Tomorrow evening the second of a series of six will be shown on BBC1. Really amazing and well worth watching.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t0rkh

The first episode was incredible to watch,  i'll be glued to my seat watching the rest.

I'm not sure yet if I can face another episode, I felt so very sorry for that lab and wish he had just been put to sleep rather than face all the pain of recovery when he had arthritis in his other joints too - poor boy :-( 

I watched the first episode, did find it quite interesting but was not a fan of the tone of the show, a bit dramatic for me. I lost count of the amount of times they said 'if this doesn't work then xyz will be put to sleep', surely that cat could have had a little cart jobby?

It was the cat that got me. I missed the beginning - was it his own cat? if not then I'm not sure I'd have wanted to put the poor thing through all that. I can understand people want to do their best for their pets but sometimes enough is enough. I found it hard to decide if I admired this vet or not. It is certainly interesting though.

No it was a clients cat, they think its feet got cut off by a combine harvester as it slept in a field. From what I gathered it seemed the mans normal vet had treated the initial injuries and the cat was fully healed but obviously couldn't walk on stumps so he went to see the bionic vet for an answer.

I can't watch it.  find it too upsetting.
frankly I have real doubts about the ethics of putting animals through very major type surgery with long recovery time. I'm not convinced its always in animals best interests.  Just because something can be done does not mean it should be done.

> I have real doubts about the ethics of putting animals through very major type surgery with long recovery time. I'm not convinced its always in animals best interests.  Just because something can be done does not mean it should be done.

Agree wholeheartedly :-)

noel did all of my pagan health test hip/elbows/patella two year ago on his super x ray machine

Gosh, I watched this last night but I can't make up my mind.  They are putting animals through so much when the time they have left is not a lot.  I don't think I would put my dog through such major ops for a few months/maybe a year. 

i agree i wouldnt go down those route either,
noel had the most update equiement two years ago to do what i wanted to get a good picture of my dog x ray after my other dog hips was a total cock up.
if you watch the tv progamme you can see what i mean about the x ray picture.

i watched the first programme but turned it off near the end, i didnt like it. i had a cat which had its leg smashed after been run over and was refeered to a 'bionic' vet. i had to keep him in a tiny crate for 4mths so he couldnt move, i pushed tablets down his throat several times a day, lift him in and out of a litter tray, washed his backside and groomed him because he couldnt do it himself. i wanted him pts towards the end but my own vet talked me round, he went on to have a great working metal leg and lived another few yrs but the pain and suffering i put him through to get there.
i will never ever do that to any animal of mine again.

Very impressed with the work he does and learned something new that knee joints for humans was perfected in dogs first.

I was not happy about last night's episode. The Labrador with cancer -it will STILL die from cancer and they may have put him through all that (and all the money) for just a short period of time. The chinchilla -most vets would just have amputated the leg, as it was a front leg and they spend so much time sitting on their hindlegs it should not have been a problem. The collie cross with the patella problems -I got the impression it all turns pear shaped next week. I didn't agree with the comments about how vets don't know what to do about arthritis, either. Surely the best thing is to prevent it? Do what you can to breed dogs with good hips and good knees. Don't over exercise, especially as puppies or elderly dogs, or under exercise either. Don't let them get overweight. It doesn't have to follow that all old dogs will get arthritis. It tends to set in where the joints are already bad. I have a ten year old dog who can outrun the best of them, and a 17 years old cat without any signs of arthritis at all. Sure you will still get some problems but I still feel a lot CAN be prevented and it's not such a mystery as made out in the programme.

As for the comments about how complicated, new surgery was done at a loss for the vet and routine surgery was what brought money in -yes, but instead the unusual cases will be practice cases and can then BECOME routine, to bring money in.

I know it is easy to SAY though. If I had several thousand pounds available and it was MY favourite dog, what would I do? I can't answer that for definite, not until I am in the situation, but I'd like to think I have always put my animals before my own feelings, no matter how hard it is at times.

I watched the second episode on iplayer just now.

I have to say I have mixed thoughts on this, on the one hand the boundaries are being pushed with obvious benefits to animals in the future, but I feel uncomfortable about on what could amount to experimental surgery.

I think the key is the comment Noel made towards the end, "It is ethical for an animal to have a pain free life" or words to that effect, so shouldn't we give that if it's in our power.

As to the question whether I would do it, probably on two of my springers and probably not to the third, the third being terrified of vets for no obvious reason, so i don't think causing her the stress of being in that environment for weeks after surgery would  be fair.

That raises the question would it be fair to cause pain on the first two in the short term, I think yes if the outcome was a pain free life, I'm talking years here, not months or a couple of years.

I love watching it.

I spent £3000 repairing cruciate ligaments in 2 of my dogs when they were young.  I did this because I knew they had about 5 years of pain free life ahead of them till the arthritis (caused by repairing the joint) set in.  I would not put an anilmal through all those experimental procedures when the outcome was a few months of life and that's regardless of how much money I had.  I think too many owners put their own feelings before the animals or humanize them in thinking they consider death.  The dog only want's the pain to stop.

> I think too many owners put their own feelings before the animals or humanize them in thinking they consider death.  The dog only want's the pain to stop.

Agreed. As for the 'bionic vet' saying that the dog had a right to a pain free life, yes it does but recovery from the op is certainly not pain free. IMO the dog has a right to a pain free death, held in their owners arms and quietly slipping off to sleep rather than all the pain of recovery and enforced separation from loved ones.