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00:00Many of the hardest to treat pets in Britain
00:02Right, it's hedgehog time
00:04are brought to one extraordinary practice
00:08run by the man known as the Bionic Vet
00:11Professor Noel Fitzpatrick
00:13What we're gonna do has never been done before, ever
00:17He performs some of the most advanced procedures ever attempted
00:20It's the smallest total hip replacement in the world today
00:23This is a textbook result
00:25Actually it's not even in the textbook yet
00:27As the lives of his patients and their families hang in the balance
00:31I've never seen an infection take hold this quick ever in my life actually
00:34Noel continues to find new ways to give them a chance
00:37Of course we don't know if it'll work
00:39That dog is the only thing that even makes me carry on
00:43Offering hope against all the odds
00:51She wants to say, this is my new bionic leg
00:54It's just a miracle
00:57Olsen
01:06Fitzpatrick Referrals on Cepeda, Can Aarlist you can speak and can i help enbrallyM
01:11Over a decade after opening it's doors
01:13Fitzpatrick Referrals is seeing more and more animals from all walks of life
01:18life from pedigree pooches some days animals come in and they smell better
01:28than the rest of us to be honest they come in with nicer clothes it's
01:33completely adorable how loved these pets are to street dogs and rescues we do
01:39have animals that have had a really difficult backgrounds come through and
01:43those are really nice stories for us to get this animal and bring it back to
01:47good health and send it back to a loving home hello hello sweetie hello you're
01:55all checked in am i yes have a seat one man with a big heart and a famous face is
02:05ex-arsenal footballer turned commentator lee dixon with his three-year-old rescue
02:11dog ziggy who's having trouble walking he's damaged his knee chasing tennis balls he's very
02:19energetic it tends to be a more of a footballer's injury than a dog injury but unfortunately he's
02:25decided to become a footballer for a while don't you dog lover lee brought ziggy over from bosnia
02:35just over a year ago he's such a strong-willed little character he just wants to please but he
02:43also wants to have fun and do his own thing he just loves being on your knee on the settee he's the best
02:49cuddler there's ever been but ziggy's previous life was far from perfect what we know about his history in
02:56the past they had a bit of food aggression so they just chained him up outside his shed and then wasn't
03:01allowed off and so he's had a pretty horrific start to his life he was fine when we when we first got
03:08him but after a while he started coming back from his walks and he's off the lead runs just limping
03:14so he's he's obviously in some sort of discomfort being an ex-footballer i'm still quite active in
03:21my lifestyle and exactly what i want for ziggy now and he's still really young he needs to be
03:27fully fit and i can kind of see the frustrated footballer in him so i want to get back available
03:33for selection
03:34this isn't ziggy's first visit to fitzpatrick's
03:48noel treated him for spinal issues three months ago but also diagnosed a partial tear of one of
03:56the cruciate ligaments in his left knee a common footballer's injury okay stop suddenly for me
04:02yeah okay so you see when you stop suddenly the main stopper pad comes up off the ground
04:07just hold him for me all right big fella good boy okay now this may hurt i'm going to check his
04:13meniscus now you'll know what that is it's a block of cartilage inside the knee hold tight
04:16yeah yeah that hurts all right big guy nice kid go good boy let's go in okay good boy so we've
04:23treated maybe 40 of the problem right 60 to go let's go in come on okay so let's go back to basics
04:32here when i took the x-ray picture of the knee a few weeks ago what we can see is that gray stuff
04:37that's fluid swelling yeah i'm nervous now i know you are and you should be you're a football player
04:43you have you got knee trouble yet yeah of course you have because you yeah you're going to sort it
04:48out for me in a few years time yeah i totally to fix ziggy's knee will require surgery
04:53now this is the knee of a dog femur tibia kneecap yeah and inside the knee there are two blocks of
05:03cartilage which are called the menisci when that ligament ruptures the femur slips that way and the
05:10tibia slips that way okay yeah that tears your meniscus yeah so when i stick the scope in this joint
05:17and look at it i'll be looking at the cartilage yeah if that's torn i'm gonna have to take a bit
05:23of it out right the second part of the operation will involve cutting the tibia and rotating it to
05:30stop the femur slipping so i'm going to rotate the top of the tibia around i'll be leveling off the
05:36tibial plateau i'll be putting a plate on here to hold it all together right that plate will stay in
05:42there forever all right this will take six weeks for initial healing all right what sort of time
05:47is he going he'll go in probably two three hours from now and i'll give you a ring thereafter i'll
