CHRISTOPHER TIMOTHY: Across Yorkshire's moors and dales,
the world's most famous vet set the benchmark for animal care,
and James Herriot's legacy lives on.
His former trainee Peter Wright...
All my life, I've enjoyed doing this.
...has been a Yorkshire vet for over 40 years.
I get the impression you wouldn't take me on as an assistant.
Is that right? Probably.
THEY LAUGH
Peter's old partnerjulian Norton...
With a gloved hand and a lubricated finger, I'm well-equipped.
...now runs two practices... Come on, young man!
...one of them in the town where Herriot worked,
surrounded by the North Yorkshire landscape he loved.
Look at that! What a sheep!
And in the foothills of the Pennines...
I'm armed and ready. ..a new generation
of town and country vets...
This is the closest tojames Bond I think I'm ever getting.
...also uphold the Herriot ethos.
Another day in paradise.
The teams are united...
We can probably knock this off ourselves, do you think? Pfft!
...never taking their eyes off the ball...
Ooh, howzat?! THEY GRUNT
...as they help animals of all shapes...
Didn't think I'd be hugging a turkey today.
Phwoar! ..sizes... That's more like pulling a calf out.
...types... Nearly clone, nearly clone, Bertie.
...and temperaments.
Ow! He's bit me.
It's definitely not glamourous.
I spend far too much of my time scrubbing testicles.
But it's varied.
Eee-aw!
GIGGLING You ought to know better!
It's rarely easy. HE STRAINS
But they continue the Herriot tradition...
Whoa-oh. ..treating all creatures.
That's it. There we go, there we go.
...great... Aw, Merlin.
Come on! ..and small.
HE GIGGLES Ho-ho!
With time running wild,
there's no escaping life's changes.
Like ripples shape shifting in the stream.
Although, as the days float through our eyes,
the Yorkshire countryside, in many ways, always seems the same.
But some changes are unmistakeable.
Like at the practice in Kirkbymoorside,
where a large extension is being built.
The vet work, of course, continues throughout.
And having seen plenty of changes in over 40 years as a Yorkshire vet,
Peter is always prepared to turn and face the strange.
Got a farmer coming down now off the moors,
and he's very concerned about a young sheep of his that's lambing.
We've got a little background distraction
because there's quite a lot of new building work going on
at the practice.
Sol hope it isn't a surgical case,
but his daughter, I believe, has had a quick feel,
and she's very concerned that the lamb may be too big
to be born naturally.
As usual in this situation,
we've got to be prepared for all eventualities.
A farmer with over 6O years' experience of his own,
Pete has just arrived.
Hello there. Hello! How are you?
She's showing signs that she's lambing,
but she's very tight,
and my hands are far too big,
and the daughter just haven't the strength
and could only find one leg, you know.
Hopefully, lamb will be alive, if you know what I mean?
Yes. It's a soul-destroying job when they're not. Yeah.
Right, let's have a look.
That's a big lamb.
I'm just trying to work out what's going on here.
It's coming backwards. Aye.
Is it still alive? I don't know. No.
To be honest, I can't tell. Yeah.
But the legs are... Both back legs are going forward.
Do you know, I'm going to try, I think...
I'm going to try and see if I can get him out.
We've got those legs straightened up now.
She hasn't a lot of space. No.
Hmm.
No.
He's got jammed up. Aye. He's got pelvic...
There's no point trying to get him any further, it'll crush him. No.
I don't think we'll get him out alive.
I don't think we stand any chance if we pull him. No.
No. Will it be a Caesarean? I'm afraid so.
But as Peter begins his emergency C-section
to deliver the lamb...
Peter! We're just going to bring some concrete in.
...there's a delivery outside.
There's, er, quite a hive of activity here today.
I don't think I've been where there's been a building site before.
Peter says the older you get, the more you see in life.
Very true. Eh? Very true.
That yellowy colour there is faecal matter,
and that tells you that that lamb's distressed.
With all that yellow,
it shows he's been on the way some time. Yes.
Ancl that's why I'm just a bit dubious.
I hope I can get him out alive. Yeah.
But I think time's... time's of the essence.
COCKEREL CROWS
Sunrise at Cannon Hall Farm.
SHEEP BLEATING
The time when most of the residents wake up and eat up.
