Sunderland youngster takes on veterinary challenge for CBBC programme

Will Talbot is set to appear on CBBC’s Junior Vets On Call on Wednesday.

The Southmoor Academy pupil, 11, will be seen caring for animals and even castrating piglets and describes the experience as something he’ll “never forget”.

Animal lover Will lives in Grangetown with his parents Vicky and Chris, little sister Lucy, nine, pet westie Eric and hamsters Lenny and Curly.

He said: “It was definitely something I’ll never forget. I’m so excited to see it on TV to see how they’ve edited it, and I think it’ll be really weird to watch myself on telly, and sort of see myself in the third person.

“It will be weird but I think being on the telly is a big achievement and I’m really excited.

“I can’t really see myself being a vet, but I think the show will be very educational for kids who do want to be vets and they’ll be able to see what it’s really like.

“I want to be an actor so it was good to see how things happen behind the scenes on a TV show.”

Will, who has dreams of becoming a movie star, was chosen from more than 4,500 children to appear on the show alongside his cousin, Oliver Lancaster.

After filling out an application form, Will was invited to make some audition videos with Oliver, and the pair were chosen after a Skype interview with the show’s producers.

The pair then spent three days filming for the show, working with vets at a pig farm in Berwick and a veterinary surgery.

He said: “There was a cat brought in that had been living on the street and it had a very swollen tummy and they asked us to scan it to figure out what was wrong.

“We called the cat Jess and when we scanned her we realised she was pregnant and we named all the babies. There were about 10 of them so I can’t remember all their names, but it was stuff like Jeff and Barbara.

“When we were scanning the cat the vet kept talking about its nipples and I was only 10 then so I really wanted to laugh and I had to try really hard to hold it in, thankfully I managed though.”

Will says he’ll never forget the time he spent at a pig farm.

He said: “We had to run after the pigs to try and catch them. They’d put the mam pig in a pen and it was squealing and trying to break the door down so they had to take it away.

“When we caught the piglets we had to hold them between our legs and then they showed us how to castrate them. I was only 10 and it was scarring, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat bacon again.

“After we cut them off we had to spray them with this medical spray. I don’t think there are many people out there who can say they’ve castrated a piglet, but I don’t think there are many people out there who would want to say they have.

“I was trying to comfort one of them by stroking him and calling him Mr Pig.”

He added: “There was a poorly horse that we helped as well. It was called Steve and he had something wrong with his eyes.

“We gave him an injection, like a tranquilliser to keep him relaxed and then we used this syringe on his eyes. When I pushed it in all this yellow goo came out.”

See Will on Junior Vets On Call at 5pm on Wednseady on CBBC.