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.
COWS MOO
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.
SQUEAKING ..also uphold the Herriot ethos.
MAN: Another day in paradise.
The teams are united.
We can probably knock this off ourselves, do you think? Phwooo!
Never taking their eyes off the ball...
CHEERING Howzat!
Argh! THEY LAUGH
...as they help animals of all shapes...
I didn't think I'd be hugging a turkey today.
Ooh! ..sizes...
That's more like pulling a calf out! ..types...
Nearly done, nearly done, Bertie. ..and temperaments.
Ow! He's bitten me.
It's definitely not glamourous...
I spend far too much of my time scrubbing testicles.
...but it's varied.
Hee-haw!
GIGGLING You ought to know better.
It's rarely easy. SHE GROANS
But they continue the Herriot tradition...
Ooh! ..treating all creatures...
That's it. There we go, there we go.
...great... Aw, Merlin.
Come on! ..and small.
CHUCKLING: Hello!
SHEEP BLEATS
A Yorkshire vet's alphabet
starts with Acres of Beautiful Countryside.
Determined, Energetic, Fearless folk,
Great and small.
Hard graft out and Inside.
Not just a job.
A King's first Love.
Mums and Newborns.
Old-fashioned farms.
People, their pets.
A Quest to make things Right.
Sheep upon sheep.
Time always so tight.
There's much Unexplained in this Veterinary world
of Wild weather and waterproofs.
It's X-rays, not X factor.
This is Yorkshire, its creatures,
in homes, fields...
and Zoos.
GROWLS
Today, one of Matt's regular zoo clients Kim
has called him about a wildcat
because she's worried with a capital W.
One of the Scottish wildcats,
we've noticed over the last couple of clays,
has got a really bad limp.
She's not wanting to put any weight on it.
She's not coming out for food.
To examine the wildcat, Matt knows he'll need to sedate her.
This is one of the barrels of my dart rifle.
I'll need that today with these wildcats
because they are particularly feisty,
and I don't want to cause them any damage.
So, this is a perfect little blow pipe
to get 1 .5ml and 3ml closes into smaller animals,
where you don't need the full force of a dart gun,
so a perfect little bit of equipment.
You all right, Kim? Hiya, Matt.
Well, I've got everything set up. Let's get cracking.
OK. Let's go in there.
The aim of the game is to get in, blow pipe them quickly,
and then leave them alone for ten minutes or so
for that an aesthetic to work.
But we need to find out what's going on there,
make sure there's no breaks, fractures,
nothing that needs any surgery.
Bloody hell!
Is that her?
No, she's not lame, is she? No, she's OK.
She's gone in there.
just to get enough light in so I can see.
OK, that's it. There's perfect.
Got it.
A good, strong puff, and hit the mark.
So we're just gonna let her go to sleep.
Hopefully, we'll find out what's going on soon.
Initially, when you look at them,
they do look like a common domestic cat,
but then when you see the face,
you can see those kind of wild lynx-like eyes and the ears.
They are a massively endangered species now.
I think they're one of the most endangered mammals in Britain.
Let's see if that's taken effect.
Grab that head.
Right, then, come on, you.
I'm not happy with what I feel here, Kim.
There's not a dislocation or anything like that, no breaks.
The femur does feel in the right position.
But it does feel like there's a big mass
or potential tumour around that femur, unfortunately.
If it is something cancerous,
it might be something we need to look at amputation, really. OK.
But certainly feeling it here, we need to snap some X-rays of this
and find out exactly what's going on.
Come on, muffin.
Yeah. Got her.
The plan is now we're gonna take Iona back to the practice,
and we're gonna do some X-rays to find out what's going on
with that femur because it does not feel nice at all.
Definitely not wild in Wetherby.
Izzy.
The gentle nature of 12-year-old King Charles spaniel Izzy
means she's more than just a pet to Susan's family.
Are you coming up? Come on, then.
SHE CHUCKLES Big jump, that's a good girl.
She's been amazing.
She cured Evan and my other children of their fear of dogs.
|zZY-
A dog had to only come near them before they would scream,
especially the larger ones.
Yeah, it just cured it, really.
They found that not all dogs are bad.
