THE efforts of animal hospital staff have been praised by viewers as a four-part series about the South Essex Wildlife Hospital concluded.

The hospital, based in Orsett and serving the whole of south Essex and beyond, works tirelessly all year round to nurse sick and injured animals back to full health.

Over the past four weeks, Channel 4 has aired a four-part series as TV crews followed the dedicated team at the animal hospital.

Echo: Staff - South Essex Wildlife HospitalStaff - South Essex Wildlife Hospital (Image: Channel 4)

South Essex Wildlife Hospital often takes around 200 calls a day.

The series, called Wildlife Rescue, showed just a snippet of some of the rescues the charity has carried out as they helped get sick and injured animals back to health and out into the wild once again.

One case study during the series saw the team travel to a building site in Grays to help a fox cub after it got its head and neck stuck in a plastic bottle.

Another saw the team rush to the aid of a badger that had got trapped under paving blocks in Leigh.

Sue Schwar, founder of the South Essex Wildlife Hospital, said: “We were very pleased with it. We were a bit apprehensive as programmes are heavily edited for entertainment, but the response has been amazing.

Echo: Care - Founder Sue Schwar and lead vet Tom Linsel with a seal pupCare - Founder Sue Schwar and lead vet Tom Linsel with a seal pup (Image: Channel 4)

“It has been all positive feedback. I have not seen anything negative, which we were sadly expecting, but there has been none of that.

“We have had several members of the public brining animals in as a result of the show, which is really positive as it has got the education out there.

“It is a very small snippet of what we do all day, every day.

“The message has got across that we need to be more careful for our wildlife, as 90 per cent of cases are as a result of humans. So, we wanted people to be more aware, which I hope this series has shown.

“We have had so many supportive comments, so a big thank you to everyone.”

The South Essex Wildlife Hospital also helped a swan which had a fishhook caught in its neck.

In another episode it showed a group of orphaned seals as well as fox cubs prepared for a return to the wild.