05:52talk to you tonight cheers mate well done bye bye it's fascinating to see how the operation's going to
05:59work i know he's got to have it done but he's in the best possible hands i've got no problem with
06:05it's 10 30 a.m in reception is ann who has come all the way from guernsey with her four-year-old springer
06:25spaniel noah he's been suffering with back pain for the last two and a half years following a 40 foot fall
06:32i'll never forget it as long as i live i watched my dog sail into space and it was very clear right
06:42away that there was something wrong with him but despite visiting a string of vets across the uk
06:50the cause of the pain has not been found
06:52ann lives with her family in guernsey they got noah when he was just eight weeks old
07:02he's very handsome i just fell in love with his nose come what i love about noah is his supreme
07:13intelligence noah is a prince of dogs he has an exceedingly good life i bet you'll be the only dog
07:25that fits that he has a domestic toothbrush ann has another springer spaniel called rowan
07:32he and noah have the perfect island life i am known in guernsey on certain beaches as the
07:40eccentric woman who swims with her dogs but noah's accident put a stop to all that
07:46and despite medical treatment and acupuncture nothing has cured noah's pain
07:52i think a lot of people think i'm absolutely nuts because we've been looking for an answer for
07:59this for two and a half years this will be our last ditch effort to find the problem and to resolve it
08:05today is ann's birthday and her one wish is to find a cure for noah
08:10all righty noah please noah
08:14the neurological team at fitzpatrick's have already taken scans and have referred him to noel
08:21for a specific kind of spinal surgery hello hello good morning i'm noah how are you doing i've just
08:27been looking at your history there please take a seat thank you what's your first name and this is
08:30ann and this is noah that's a beautiful color you've got that that's a really posh harness isn't it
08:37i had this made in colorado that's really nice beautiful two and a half years ago or so it started
08:44september 2015 right and he went sailing off an 18th century georgian fort in guernsey they did not
08:55see any injury at the time i'll be frank with you i think this is not in my view a traumatic disc bulge
09:01this was going to happen anyway just because of genetics it's a degenerative disc bulge really yeah
09:08even if you hit the ground from 40 feet up absolutely clearly jumping out of a fort or swimming or doing
09:14something awkward will trigger it but it won't cause it can i have a little feel before surgery noel
09:20needs to check how severe noah's problem is the physios worked with him and on massage and then
09:27we've had laser and all the drugs in the house and he's still not out of pain yeah
09:33right so there's no question he has lumbosacral pain
09:45so this has been ongoing for two years so you've got to a point where medical management and all of
09:50the other therapies for this region has not is not working for you my objective is to get rid of the
09:56pain in those nerves i'm gonna try to put a spacer in there yeah taking the pressure away from the nerves
10:04in most cases we do not including in humans we do not rush into surgery in the spine unless it's
10:10life-threatening you haven't rushed in with this no no absolutely interestingly i have been through this
10:16a bit myself and i've had spaces put in so is this in your lumbar spine yeah exactly the same place
10:23okay you can see what i'm gonna have to do okay this is not easy
10:27you can't go on like this is no life you're kind of our last hope because well not kind of you
10:37are okay big guy look after yourself thank you okay take care and i will see you um i'll ring you
10:44you later tonight ring about eight o'clock see you later on
10:51no will operate on noah's spine later today
10:56what a birthday
10:57ann has decided to stay nearby so she can visit once noah has recovered from surgery
11:08i'm very uh hopeful um scared but i've never heard no one cry like that
11:21it's like seeing one's child go through it anybody that one loves
11:25with hope when he wakes up it will all be over
11:43hello sweetheart my tibetan's got the same coloring as this she's a blonde she's got the same ears and
11:50same eyes
11:56ex-arsenal player lee dixon's rescue dog ziggy is about to have surgery to treat a tear in one of
12:02the cruciate ligaments of his left knee
12:08first noel is performing arthroscopy putting a camera in the knee to see how damaged the cartilage is
12:16so that's the torn ligament right there
12:18you can see there's loads of strands coming off of it there
12:27okay so we're going to have to cut out the remnants of the torn ligament now
12:33some motorized shaver which is like a biological lawnmower
12:38okay so that's fine next noel needs to assess the meniscus cartilage which acts as a cushion between
12:45the femur and the tibia so that's not looking good basically the meniscus is loose noel tries to stop
