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'm getting 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 knock this off ourselves,
do you think? PETER SPLUTTERS
...never taking their eyes off the ball...
Oh! Howzat?
TH EY GROAN, LAUGH
...as they help animals of all shapes...
I 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 glamorous.
I spend far too much of my time scrubbing testicles.
But it's varied.
SHE IMITATES DONKEY BRAY
You ought to know better. It's rarely easy,
but they continue the Herriot tradition...
Whoa. ..treating all creatures...
That's it. There we go, there we go.
...great... Aw, Merlin.
Come on! ..and small.
HE LAUGHS
From the moment he arrived in Yorkshire,
James Herriot knew there was no place on Earth like it.
From the delightful delicacy of the Dales...
...to the windswept wildness of the rugged moors.
On every level, he adored the variations of the land.
But there were days when he didn't appreciate
the variety in mixed-practice vet work...
COWS MOO
...once asking...
"Why had I entered this profession?
"I could have gone in for something easier and gentler...
"..like coal-mining or lumber jacking."
And after hearing about a mum-to-be with a serious problem...
...Matt knows he has yet another physical job on his hands
at Gordon's farm.
We're going to look at a cow's foot.
When it comes to cows' feet,
there's obviously a lot of weight riding on, you know,
four sets of two claws.
And it sounds like it's getting to the stage where
it's really quite uncomfortable.
This cow, it's been lame all summer.
We've treat it with antibiotics two or three times,
and it's got no better.
Ancl so we've asked Matt to come and have a look at it
and see what he thinks.
Morning, Gordon. How's things?
Not too bad. Good stuff.
What have we got? It's been limping around. Yeah.
It's fairly well on in calf again so I just need it to get right
for when it does calve, really.
Ah, OK. But it's that claw. It's all swollen.
Ah, it's a mess, is that, in't it?
Right, I'll grab a bucket of water, and I'll just grab a brush
and give it a clean. Right.
Come on, lass.
Ooh, you can smell it, can't you? That stinks.
COW MOOS Sorry, girl.
It's all just overgrown and round in there.
That's about double the size, in't it?
Initially when I saw it, lthought
"I wonder if we could manage it by paring it right back."
But given the amount of tissue that's building round it here,
and how swollen it is,
I think definitely get it taken off.
Cut it off? Yeah.
From a distance, it just looks like it's a bit of a small crack.
But that there goes so deep.
Ancl the actual infection, you can smell it
as soon as you start getting up close to it.
Ancl the swelling around the sole
and around the bulb of that heel is so massive
that the best route is to take that claw off.
That's it. Keep that foot out. There we go.
Putting weight on this will be so uncomfortable
cos of the amount of infection that's there
that's pressuring those nerves.
It's really quite deep,
so it'll be like walking on, like, an open abscess.
COW MOOS
I suppose the closest thing to a human surgery
is an ingrowing toenail.
I'm going to put a tourniquet around here
to stop the blood flow to make it a bit easier to work
cos there's a lot of blood supply that's going to the feet.
Right, let's get that local an aesthetic in.
So, you're just putting in loads of an aesthetic
around the area that we're going to cut.
A lot of these problems can stem from
if they've stood on something out and about in the field,
or they've had damage ancl there's some muck that's got in there,
it just works its way up through the hoof,
and it just destroys all that structure that's there.
Ancl you just get past the point of no return, really,
like we are with this girl.
COW MOOS
The risk is obviously, with her being in calf,
it is a stressor. We hope that she won't lose the calf.
Right. Numbed up, cleaned up, tied up.
Good to go.
Over the past year...
...the practice in Kirkbymoorside
has undergone something of a transformation.
A large extension has added four new operating theatres...
...and state-of-the-art facilities...
...including a CT scanner...
You're in charge of this one.
Right. So, you're gonna press that button there, hold it down.
...which Peter knows he might need to help his next patient.
This is a first for me.
It's the first time I've personally been involved with a CT scan.
I'm from an era where CT scans weren't commonly used.
Like that? That's it.
'Ancl they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks.'
Temperamental. There we go. That's it.
But under supervision of Eloise,
we're going to prove differently this morning.
