

And I reach the bone and we avoided major bleeding,

so it's not bleeding that much,

so it looks very well.

Finally, the damaged leg is removed and he can be stitched up.

So now we're closing the wound.

As you see, the wound is quite large.

But even with the operation complete,

Taffy's going to have to stay in hospital for some time.

It is actually quite painful, er, after this kind of surgery,

so we're going to keep Taffy in the hospital for 12 or 24 hours

for painkillers and antibiotic injections.

And then, we're going to reassess.

This young cat has had a traumatic 24 hours.

He's been hit by a car and just had major surgery.

When he wakes up, he must learn to walk and live with just three legs.

Coming up, extra help is needed

to get this huge cat into the treatment room.

Thank you. I just want his life to be normal again.

Obviously, nobody wants their animal to be suffering.

Now we're back with RSPCA inspector Justin Stubbs and the hunt for a missing dog.

Sally is a rescue dog and was saved from a life of neglect nine months ago,

but, on the very day she was due to go to a new home,

she escaped and has been roaming free for weeks.

A number of traps have been set, but so far, they've failed to catch the elusive Sally.

Will Justin's latest attempt be a success?

It's now almost two weeks since Sally went missing.

She's been living all alone in the sparse Lincolnshire countryside.

Local sightings have confirmed she's frightened and losing weight.

Now Justin is on his way back to check the animal trap to see if Sally has taken the bait.

-And, this time, Justin's trap isn't empty.

-Hey, Sally.

Sally has finally been caught.

She looks absolutely fine. I can't believe we caught her so quickly. It's really, really...

Yeah, just really pleased with myself for that.

Ken and Rita are also delighted to have helped Justin catch this nervous dog.

Any idea what time she got in there?

No idea at all.

We looked out here at about 11 o'clock last night and she wasn't here then.

-She's quite calm. I think she's just pleased to be caught.

-Yeah.

Lovely. I'll wait for the owner, then we'll get her out carefully. I don't want her to get off again.

Sally is scared and a little bedraggled.

But at least she's now safe and will soon be heading to her new home.

I've come straight over to get her out.

Rung the owner on the way over as well.

She'll be down in a moment to double check it is Sally. I'm sure it is.

I haven't met her before, but there can't be many white alsatians about in traps.

I was probably more pessimistic than I made out to everybody yesterday.

I didn't think we'd catch her within a week or so,

let alone overnight. This couldn't have worked out any better, really.

Sally's new owner Lisa and daughter Rebecca arrive...

-Hello.

-Hello.

-..to be reunited with their missing pet.

-Right, I'm guessing that's Sally.

-Yes.

-Yeah?

How does she look compared to when she got off?

-She's filthy. But yeah, she looks OK.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

Sally's already escaped once. So Justin's careful to make sure

this wily dog doesn't give him the slip, too.

Think you're going to fit out of there?

You are... Oh, good girl!

And Lisa and Rebecca can't wait to give Sally a great big welcome home hug.

It was horrendous. Quite sad.

You get a rescue dog and you think you're going to do great for them and then she disappears.

We've been running around fields, in the car, everywhere for her.

It's been quite sad, really. It's nice to get back.

I was a bit sad, but now I'm happier than I was before to have her back.

And for Justin, this reunion makes a 12-day hunt around the Lincolnshire countryside worthwhile.

I couldn't be more pleased. Really, really unexpected.

Then to find out that she's almost completely healthy as well, an absolute godsend.

She's lost weight, but that's to be expected given she's been running everywhere, um, but she looks fine.

No injuries, greasy and dirty, but nothing a good bath won't cure.

Just over a mile away is Sally's new home.

The last time this dog was here, she ran away before even getting through the front door.

No more running off.

Now, though, Justin keeps a tight hold.

And Sally can now finally cross the threshold to meet her new friend Jed.

-Don't even let her out of the house without a lead.

-OK.

When she goes in the car, on the lead. When she comes out of the car,

before she comes out, on that lead, like when I put her in the van.

Sally has had a tough time.

Nine months ago, she was rescued from a life of neglect.

Then, before she could be given her fresh start,

she escaped, spending almost two weeks living rough.

Now, though, she's finally home.

Sally at the minute is obviously quite happy to be somewhere warm and safe and secure.

I think she's a pretty independent dog.

You'll have a good time with her over the next few weeks, getting used to her, I think.

She's calm, she's happy, she's walking around drinking, she's playing.

A lot better here than out there in the fields.

Justin is on his way back to see Candy the Jack Russell.

Earlier, he discovered that Candy was being kept in a rabbit run.

It's wrong and it's inappropriate, and I'm pretty much determined to try

and get the owner to take it out of there and keep it out of there.

The owner, Sarah, promised she would buy Candy a larger shed to use as a shelter.

Now Justin's back to see if she's kept that promise.

-Hi, Sarah.

-Hiya, you all right?

That's better.

-That's what a rabbit run is for. That's absolutely perfect.

-They're meant to have a rabbit in there.

-What happened with the shed?

-We decided not to, because she's getting really old.