12:54the cartilage flipping forward and tearing further by releasing it into the back of the joint
13:01we've cut its attachment onto the tibia and we'll put the probe under now we can see that that's free
13:07and that will allow the cushion to fall back into the joint back here look like that there's still a
13:16chance that the cartilage will tear further over time but i'd rather leave some cushioning in there
13:21than none at all that bit of the procedure is now done we'll crack on and we'll do the rest
13:28with his torn cruciate ligament ziggy's knee bones are not held in the correct place
13:33to stop the femur slipping backwards on the tibia noel is going to cut the tibia with a curved saw
13:39and rotate the top to a new angle okay so what we're doing right now is we're putting a jig on
13:45this jig allows us to keep the cutting blade exactly on the center of the joint it also holds the top bit
13:53and the bottom bit together while we rotate them you only get one chance at the cut it's like taking
13:58penalties in the world cup final
14:05it goes straight through he rotates the top of the tibia to alter the slope and prevent the femur
14:11slipping backwards that's a big rotation and holds the alignment of the top and bottom segments with two
14:18pins
14:18we look here we can see quite clearly that the ankle is out of alignment with the knee that piece
14:28of metal should be over here so what i'm going to do is i'm going to bend this rod and you'll see as i bend
14:35it that the ankle will come towards me a little bit like so now when we look at the knee by comparison
14:44with the ankle it's back in alignment that's what you want we've held it in place with these two pins
14:50right here those two pins will not be enough to keep it in place so we're going to put a plate on
14:57as well take the plate here we line it up where we want it to be we put in screws and that provides
15:10a pretty secure fixation so we're just going to bend the pins over and leave them in because i think it
15:17provides added stability just stitch everything up now we're done
15:22with the operation over it's time to update lee
15:31hi no hello uh how are you so i've done the op it went fine yeah the plate's gone on fine
15:39i'm very pleased about that is he is he is in recovery now yeah okay brilliant thank you
15:44okay everybody listen my pleasure ziggy will stay at fitzpatrick's for the next 48 hours
15:52this morning a one-year-old caucasian shepherd puppy is booked in to see noel
16:08they're one of the largest breeds in the uk and bears already 11 stone
16:12bear here how did i think of that ben and steph have been referred to fitzpatrick's by their local
16:20vet because bear is struggling to walk she's got hip dysplasia currently she can't be a normal dog
16:28she can't come off her lead she's not allowed playing up with no other dogs can't do things that
16:33a puppy would usually do ben and steph live in gravesend they got bear nearly a year ago when she
16:44was just nine weeks old our two dogs we had before that passed away the house didn't feel like a home
16:51give no dogs when we came across there on the internet and fell in love straight away a big
16:58cuddly teddy bear and she soon became a big sister to their two young daughters ellie and lottie
17:05you'd think with her size she'd be pushy with them but she's not she's so gentle and careful around them
17:12but when bear was about three months old she developed a limp and subsequent visits to the vet
17:18confirmed their worst fears when we found out it was hip dysplasia it felt heartbreaking to be told
17:25that she was in a lot of pain what it was going to cost to get her hips replaced it was just money
17:32we did not have and the only other option that was suggested was to put her to sleep because of the
17:39pain she'd be in someone suggested in the family about setting up a gofundme to see if there was
17:47anyone that could potentially help us out of the blue we just had a phone call from an anonymous donor
17:54to get her first hip replaced and they'd covered the full bill the offer of a donation towards
18:01bear's surgery has come as a lifeline i'm still shocked now i still can't get over it
18:06like someone we never met doing that but bear cavey please bear today steph and ben have come in
18:16to discuss the options with noel ben lovely to see you stephanie okay hello bear come on mate
18:24i've seen the x-ray pictures presented and this is what we call a luxoid hip
18:31meaning that the hip is not inside the socket at all a lot of dogs will cope with hip dysplasia
18:38yeah especially if they're on good pain management and if they're on good dietary management and if
18:44they don't get fat and if they are kept exercised the problem is you have a vicious circle between
18:50her being in pain and not exercising and then getting fat and the fat making her worse off on
18:55her hips yeah femoral head and neck excision where you chop the heads off on both sides for a dog of
19:02this size would have difficulty coping with that with her body weight yeah total hip replacement until
