Supervet Noel Fitzpatrick: 'It's not about surgery. It's about unconditional love'

Virgin Radio

22 Jul 2022, 14:41

After 17 series of The Supervet, Professor Noel Fitzpatrick is showing no signs of slowing down and he joined The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about the latest season.

"We've just filmed two more series as of yesterday!" he revealed, "The rig comes down today, in fact, while I'm here. The cameras go up, and then they come down after a period of months."

There was a procedure Noel carried out the night before on a cat that reminded him why he loves what he does so much: "We did we an op last night till whatever time on a cat called Freddy. I did something I have never done before on a cat.

"I have two Maine Coon and Freddy was a Maine Coon. I was almost tearful in the middle of the op and I think to myself, 'Man if I feel like this, what what does it feel like to be the owner".

"When you're in the middle of life and death, you're holding your nerves and you're not going to slip but if you do the wrong thing in the middle of life and death... it's a love, hope and redemption arc for a world that badly needs it, you know, there's a lot of stuff that goes on outside," he continues.

"When you're in there, that's truth, the actual essence of why it's important to be human at all."

He said no matter how his day has been, all that matters is the patient: "As soon as I push the doors of theatre open, no matter how tired - I could be in there for seven hours, eight hours - it feels like 'okay, this is where you're supposed to be, you're in harmony with nature and hopefully people watching this will get a little connection with why we're human at all."

"It's not about surgery. It's about unconditional love."

Fans were very emotional online about an episode with a police dog called Trigger, and Noel had performed a similar surgery this week.

"Trigger is a police dog that had a lower back problem and I did that exact same op on another police dog the day before yesterday... when I was 10 I said to my dad, 'I'd really like a guitar dad,' he said 'here's a saw, go and saw the horns off a bullock. So you know the I became a vet rather than a guitarist."

"But all I wanted to be was a guitarist. Anyway, when you're in those nerves in the surgery, they look like the strings of a guitar on the fret, and I have to play them every single time I do this operation."

"Man if I pluck that wrong it's all over! So it's quite an interesting alchemy of of art and science," he marvels.

"I had two new interns scrubbed in with me and they're like, 'how do you know the angle, how to drill the screws and stuff?' and I can just see the inside like X ray vision? As a surgeon now 30 years into, you're in harmony with it."

Away from the vet surgery he has some adorable pets.

Noel said he walks downstairs in the morning and greets George the labradoodle, and Pretzel the kitten.

"Pretzel is the cutest kitten you could ever imagine in your life!" he exclaims.

"It's so amazing. The whole community has come together and done bake sales and all kinds of stuff because Pretzel was born with bent back legs. She was dragging her back legs along.

"I got to bed about half one in the morning and I went down low to Pretzel and she comes over and she nuzzles you and it never gets old. That little nuzzle, the smell, it smells like warm velvet."

The new series of The Supervet is on Thursday’s at 8pm on Channel 4 and All4 via Sky Q.

For more great interviews listen to  The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or  catch up on-demand here.