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'm getting the impression you wouldn't take me on as an assistant.
Is that right? Probably!
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.
MAN: Another day in paradise.
The teams are united...
We can probably knock this off ourselves, do you think? Phwoo!
...never taking their eyes off the ball...
Oh, howzat?!
Whoa! LAUGHS
...as they help animals of all shapes...
I didn't think I'd be hugging a turkey today.
Cor! ..sizes...
That's more like pulling a calf out.
...types...
Nearly done. Nearly done, Bertie.
...and temperaments. Ow!
CHUCKLING: He's bit me! It's definitely not glamorous...
Penile amputations still make me squirm a little bit.
...but it's varied.
Ee-aw!
You ought to know better! LAUGHTER
It's rarely easy. HE STRAINS
But they continue the Herriot tradition...
Whoa. ..treating all creatures...
That's it. There we go, there we go.
...great... Aw, Merlin.
MAN: Come on!
...and small. Ha-ha-ha, ho-ho!
Life in Yorkshire can be a bit of a numbers game.
One for sorrow or a joyful two.
Three is a magic number.
And four, always fab.
Take five, enjoy a famous view at rest.
Or get that bit more active, and hit six of the best.
But while the weekend is seventh heaven...
...a Yorkshire Vet can be on call eight days a week,
working anything but nine to five.
And at the practice in Kirkbymoorside...
How are you? Yeah, fine, thank you. Come on.
...Peter's day is starting with four reluctant visitors.
Are you on strike? PETER LAUGHS
Come on, Chubs.
Oh, bloody Nora! MAN CHUCKLES
We have a strike on our hands.
You don't wanna be here, do you? No.
Every picture tells a story. That face says everything.
CH UCKLING: Doesn't it?
Utterly fed up, aren't you, eh? You are!
And a Yorkshire vet should always be prepared
for a number two.
Oh, she's pooped. Oh, clear.
It's called a dirty protest.
GIGGLING
Across Yorkshire,
at one of the Huddersfield practice's smaller surgeries...
Come on, little flower. SHEEP BAAS
We're gonna sort you out, aren't we, eh?
Rob from Cannon Hall Farm has rushed in a one-day-old lamb
to see Rohin.
ROB: She was pretty much dead when she was born.
She wasn't breathing. There was a heartbeat.
We managed to blow into her mouth and get her going,
and then we noticed a really big laceration
underneath one of her front legs.
ROHIN: Hi, Rob. I've got little Hope for you,
and I'm hoping you can give her some hope.
Ancl has this little one just been born now? Is that it?
She was born late last night. Last night? Right.
It was a real difficult lab our. Right.
Ancl she's got a tear underneath this arm.
We've named her Hope, because she looked to have no hope at one stage.
To be honest with you, it's gonna be really challenging, that.
If you were to choose the worst location on the body
to have a wound, that would be up there.
At this point in their life, they're already so vulnerable,
that any other issue can be a real problem.
I think we've got to give it a go.
The outcome, it's not gonna be straightforward, I'll say that much.
It's not a guaranteed success.
We need to give her a chance, don't we?
Yeah, definitely.
I'll take her round the back, then, with the nurses,
and we'll crack on and do everything we can for her.
She deserves a chance. She's a real fighter.
Ancl if she could pull through,
it would be the biggest comeback of all time,
because I thought she was a lost cause at one stage.
I was saying to Rob it's not a guarantee
that we can actually stitch this together
when you look at the size of that. NURSE: Mm.
It looks even worse now. LAMB BLEATS
It's OK, little lamb.
I would like to, if we can, attempt this uncler local an aesthetic,
because it is a risk to put them
under general an aesthetic at this age.
She's only one clay old.
Looking at the extent of it, I think the only way will be a full general.
It just adds another element of risk to it.
While a Yorkshire Vet always has to expect the unexpected...
...over in Wetherby...
JULIAN: That's a sore leg.
...an 11-year-old Westie is giving Julian a sense of deja vu.
LUCY: Oh, clear, Mac.
This is little Mac, and last year he hurt his left leg.
He had an accident and damaged a ligament,
which I operated on and repaired.
And then, just the other day, he did the same on this leg.
We've done X-rays, and it looks like the ligament's gone again.
So we're gonna operate and repair this.
Hopefully, it'll go as well as it did last time.