19:08relatively recently it was considered that you should not do total hip replacement on very young
19:14dogs now that's all changed we know now with the implants we currently have that the complication is
19:20actually no different okay the donation for bear's operation has come from a former client of knowles
19:28it turns out i treated a dog for this person a couple of years ago
19:33yeah and they reached out because they put themselves in your position uh which is very
19:40noble of them the only downside is what if it goes wrong if it dislocates or if it loosens or something
19:46bad goes wrong you have to know that you've done your best we've tried she could end up being put to
19:51sleep uh you need to know that okay guys right sir look after yourself thanks for everything
20:00thank you look after yourself noel will operate later today oh bear you gotta come this way sweetheart
20:07they gotta go come on sweetie but the donor is only contributing towards bear's first hip replacement
20:13steph and ben will need to continue to raise money for the second themselves and all the people have
20:19donated and especially that lady who's anonymous yeah who's done it all just thank you so much
20:30um happy can you do my shoulder for me please that's it oh not there not there not not not really
20:45there oh yeah that's it we all look after each other here don't we no everyone looks after me
20:51it's two days since rescue dog ziggy had an operation to treat the ligament tear in his left knee
21:03hiya here for ziggy perfect if you want to take a seat i'll let me
21:08ex arsenal footballer lee is back to collect him along with ballet dancer wife yolanda
21:14between us we could probably write a list as long as you know that wall on the injuries we've had
21:21together so we know the pain he's been in here yeah okay ziggy's folks please ziggy
21:30nice to see you hello sweetheart how are you how lovely to me i brought the better
21:35half lovely to meet you there's definitely the better half
21:38this specific case has some unique characteristics that i'm going to discuss with you which have to
21:45do with the meniscus first of all this ligament was fraying okay we went in and cut that ligament
21:52out then you can see the cartilage yeah okay yeah and therein lies the problem it was not detached but
22:00it's detaching oh yeah so i cut the menisco tibial ligament right allowing this to flip backwards
22:09but some flip forward and i go back in and take it out now you're going to know if that happens because
22:15the dog will go lame again but we will be rechecking you to see how things are going okay so that's all
22:22the technical detail i'll bring him in he's right here there we go hello matey now then do not expect
22:32a miracle i know that sometimes uh arsenal do achieve that but very rarely um he's not going
22:38to be running around the field straight away uh walking wise let's go into the yard and i'll show you
22:42what to do come on then buddy there we go little spots so walking wise uh you don't need to take
22:54any weight on this this is an insurance policy okay so that is just holding him back now he's not taking
22:59any weight and has he got painkillers is he yeah yeah i've got those for you let's go and get him in
23:04the car well done good he's got a seat belt in there he's got a seat belt and a beautiful rug
23:12the lap of luxury thank you for your side thank you very much we're very happy quite emotional
23:19actually seeing him obviously when he comes out he's got that little sparkle in his eye and he's
23:23pleased to see us so um we just got to take him home now and and take care of him and he's going to
23:29get spoiled that's for sure no wants to check ziggy in three weeks time
23:34noah the springer spaniel from guernsey is being prepped for his spinal surgery
23:50noel plans to replace noah's bulging disc with a spacer by removing the roof of the vertebra and disc
23:57and inserting the spacer to push the vertebra apart which he hopes will release pressure on the nerves
24:06the vertebrae will be stabilized using screws clamps and rods
24:13first noel needs to scoop out the contents of the damaged disc
24:17and this is what the nucleus looks like kind of gritty cottage cheese
24:28so there's the hole in the top of the disc right there the nerves are pushed over to one side i put
24:33this tool down inside the disc there and into this hole i'm going to place the spacer device
24:39bone will hopefully grow it's called hydroxyapatite
24:42i'm holding these two retractors like chopsticks keeping the nerves apart while i drive the spacer in
24:55okay so now i pull the nerves back over the spacer device again back into position
25:01keep it straight guys keep it straight good with the spacer in place noel pieces together the frame
25:07of clamps and rods to secure the vertebrae the challenge is of course if you judge this wrong
25:13you could paralyze the leg in order to support the vertebrae a little more i'm going to put a couple
25:20of little screws across the joint to the top it's 10 30 pm and the operation is complete
