1. This session is designed as an assembly presentation to give a basic overview of PDSA.

2. Replace this with images of your pets and share funny stories about them
My Pets

3. The UK’s leading vet charity …
Our charity is 100 years old and we’ve been treating sick and injured pets since 1917
We have Pet Hospitals all over the UK
Share the details on the slide and:
Explain the work that PDSA does
Ask the group where they think the money comes from for PDSA to treat all these sick and injured pets . Get answers from group and then share that it comes from people doing fundraising and donating money
Ask what would happen to all the pets we treat if PDSA weren’t around
We help a sick or injured pet every 5 seconds!
It costs more than £1 million every week to do our work
The UK’s leading vet charity …

4.
100 years of PDSA video

5. The Five Welfare Needs All pets need … EXERCISE & FUN HEALTH
A HOME
Explain that pets are just like us and need a variety of things to keep them happy and healthy even though they are very different from us and from each other (different species)
For instance; you wouldn’t keep a dog in a rabbit hutch or a cat in a fish tank!
Environment – Pets need a clean, safe environment with enough space
Diet – Pets need the right kind of food in the right amount and 24 hour access to fresh clean water
Behaviour – Pets need to be able to express their normal behaviour; they need to exercise, to play and do specific things, depending on what species they are.
Health – Pets need to be kept in good health. This means taking them to the vet when they’re ill, but also making sure we keep them healthy.
Companionship – Pets need the company of people and sometimes other animals, depending on the species.
Responsibility: Ask children to tell you who is responsible for keeping pets happy and healthy. Stress to the children that if they have a pet, that it’s their responsibility to make sure that all these welfare needs are met. Tell them that people who don’t provide these needs are now breaking the law.
HEALTH
FOOD & WATER
FRIENDS
The Five Welfare Needs

6. Teaching the pet owners of today …
Expand on this slide – ask who are the pet owners of today (their parents) and who they think will own pets in the future (them).
Tell the pupils the image shows a pet owner who has bought her dog to visit nurse Melissa on the PetCheck vehicle. Briefly explain what happens on PetCheck (PetWise MOT) and that they check pets are happy and healthy using the 5 Welfare Needs for guidance.

7. … and the vets and nurses of tomorrow
Expand on this slide – ask who wants to work with animals when they’re older (show of hands). Explain that they’ll have to work hard at school and do all their homework.

8. Shadow, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier cheated death after a collision with a cyclist left him with life-threatening injuries.
He initially walked away from the accident but, after collapsing at home with internal injuries, he was rushed to PDSA.
Shadow

9. Three-year-old Shadow’s injuries were so severe that our vets warned that the odds were stacked against him surviving. An ultrasound scan revealed a lacerated liver and severe internal bleeding. He had lost around one quarter of his blood. Our vets had to operate to repair his liver. He also needed a blood transfusion to replace the blood he’d lost.
Our vets and nurses fought desperately for five days to save his life as his distraught family waited for him to pull through.

10. Saved thanks to PDSA
Shadow has now fully recovered thanks to PDSA.

11. Shinji fell 3 floors!
Shinji, the black-and-white kitten was rushed to a PDSA Pet Hospital by his owner, after a neighbour saw him fall from a third floor window.

12. PDSA vets x-rayed Shinji and discovered he’d badly broken his two front legs in the fall.  
 ’Shinji’s x-rays showed clear breaks and his surgery was complex because of where the bone had fractured, but he had a lot of fighting spirit. Just 24 hours after the operation he was up on his feet again, with the external fixators holding his broken bones in place’

13. Shinji’s owner said his love of watching birds had probably led to his fall, but said she was now keeping a much closer eye on her curious cat. She said she thought the accident had happened because Shinji had tried to go after a flying bird, but now they keep the windows locked so it can’t happen again.
Shinji had his fixators removed a few weeks later and he went on to make a full recovery. Saved thanks to PDSA.
Saved thanks to PDSA

14. WANT TO HELP PETS LIKE SHADOW & SHINJI?
Hold your own
Fundraising day
Explain that these are just some of the ways they can help raise money for PDSA.
You can find our fundraising resources on pdsa.org.uk/PetWise
Bake sale
Non-uniform day
Guess how many sweets in the jar
Sponsored event

15. Thanks!