Who's a good girl?
I think I was about five when I got Izzy.
She's helped me find that they're more friendly now
because I was scared that one of them might bite me,
and lzzyjust helped me stop being scared.
Who's a good girl?
I have three children with autism,
and they deal with it in different ways
and the calmness and the relaxation,
especially with Izzy's breed, a cavalier King Charles spaniel,
it did wonders for their mental capability as well.
But Susan isn't sure how much time they have left with Izzy.
Good girl. Good girl.
Today, she's had to bring her to Julian's practice.
Izzy has a breast cancer.
She's had two lumps already, this is her third one.
With her children fearing the worst.
They were very anxious today.
She had lots of cuddles this morning.
Izzy's so special to us,
we want to keep her here as long as possible.
Izzy. How are you doing, Izzy?
Are you a good girl?
We've operated before and taken away a large amount of tumour,
and sadly, it's come back.
So we're gonna try and operate again.
It's a bit of a last chance saloon for Izzy.
The cancer's quite aggressive.
We've talked about the likely success or otherwise,
but her owners are really keen to give it another go surgically.
Come on, Izzy, you know the routine.
There we are, Izzy, off to the land of Nod.
Izzy's not just a pet,
she's a big support dog for the rest of the family,
so it's incumbent on everybody to do what we can to keep her happy
and keep her healthy as long as possible.
ASSISTANT: Does that look all right? That's fine, yeah, perfect.
Ancl can I get some spirit on, please? Yes.
Right, so...
It looks pretty bad.
It extends right down here and right up there,
and it's quite hard as well,
so it's as bad, if not more bad, than I was expecting it to be.
Right, are we good to go?
Yeah, fine.
I'm a bit scared. Wildcat worry...
Close, close, close, close, close! HE SIGHS
...after X-rated X-rays.
Wow! Bloody hellfire.
Shona's shocked by a sheep's wound.
It might have been shot or something in the field.
And Peter's salon...
just gonna give her a bit of a haircut.
...isn't popular. Don't need a trim, do you, Abbie?
THEY LAUGH No, thanks, Peter!
CHRISTOPHER TIMOTHY: In Thirsk, Matt's been doing some work
atjulian's practice...
HE STRAINS Come on through. Come on, Mrs.
...which is where he's brought his latest
unusual patient from the zoo, a Scottish wildcat.
NURSE: Aw! Poor little thing.
Iona has a leg problem that's making her lame.
Matt doesn't like what he can feel.
Right.
So Frankie and Robyn are helping him
make the wildcat tame enough to X-ray.
Ah, clear Lord.
I'm a bit scared, but... LAUGHS
Right, open me up a bit further.
That's good, that's good.
CAT GROWLS, H ISS ES
Close, close, close, close, close.
NERVOUS LAUGHTER
We need to know if we're dealing with bone,
soft tissue, or just something else entirely.
I'm kind of waiting with baited breath now.
Here we go, moment of truth.
W ow . NURSE GASPS
Bloody hellfire. Shit!
That has really shocked me.
What I'm seeing there, she's fractured a femur.
How on Earth she's clone that...
There must've been some serious damage or a fall,
or caught herself to cause that amount...
Just... wow.
I'm actually glad it's not a tumour
because a broken leg can be fixed, a tumour cannot.
That's really blown me away, has that.
So, I'm gonna have to ring a specialist here
to find out exactly what best to do at this point
because I think it's fixable, but I'm just not quite sure.
'When you feel it, it just feels so stable.'
A fracture like that, her leg should be swinging in the wind.
So, I mean, whatever nature's clone so far is pretty good,
and hopefully, today, we can make it even better.
Matt's hoping specialist orthopaedic surgeon Steve can help.
So, what do you think?
Crikey, look at the state of the displacement.
We can see we've got this clear fracture line
straight the way through the femur,
travelling upwards into this really sharp spike.
It's like a dagger. It is, isn't it?
Yeah, I'm sure, er, she's not feeling too good with that one.
The good news is, is this is feeling really stable.
She looks a bit lame, which is understandable
because she's broken her leg, but actually, it's moving very well.