So, this is the technology bit.
You want your lasers on, which is that one there.
Oh! This feels as if I'm in a space-age world.
ELOISE CHUCKLES
Bit of a new challenge for everybody
cos no-one here's used CT here before.
So it's been, yeah, exciting.
And it's good to go, so you can press the green button
when you're ready. All right.
This is great, and I can see how it's working now.
You've got another button to press. Have I? Now? Yeah.
That's what... Another one. Another one?
Close. There we go.
And we're good to go.
I wonder what my old boss James Herriot
would've made of this. I think he'd have been impressed.
Do you think us veterinary surgeons might be replaced
by artificial intelligence?
Yeah. It would be perfect, wouldn't it?
THEY LAUGH
Well, a veterinary nurse would say that, wouldn't they? Oh, absolutely.
Peter's first ever patient in the CT scanner
will be nine-year-old Labrador Finn
whose owners Nigel and Barbara are worried about an ongoing issue.
He's got a problem with his left eye.
It's started to bulge. Ancl he's come in today, erm,
when we'll see exactly what's going on behind there.
PETER: Morning. Morning.
Would you like to come through? I would.
He's a lovely dog. I've had lots of clogs over the years,
and it's never easy at all when one of them becomes sick
because they rely on you so much
to look after them and do the right thing.
Are you hiding behind your dad, Finn? I understand. I do understand.
You gonna come and see me, Finn? You gonna come and see me?
This is the eye. Yes. The left eye here.
It's getting bigger, and it can't be right.
It is quite obvious something's developing. Yes.
Ancl the most likely thing is
that we've got something not very good there.
But it may be that we can do something about it.
We'll do the scan, and then we'll have a chat with you.
Then you know where we are as well.
There's a good boy.
Off you go. Good boy. Good boy.
Ancl then we'll give you a ring. OK. Come on, Finn.
We've got concerns here about Finn.
His eye's been increasingly a problem.
He's nestling into me now. He is. Bit more settled.
You are, aren't you? You're fine, aren't you?
We have something that's growing behind the eye,
and the most likely thing is some form of cancer.
That looks pretty good, doesn't it? I'd say that's pretty bang on.
Right, then. Perfect.
This is the moment of truth
to see whether Finn's mass has been retained in the eye socket
or whether it's spread elsewhere. So it's a...
...a nervous moment. A big moment. It is a big moment.
This is a reconstruction of Finn's skull.
Ah, now... I might have known something's going on here.
We have got a mass there. It looks that way. Yeah, definitely.
Oh. That's a concern.
This scan does show we've got an abnormality
in the bone socket where the eye sits.
There is a possibility the mass has progressed into the brain.
Ancl therefore, it would mean surgery was not really going to help Finn.
These are going to go away for a professional interpretation.
They are, yes.
Ancl they'll be able to give us a full report of what they've found.
Yes.
We just need an expert now
to tell us whether we can do something useful to help Finn.
Coming up...
Got him. Got him? Yeah.
...heavy lamb lifting for Shona and Rohin.
I fully expected the surgery,
but I didn't expect the cardio workout.
Matt's showing some brawn, too.
Three, two, one... CUTTING SOUND
But it's more about beauty at the dog show...
Do you put mascara on him?
...where you never bite the hand or wee on the foot
of the vet that judges you.
Oh, he's peed on my feet! Did you see that? Cheeky beggar.
CHRISTOPHER TIMOTHY: Matt's made the journey
from the Huddersfield hospital to Gordon's farm...
We're just giving it a good scrub up.
...where he needs to remove
a pregnant cow's infected, painful claw.
Well, the local's worked anyway.
There's so much swelling here, if we were to cut it off there,
we'd still leave some of that infected hoof behind,
so we're taking off the whole chunk of it
so that's what left is completely clear of the floor,
it's easy to bandage up, and it heals really well.
Three, two, one...
Ooh. Well, you can see all t'ming that's in there.
It's horrible, isn't it, that?
So, you can see there it's nice and flush,
we've got rid of all of that infected material,
so this will all heal over and just be like a big pink blob,
and she'll be able to bear weight on that hoof.
Push that leg right through, Gordon, and I can get it all dressed up.