-Yeah.

So we've decided to keep her in.

Candy is 14 years old.

Justin is delighted that the family has now decided this elderly lady should live inside, not out.

Brilliant. OK, that's it, then, really.

She's indoors so I'm happy at that as she stands now. That's it, sorted.

Although a shed's perfectly appropriate and a good place to stick a dog,

when it's getting to that age, it has those kind of health problems,

sticking it indoors is even better. That's worked out perfectly.

And then, to see the rabbit run being used again with something more

realistically sized, that little baby rabbit in there, it's perfect.

So no issues there at all any more. It's great. A really good ending.

Finally today, we're back at the Manchester Hospital.

In a moment, we'll catch up with Cleo and Taffy, two pets who underwent emergency surgery.

But each day, a new stream of patients arrive with a new set of problems for vets to deal with.

Susan Harrison is worried about Jasper.

-That's a good boy.

-Jasper isn't any old cat.

He's a prize-winning Maine Coon cat.

-Mrs Harrison?

-Pedigree breeding won't get Jasper special treatment here...

You hold that stand and I'll hold this side.

..except a bit of help to lift his cage.

The Maine Coon is one of the largest breed of cats.

They weigh up to 10 kilos, twice the weight for an average domestic cat.

A lot of people just think he's a big fat cat.

Oh, that's not fair, is it?

Poor Jasper has become a regular visitor in the past few weeks.

-He has a problem that won't clear up.

-Put that on the floor, maybe.

-Lovely.

-There we go.

Right, he's got a very sore ear and it's thickening up.

He slept on my bed last night, and all he did was shake his head vigorously all night long.

Final-year vet student, Amy Knapman, begins her checks.

I just want his life to be normal again.

Obviously, nobody wants their animal to be suffering, and he is suffering.

Amy thinks Jasper's ears need a good clean to ease the pain.

-Good boy.

-The huge cat is sedated to allow Amy to get to work.

We've got some warm saline and it's a case of filling up

the ear canal and giving it a massage down.

It makes a bit of a mess, unfortunately.

But you can see this water is coming up a bit grey.

As well as cleaning his ear, Jasper will also be given

a course of antibiotics to kill any infection.

What can happen is, if the ear canal is as narrow as that one is,

the drainage is impaired, so if there's any bacteria or anything getting down there,

it's a vicious cycle. You get a narrowing and then it can't drain

and there's a nice environment in there that's quite moist for bugs and things like that.

Ears cleaned, Jasper's time on the vet table is over.

-Would you like to come back through, Mrs Harrison?

-Thank you.

-Lovely.

-How is he?

-He's absolutely fine.

It's a great relief for Susan. Now she can take her big pet home.

Would you be able to just give me a hand?

But once again, Susan needs a bit of extra assistance to get back through the door.

Earlier we saw Cleo, who had been refusing to eat or drink.

David Yates suspected she'd swallowed something.

-She eats tyres.

-That's what I was meaning.

-She's a chewer.

-Is there anything missing?

-No, not that we know of.

She had surgery and David removed a hexagonal-shaped object from her stomach.

It looks like some piece of rubber. I don't know where it's come from.

But with the blockage removed, vets need to wait and see whether Cleo's appetite would return to normal.

It's two days later, and, on the recovery ward, there are some encouraging signs.

Everything appears to be progressing well. She seems a lot brighter in herself

and she's taken both food and fluids, so we're really pleased with the way things are working.

This news means Cleo can now go home.

Her worried owner, Sheila, is waiting next door.

Cleo is still drowsy and confused from the anaesthetic.

But as soon as she hears her owner's voice...she cheers up.

We're really pleased with how she's been doing.

She's been eating small amounts with us in the hospital, so just

keep that up when you're at home, just small amounts of a light diet, chicken and rice, little and often.

With some essential advice on how to care for her pet,

Sheila leaves, delighted with the transformation in her beloved dog.

I can tell already that she's all right. It's a relief and everything.

I've really, really missed her. We all have.

She's like a different dog. She really is. She were ill, you know.

So yeah, it's great.

It were one of her toys that they found inside her,

one of her own toys that she's ripped to bits and swallowed a big chunk.

So she'll not be doing that again!

It's not just Sheila who's pleased with the results of surgery.

Taffy the cat had a major operation to remove his hind leg after being hit by a car.

Now he's back home, starting to get used to life on three legs.

He's been back nearly two week, and it's as if nothing has ever happened to him.

The first day when he came back,

the other cats hissed at him and scared him off,

because they didn't know what he was, cos he had a leg missing.

-But yeah, he's fine.

-And it seems there's no stopping this plucky cat.

We can't keep him in. The vet said, when we picked him up,

try and have him as a house cat, but it's like keeping a duck from water.

He's running around the garden, climbing trees.

He's fine.

And sure enough, once outside,

Taffy sprints off at the first opportunity.

If you think you know of a case of wildlife crime or a creature that

needs immediate protection, remember, there are dedicated professionals out there

who will answer your call right around the clock.

They're the people we meet on Animal 24:7.

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