But Rob was out of bed before dawn...
helping some new arrivals
who've been struggling with their vital first meals.
Pip, our sheep dog, has had a litter of pups,
seven of which are doing fantastically well.
But we've got three, the Three Musketeers,
one of which has no ears,
and none of the three are feeding as I would like.
Rohin is coming down to see if there's anything he can do
to give these three little guys a better chance.
I'm really quite worried about it.
Hi, Rob. Hiya, Rohin.
How's it going? Not perfectly. Hmm.
I've got a band of brothers who... are limping along a little bit.
Is she producing enough milk? Well, she is for the seven.
But I think the three are getting pushed out.
You know, there just aren't enough teats to go around,
and I think I'm going to have to become their... clad. Hm.
ROB CHUCKLES
It's definitely 50-50, at best, for one of them.
Ancl the poor little mite has been born without any ears as well.
Oh, wow. He's the one that's struggling.
He's just not strong enough to compete with the other puppies.
Not even trying, is he?
The only way we'll rear him is by him taking to a teat.
With the ones that are struggling,
if we give them a bit of a check over.
Poor old Fearless Earless,
I don't know if he's got a bit of a respiratory issue.
I'll just have a listen to his, erm... to his lungs.
Oh, what a tiny little chest, in't it?
Bless him. There you go, little one.
Pip's come to check out I'm not interfering with the pups too much.
I'm trying to help them, Pip!
I think we need to be careful there.
It's potentially quite likely this one
could have an early stage of pneumonia.
It's super common at this stage, where they end up inhaling
some of the fluid when they're trying to feed,
and then they can end up very, very poorly with it.
Sometimes, they've got an anatomical reason why,
you know, why they can't get enough nutrition on board.
If we do find a cleft palate,
it's sadly very, very bad news indeed,
if there is one there.
A cleft palate is where the centre of the mouth
has failed to fuse properly.
It means, for a puppy, if it's present,
it won't be able to swallow and get enough nutrition on board.
So it's quite important to try and rule that out
to know if these puppies have any sort of chance.
OK, so, his palate looks like it should.
It hasn't got a hole in it, so it gives us a bit of hope.
So, because he's so tiny,
he's only going to need two drops of antibiotic.
'It's going to be touch and go with those three smaller puppies there.
'They haven't got cleft palate, ancl that's good news.'
Ancl they are trying to feed and making an effort.
We're just going to have to do everything we can.
'Rob's going to give them plenty of love and keep feeding them
'and give the antibiotics to that little one who needs it.
'Ancl we're just going to have our fingers crossed.'
Keep me up to date how they're getting on.
I'll text you tonight. Yeah. Yeah. Look forward to it.
OK, then. Right, see you later, Rob. Bye, Rohin.
It's going to be quite draining.
It's going to be every two or three hours
of a job through the night, and it won't be easy,
but we're going to give it our best shot
and do all we can to rear them, if at all possible.
Coming up...
This is fleece from alpacas, is it?
...everything's in bloom.
It's a different smell to what you get on most farms, isn't it?
Butjulian's worried a flower farm's alpacas are wilting.
He does feel quite thin, and you can feel his backbone there,
and you can feel his ribs.
And confidence isn't building for the unborn lamb.
Such a big lamb, this. Aye.
I'm struggling.
CH RISTOPH ER TIMOTHY: In Kirkbymoorside...
She wouldn't open up properly with coming backwards anyway. No.
...as work continues apace
on the practice extension...
...Peter's having to work quickly too.
Especially when they've got the backside there
and the legs are going forward... Exactly, yeah.
He's performing an emergency C-section
to try and save Pete's ewe and her stuck lamb.
We've had a few over the years down here, quite a few.
Touching wood, up to now, we've always took a live lamb home.
But I'm not too sure now with this one.
just struggling to, er... Such a big lamb, this. Aye.
I'm just struggling to, er...
the extremities.
I'm just going to just swing him a bit. Aye.
Good.
Yeah... might be all right here. Ah.
Might be all right.
PETER CHUCKLES Come on, then.
Come on. We'll be all right.
Come on, little 'un. Is he shaping?
Yeah.
Very surprised. I thought it would be dead, like.
Well, could have gone either way, could that. Yeah.
Very easily. You're a miracle lamb!
Well, I'm very happy with how things have gone so far.
We're all happy. All these Peters are happy.