Bit of waterproofing for it,
because the last thing we want is for this to get wet.
Beautiful.
Right. Pleased with that.
Not the prettiest patchwork, but it's functional.
So, this here is how deep that problem was going.
Quick flick and she's away.
Ey up, watch me car!
Lovely.
She should be back up and running in the next couple of weeks,
we'll come back, have a look, and see how we're getting on.
Do that, good job. Lovely. Beautiful.
I feel a lot better now that she's had that claw off.
She will be a bit sore, obviously, where it's started to heal over,
but hopefully we're well on the mend.
At the practice in Kirkbymoorside...
after Peter performed his first ever CT scan
on Finn the Labrador's bulging eye,
he now has the expert radiologist's opinion.
"Personally, I consider this presentation
"a significant challenge and the risk of complications high."
And he has to decide how best to treat Finn.
As we expected, we do have the cancerous mass behind the eye.
At the back of the eye, that's the optic nerve
and you can see it's now surrounded and engulfed by this cancerous mass
and that's what's basically causing our problem.
There's a good lad.
If we remove the eye so we can get to the mass,
it may be that we are able to get all this tumour out.
Over the years, I've had to take many eyes out.
But this is the first time I've had a tumour to do behind the eye.
So, despite the fact that we got a fantastic visual aid
of CT technology, I'm still slightly apprehensive
as to what we're actually going to find,
and the extent of this mass.
So the pressure is on Peter and Nurse Katie.
We're OK to go ahead? All good.
The plan is to get the whole mass out,
and I think the best way of doing that
is to remove the eye first.
We are working a little bit blind, initially, in this situation,
so I've just got to proceed with caution.
I can feel that tumour behind now. How's he doing?
He's a bit reactive, bit painful where that tumour is.
Where that tumour is, yeah. My fingers on it now. Yeah.
The problem is, the mass is wrapped around the optic nerve.
Is that causing pain? A little bit, yeah.
Yeah, I'm not surprised.
Right, there's the eye out, and I can now get to the tumour.
It's about the size of a medium-sized grape.
Problem is, knowing how much tension I can put on that optic nerve now.
Yeah. Because that can cause blindness in the other eye,
and that will be a disaster.
Bugger.
That's a big blood vessel.
Can't quite...
This isn't a straightforward procedure.
I may ask for a little bit of extra help here
so we can get it just right.
Given the complex nature of the surgery...
...Peter's called in Practice Director john.
Put your finger in, you can feel the mass. Oh, yeah.
If I put the tissue forceps on the thing, pull it,
and then you just go a bit further back.
You're ahead of me now, john. Yeah.
Cos we're limited how much traction
we can put on that optic nerve anyway.
We're just working round the back of it to free this mass.
It's a long way back, isn't it, in that socket?
It's not for the faint-hearted, is it? No.
It's coming loose now. We're winning.
Do you think that's it? Yeah.
We've got it. Oh!
It's entire. Good.
I think we may have been lucky here.
Right. Got to get this packed, quickly.
We have had a serious amount of haemorrhage,
and this was explained from the detail on the scan,
so we've had to use pressure to stem bleeding.
So, everything the scan results have told us
have been totally accurate.
HAPPY? As happy as ever, Kate.
On a scale of one to ten, I'm about a three now.
Well, at least it's not a one.
No, it's not a one. Well, yes, you're one of these people
that look on the bright side of life, aren't you?
I can tell. Yes.
It's been a bit of a roller-coaster ride, really.
Got the mass out, but it's not clear cut
whether we're out of the woods yet.
We've just got to hope that I haven't put too much traction
on the optic nerve to cause problems in the other eye,
but hopefully he will pull through OK.
It's the weekend, and Julian has dog duties of his own,
which should be a little more enjoyable.
BARKS
I've swapped North Yorkshire for North Wales,
and I've come to help judge a dog show,
that's being organised by a friend of mine - Liz.
Hello, sweetheart.
I have clone this sort of thing before
and I found it rather stressful.
Everybody thinks their own dog has got the prettiest eyes
and the cutest face.
Right, then, here we go.
I'm going to introduce you. This is Julian.