So, the big concern is if we go in and we decide
to try and fix this fracture, pulling the bone out into place,
there is the potential we could damage the sciatic nerve,
which runs over the side here,
and in doing so, make the leg actually worse.
For |ona's sake, the best thing to do at the moment
is to leave this well alone.
It's amazing what the body can do and how it can remodel,
and this bone may well just join itself back together as it is.
That's incredible, that the body's healed up so well.
Tell you what, this case has taken quite a few surprising turns.
That's great.
Well, let's pull her off of the an aesthetic,
get her little box set up again, and she can go home.
Considering looking at that X-ray,
I'm absolutely shocked as to how she's clone so well.
The plan now is to send her home,
and then we'll re-X-ray her in a few months
and see how that fracture's healing.
Up on the North York Moors...
Come on, then. Good girl.
...Abbie is a farmer who's become a good friend to Peter.
But today, it's business before pleasure.
Peter's got a big job on today.
He's got some cows to dehorn,
and I think he'll need a big cup of tea and some biscuits afterwards.
PETER: It can be hard work dehorning cows
because the horn can be quite hard to work through.
There's different techniques we can use.
Some people use a cheese wire,
but my old boss taught me to use a saw,
so I may use a mix and match
depending on how my arms are holding up,
because it's not easy work.
MOOS
Is that the numbing stuff?
It is, yeah.
It's gonna be hard work trying to get the horns off.
But he's a good lad, is Peter, so I think he'll get the job clone.
I'm getting to know you now! THEY CHUCKLE
We'll run them through to start with
and then numb them all. Yeah.
Then we'll be able to get them through a second time, won't we?
Tell you what, if you just hold me that rope,
that might work.
I'll do my girl power.
THEY LAUGH
Right.
Abbie's dad Trevor knows this is a job that needs doing.
'They're dangerous.'
It's a lot easier to do when they're little calves,
but sometimes, they don't show the bud as easy,
and then you get to turning them out into t'field and they get missed.
just gonna give her a bit of a haircut.
Don't need a trim, do you, Abbie?
THEY LAUGH No, thanks, Peter!
Go on, lass. Go on.
That's it. Right. We're getting on quite nicely now.
We've a system going, it's working quite well.
So... it's very good.
I'll just bring that down this side a bit.
You learn the basic principles when you're at veterinary college,
but I did a lot in the early days with my old boss Alf Wight.
Oh! Yeah?James Herriot. Ancl he was an expert on these
because he literally did hundreds of them.
Yeah. So I bet it kept him fit.
SHE CH UCKLES Yeah!
Because it's physically hard work.
Ancl as he got older, he used to pretend he had
an imaginary crystal ball on the office desk,
and he said, "The mists are clearing."
He said, "I see a young, fit man going to dehorn these cows."
In other words, he was gonna find a nice little, cushy job somewhere
and send me out to do the roughhouse stuff. Yeah!
And hopefully, Peter still feels young and fit.
Give up! COW MOOS
Because as Abbie predicted, using her own crystal ball,
this is proving to be a demanding job.
Bah, you awkward devil.
We're on the last one now,
number seven, and then we'll be going back onto number one.
Ancl then it'll be the taking off of the horns.
See how that goes.
WHISTLES Come on.
PHONE RINGING In Wetherby...
No problem at all...
...Bev and Sarah like to empathise with the practice's patients.
If you were a dog, right...
I'm sure you'd be a very beautiful dog.
No, I'd be a mongrel. Go on. Oh, I... I was gonna be a mongrel.
Oh. Can I be a Saluki, then?
Yeah, you're very Saluki, with your Saluki hair.
What aboutjulian? Julian'd just be, like...
He'd be a little jack Russell. ..a scruffy little terrier.
Yep. He would. Wouldn't he? He would, definitely.
We'd just be a pair of old mongrels, Bev.
Yapping in t'background.
THEY LAUGH
Well, we are from Wakefield. Absolutely.
In theatre,
Julian andjo are operating
on a rather more regal, very precious pet.
JULIAN: She all right? jO: Yep, fine.
Izzy the King Charles spaniel changed the lives
of her owner's autistic children.
I wonder whether I could have the, um, the biggish saw?
But this isn't her first cancerous lump.