25:29okay noah there you go i've done my best let's hope mommy's happy
25:33let's go to ct please thank you the final scan will reveal whether the spacer and frame has done the
25:42job this is always a moment of nervousness when you're just worried that your screws may not be
25:52positioned correctly boom that looks good now will and be happy that's the thing
25:59hello hi good evening i'm sorry the days took so long um no don't worry so i've done the operation
26:08it went fine obviously it's not over yet noah still has to heal and so on but the implants are
26:15in the right spot and the surgery went according to plan which is good good okay well now we move on to
26:23the next chapter on to the next chapter i'll ring you tomorrow lunchtime thank you very very much bye bye
26:30she certainly loves him that's for sure
26:36it will be a few days before noah can be reunited with ann
26:51look at all of this hair it's ridiculous our animals are obviously very hairy
26:56so we clip right down to the skin in order to make it clean when you're taking them into theatre
27:04sometimes when you clip something especially hairy there's like a big pile of fur on the floor and
27:10think oh you can make someone a wick with that i've never seen one of these dogs before she's very beautiful
27:22next to be clipped ahead of surgery is 11 stone puppy bear
27:28luckily she's on the right side
27:30bear needs a double hip replacement noel is going to operate on her right hip first
27:42so as we can see here we're going to need to use a size 10 stamp and a size 30 cup
27:48first noel needs to remove the damaged head of the femur bone
27:57okay so that's the head of the femur it's all arthritic and the cartilage is worn away
28:02next he drills out the worn socket okay so we can see the rim of the socket which is all raw bone up here
28:12and impacts a new plastic cup which has a metal backing onto which bones should grow
28:20so it becomes a permanent part of the body very important the position of this cup
28:25so that the head can get in at the right angle
28:29noel drills out the canal of the femur
28:35okay we're going to put the cement down the canal of the femur now
28:38and then inserts a metal stem
28:47so that's the cement in the canal the stem in the cement it's setting hard now
28:53to which a new ball head for the joint is attached
28:57okay so the next job is to get the hip back in could be quite challenging
29:03because it's been dislocated for such a long time
29:08okay so it went in pretty easy as it turned out
29:18feels pretty good that's our new hip
29:25surgery is complete noel can now update an anxious steph and ben
29:31hello oh hi ben it's noel done the op yep it went fine okay so far so good okay that's excellent
29:43tell steph she can uh dry her tears for now yep and um everything at the moment is uh is under control
29:49thanks for that we're so grateful bye bye bye
29:53lovely people difficult situation and every now and then a guardian angel comes into the world
30:00badly needed ben and steph will now need to raise the money for bear's second hip replacement
30:12it's three days since springer spaniel noah had spinal surgery hello you is he a newfie newfie gorgeous
30:28and ann is back at the practice to take him home to guernsey
30:40hello ann how are you looking delightful today aren't you oh i tried to try to do my best you're doing
30:49your best well done good at this point in his journey he couldn't be doing better
30:55so i'm happy the only thing i need from you is a total commitment for cage confinement or tied to your leg
31:02no running around you got it you have it no one rare into go rare into go let's go outside because
31:13he's he's he's quite boisterous yes look after yourself take care very grateful my entire pleasure
31:24true years god bless i'm so grateful this has been such a painful process noah you look like a dog i
31:33used to know and i'm thrilled to death to have him home and now we start the hard part really well the
31:40next part part next chapter which is rehab
31:56it's three weeks since ziggy had surgery on his left knee but he's still not match fit
32:02lee dixon has brought him back today to see if noel can find out why
32:10come here mate let's turn around this way this way that's it okay great noel suspects there are
32:17problems with ziggy's cartilage let's just see here so just hold tight it's a good bit six yeah yeah that's
32:26it during surgery noel discovered that a part of his cartilage was detaching check stability he
32:33released the ligament holding it to the tibia hoping it would settle down i cut the attachment there
32:40in the hope that that bit that was flipping forwards would flip back again that probably hasn't happened
32:48right and that's what the lameness comes and that's what the lameness is probably coming from
32:53to alleviate the discomfort noel will probably need to remove a small piece of the back part of
32:58the cartilage run around soon wouldn't you okay well listen good luck with the commentating tonight
33:06see you later bye see you mate thanks i don't like leaving him because he doesn't know what's happening