LAUGHS If Peter's happy, I'm happy.
It's going very well.
just have one more stitch to put in now.
I'm happy now. Yep. She's been a model patient.
I'm just going to give her a bit of painkiller. Aye.
You would give her some penicillin did you, Peter?
I'm gonna give her some as well. Thank you, yeah.
I always do. How's he doing in there?
I think he'll be all right. Yeah.
We'll see he gets lifted as well. Aye.
Aye, he's got his head up now, so...
That's a good sign always, in't it? Yeah.
BLEATS
Get some milk into you when we get back.
A very good result.
Better than I thought it was gonna be.
I thought I was going to have a dead lamb in a box.
BLEATS
Happy with that. I'm very grateful.
I'm glad you were here.
Nice to see you. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Peter. We'll see you another time.
Yes. Bye-bye, then. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
The end result's been very good,
and I'm very pleased to see
that we've not only got a happy mother,
but we've also got a lovely lamb as well.
Now Peter can turn his attention to more mundane matters,
knowing the ewe and her lamb are on solid ground.
We've had a few distractions in the background.
There's a little building work going on.
I think it's time I just popped off now
to see if the concrete which was delivered
at the start of the operation is now starting to set.
Let's hope so.
It's feeding time at Cannon Hall Farm.
Come on, little man. Are you hungry?
Sheepdog Pip's litter is now nine days old.
But Rob's still worried about the weakest puppy, Fearless.
Kate and myself have put a lot of time into feeding Fearless.
We've grown really fond of him.
Come on. And you grow attached.
You spend hours with that little dog,
and you're willing him to succeed.
You can do it.
We've got to make sure that he doesn't feed too quickly
and aspirate with milk on his lungs.
Ancl it's a painstaking exercise.
There we go, he's drinking now.
Today, Rohin's back,
hoping there's been some improvement.
How's everything going? Well, going well, really.
The Three Musketeers... Yeah?
...two of them now don't need any help from us.
Oh, wow. And the little one, Fearless, the one with no ears,
is drinking from a bottle really nicely. He's really positive.
Some days,
he's put on, like, 20 grams, which I think, "Amazing. Oh, great."
And then some days, it's, like, six grams.
It's still, like... But it's still moving in the right direction.
What about his breathing? Has that, erm...?
Fine. Has that got better now with the antibiotics?
Settled down. I'm really happy he's putting weight on.
Mm-hm? But I don't like his balance.
And he's... ls he just not very co-ordinated?
No. His coordination's not right. He rolls over a lot.
Yeah. just doing things that don't look quite right.
He is just very uncoordinated, the way he's moving around there.
He ends up on his back and is distressed and not...
FEARLESS WHIMPERS Come on then, little guy.
There you go.
Every time, he's ending up on his back
and flopping over, isn't he, there? Yeah.
It's possible he's just being slow to develop,
and he's just a step behind the other ones. Yeah.
But we know he's not got his outer ears.
We don't know what the extent of damage to his inner ear is,
which is obviously crucial for balance.
Once he can see and once he starts to grow,
I think that will give us our answer.
When these patterns of behaviour started to develop,
I just thought, "Flippin' 'eck.
"We're gonna end up heartbroken here."
Ancl I'm hoping I'm wrong, but I'm fearing the worst.
I think he deserves a bit of luck,
and I think he needs a bit of luck, doesn't he, now? Yeah.
'I think, at this stage,
'we know his co-ordination is far behind his litter mates.'
We just don't know whether that's a developmental problem
or whether there's really a severe sort of congenital defect.
You can really see the difference in size between these two.
Fearless has got a long way to go to ever catch up to the other ones.
But the thing is, he's actually gaining weight every clay.
Twenty grams yesterday. Yeah. Fantastic. Yeah.
So, there's hope, isn't there? Yeah. There's definitely hope.
FEARLESS SNEEZES Oh! Little sneeze?
THEY CHUCKLE
Every time you put him back, you're thinking,
"Don't roll over, please.
"Please, look like the others."
Ancl I just hope, I'm keeping everything crossed,
that he'll end up the right way
and that he can have a happy life here on the farm.
Near Thirsk...
That smells really nice.
...farmer's wife Sahra has swapped cows for cowslips.
My husband has been a farmer all his life,
and I wanted to do something for myself,
so I decided to start the flower farm.