It's never easy when you're operating on tissue
that's already been operated on.
Well, we've taken biopsies,
and we've had confirmation that it is a really aggressive cancer.
It could be said that this isn't going to be successful.
But ultimately, I think, in Izzy's case,
aside from the cancer, she's relatively happy.
In fact, really very happy.
So it's a shame not to give her every chance.
Can I get some more swabs? Swabs?
Yeah. It's a little bit, erm... gruesome.
It goes right up into the armpit, which is difficult as well.
It's coming off, actually, really a lot better than I expected,
and I'm happy with it so far, yeah.
OK? Yeah.
Right, I think this is the last bit.
There we are. Cancer off.
It's not come off badly, that.
Look good? Well, it looks a massive hole.
But it's all off, I'm pretty certain about that.
The tissue's coming together quite nicely, actually.
So, that's a decent job clone, I think.
She's not had too long an an aesthetic, but long enough now.
Keen to get her back into recovery and get her woken up now.
Hello. Julian here.
Yeah, it's all gone really well with Izzy this morning.
It came off better than I was expecting, actually,
and I'm confident I've got it all out.
She's looking pretty comfortable.
So she'll be good to go home three-ish, something like that.
OK, we'll see you later on.
That's one very relieved owner.
Happy clays. You all right, sweet?
Obviously, there's still ongoing issues that Izzy's faced with,
but I think, for now,
we've hopefully increased her health and her happiness,
and hopefully increased her life span as well.
Some veterinary cases are more mysterious than others.
And Shona is heading out from the Huddersfield hospital
after a call from Richard,
who's concerned about an unusual problem
with one of his potential breeding rams.
So, the farmer gave me a call and said that
the birds have pecked a hole in the sheep's back.
There's basically a hole on the back of the sheep.
I asked if it might have been shot or something in the field,
but it's right on the top of its back, apparently.
So we need to get on top of things before it gets too big.
If the infection spreads around the body,
we can end up with a septicaemia,
and, ultimately, the poor lad'll die.
So, I'm just wondering what we're gonna find.
It was bleeding this morning.
We saw the birds pecking its back. I don't know, really, what it is.
I've never seen anything like that before.
So we thought we'd give Shona a ring and see what she's got to say.
Hello! Hiya, Shona, you all right?
Yeah. I'm very intrigued to see what we've got here.
It's this boy, isn't it? That white one there, yeah. Yeah.
He's a smart little lad, isn't he? He is, in't he, yeah?
He's been all right? He's been eating and drinking?
He has, yeah. But we're not too sure what it's doing.
Yeah, it does still smell a bit. He does smell, yeah.
We'll have a look and see if there's anything delaying it healing.
That's brilliant. See what we can do for him, yeah.
It is perfectly round,
perfectly in the middle of his back, on his pelvis,
so his hip bones are either side of it.
I think the most likely thing is that this was an abscess.
Yeah. Probably from him diving under a gate or a bush or something daft.
It looks like it, doesn't it? Yeah. Ancl then bashed it there.
Because it is the prominent part to get bashed. It is.
Ancl then it seems to have burst.
Obviously, you wouldn't see it till it burst
because there's all this fleece on top of it
which is neatly clipped around. Yeah.
You saw it because there was a bit of blood on the fleece?
Yeah. Ancl were the birds sat on him? Ancl the birds were on his back.
Aw, yeah. And they were pecking at the open hole?
They were. Yeah. They're pretty gross.
So, it's really nasty-looking, and it looks very sore.
So these guys did right getting us out to have a look at it.
So, I'm just gonna put some local in.
Get a bit of local in this whole area.
RAM BAAS Steady, mate.
Give this a good clean.
Good little man.
It's really bothering him. He's not happy.
I can see all that dead stuff just coming out.
If all that stays there, this is going to heal. Yes.
Ancl then all that infected stuff would be sealed in the bottom,
and it would just keep abscessing and coming out again.
So, we're just pulling out any bits of the dead tissue using a swab.
The thing I don't like at the minute is,
this tissue looks really good around the side that's trying to heal.
But there's stuff deep in there, there's really smelly pus in there.
I'm gonna get a surgical kit
and get some forceps to have a grab of it with.
