Health and Happiness

Class I had the best time at the Animal Vets in Hayle. Claire, Jonathon and Patrick McCotter, along with their amazing team gave the children the most fantastic experience.

We learnt all about farms and farming from Patrick McCotter. He was great with the children telling them all about how to look after different animals on farms and what types of produce we can get from them if looked after properly.

You can get milk from cows and you can get milk from goats which is made into goats cheese – Violet

We also learnt all about what is inside the animals bodies. We studied some X-rays, one of a cat and another of a dog with a broken bone, one with a stone in his tummy and one with a needle in his tummy. The children were fascinated as Jonathon talked about what the animals have inside their bodies and related it to what the children have inside their bodies. They even got the opportunity to bandage a very gentle and tolerant Chester the dog.

I know pigs and cows have different meat – Luke

We saw a dogs broken bone and a dog swallowed a stone in the X-rays – Henry

Next we learnt all about some tortoises. For example they like to live in warm climates and generally most tortoises hibernate during the winter. The tortoises we met didn’t hibernate, they had fun trying to race each other to the finish line. We found out that they can live up to 100 years old and they like eating strawberries.

The tortoises came from the desert – Albie

The rabbits were a big hit with the children. They loved learning all about what to feed them and how to look after them. We learnt that rabbits like to eat hay to keep their ever growing teeth small and they don’t really like being picked up because they sometimes will feel threatened. The rabbits we met were very friendly and full of character.

I learnt rabbits have 28 teeth and their teeth keep growing and dogs are not aloud chocolate – Albie

Finally the children got scrubbed up into their surgery attire to perform a very delicate operation on a poorly dog that had eaten too many chocolates. The anaesthetist did a great job of ensuring the dog was asleep during the operation whilst the surgeons were busy at work.

I learnt that rabbits eat their own poo. We learnt what tortoises eat, strawberries. But really my favourite was eating the chocolate because Harold the dog eated too much chocolate then we got tweezers and picked it out of his tummy. Henry

The whole experience was fantastic. Class one would like to thank the whole team at the animal vets for all their hard work, organisation and exciting activities they provided for the children to support their learning about animals and pet care.