My ethos here is to be sustainable as I can,
and part of that is supplying
grown not flown flowers, grown locally,
for all sorts of occasions.
A lot of weddings, and...
a lot of florists want flowers for their shops.
And providing the manure to keep Sahra's blossoms in bloom...
Good boy. ..are her three alpacas, Dylan, Flash and Bullet.
Come on. CLICKS TONGUE
But a recent haircut has revealed some worrying weight loss.
It's quite strange because I've never...
I've never seen them be this lean before.
So I'm quite concerned for them, really.
Sahra's called Julian,
who might not know his carnations from his chrysanthemums,
but does know about alpacas.
So, there's one here. This is... Who's this one?
That's Bullet. Bullet?
Because he's so fast? Yeah.
Ancl you're worried that they're a bit thin? Yes.
Whoa! He's got lots of energy, by the looks of it.
Right, if I put his halter on, would you just hold...?
Yeah, do you want me to hold the bucket?
He does feel quite thin, actually, there, doesn't he? Yeah.
Alpacas are unusual creatures. They're a bit like sheep.
They're so covered in fleece most of the time,
it's hard to sort of get a visual assessment.
But now he's been clipped, he does look quite bony, actually.
His muscles are relatively weak... BULLET MEWS
...and you can feel his backbone there, and you can feel his ribs.
He's slightly under con...
Whoo! ..under conditioned.
He's eating OK, is he? Yeah, yeah.
Ancl the others, are they thin as well?
They're all a bit on the lean side, yeah.
First things first would be to get a faeces sample collected.
Can we get some poo? Yes.
I collect the alpaca poo for my flower farm.
For the flowers? OK. Yeah. I use it as a fertiliser.
So, we can get the faeces sample for the lab,
and then you can take the rest of it.
Oh, I was going to scoop a bit up, but it's quite solid, that.
Look at that!
Coming up...
He's such a determined little soul.
...fears grow for little Fearless.
We're just going to see if he's got his reflex at the back of his eye.
Can he constrict and dilate his pupils?
And as David needs all his muscle...
I'm just trying to get a nice secure grasp of it now.
Trying to correct that, but I am obviously fighting against that gas.
...Peter sees veterinary future.
PETER: A staff gym? Staff gym.
Help 'em when they're pulling calves out of cows, won't it?
That's the plan.
CHRISTOPHER TIMOTHY: At Cannon Hall Farm,
Rohin's arrived to check on Pip the sheepdog's puppies...
...who are now nearly three weeks old.
ROHIN: It's an important milestone today.
Their eyes have opened,
so they're at that sort of next stage of development now.
So, last time, it was overall a pretty happy picture.
They were all doing well except for one little guy,
Fearless, who was born with no ears.
Hello again, Rob. How's it going?
Nice to see you again. Not too bad, how are you?
'The concern now is that has he caught up to the others?
'Ancl what's his long-term prospects going to be now?'
How's little Fearless doing now?
His eyes are open, and he's putting weight on. Hm.
But he's not developing like the others are. Nothing like.
Now... Hm, clear.
"I've spent a lot of hours with this little man. OK.
There you go.
When his eyes opened,
I was willing him to improve because I thought
that might be the point where he gets a bit of balance.
He's not clone. He's still falling over.
He's got no co-ordination at all.
We absolutely want to give him the best chance,
but we don't want to do anything that puts him
in any discomfort or pain.
We want to know when enough's enough. And, erm...
I want your opinion on it, Rohin.
We're just going to see if he's got his reflex at the back of his eye.
Can he constrict and dilate his pupils?
He's such a determined little soul. He is.
He's been a real fighter, hasn't he? He has.
He just can't rest. He's just so restless.
His reflexes are not working at all. I do think he's blind as well.
I think Fearless has got a condition called congenital hydrocephalus,
and he's got it to a really severe degree.
He can't see,
he's constantly going around in circles and falling over.
These signs are all likely going to be caused
by this underlying issue of, essentially, brain damage.
I don't think he'll ever develop the ability to walk
and correct and adapt to what he's got.
The kindest thing we can do now is, erm,
is stop the suffering rather than prolong it.
He's getting worse.
And, erm...
So, if it's worth anything, I agree with you, Rohin. Yeah.
Poor little lad.
Bless him.
I'm glad his last memory's with the person
who cared about him the most.