DOG WHIMPERS
The only comfort for Mac's owners, Michael and Glenna,
is that they've seen it all before.
He wasn't particularly running fast, but he just slipped on some mud
and let out a squeal.
Ancl I knew exactly what it was.
But despite their previous experience,
everyone's feeling the nerves.
You're a bit worried there, aren't you, Mac?
I'm not surprised.
Very worried because last time, although he coped,
I mean, he has been in a lot of pain,
and I couldn't bear the little sad face.
Prepping Mac for the knife, Nurse Lucy's already smitten.
So, you can see Mac's had his pre-med.
He's nice and sleepy now.
But honestly, you wouldn't have ever known,
cos he was so well behaved in his kennel.
Everything we've clone so far, we've clone bloods on him,
and he was just good as gold.
He's generally just a really good boy.
But has the good boy act been just for show?
Well, he's quite naughty when he wants,
and Mike... We have to be quite strong with him sometimes.
When we first had him, he was really naughty, wasn't he?
But yeah, he makes me laugh, which is good, really.
Here we are, ready for action.
Mac's owners are quite sad to see that his other leg's hurting.
It's not uncommon, though, for one leg to go,
and then, a few months or even years later,
the other leg to suffer the same fate.
So they've seen that he's made a good recovery
from the previous problem that he had with this leg.
So hopefully everything today will be successful.
I've done this hundreds of times before,
and it usually works quite well.
It doesn't always go totally to plan,
but no reason to think that it won't.
Has she stopped breathing?
...a life hangs in the balance...
Let's stop.
...as Rohin battles to save the new-born lamb.
She could be in real trouble if she doesn't start breathing soon.
Matt brings his own new arrival to meet the team.
This is where panic ensues, you see.
If she doesn't take the bottle and she's awake, I'm like,
"What do I do next?" And at the Greens',
Pear the calf definitely isn't potty trained.
PETER: Is that where Pear's been, up that wall there? Yeah.
I think something has caused a bit of an upset here.
CH RISTOPH ER TIMOTHY: Near Huddersfield,
Rohin, Ellie and Beth
are trying to save Cannon Hall Farm's lamb with the worrying wound.
ROHIN: Sorry, little lamb.
But they can't keep her conscious for surgery.
There's a really huge pocket between the muscle and the skin.
The wound is so extensive,
I don't think we'll be able to do it under local.
Bigger than I thought it was gonna be. Mm.
We've committed now, and we need to give her a chance,
but it's gonna be really quite challenging
to get that to close properly.
We've just got to give it a go, haven't we?
She's gonna go pretty sleepy there now.
It's OK, little lamb.
At the moment, the main thing is really just making sure
it's really clean before Rohin starts to stitch it.
Right, how's it going? It's OK, yeah.
It's gonna be a hell of a job, this.
So, the plan is to try and work quite rapidly
cos you've got a lot of area to cover.
We need to both try and bring the skin together
and also re-attach the skin to the muscle.
My biggest concern is
whether we've actually got enough skin to work with.
I've managed to pull it together using some clamps.
It's really high tension. We'll just have to see if it holds.
This is the key moment, I think.
We have made some good progress.
The one thing in her favour, at this age,
they do have a good capacity to recover from even big injuries.
They do heal quickly.
It's just whether we're asking too much of her body
to actually heal in this instance.
Is she still breathing?
Heart rate's still strong. I think she was just breath-holding,
so I don't know whether she was just going a bit deep.
Ellie, if you can just... I'll watch the bag
if you can watch her abdomen and see if she takes a breath.
I can see the heart beating.
Yeah, heart rate's nice, but it's just her breaths.
She may have gone too deep for the an aesthetic.
I guess we'll just have to...
So, if you wanna continue... Yeah.
...it's about 112, which is quite a steady heart rate for her.
This was always the risk,
that they're so hard to control, anaesthetics on neonates,
when they've only just been born.
At the moment, she's just breath-holding,
so we're just breathing for her until she takes her own breath.
It is super frustrating because even with all that tension,
it's closing OK, so if we can just get the an aesthetic controlled
and she can start breathing again, then...
there's light at the end of the tunnel.
But suddenly, that's become the biggest worry.
She could be in real trouble if she doesn't start breathing soon.
