Group 1 Visited Whangaparaoa Vet Clinic today to meet with Dr Shanti, wife of our very own Mr Fox and Mum to Kobe!

Dr Shanti took us into an examination room and showed us how she examines an animal when they come in. She used a giant soft toy by the name of Rufus to demonstrate. Dr Shanti starts at the front and works her way to the back! First she check how responsive the pet is. Are they alert, agitated, happy or poorly? The eyes, ears and mouths are all check carefully. We got to see the difference between healthy teeth and gums and unhealthy ones in cats and dogs using Dr Shanti's models.

We learned about how locate and listen to a heart beat using a stethoscope. Sadly we were unable to locate a heartbeat for Rufus. Alarmingly we were also unable to hear our own heartbeats either!

We had a lesson in bandaging using bandages that were a little more grippy than normal ones as it can be tricky bandaging around fur! It wasn't as easy as it looked like it would be and we got in a bit of a tangle, but it was really fun!

Next it was time for a game of guess the object. It turned out the enormous white rock pictured below was in fact a bladder stone. OUCH! We also got to view tape worm in a jar- Gross!

What a treat we had in store for us next. Enter Sasha the friendly bearded dragon! When Sasha was growing in her egg, she has a twin who sadly did not survive. Because Sasha had to share her nutrient supply in the egg, she did not develop as fully as she might have if she had been alone in there ,and so she is a little on the small size for a bearded dragon. She also has a kink in her tail from being a bit squished in the egg.

Our final stop was to the cattery under the clinic. Here we met Moe and Puss. Moe was only to happy to afford us some love, while Puss kept his distance due to feeling a little under the weather.