You tried everything possible to help him, and...
it just wasn't to be.
Yeah.
I think Pip's always been a mother to him.
You know, even though she's not been able to feed him,
she's still cleaned him and looked after him
and nurtured him, so...
She's an incredible mum, isn't she? What she's clone...
WHISPERS: Good lad.
He looks at peace now, doesn't he? He does.
Whenever one of our clogs passes away, Rohin, we bury 'em.
We plant a fruit tree,
and every year, we get the apples or the pears, or...
But at the moment, it'll be blossoms.
So I'll go out and clig a hole this afternoon and, er...
lay him to rest. Ancl it means...
he won't be forgotten, isn't it?
It means you'll always... you'll always remember that.
ROHIN: 'A very sad clay.
'The worst part of looking after animals
'and the worst part of being a vet.'
But we know, when we look back, we're gonna remember
that we did the right thing for Fearless.
We gave him the best possible life, even though it was a short life.
Ancl if we carried on any longer than this, he was just suffering.
He was never gonna be happy, ancl this was the only way
we could give him a dignified, peaceful end to his life.
ROB: 'To lose a dog is really upsetting.
'Even though Fearless was only young, he'd made a mark on us,
'and what helps with the process is to plant a tree in their memory.'
Right.
From this tiny sapling, we can get a magnificent oak tree,
and it'll be a fitting tribute to Fearless' memory, and hopefully,
something we can look upon as the years go by
and think of him warmly.
All right.
BEE BUZZES
LAMB BLEATS
In Thirsk, at Sahra's flower farm...
I've never been very good at filling pots with...
Poo. ..poo, no. No.
"Julian's trying to get to the bottom of why her alpacas
have been losing weight.
I think testing for worms would be a good idea. Yeah, yeah.
They pick worm eggs up from the grass,
and they can cause problems in terms of poor absorption of the food,
and it's a common reason why alpacas would be underweight.
And while Julian's reluctantly taking samples to test for worms...
That's too big to fit in my container. It's like a choc ice!
...Sahra's used to getting her hands dirty.
Nice chunk there, look.
So, when it comes to using this on your roses, which is preferable?
Bits like that or more solid bits, or is it all the same?
Doesn't really matter. I mean, I'll just collect any poo
and just add water to it and...
HE LAUGHS
Ancl put it in the oven? SHE CHUCKLES
It's very fertile stuff. Yes.
Well, I've got what I need now, Sahra,
so I'll send these off to the lab.
So have you got enough there?
I think that's enough to make my alpaca tea.
It sounds delicious (!)
Yeah, the flowers love it.
Shall we go and have a look? Yeah.
I'll take you to the flower farm now. Lead the way.
Sahra needs her alpacas healthy to help her flower business grow...
Right, so, welcome to my polytunnel.
...for a number of reasons.
This is fleece from alpacas, is it? Yeah.
Fleece from alpacas. I've got that round my pelargoniums.
Is that to keep it warm or to keep the slugs off?
It's a weed suppressant. Oh, wow.
Gosh, I tell you what, alpaca fleece is brilliant stuff.
It sounds a very holistic, organic, connected process. Yeah.
So... HE SNIFFS DEEPLY
Ooh, the smells getting better the further in we go. Yeah.
Is this the sweet peas? These are the sweet peas.
Ooh, yum!
It's good.
It's a different smell to what you get on most farms, isn't it?
As you can see, the cornflowers are just growing naturally here,
so would you like to cut some cornflowers?
We can make a bouquet. Yeah, yeah. Yeah?
Then you can give it to Anne.
She'd be thrilled with a bunch of cornflowers.
Especially, hand-picked by me.
So, if you go right down to the...
Right down to... What, down there?
Yeah, yeah. Ancl angle. Yeah.
SHARP SNIP There we go.
Is that all right? Yeah, perfect.
This is a far cry from nipping into the supermarket
or garage after work.
Whoa-ee, are these all from here?
These are all from here. Wow. Yeah.
So, we're gonna add these to your cornflowers.
Butjulian can't fully take his mind off the practice.
It smells like... like a...
SNIFFS
A bit like a cat.
Cat wee. Yeah.
I mean, that's a sign, isn't it... Yeah.
...of the ultimate in freshness of the flower?
BEE BUZZES
The bee doesn't even know it's been picked.