I don't know if it's stopped, Rohin.
Let's get her into eternal.
Let's stop.
Shall we do some CPR? Yeah.
I think she's cited.
Poor little thing.
I'm absolutely gutted.
We tried everything we possibly could.
I think we were about five minutes from finishing the procedure.
We had three people working on the an aesthetic.
Her heart was stable, her temperature was perfect,
but for whatever reason, it just wasn't to be.
She stopped taking breaths, and we couldn't bring her back from that.
You try your best, and sometimes it's just not good enough.
After every low...
I'll take this one home. I think it's mine now.
LAUGHTER Bye.
...a Yorkshire Vet will soon experience the high...
Ooh, it's alive! Crikey, did not expect that!
Blooming hell. Miracle lamb, this one.
...of bringing another life into the world.
You get some of that, lad! What a champion eh?
But recently, a new life arrived in Matt's world
which none of his birthing experience
could truly prepare him for.
Hello. I thought I'd introduce the newest team member.
WOMAN: H I, Matt.
And today, he's brought in his six-week-old daughter,
Anastasia, to meet the team at the Huddersfield hospital.
She's been screaming her little head off all morning.
But as soon as she got into the car, fast asleep, so...
WOMEN: Congratulations. Thanks. Well clone.
How's it going, then? She looks like an angel at the minute.
I think the most challenging thing ever.
However, a few little things I've used.
If she's hungry, I put my finger in her mouth,
see if she sucks it like you do a calf,
And if she sucks it, she's hungry.
LAUGHTER I hope you wash your hands first.
Oh, very much so. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And also using the dog to sniff for a poo check.
If he's interested in her, she's probably pooed
because it's just milk, in't it, just like from a calf, so...
But while he understands the needs of baby animals as a vet,
Matt's still learning as a dad.
Uh-oh. What does this mean?
Here we go! What does this...? Let's try it.
She's gonna blow. Uh-oh. Is that a feed thing?
Yeah, that's a feed thing. Right.
Thing is, half of it is getting used
to all the different equipment that you need.
Right, come on you. What do you think to this? Eh?
Are you after some?
No, not impressed.
This is where panic ensues, you see.
If she doesn't take the bottle and she's awake, I'm like,
"What is the current situation? What do I do next?"
I think he's doing surprisingly well.
I just can't believe he's in charge, really.
Are you gonna take her upstairs, show all the nurses?
There's a big team to meet.
Do you like everybody? This is Becky, Bernie, Laura.
This is Harriet... Harriet, Lauren, Meghan,
and we've got Beth as well, so, everyone...
WOMAN: She's definitely got the looks of Catherine.
Yeah, I think she's got Catherine lips.
Yeah. Apparently, she's got my nose, whatever that means.
There you go, have a squidge from Auntie Beth.
Right, I'm off now. LAUGHS
Baby-sitting, you know. Nah, I think you're doing good.
She's alive. So far, so good.
Great to bring Anastasia in and meet the team
because you talk about her, and everyone asks how you're getting on.
Every0ne's so supportive as well, so it's been really good
to introduce her to everybody and get some reassurance
from those that have got kids that I'm not going too far wrong.
Right, I shall leave yo use all to it.
She says, "Thank you, it was lovely to meet you all.
"Thanks for looking after me for a bit." All right?
Any time. See you soon. Bye.
Bye, guys. WOMEN: Bye.
Go for a feed and a nappy change. Bye.
As Matt gets to grips with baby Anastasia,
over in Wetherby...
JULIAN: Is he OK? LUCY: Mm-hm.
"Julian's got his hands full
operating on old timer Mac the Westie,
who badly injured his leg when out for a walk.
The crux of the problem is inside the joint.
You can see there when I go like that,
there's a lot of slackness there,
and that's cos the ligament's been torn.
So, afterwards, we'll see that this is hopefully very stable
and fastened together.
The first thing's drill a hole in the top of the tibia.
Ancl then around the back of there is where the artificial ligament goes.
So, hopefully, once this is fastened together,
should be nice and stable in a minute.
Ancl then we squeeze that tight to clamp the sutures in place.
Are you feeling strong, Lucy?
Yes.
So, if you just position your clamp as... Yeah, like that, yeah.
And then squeeze that as hard as you can,
hard as you possibly can, two hands.