Oh, it's not pleasant at all.
It's quite big, that hole, actually, looking at it.
Now the fleece is off, it's bigger than what it looked.
There's a dog that's got terrible lung disease,
and bizarrely, Viagra stops his coughing.
A whole new meaning to "give a dog a bone".
It literally said "Viagra for men".
And I was like, "We honestly use it in clogs,
"but not for that." LAUGHTER
And it's hard work for Peter to get the horns.
Eh, they're hard, these horns. They are really hard 'uns.
CHRISTOPHER TIMOTHY: In North Yorkshire,
up on the moors...
WHISTLING PETER: We're ready to go now.
Hopefully, things will go OK.
...Peter has a challenging job at Abbie's farm.
Eh, they're hard, these horns.
They are really hard 'uns.
But she's not, er, not feeling this.
I'm Peter's glamorous assistant for today.
I'm holding his saw and his dehorner for today.
You say owt, you do! LAUGHTER
With seven cows to dehorn, the heat is on.
MOOING
I'm just, er, cauterising it to stop the bleeding.
Not feeling this at all.
Or at least, it would be...
Not sure if that's gone out or not.
just try it again, Abbie.
Aye, it had.
...if it wasn't for the blustery moors weather.
I think that's gone again.
It's the wind that does it, isn't it?
ls yours hot now, Ben? Yeah, it's hot, yeah.
Let's give it a whirl cos that bloody thing's gone again.
It's quite windy up here, and mine seems to be blowing out.
Fortunately, Abbie and Ben have brought a back-up heater here.
Put a bit of spray on.
Now you can't do so much damage, love.
SIGHS
Peter, did Vikings used to use these cow horns?
What, for sticking on their helmets? With superglue?
I tell you what, you could make yourself
a right fancy dress outfit there, couldn't you,
with a couple of them on?
People used to use them, you know, for...
Didn't they boil them in a pan or summat?
Yeah, and also, they used to use them for closing sometimes,
closing cattle with.
You'd put your medication in there and close them with it.
Right.
She has some fair horns on her, this one.
CHUCKLING
Second to last one now.
The others are over there chewing their cuds.
Ancl they're a lot better now
that they're not getting caught on things.
When you've got people that know what they're doing
and also good handling facilities,
that's the thing, really - subtle restraint.
So I'm, er... It's gone very, very well.
Champion.
Well, Abbie, another job clone, eh? Yeah. It's a good job. Thank you.
I think they look a lot tidier, don't they?
Ancl the main thing is they can't use those horns
to bum] anybody or Rather cows.
I'll leave you in peace now,
and you'll be able to get a bit more work clone, won't you?
Yeah. Thank you. Right, nice to see you.
See you later. See you, Abbie.
Bye! BYE-bye.
De-horning adult cattle is quite a physical job,
but it is something that has to be clone sometimes
because of the way these cattle use their horns.
I think the other girls in the herd will be breathing a sigh of relief.
It's just starting to, er, darken a little now.
The Wind's picking up.
So I think it's time for a well-earned cup of tea now.
Pets, like people, need a pick-me-up from time to time.
BARKING
But at the practice in Wetherby...
BARKS
...while some of the patients get a bit frisky...
WOMAN: Ooh! LAUGHTER
...they aren't trying to encourage that,
as an embarrassed Nurse Lucy has just had to explain
to an eagle-eyed client.
I opened up the internet thing,
and it literally said "Viagra for men".
Ancl he was like, "Oh, is there a reason you're searching that?"
Ancl I was like, "We honestly use it in clogs, but not for that."
Oh, my... My heart sunk,
and I tried to open a new tab and it wouldn't open.
And I were like... SHE WHIMPERS
This is for a border terrier, isn't it?
The dog has it, not for those problems,
but it has a breathing problem.
Well, it is what it is.
LAUGHTER If you get it, you get it.
HE LAUGHS
There's a dog that's got terrible lung disease.
And bizarrely, Viagra stops his coughing.
NURSE: Did you just try that...? SHE LAUGHS
I was about to say, "Did you try that willy-nilly?"
THEY LAUGH
Did you try that
knowing it was gonna have those effects?