Actually, if I say so myself,
that looks pretty good between those...
It does, yes. ..doesn't it?
My hands are full. I don't think I can fit any more in.
This is gonna put me really in the good books, I think.
Bye. Cheerio.
SHEEP BLEAT
In Kirkbymoorside...
PETER: You must be very excited about this, john.
I'm a little bit more scared than excited.
...Practice Director john is showing Peter
why a few distractions will be worth it in the long run.
It is huge.
Ancl two-storey as well, so we've got accommodation above it.
So, we can keep two vets on site.
A Staff QYm to keep the staff happy. A staff gym?!
A staff gym, Peter, yeah.
Can you imagine in your clay, building a clinic with a staff gym?
I'd have said, "|f they want to go to the gym at night,
"they're not working hard enough!"
As your staff develop muscles,
it'll help 'em pull big calves out of cows, won't it?
That's the plan. THEY LAUGH
But given the stresses and strains of the job,
Peter knows it's important for young vets to be sound of mind,
as well as body.
So, basically...
And he's having a catch-up with Kat and Hannah.
What's harder now, particularly hard,
for younger vets, like yourselves, is the technology.
HANNAH: Oh, yeah. Pace of change in our profession.
It's keeping up with it.
Ancl that's where I feel for you, really.
Burn-out is a major issue. Yeah.
Fatigue in terms of compassion fatigue.
Going from one consult and having a good outcome
to then going in and to help someone say goodbye to their best friend.
See you, kid. See ya.
Oh, baby. It'll be better, I promise.
That's part of the job, isn't it?
Is you're not just there to help the animals,
you do become a kind of...
A way of owners to let out their... Yeah.
...their worries and concerns. Counselling them, and...
And it's just...
And going from that in, you know,
15-minute slots for the whole day... Yeah.
...it's a lot to cope with and a lot to be thinking about.
You've got to make so many decisions so quickly.
Otherwise, you could risk losing the calf, the lamb...
Literally, a life is in your hands, isn't it?
Yeah. Yeah.
Oh, hi, monkey.
COW LOWS
Ooh, ooh, ooh!
She has caught herself sore, hasn't she?
She's bashed herself on that side. Yeah. Oh, bless her.
Is it just today she's been down?
Yeah. Found this morning. Yeah.
Hm. I'm wondering whether to pump her with some fluids.
Steady, steady, steady, lass.
It's going quite nicely, this, Hannah. Good.
Hopefully, it will make her feel better.
COW LOWS
I mean, I was very lucky, cos I had, you know,
Donald Sinclair, Siegfried Farnon,
and Alf Wight, James Heriot, as support,
and they were absolutely fantastic.
Alf Wight said to me one clay, he said,
"Peter," he said, "you're looking a bit glum."
Cos, you know, we'd lost a case and hadn't expected to.
Ancl he said, "Did you do your best?"
I said, "Yes, I did me best."
He said, "Well, people can ask no more than that. just do your best."
Yeah.
Ancl that's always stuck with me, really.
Yeah. Yeah.
Anyway, let's have a bit more cake. A TINY bit more.
Me granny would say, "Go on, just have a little bit more."
WOMEN LAUGH
Near Huddersfield, David's just arrived at a dairy farm
after an emergency call about a struggling new mum.
Hi, john. You all right? David. Good to see you.
So, she's not been looking too well? No. Oh, clear.
She calved three weeks ago, calved twins
and held her cleansing. Yeah.
Since that time, she's been up and down, really.
She's chewing the cud and everything like that,
but she's just not producing the milk she should.
Right. So there's summat not right.
I've got my stethoscope on the side of the cow's abdomen,
and I'm just getting a little percussive sound here.
There's a tell-tale metallic sort of ping if her abomasum,
which is the fourth chamber of her stomach,
is twisted round and trapped on the wrong side.
I'm listening, and she's got it.
It's a big one.
Unfortunately, she had a bit of an infection.
It looks like she succumbed, and her stomach's twisted round.
It is a surgical condition,
so we need to get this sorted as soon as we can.
Open her up on the right-hand side,
see if we can manage to reach and get the stomach round
and stitch it in place where it should be.
If we can't, what we'll be forced to do
is open up her on the other side.
We find the best way is to have two vets ready to go.
Hi, David.