Come on, Lucy, strong. Oh, it is hard, innit...
It's hard, yeah. ..to get every tie.
This is crimping the metal, so it grips the... the nylon.
Hard as you can, bit harder. Argh!
That's it there, hard as you can, hard as you can.
HE STRAINS
LUCY STRAINS
God!
So, is that tight enough?
Oh, yeah, not half.
So, this leg now is solid, absolutely solid.
Looks good.
So, the bulk of the work is clone now.
So I'm just closing the tissue around it now.
He was such a sweet boy,
so I'm hoping he just feels much better after his procedure.
Hopefully, it'll be a nice, slow recovery for him,
and we'll get to see him back when he's doing well.
Think we're clone there. That's a good job.
Are you happy with that? HAPPY-
Doesn't take you long either, does it?
No, no messing around. No flies on us, are there?
Nope.
A few hours later, owners Michael and Glenna...
GLENNA: I'd like to get him home now.
...are back for Mac.
Aw, Mac. MICHAEL: Hiya, good bud.
Aw, well clone, pal. Good boy.
He's a bionic dog now, isn't he? JULIAN: Bionic dog, yeah.
Two new knees. Yeah.
Can still have a pint in The Crown, can he, yeah?
Maybe a half. Well, that's my excuse, you see.
It's my dog-walking pint on a teatime.
Well, we'll have to go one evening.
Mac made a really good recovery after the surgery,
and already Michael is making plans
to go and have a drink in our local pub.
So, once everything's sorted and the stitches are out
and Mac's back to good health,
we'll call in there to have a celebratory drink.
Thank you, Julian. Thank you so much.
Cheers, Julian. See you.
Total relief, isn't it, really?
Yes, really, really. Yeah, it's lovely.
Just to see him hobble out, but he'll be all right.
Still got the sad face, but he'll be all right.
He'll be all right, yeah.
In Thirsk,
over the past 40 years, jean Green has called Peter
about all kinds of creature concerns.
But today's has confused him...
I've had an urgent call from Mrs Green this morning
to come and see one of the calves.
She has Pear and Drop. I'm not quite sure what she meant,
but she described as Pear decorating the calf house wall.
...although jean and Steve aren't stressing...
Morning, Pear.
Are you feeling a bit under the weather?
...about interior design.
He's getting what we call the gallopers, or the titty trots.
It's got to be stopped, like, hasn't it?
Oh, yeah.
I think she means that Pear has possibly got diarrhoea.
Diarrhoea in any baby can be a serious problem
if it doesn't settle down.
'Mrs Green wanted me here urgently,
'but Mrs Green always wants me here urgently,
'so we'll go and have a look and hopefully we can find out the cause
'and get it sorted out fairly quickly.'
Morning. Morning. Morning, Peter.
Now I got here as soon as I could, but you've got one that's badly?
GREENS: Yeah.
Pear has got a mucky bum.
Is it very watery? Yeah.
Very soft stuff, Peter.
Is that where Pear's been, up that wall there?
Yeah. That's it, yeah.
Right, let's have a look.
If I put a halter on him, we might be all right there.
That's it, round that way. No, round that way.
Right. Lovely. I'll pass it through, Steve.
There we are. Aye. Right.
That's it.
You got that on? Yes.
It's always a team effort with Mr and Mrs Green.
Steve's on the head, controlling everything nicely there.
Now, we'll just check her temperature.
Right. I thought you were checking me temperature?
No, Mrs Green. I couldn't possibly.
Yeah, we've got quite a lot of mess down this tail here.
So she has been quite badly scoured.
I think you're right.
I think something has caused a bit of an upset here.
Hi.
...a much-loved pet goat...
WOMAN: He's got three lumps which have appeared.
...gives cause for concern.
There is a possibility
that it's a serious disease.
And for keen cyclistjulian...
...the wheels have come off.
JULIAN: Hello. Hello. What have you been up to?
I've had an accident.
CHRISTOPHER TIMOTHY: In Thirsk,
Peter is helping Jean's poorly calf Pear,
who's been decorating the walls, thanks to over active bowels.
Is YOUR stomach over active? CHUCKLING: No, no.
Cos I can soon get this halter on you, Mrs Green!
What do you reckon, Steve?
No thank you, young man. PETER LAUGHS
I'm going to give her something just to slow her gut activity down
cos it's too active.