I did, yes. SHE LAUGHS
So, you can use Viagra in clogs
for a condition called, um, pulmonary hypertension...
Oh, right. ..which is different to the reason why people use it.
Ancl it's worked brilliantly. Oh, cleary me.
Have you seen that other dog that we treat,
that takes, like, nine Viagras a clay?
Nine?! Y-Yeah. A clay?
Yeah. It's got another condition, called polycythaemia,
much less common than erectile dysfunction...
I'm led to believe.
So, when we order it,
whoever we buy it from must be thinking,
"Bloody hell, they've got big problems there!" "Wow!"
Oh, clear! Who'd have thought?
That little blue pill.
Learn something new every clay.
A month ago, Julian's team gave more conventional help
when they removed a cancerous lump from Izzy,
the 12-year old King Charles spaniel...
Come on, then!
...so Susan and her family could enjoy more precious time with her.
Good girl, Izzy.
'She's doing really, really well. She bounced back from her surgery.
'A couple of clays in her bed,
'and she's back to her old self again.
'Loves going out.
'Still barks at the birds.'
For this family, Izzy has been life-changing.
Come on, Izzy. Come on, Izzy.
'Evan and my other children, being autistic,
'did suffer a lot with anxiety.'
And, yeah, especially, like, when they went to school
and they'd come home,
and Izzy would come along, sit on their knee
and give them a cuddle.
And, yeah, there was... she did wonders.
She's helped me, and she's a good dog.
She gives hugs.
I'm relieved she still gets to live for a while longer.
'The fear of losing her terrifies us.
'We'd like to keep her here as long as possible.'
Hopefully, a lot longer.
And, yeah, a lot more happier for her.
'She is very special.
'She's always there when you need her.'
Such a good girl.
Come on.
Shona has made the journey from the Huddersfield hospital
to Richard's farm...
I'm just gonna see how much comes out doing it like this,
and then I'll give it a scrape. Yep.
...where she's treating a ram
with an unusual, mystifying problem.
Hope you're not gonna go squeamish.
A deep hole in the centre of his back.
So, the bits that we're pulling out is the connective tissue
that's around the muscles and things,
and that's cited.
Ancl it looks all stringy because of what it is,
but it is dead tissue, and it's infected.
It does go to the muscle on the top of his back.
It's not, like, going down to his spine or anything.
In his favour, he's quite a muscly breed, isn't he?
He is, yeah.
Good little man.
That looks a lot better. It does, doesn't it?
You can sit down. It's OK, sweetheart.
Dilution is the solution to pollution.
SHE CHUCKLES
Rolls off the tongue.
So, I'm just giving it a flush
to try and remove any of the contaminated material
and get it out the way.
The main thing that delays wound healing is infection,
so if we get rid of the infection
and then protect the tissue from the elements while it heals up,
then it's got the very best chance of healing.
Now, we're not gonna stitch it
because there's still infected material in there
and then it'd just get infected inside and break out.
So it's gonna have to heal from the outside in,
and then the wound contracts and makes smaller.
Right, OK, that's good. Yeah.
I'm happy now that it looks red and nice,
and we've got rid of all the grey and yellow horrible stuff in there.
What we're gonna do now is put some cream on
to keep any flies off
and stop any more infection getting in there.
There we go. Lovely.
He's had enough. He has.
Come, little lad. Don't knock everything over.
Thanks, Shona. That's all right.
Right. Clear all this smelly stuff away.
job's a good'un. SHE CHUCKLES
Right, we'll see you next time. See you next time. Take care.
'A bit of an interesting one, that.
'I wasn't quite sure what we were gonna come to,
'but it does just look like sort of abscess that's burst,
'although it's clone it in a dramatic way
'and left quite a lot of infection behind.'
I don't think we'll ever really know what happened,
so we can all have our own theories,
but definitely needs antibiotics, and I think, in a month's time,
I'm hoping that that's gonna be pretty much completely healed over
and he can go back outside with his friends.
Still to come...
Don't take this the wrong way, you need to be educated a little.
Matt's call-out with Peter isn't his standard sheep job.
The hops are all about the flavour and aroma of the beer.
THEY SNIFF That smells so good.
