Animals are no problem... 80% of my time is dealing with humans...
TV’S SUPERVET NOEL FITZPATRICK TALKS PADS, PAWS AND CLAWS WITH MARION McMULLEN AS THE 50-YEAR-OLD EMBARKS ON HIS FIRST ARENA TOUR
What can people expect from your Welcome To My World tour?
I’VE been thinking of this for 30 years I suppose, a very long time.
When I started doing television, this is something I always wanted to do. This is the next step.
I’m looking forward to taking everyone on my journey from a field in Ireland to the world of regenerative bionics – where everything becomes possible.
The tour is using the latest technology to offer a virtual theatre. How do you see it working?
THERE are going to be these big screens and I just had this idea in my head of a big cow on the screen looking like it’s pooing on my head.
(Laughs) I’ll be really happy if that ends up in the arena tour. Can you see it? I love that, love it.
I hope people (aged) 10 to 100 come to see the show. I really do.
You named your own dog after Pirates Of The Caribbean star Keira Knightley. Will Keira be joining you on tour?
(LAUGHS) I’ll have to speak to her manager. She likes hanging with me and might make an appearance if she comes along with me on some dates.
I work ridiculous hours. I am actually on call right now and even when I am at home I am on call all the time. I also go and give lecturers in America. It’s just flat out.
It’s hard to make time for everything.
What type of animals have you treated?
I USED to work with horses and cattle. Those are the biggest animals that I have done.
Now it’s mainly dogs and cats and I have treated a 110kg mastiff.
I remember in the early days doing an operation on a cow that lived in the same house as the man who owned it.
It was an orthopaedic operation and I did it on the kitchen table.
Did you always want to be a vet?
I DECIDED I wanted to be a vet when I was a boy dealing with lambs in a frozen field and I remember vividly looking up at the stars and feeling a sort of stronger force and wanting to save the lambs.
I got offered the chance to study to be a vet when I was 17. I was young and it was a big decision to make at the time, but it was good.
I think humans are a million per cent more difficult to deal with if you are a doctor.
The operations we carry out now have wider applications for everyone. This is what the future of medicine is like.
What is the more time consuming, dealing with animals or dealing with their owners?
(CHUCKLES) I would say dealing with animals and their problems takes about 20% of my time and dealing with humans 80%.
Animals are no problem.
You perform groundbreaking surgeries and have introduced pioneering bionic inventions so is it difficult when there is no choice but to put a sick animal down?
IT’S the hardest thing I have to do.
I had to do it the other day and it was heartbreaking.
I first met this dog three years ago and this labradoodle was the centre of their owner’s world.
There had been various treatments over the years, but we had come to the end of the line.
To the owner her life was unravelling around her.
There had been a divorce and other kinds of trouble and all that sort of stuff and then she had to face saying goodbye to her friend and companion. How do you deliver bad news? YOU have to be compassionate and be there to help them make the right choice. People love their animals and they desperately want hope, a miracle, but sometimes there are difficult choices to be made.
This is life generally and I see it every single day coming through the consulting room. I go through all these life experiences with the owners.
I think 99% of people are good and they love their animals and they desperately want hope.
How do you bring the drama of your Channel 4 series The Supervet to the arena?
THAT’S the challenge. There will be no edit on the tour, no chance to do anything again, audiences will see it all live.
I want people to put themselves into the different scenarios and to translate that feeling into what it means to look after an animal – a cat, a dog, an iguana, a parrot.
It’s the same as the love I have for my dog Keira.
■ Noel Fitzpatrick’s Welcome To My World arena tour begins on September 27. Go to noelfitzpatricklive.com for ticket and venue details.