Her gut's on the work all the time, and it shouldn't be.
I'll go and get some stuff, and I'll be back in a minute.
Right. Did somebody say right?
The name's Wright.
First names always. Oh!
Now this one, I'd like to get it into the vein.
STEVE: Do you want him a bit tighter?
I don't know whether that'll help me, Steve.
It might do. Can you just move, Jean?
Yeah. Cos I'm in now
This is a gut sedative that if you give it into the muscle,
it does sting a bit, but into the vein, it doesn't.
Ancl that should work pretty quickly.
Right. We're clone, Steve.
There we are, Pear. I think that should sort it.
If we'd had anything infectious,
I would expect Drop to be affected as well,
which lends weight to the argument
that we've got just a digestive disturbance here,
associated, possibly, with a bit of overindulgence.
You don't overindulge do you, Mrs Green?
Well, I did yesterday, Pete.
I had a big sandwich, what we call frisbee size.
Frisbee size?
Yeah, I had lettuce, tomatoes, chicken and bacon,
and followed it by a slice of frangipane cake.
Steve, if Jeanie starts to decorate the walls,
you'd better give me a ring later...
Aye, right. ..with what she's eaten yesterday.
Aye, I'll give you a ring, Peter. LAUGHTER
COW MOOS
Julian can easily burn off any overindulgence,
being a keen cyclist...
...never afraid to tackle demanding endurance challenges
or tough terrain.
We once tried to cycle across the Pyrenees.
And we “vet! on Camembert, baguettes and beer.
But his latest bike ride, near the Kilburn White Horse,
ended in disaster.
A nasty accident means this Yorkshire vet
is now the one in need of treatment.
Hello. Are you all right?
And being the patient is going to take some getting used to.
Oh, hello! Who's this? This is Ruby.
You are all right, Ruby?
Today's not a normal clay for me. I should be at work, but I'm not.
I'm sitting in a coffee shop, having a cup of tea.
My right knee is basically bashed up,
and I'm waiting for surgery to get it fixed.
As soon as I landed, I knew that something had gone hopelessly wrong.
I tried to stand up.
It was really painful, and my leg just collapsed and gave way.
Ancl I had to actually be rescued by the local mountain rescue team,
which was a bit embarrassing.
Ancl then they put me on a stretcher, carried me down,
and then I went to A&E for more tests.
Ancl we looked at the X-rays, and I've ruptured my patella ligament.
I don't know how I'm gonna be after the op.
The surgeon seems pretty confident that there'll be a good recovery
and a decent chance of getting back to normal,
but it's gonna be a fairly long process.
In the meantime, Julian will have to get used to life in the slow lane.
Hello. Hello. What have you been up to?
I've had an accident.
And while he's happy to give the locals all the gory details...
What happens is I can't go like that.
So, if I was to lift my leg up on that leg, it would just flop.
You won't be skiing, will you? No, I won't be doing anything.
...there's one question on everybody's lips.
Do you not own any joggers? These are, aren't they?
No, Julian, they're pyjamas. Are they?
WOMAN LAUGHS Are you joking?
Well, I bought them... No, you didn't!
They're new, actually, and they arrived yesterday.
From where, pyjamas.com? From the internet.
THEY LAUGH
It said "lounge pants". Yeah, pyjamas.
Well, they're comfortable, and they're easy to get on.
Ancl it's hard to get trousers on, so I wear these softer ones,
but I didn't know they were pyjamas.
As well as fashion advice...
We're gonna have to help you, aren't we, today?
...Julian also needs some assistance with his shopping.
I just want some bananas and some eggs.
We should probably get free range eggs cos you're a vet, aren't you?
Absolutely, yeah. And we should just...
free range eggs.
LAUGHING: Right, is that everything? I think so, yeah,
unless you've got any more appropriate trousers.
Across Yorkshire, there's no rest for the other vets,
and at Cannon Hall Farm, Rohin's arrived to see Rob and Dave,
after losing new-born lamb Hope in surgery.
'It's been so devastating
'cos that was the first animal I've ever lost uncler an aesthetic.'
We did everything we possibly could.
It's just one of those situations. Sometimes, you just can't win.
ROB: I'm really grateful to Rohin.