33:12to him but he's wagging his tail as he goes off into the back but yeah it's something that um we try to
33:18avoid but um the body's not responding to the cartilage flipping back down again so we're gonna
33:23have to intervene which just sets his rehab back a little bit but it's fine it needs to be done
33:34i've done thousands of these and um it's ironic that uh the one that will be causing some angst
33:41is the one from a very successful professional football player who's had multiple knee surgeries
33:48himself very surreal you couldn't make it up it's not long before noel finds the cartilage damage
33:55that's been causing the persistent lameness our problem here is that piece is still tearing and
34:00it's snagging between the two bonds in certain positions from ziggy moves so what i'm going to do
34:05in so i'm going to release it and take out a bit of that torn portion that should do the trick that's
34:10the blade inside the joint cutting right through that cartilage
34:18right there's the culprit there's less cushioning now but at least the offending article is out
34:25all right let's pop it in a pot for him present for lee with the cartilage removed the joint will be
34:31more prone to inflammation and degeneration okay so we're going to take some fat now the fat will be
34:38used to extract specific stem cells in a laboratory they'll be injected into the joint in two weeks
34:45time to assist healing and decrease inflammation with the minor setback ziggy will need crate rest
34:52lead walking and physiotherapy for six weeks
35:00it's six weeks since noah had spinal surgery and ann's brought him back for a check-up
35:07now noah's mummy please
35:12don't look so worried ann it's good great those screws look beautiful i mean they genuinely do they
35:19look beautiful job done this is well look at the size of the neuroforaminae they're huge now so it's
35:25really just a matter of everything just settling down fabulous because because i i this is the best
35:31days i've had in years well it's good it's good i mean that is that's as good as it gets for this
35:37all i mean normally i check it 12 weeks again but you live far away i'll be i've got it booked great
35:43news thank you very much now hey you here we go guess what you're a miracle i'm overjoyed
35:54i couldn't be happier this is what you hope and pray for when you come here we've got it
36:03i'm really grateful noah will have physiotherapy and hydrotherapy to aid his recovery
36:10hello sweetheart but ann now has other families she needs to attend to i have to go take care of
36:19my mother in the u.s next week and um who my father died just before noah's surgery and and i haven't
36:30been able to get to her and she's been very understanding daddy said to her that if he died
36:36that he wanted me to to do the surgery so it's a big gift from him
36:55it's three days since bear had her first hip replacement
36:58today steph and ben have brought along bear's biggest fan daughter ellie
37:06excited finally get her back
37:12so it's good news that she's recovering well she's going to get better so it's going to be
37:17hard work because she's such a lively puppy it'll be worth it yeah it's worth it
37:21there's mom and dad come early hi ellie how are you are you here for bear are you here for bear
37:31where's bear where is bear where is bear dribble puss lovely to see you it's nice to see you smile
37:39let's get berry all right guys let's come through come on bear there we go there we go now there we
37:48go watch the collar and the baby watch the baby watch the baby watch the baby let's go outside
37:55bear will continue her physiotherapy at home and noel will only consider surgery on the left hip
38:01if the right fully recovers okay well done now when you walk her it's safer to walk her with the harness
38:09okay right bear let's get you in this wonderful black cap be careful now up you get there we go
38:15okay look after yourself but ben and steph must first raise the money for the next operation
38:21that all comes down to funds really funds yeah ben's working seven days a week trying to get as
38:28much money behind us as we can to get towards it but yeah and then it's just spreading the word see
38:32if there's anyone out there that can also help
38:39it's three months since noah had spinal surgery and ann has brought him back for a routine checkup
38:55but she's concerned noah is still in pain
38:57all right yep there's something in the hind leg and we're getting a lot of squealing
39:03what kind of squealing what does that mean um and when does he do that um if he steps the wrong way
39:11i'm doing a stretching exercise and have we tried cavalletti poles i've got cavalletti's
39:17noel wants to scan noah to determine if there is any problem with the repair
39:21the ct scan looks fine there's no problem at all it's just this rehab yeah rehab
39:32he needs laser therapy he needs massage he needs appropriate exercises he needs it every day
39:40because noah's pain has been going on for such a long time an intensive course of physiotherapy will