Hi, Shona. How are you getting on?
Yeah, good, thanks. just getting ready now.
If it's a difficult one
and David can't get it round from the side,
then I'll be making an incision on this side into the abdomen.
Want me to pass it to you? Thank you.
The local's kicked in, so I'm gonna make my incision now.
COW LOWS All right, lass.
So, I've gone through the muscle layers carefully
to get down to the abdomen.
Ancl then I can see if I can get this twisted stomach round.
Ultimately, it would unfortunately be fatal if we didn't correct this.
So, erm, it really is vital, this surgery.
I'm through into her abdomen now,
and I can feel just like a balloon, fourth chamber,
just trapped where we don't want it.
So I'm just trying get a nice, secure grasp of it now
and then get it round to where we want it.
If the stomach's twisted the wrong way,
it can cut off the blood supply to it,
and the stomach itself can die off very, very quickly.
Ancl that is a major, major emergency.
It's got too much gas,
and that makes it buoyant, and it rises to the wrong side.
So... I'm trying to correct that,
but I am obviously fighting against that gas.
Want to treat as quickly as we can and get it in the right position.
The longer they're left, the worse they'll do.
Every time I grab it and pull it round, it just slips.
I'm very worried, Shona.
Still to come... These are cornflowers picked by me.
"Julian says it with flowers.
Ancl they're fertilised by alpaca poo.
And after Rob planted his tribute to Fearless,
how are his brothers and sisters?
This is the big dog.
I'll just do a bit of a quick check on each one,
listen to their heart and just have a feel.
CHRISTOPHER TIMOTHY: In Thirsk, after examining underweight alpacas
at the local flower farm...
"Julian's back at the practice with his bulky bouquet
to surprise Anne.
So, look what I've got.
Oh, blimey.
They're all right, aren't they? What are they in aid of, then?
It's just a present, a bunch of flowers.
Have you clone something wrong? No!
Nothing more than usual. They're amazing.
So, are these from the place?
So, it's a farm that's recently started growing flowers.
Ancl so I've been to see some alpacas but also pick some flowers.
It's good, isn't it? And they're fertilised by alpaca poo.
Excellent. Good to know. Also, some of them are wrapped up
in alpaca fleece to keep them warm at night. Ah.
These are cornflowers...
Yeah. ..picked by me.
Er, and... peonies. Peonies.
Ancl that is a... "something" Charlie?
Sweet William. Sweet William, that's it.
I was gonna say Fragrant Charlie, but, no, you're right.
It's a Sweet William, you're quite right, yeah. OK.
That's mint. I usually like to throw in a bit of mint.
It adds structure.
Fantastic, thank you.
I better go and put them in some water.
Yeah, cool. Brilliant.
Don't expect one every week, though. OK.
And a few months later, back at Sahra's farm...
SAHRA: Come on, boys. Come on.
...everything's come up rosy for her alpacas.
Julian discovered that they'd got worms,
so by treating them with the medication thatjulian recommended,
they are looking so much better.
They're not looking skinny any more.
You gonna come and get some hay? Come on, then.
They love their food.
Bullet loves a treat of a carrot, don't you?
You do. You do love a treat of a carrot. Yes, you do.
Near Huddersfield, David and Shona are trying
to untwist the stomach of john's dairy cow.
It's really annoying, cos I've got a really good grasp of it.
That's frustrating, is that.
So, we're going for the safety option and going in the other side.
I'm now opening up the left-hand side,
just making a hole just literally big enough to get my arm in.
The key is moving it back to her original position
without any damage to the tissue.
It's close. I'll give it a push. You ready?
Yeah. All right. Ancl then I'll push this bit.
It doesn't wanna just swing round, does it?
Doesn't wanna swing round, does it?
It's come nearly all the way round now.
Do you wanna grab where my hand is? Oh, that felt good.
Hello. Oh, that's you!
THEY LAUGH
She just held my hand.
The first time you have to do this, nothing quite prepares you for it.
It is strange, though, for the cow just sort of standing,
and I'm rooting around with her internal organs.
It's sort of almost round. Yeah.
But I haven't got enough slack. Can I come and have a feel?
You wanna switch? Yeah. just see.
I'm just wriggling it around bit by bit
whilst Shona's got hold of it.
just trying put some force down against that gas,
and then hopefully it'll pop up on the right side
where it's supposed to be.