He gave her a chance, and without that chance,
we'd have lost her anyway. so I'm grateful for his efforts.
Today, Rohin is here to see Hope's mum,
who hasn't been doing well herself.
It was a really difficult birth, but I just really want
to try and salvage some positive news out of this.
Hi, Rohin. Hi, guys.
DAVE: How are you doing? Good to see you again.
Yeah, you too. How's Mum doing?
She's not just right, but she is eating.
I think where there's a good appetite,
then you've always a chance.
When she's been through such a traumatic lambing,
it's not unexpected, isn't it, that they can get complications.
Shall we have a look at her anyway, see how she's doing?
See what you think.
OK, maybe the most important thing here,
it would be good to take her temperature
to know if she's got a fever, and that can give us some indication
with infection how things are going as well.
So I'll check that.
Yeah.
So, the temperature, it is a little bit high.
Has she had any meds so far? Yeah, she's had antibiotics.
OK. She's had pain relief and anti-inflammatories.
Perfect, yeah. Basically, you've clone all the right things already.
I think, honestly, the best thing to do
is just to extend the treatment you've already started.
We could keep giving her more pain relief.
I really believe she's got a chance.
Two weeks later, Rob and Dave have done everything they can.
She wasn't doing very well. She was very poorly.
She was in a desperate state. She was in poor condition.
She'd been through the mill a little bit,
and she were really struggling.
But as farmers and vets know, where there's life, there's Hope.
The great news is she's really rallied,
and she's ready to go outside and enjoy springtime.
Well, there's nothing wrong with her now, is there?
She couldn't have done that two weeks ago, so, really pleased.
Come on, flower.
We've decided to call her Gloria because she deserves a name.
She's shown real ten a city,
and we're looking forward to lambs next year from her.
Ancl that will be a glorious conclusion to a really sad story.
She's eager to go.
Whoa! Go on, flower. Good luck.
To see her out there now living her best life,
it's just great to see.
I didn't think she were gonna make it at one point,
and, well, this is fantastic.
To see the rest of the flock greet Gloria like that
was quite emotional.
Just shows, Dave. There's always hope for the future.
One of the Huddersfield practice's regular clients is Gemma,
who runs a sanctuary that gives hope to all kinds of creatures,
with the help of her daughter, Annabelle.
Each morning, we open the door, and it's like a stampede,
with all sorts of birds and goats all running out for their breakfast.
Dexter, Rupert!
We have so many, all rescues.
We've got everything from pigs, sheep, goats, horses, birds...
lots of birds.
She's my favourite chicken.
I thought the ferrets were your favourite.
She's my favourite.
Anyone rings up and says, "Can you give this animal a home?"
Or if it's injured, we will say yes, and we'll try our best with it.
Today, trying her best means Gemma has had to bring
one of her young goats to the animal hospital...
Being soft?
...after a concerning discovery.
Dexter's just turned 12 months,
and yesterday, we found three lumps on his neck,
so I'm very worried.
One lump's here,
and then you've got one... under here,
and then there's another one slightly further back.
So I'm a bit nervous of what the outcome will be today.
She's hoping David can ease those nerves.
Hi. Right. Hi.
Hey, mate. What can we do for you today?
He's got three lumps which have appeared. Hm.
When did you notice them? Last night.
Just last night? Late last night.
They're quite hard, aren't they? Mm.
There's a couple of possibilities for these.
It's in the area close to his lymph nodes,
so people call them the glands, which can swell up
if there's been some infection or a source of inflammation there.
They are symmetrical, normally,
and it's just this left-hand side that swelled up.
So, first thing to do is just give him a full check over
and see if any of his other glands are swollen anywhere.
Where did he come from? From a local farm.
But he was meant to be going for food,
and we saved you, didn't we?
I'm gonna try and have a look in his mouth,
which is probably easier said than done.
It could be that his lymph nodes are just swelling up.
Something like that infection or a thorn or something he's eaten
that's caused a bit of an irritation or infection
inside his mouth or throat.
There is a possibility
that it's a little bit more of a serious disease,
a bacterial disease called CLA, which affects sheep and goats.
If his lymph nodes aren't sort of coming down with normal treatment,
we should probably do a blood test and just see if it is or not.
I'd say we'd definitely need to find out straight away
cos it would have serious implications
because it can be spread by equipment,
you know, like shearers, all that kind of stuff.