39:46give him the best chance of a full recovery noah you're going to stay yeah and then we'll have
39:54a snuggle i always come back don't i that's what mummies do good boy hi we don't have all of the rehab
40:08facility on guernsey but after two years he's repaired now he just has to be rehabbed
40:23steph and ben have finally raised the money for bear's second hip operation
40:29hiya hiya how are you feeling uh nervous but not like i was laughing first side's going okay yeah
40:34good everything's fine on the first side no issues no no splendid all right you can take it
40:41through here thank you yeah good girl bear
40:48i can't believe we're here again
40:51bear is prepared for surgery on her second hip
40:55it's difficult to leave her but she's gonna she's getting what she needs done so she's gonna be out of
41:02pain so it's gonna be worth missing her for two days noel will operate on her left side today
41:17rescue dog ziggy is back for his 12-week check-up after having surgery on his knee
41:22and ex-arsenal footballer lee can see a big improvement hopefully um noel's gonna sign him
41:32off as a um fully fit healthy dog this place has been like second home with especially with a rehab
41:40we've been two or three times a week lee come on it all rests on noel's final assessment when i press on
41:49the hawk yeah it doesn't shunt forward right which is good which is good yeah and also he's not
41:54bothered no remember he was very bothered before he's not bothered i'm happy it doesn't happen very
42:00often but he's happy uh no it happens probably once a millennium you might see you soon look after
42:06yourself thanks a lot thank you bye it's been emotional but actually you know he just says just
42:13get on with it now so that's the best news ever so his mum will be very pleased when i get home
42:22here
42:26a month later and ziggy is back in training
42:30it's great it's great to get him out in the open and off the lead and running about
42:35it's been a long road but we got there eventually i'm very happy with him
42:38what is it come on it it's changed how we live our lives from week to week now because it all
42:43used to be based around his rehab but now it's back to being fully active again i just love that
42:49freedom and getting out there noel's gonna fix mine now good boy i've seen how good is he's so
42:55there's no reason why i can't have a go at mine look i'm gonna make a comeback we've got ziggy
43:00back so the teammate's ready for me good boy
43:11it's three days since bear's second hip operation and steph is back to take her home
43:19right so this is what you have now uh two new hips uh they're identical exactly the same neck length
43:25exactly the same cup size exactly same stem size there's no difference oh great so if everything
43:30goes as well on the second side as it went on the first will be okay please go the main thing at the
43:35moment is just be super careful yeah i don't want a dislocation come on in bear there we go now
43:44now with the second hip complete bear can go home and recover out of pain now make sure he doesn't
43:55jump behind guys you got him one two three go
44:02tan good girl good girl you thought i was leaving again because she's been not allowed
44:11off at least since she was eight months she's not obviously been able to be a puppy i can't wait for
44:18the day to watch her run and she's not been able to do that because of her hip stranger
44:24thank you very much take care god bless bye bear will need to take it easy for the next 12 weeks
44:30for her hip to heal
44:31noah has been having intensive rehab at the practice for a month now
44:45but look at this happy dog happy dog i know he's had daily underwater treadmill and physiotherapy sessions
44:53to strengthen his soft tissues and alleviate his nerve pain
44:56we are taking the rehab extremely seriously because we live on an island so we can't just
45:06tootle on over to fitzpatrick if we need them i'm very pleased i saw no because i looked for two and a
45:13half years and he solved the problem the physio department is remarkable
45:21they work very hard on the animals who are sent to them and they get results after three years of
45:32unexplained pain noah is finally on the road to recovery he's such a happy chappy it's um
45:39it's really encouraging which is why i have a big grin on my face
45:43good girl in gravesend bear is out on a walk five months after her second hip operation
45:57as a family um we are a lot happier because bear can now come off her lead she can run she can play
46:03just do whatever she wants now
46:04so to have a completely fix and out of pain like any normal dog uh is the best feeling in the world
46:14bear now has a big future with ellie and lottie
46:20she's their big furry sister so i wouldn't want them not growing up without her
46:27to have all those people help us
46:29i'm still speechless and i still get a bit overwhelmed with it all because it just
46:36makes you realize there aren't good people out there yeah can't thank them enough
46:59so
47:06so
47:08so
47:10so
47:12so
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