The Supervet season 17 is here and will once again see Irish veterinary surgeon, Professor Noel Fitzpatrick, treating a host of adorable pets from cute kittens to hard-working police dogs.
Filmed at Noel’s Surrey practice, Fitzpatrick Referrals in Surrey, Noel and his team help cure pets that might otherwise be beyond saving by using cutting-edge treatments and the latest technology.
We caught up with Noel for an exclusive interview to hear all about the new series...
The Supervet season 17 — Release date
The Supervet season 17 begins on Channel 4 on Thursday, July 21 at 8 pm. It will also be available to watch on All4.
The Supervet — Which animals will Noel be treating in the first episode?
The series opens with Noel aka The Supervet treating three different pets.
Working police dog Trigger is brought in by his handler and devoted owner Rob who works for the Met Police. Two-year-old Trigger is suffering from acute pain and has been unable to carry out his normal work duties as a sniffer dog.
Noel does a scan and diagnoses a genetic condition that's affecting Trigger's spine and requires surgery to fix.
"Because Trigger is a working police dog the demands on him are like those placed on an Olympic athlete as opposed to the demands of a dog that just walks round the park", says Noel.
"He came into the surgery with severe pain and a scan showed he had lumbosacral degenerative stenosis where a disc in his spine is drying out, there’s new bone being produced and it’s squishing into the sciatic nerve which is causing him severe pain. My first aim was to provide him quality of life by getting him out of pain, the second was to hopefully return him to his vocation."
Super-cute three-month-old kitten, Fury, was a birthday present to his owner and is brought in after taking a tumble while playing with his sister, Stormy.
Noel says, "Fury was adorable. He had fractured the growth plate in his leg and needed a small operation to fix it. Whether it’s a simple operation or a complex operation, for me it’s all the same. You’re trying to do your best for that particular patient."
Also popping in is Raven, a one-year-old Shepadoodle who has started limping badly.
His owners Jane and Alan realised something was wrong with him when he was only a few months old and Raven has now been referred to Noel’s clinic after being diagnosed with double hip dysplasia which means he'll need a double hip replacement.
Noel says, "Hip replacements are routine operations. They usually take between 40 minutes and an hour. I have a fantastic and very efficient team, we’re like Formula One, we’re not driving go-karts! When you’re in the pitstop the nurses know exactly what to do. It’s the whole team that determines whether I’m going to win that race or not. I’m just the driver."
The Supervet — what else is Noel Fitzpatrick up to this year?
As always Noel is going to be incredibly busy. He says, "I’m doing a tour later in the year and another book, (Noel published his first children’s book, Vetman and the Bionic Animal Clan last year and his next book, Beyond Supervet: How Animals Make Us the Best We Can Be will be out in October), but of course the most important thing is always treating the animals to the best of our ability and working those surgeries around other commitments."
What keeps Noel so passionate about his work?
Noel says, "The only reason I do everything that I do is I want to reflect the love that I see between an animal and a human out into the world as a beacon of hope. We live in a world torn apart with war, politics, gender inequality, racial inequality and the one thing I want people to do is look at this love. Could we not all be a bit more sympathetic to each other, be a bit more understanding? I can tell you for sure a dog or cat doesn’t care what gender, colour, race or religion you are. All they care about is love. That’s why I do what I do."
Is there a trailer for The Supervet season 17?
Not yet, but if one becomes available then we will update this guide.
The Supervet will begin on Channel 4 on Thursday, July 21 at 8pm.