And if he's getting little scratches and little wounds,
that's how the bacteria might get in, spread to the lymph nodes
and then form these big abscesses,
which often don't respond to treatment.
Is it curable? Not normally.
We don't know that's what it got.
It's my job to think of the worst possible scenario
and prepare for it.
Yeah.
Right, I'll just grab some injections.
Very worrying, because he's like part of the family now,
so to lose him at such a young age, it wouldn't be good.
Well, I'm starting him on anti-inflammatory therapy,
and I'm combining it with an antibiotic.
I'm hoping that his glands are just reacting
to something not too malicious this time.
The bacteria that causes CLA in sheep and goats,
it's the same family as bacteria that causes TB in cattle.
We'll do the one under the skin first.
You'll be fine.
That's that one. Good lad.
I think we'll monitor him one day at a time,
and if he gets more kind of swelling up
or he goes downhill at all on himself,
let me know, and we'll... Go from there.
...we'll go from there.
Thank you. See you later. See you later.
Certainly an interesting one.
Fingers crossed that he improves quickly,
but if he doesn't respond to treatment over the next few days,
and certainly if he gets worse,
we definitely need to do a blood test to look for CLA,
but I'm hoping we don't need to do that.
Still to come...
I'm just interested just to see if they dried up all right.
...is everything clean in the Greens' latrine?
I go around with toilet roll and clean them up.
You tell me anything, you do! PETER LAUGHS
And now they've both been under the knife...
Mr Norton, what you been doing?
"Julian and Mac can compare injuries.
Now you know how Mac felt! LAUGHTER
CHRISTOPHER TIMOTHY: David's made the trip
from the Huddersfield hospital to Gemma's rescue centre...
CROWS
...two weeks after examining the lumps on her goat's neck.
Today, I've come back to see Gemma and her little goat Dexter.
I was quite concerned about the swellings,
and I gave him some treatment.
I was worried that it might be quite a nasty disease called CLA,
which we would have to do a blood sample to identify
and ultimately might have quite a poor prognosis, unfortunately,
for Dexter, so that's the main concern.
Hi. How are you? Hi.
I'm good. How are you doing? I'm good, thank you.
Good. And how's the little man?
He's good, really good. Yeah? Amazing.
Right, let's have a look at him.
Come here. Come here. Come here. Good lad. Good lad.
So he had really big swellings down below his jaw on his neck here.
Oh, it feels loads better.
There's a tiny little firm bit in there,
but that's completely different from...
Before. ..from what it was before.
He's obviously been eating all right, has he?
He's eating. He is playing more than ever.
Yeah. Good boy.
So it has come down in size quite a bit.
The infection's perhaps burst its way out.
Although it's looking good,
I really think it would be good idea just to screen for CLA,
and then if we get the all-clear, we know that it's fine.
Right, 0|<.
It might just be that we're being cautious, but I'd rather check...
On the safe side. ..than give you the wrong advice.
You're a good boy, aren't you?
So I'll give you a call as soon as I get a result back.
The important thing is that he's doing well in himself at the moment.
Fabulous. Thank you. Brill. No problem.
A week later at the animal hospital, David has received the results.
The great news is that it's come back as negative,
and there's no sign that he's been exposed to the disease from this,
so I'm really pleased.
We may have had to put him down,
or certainly keep him away from other sheep and goats,
and we would have risked spreading it to them.
So back at Gemma's rescue centre,
Dexter can get back to enjoying breakfast
with the rest of the menagerie... Come on, babies.
Come here. Oh, look at them all!
...not to mention his favourite day trips...
Good boy.
...with best pal Rupert.
When we got the test results back,
it was absolutely brilliant news cos he's just part of the family.
Right, go and have a play.
GOATS BLEAT
SHE SCREAMS
The lumps have gone completely now.
It's all gone, all clear, and he's back to his normal self.
Go!
Dexter means so much to us as a family.
He's absolutely brilliant with my little girl, Annabelle.
He gets so excited with her. Not with me, with her.
He's very, very naughty.
Are you going for a run? Go on, then. Go on.
Dexter! Rupert!
We're absolutely over the moon that he's fit and healthy.
In Thirsk, Peter recently visited the Greens' Farm
to treat their calf Pear,
who had an upset tummy because of overindulgence.