We don't want her open for very long for infection,
and we don't want the drugs we've been giving her
to start wearing off either.
It's definitely a fairly difficult one.
It's when it's nice to have two of you there,
so you can get one from each side.
That's better.
Yeah, I've just got the edge of it now.
It's past the mid-line. Am I pulling it now? No?
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, definitely? Right, OK.
Right, we've just checked,
and it's definitely attached to the right bit of stomach.
She's not quite through the woods yet, but it's a good start.
We're gonna stitch this to the muscle inside her abdomen
on this side of the cow.
This is dis-solvable suture material,
but it will hold it there for quite some time
and just make sure that it can't cause the same problem again.
She should be immediately feeling better
because the gas that was stuck there should be able
to pass through normally now it's not twisted.
It shouldn't be obstructing.
She'll be eating again properly over the next clay or two.
He needs a bit of help sometimes, does our David, don't you?
I asked for someone good to come and give me a hand, but...
But unfortunately, you got me. ..we've only got Shona left.
Right, lovely. just give her a bit of a clean-up. All clone.
It'll pick up a bit, just make sure she's eating,
and, yeah, them two are happy with it, so jobs a good 'un.
Thanks for coming to give a hand. Cheers.
'It's gone really well this afternoon.'
Lucky I got Shona along in the end, because it did take a bit of effort,
and we had to go for the two-sided approach, but cow's looking good.
She's happy, so look forward to her making a full recovery.
She would've ultimately died from this condition,
so we've definitely saved her
by getting the stomach back round in the right place.
She'll need a bit of TLC over the next couple of weeks,
and then after that, she'll start eating really well
and feeling a lot better in herself.
At Cannon Hall Farm,
it's three weeks since Rohin and Rob made the difficult decision
to end Fearless the puppy's suffering.
That's a good girl. That's the good girl.
Originally, three of Pip's ten pups were struggling,
and today, they all need a check-up.
Right, shall we go see your puppies, Pip?
Last time we came was devastating, honestly,
trying to help Fearless.
It was really heart-breaking, but I'm just happy we can come back,
and I'm really hoping the others are all doing OK now.
Hello, Rob. Oh, hiya, Rohin.
That's a very big puppy now. |n't he lovely?
It looks like an actual dog,
whereas before, they're like little potatoes, aren't they?
They've turned into little clogs with their own personalities.
After your last visit,
it just seems really nice that we look like we're gonna rear nine,
so we're really happy with that.
There we go. Come on, then.
We're gonna give them their first vaccine today
and just give them a bit of a general check over.
This is the big dog. Yeah.
Normally first for the dinner plate,
so he's gonna be first for the vaccine.
Oh, that explains it, then, doesn't it?
I'll just do a bit of a quick check on each one,
listen to their heart and just have a feel.
Sounds good to me.
The pups are six weeks old now, so it feels like quite a milestone.
Very soon, they'll be having their second injection.
There we go.
They'll be going off to new homes, and the place'll be empty.
But we've loved every second of having them,
and we've loved seeing Pip be a mum,
and I think she's enjoyed the experience too.
It's been a lovely thing. I'm sure wherever they will go,
they'll make fantastic working clogs ancl fantastic companions as well.
I think they will.
We just want the best home for them, the best future,
and the money that we get from selling them
is going to nine different charities.
That feels sort of a nice thing to do. Yeah.
They're very good, aren't they? Good boy.
I've got chaos going on around me,
puppies flying left, right, and centre.
You can't get too close to that! Look at him. What's he doing?
They soon get their confidence, don't they?
ROB AND ROHIN LAUGH
There you go. Big, brave boy, aren't you?
All the puppies are looking fantastic, normal heart sounds.
I'm really pleased. They've come on such a long way,
and I haven't got a single concern with any of them.
PUPPIES WHINING
Right, we've nine pups to catch now, Rohin.
I'm just really pleased after everything that's happened
and how heartbroken we were with Fearless.
It's a wonderful feeling to know that the rest of them
are gonna have bright, happy futures ahead of them.
Thank you very much. Nice to see you, Rob.
See you later.
I think today was one of the perks of the job,
seeing some puppies doing well.
There's awful, devastating lows, and to come through it
and now have the high at the end of it,
it just brings it home
why it is a wonderful job and why we do what we do.