It's like smelling a good silage, Peter.
THEY CHUCKLE
And atjulian's practice...
Moment of truth.
...has he solved his wildcat conundrum?
Literally, it's like watching Countdown.
Yeah. I'm quite nervous.
CHRISTOPHER TIMOTHY: Six weeks ago, Shona treated Richard's ram,
who had a strange hole in his back.
It's really bothering him, he's not happy.
I think the most likely thing is that this was an abscess,
and then it seems to have burst.
So, if we get rid of the infection
and then protect the tissue from the elements,
then it's got the very best chance of healing.
Morning, Richard. Hello. You all right, Shona?
Yeah. Not bad. Are you? Good. Yeah, thanks.
Right, how's he looking?
That is a lot better. It's shrunk right down.
Much better. It has. Yeah.
It was bigger, wasn't it? It was bigger.
Cos it has contracted. It was like that.
It was, yeah. It was really big.
Ancl then it's just contracted right back down. It has, yeah.
I'm really pleased with that. Yeah.
I am actually quite impressed
how quickly it's grown the wool back.
I was worried it was gonna be scarred, actually.
just horrible, wasn't it? It was.
it just shows how TLC makes a big difference, doesn't it?
Yeah, it does.
Did you get to the bottom of what caused it?
We're not too sure. Might have been abscess.
You've not found anything else that caused it?
No bits of loose wire or anything? No, nothing.
The mystery continues. It is. Yeah, we don't know.
Well, I'm quite happy for him to go back out now
because there's no open wound there.
You don't need to be cleaning it every clay. No, good.
Ancl let's just hope he doesn't find the same thing and do it again.
THEY CHUCKLE Yeah. Have the same problem.
Ancl then let's hope next year, we'll have some babies out of him.
We can use him. Yeah, yeah. That's what we're hoping.
Be in with the girls, won't he, next time?
He will next year, yeah. Live the life of Riley, he will.
He's gonna have a good time. THEY LAUGH
'Really pleased with the result.'
I'm actually really impressed how well it's healed.
Not infected or anything.
So, good job. Very pleased.
RAMS BLEAT
Yeah, his mates have come down to greet him now,
so hopefully, he'll be happier out there now.
So, the ram no longer has a care in the world,
even if, for Shona,
this has to go down as one of life's unsolved mysteries.
We spend all clay speculating how a horse ripped its leg open,
or how a sheep got an abscess on its back,
or where a cat went missing for five clays.
I'd love to put a camera on them all and know what happened,
or if they could tell you, that'd be even better.
RAMS BLEAT
Peter has cared for his fair share of sheep over the years...
Better. She'll be like a racing whippet now.
...and today, he's come to the Dales
to introduce a friend to his favourite sheep of all...
which isn't woolly.
Matt's been doing some work in North Yorkshire,
so now's me opportunity to educate him
and put him onto the right path as far as beers go.
Matt's from West Yorkshire,
and I know they have many famous breweries there,
but we're going to have a look around the brewery today,
and I'm sure, by the end of it, he'll be a convert
to a proper North Yorkshire bitter.
Good morning, Peter. Now, young man.
How are you? Good to see you.
How's life treating you in North Yorkshire?
I know you've been working very hard,
and I thought, really, don't take this the wrong way,
you need to be educated a little, if you don't mind me saying.
To be honest, I haven't really drunk that much bitter.
I've ashamedly turned into a bit of a lager lout these clays,
so I have to say, I'm looking forward to this, er,
completion of my sheep education.
MATT CHUCKLES we“, I'm your man.
Let's go and have a look, shall we?
Let's see what's brewing. Ha-ha!
When I got a call from Peter to say
that he needed a hand with a sheep up in the Dales,
erm, well, I had to oblige.
However, when I got here, it's certainly a different sheep
to what I expected.
I haven't worn these since chemistry.
'But it could well just be the best visit I've been on.'
You're all steamed up. I can't see a thing.
I thought you were very excited about the process.
Well, I'm trying to get my head stuck down here,
give it a good niff.
THEY LAUGH
Going back in time,
farmers always used to rub their hands with glee,
you know, if the barley that they'd grown
was classified as malting barley because it commanded a premium.