You can have a little bit, but not a lot.
PETER: Oh, I thought you'd be in here.
Yeah, young man. How are you? Well, I mustn't grumble.
No good grumbling. No bugger'll listen.
A short time ago, you had problems with Pear.
Aye, he had the scour. Yes.
Well, I'm just interested just to see if that dried up all right.
Well, you're welcome to have a look.
Lead on, Mrs Green.
Ah, here they are.
Here they are.
Now, I can see our patient at the back there.
What's good there is that Pear is licking herself.
When they start licking themselves,
you know they're in good fettle, don't you?
Yeah.
Do you know, I'm gonna just pop in there and have a look, jean.
Well, you're welcome.
So, what do you think of them?
Well, I'll tell you what, Mrs Green,
we've got two very clean bottoms there.
That's a good sign. I go around wi' toilet roll....
You do? ..and clean them up.
HE LAUGHS You tell me anything, you do.
You know, you've got them on some nice hay there as well.
That's ideal, isn't it...
Yeah. ..to bind them up.
They need plenty of long fibre like that. That's lovely stuff.
Oh, yeah. Beautiful. Tiptop. You couldn't get better.
I think you've clone a good job as usual.
Thank you very much.
You can always tell when an animal is healthy.
Her eyes are very bright, her nose is clear,
there's no discharge,
and more importantly, in this case, she's got a very clean bottom.
Ancl I would expect nothing else of Mr and Mrs Green,
the way they look after them, so they've clone a good job as usual.
So I'm very pleased that Pear is now in full health again.
Just south of Thirsk...
MICHAEL: Come on, Mac. Good lad
Michael is out for his daily walk with Mac the elderly Westie...
Come on. Good dog. Come on. ..who's been recovering
from Julian's operation on his injured leg...
Come on, pal. ..after a difficult start.
OK, what's this?
'It wasn't a very comfortable evening.
'Just wouldn't settle at all.
'He was like that all night
'until about eight o'clock the following morning.
Ancl from then on, the pain seemed to subside.
Ancl he's doing really well.
But he's an old dog, he's 11 years old,
so, you know, he's an old man, I suppose, now.
But he's doing all right.
Put it this way, he's running fast enough for me, anyway.
LAUGHS
We're good for each other.
I'm no longer a young man, and I need exercise.
CHUCKLES
And when you've got a dog,
you're up in the morning, and out we go, you know?
Ancl it keeps me walking, and it keeps him fit.
Ancl he likes to go for a pint as well,
which suits me down to the ground.
MICHAEL LAUGHS
Right, pal, come on. Let's go for a pint. Come on.
We always call for a pint,
and for some time, my wife didn't know this.
Ancl then one occasion when I was away,
she took the dog for a walk, and he wouldn't walk past the pub.
So he blew my cover.
Go on.
Come on. Good lad.
Waiting to meet Michael and Mac in the pub today
is another dog walker, or rather, hobbler,
who's just had an operation on his own leg injury.
The surgeon did some excellent work.
He drilled holes in my kneecap
and stitched the ligaments back onto it.
It's fairly challenging for me at the moment.
I'm not supposed to do very much.
The surgeon didn't tell me I wasn't allowed to visit the pub.
I could probably spend most of my afternoons here, actually.
I think this should be probably part of my recovery process.
What do you think, Em? Em's not convinced.
Eh? I think it's a good idea, don't you?
Emmy might not be sold on the idea, but Mac certainly is.
Hello there. Mr Norton, what you been doing?
I know. I'm an invalid
Now you know how Mac felt. JULIAN LAUGHS
Ancl how's Mac doing? Is he all right?
He's fine, yeah. He's doing really well.
We've started going on grass now... Yeah.
...and running around a bit, so... Good.
I've had to watch him with all the mud and one thing and another,
Don't want him slipping. Well, that's what caused it,
wasn't it, slipping on the mud? Yeah.
How often does he make a trip to the pub?
Is that every clay or every week, or just on special occasions?
Well, we established the distance between Croft Heads and the pub.
We're just about the right distance for good exercise
for a dog with a bad leg.
Anyway, the moral of this story is
if Mac stays out of trouble and I stay out of trouble,
we should be all right.
I think that's a good idea.
Cheers. Cheers.