Absolutely. So you only take the best.
Yes, absolutely.
How many pints of beer will we get out of this, Jo?
We can do 50 barrels in here, or 100 barrels.
So that's 12 or 24,000 pints.
It'll keep you going, that's for sure.
MATT CHUCKLES fight. where next, )0?
As we've gone through the process
where the malted barley is introduced to the water,
I've really whetted my appetite for a pint,
so I can't wait to get to the end now.
This is basically a big kettle.
We're introducing hops,
and the hops are all about the flavour and aroma of the beer.
just grab some in your hands.
Give them a rub, and then smell them.
That smells so good.
It's like smelling a good silage, Peter.
THEY LAUGH
These are all English hops,
and we use whole-flower hops as well,
so quite a traditional way of brewing.
I think some of the traditional methods
carry right on through the generations
cos I've still got some veterinary kit in my car
that I'm sure James Herriot once used. Absolutely.
THEY LAUGH
Here's one that's just about finished fermenting,
so this is almost the finished article.
Shah we ask )0 for some straws'? Sounds great.
THEY LAUGH
Rob, our brewer, will be taking a sample,
just to check it's all all right,
that it's hit the right gravities and the right alcohol levels.
That's a great job, is that, isn't it?
So, just drop that in there.
just right. That's brilliant!
Good job, good job.
Right, guys, it's put into a cask after that
and heads off to the pub for drinking.
Shall we go and try one?
Do you know, Matt, I thought he'd never ask.
THEY LAUGH
Right, then, Peter.
What are you drinking? Bitter, please.
Do you know what you're doing with it?
Nice angle, straighten up as you come towards the top,
let it settle, and present, no?
No. Entirely different? Do I really give it some welly?
So, you've got a sparkler on here. OK, yeah.
So, this thing is gonna give you the nice creamy head that we want.
Yeah, nice and smooth. Nice and smooth.
Keep going. Beautiful.
There you go, the best sheep you'll see all clay, Peter.
He's clone a really good job in pulling that pint.
If things go pear-shaped in the veterinary world,
he has chance of a second career, if needed.
Pull yourself one, and come and join me.
Cheers, Peter. Cheers, Matt.
I think my bitter journey's just beginning, Peter.
Do you know, Matt,
this is one sheep visit where there's a happy ending.
THEY LAUGH
Today, Matt's back at work in Thirsk...
Hi. Hi, Iona.
...three months after Iona the wildcat's badly broken leg
left him shocked.
Wow.
GASPING Bloody hellfire. Shit.
'Now, we don't know what caused this fracture,
'and we were going to operate.'
However, the body had clone such a good job of stabilising that leg,
we decided the best plan of action was to let the body do its thing,
so we've clone just that.
I've brought her back up to get that last X-ray,
and hopefully, the body's all healed up.
All right. Got her?
Ancl away we go. In we come.
Julian's at the Thirsk practice today, too...
I'm just going to draw some an aesthetic up now.
...after missing the drama last time.
There we go.
That was a very good shot by Matt.
It's very difficult with normal cats that are nervous,
but this is a wildcat, so it's even more wild,
hence the need for a fancy machine.
It's good, that. Mm-hm. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Come on. Good girl, good girl.
Right, come on, let's have a look.
I'll flick the lights off.
Let's see.
Moment of truth.
Literally, it's like watching Countdown. Yeah.
I'm quite nervous.
That's incredible, isn't it? Look at that.
So, before, we've got a sharp point here
for one part of the fracture,
and then we've got the blunt-ended part of the femur here.
Ancl this is three months later.
The body has started to fuse everything back together again
and create a stable, extra-big bone here.
It's sorting itself out incredibly.
Amazing what the body can do.
All right, let's get you home.
Ooh, you're very cross. IONA HISSES
Come on, Mrs.
There we go.
And a few weeks later...
HISSING
..|ona's progress is delighting zookeepers Kim and Amy.
We weren't expecting that result, so we're really happy about that,
and just, you know, get her back into her enclosure.
She loves sitting in that tunnel, so seeing her
sort of hop from those platforms and getting straight up there,
we couldn't have asked for anything better.