So, there's a weight of responsibility
about making that final decision who gets the red rosette.
Howay, move them quicker, you can go faster than that.
JULIAN CH UCKLES
Hello, you look nice.
Who's this one? Chester. Chester!
Coco, you look very happy to be here.
How old is Coco? She's ten next month.
Ten. I thought this was for two to six-year-olds.
Oh, it doesn't matter, just crack on.
So, first, I've decided, is this happy little fellow here.
The Lhasa? Yeah.
Because he came up and wanted to sit on my knee.
You're first. Well clone.
But with red rosette safely secured...
Oh, he's peed on my feet! Did you see that?
...Chester shows his true colours.
That's the thanks I get for that!
Cheeky beggar.
These are new shoes as well.
Can I change my mind? Third. No. I can't believe that.
Luckily, they're actually waterproof,
but some of it's even gone on my sock,
so that's not a very good start to the clay.
This is the handsomest dog. The most handsome dog.
Liz tells me it's the one I'd like to take out for...
well, for a meal,
but I don't usually do that sort of thing with clogs.
Hello, hello.
Nice eyes, very nice eyes.
Do you put mascara on him?
THEY GIGGLE
Marley, ooh, that is... that is a face, isn't it?
Good boy. That's a very handsome face.
Which one do you thinks?
Right. So, the first one is the fox terrier.
I knew you were going to pick him. Hello.
He's just a star.
And actually, he does have the most handsome face.
Well clone, Norman.
But now, all eyes are on Julian,
for the decision everyone's been waiting for.
It's the Best In Show,
so all the previous winners from the different categories
are coming back into the ring,
and I've got to pick the best of the best.
So it's gonna be hard.
They're all looking at me expectantly, erm...
Yeah, I think I've decided...
...but it's totally out of proportion for the size of the dog
cos the winner is...
Molly over there... Oh!
...because she's so sweet, and that's bigger than her.
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE, MOLLY SQUEAKS
So, well clone, Molly.
Congratulations, that's yours. just what you want.
And after all the pressure and dog pee,
Julian has a little prize of his own.
Oh, wow, thank you. Ooh, wow! Whiskey - "deluxe".
I do, I drink everything, absolutely everything.
THEY LAUGH
It was a bit of a trek out of my normal territory of Yorkshire,
but I knew it was gonna be a great clay.
Coming to dog shows is always a lot of fun.
Nobody seemed to be disappointed with the result,
and there's some happy clogs
and some happy owners, so it's been a good clay.
BARKING
In Huddersfield,
since qualifying as a Yorkshire vet four years ago...
That's it use full length of wire.
...Rohin has helped and learnt from his colleagues.
You have to get right into your shoulder. Right.
Got it. Right, don't let go.
And whenever he's hit a wall...
We'll give her an injection, it will sedate her.
Once she's relaxed, then we'll be able to dismantle the wall properly.
...he's managed to knock it down.
Steady, steady, steady. Steady, steady, steady.
Today, there's another huge, new challenge for him.
LAMB BLEATS
All right, Larry, boy, we're here now.
Vicky's just arrived at the hospital with her pet lamb, Larry.
Larry came to me actually before he was born,
so we rescued two ewes from a neglect situation,
so he was born at my house.
He's quite clever and a little bit cheeky and naughty.
Morning, Vicky. Good morning, nice to meet you.
How's it going? Nice to see you. Yeah, good, thank you.
How is Larry? Is he fed up? He's very fed up.
He's obviously starved, so he's been very vocal about it.
LARRY BLEATS
Larry's every right to be vocal.
He's here to be castrated.
He's living with other females, so we don't want any more lambs.
So unless he went to live elsewhere, really, this was the only option.
I'll be a little bit on edge waiting for that phone call
later on today, for sure.
And it isn't going to be a routine operation.
Definitely just one.
Larry the lamb has got an unusual problem
that only one of his testicles descended on the outside
and the other one could be anywhere.
It could be deep inside the abdomen.
There is a risk that if that testicle stays in there
for years and years, it can become cancerous as well.
It's the first time this operation has ever been performed
at Donaldson's...
SHONA: Hello, Larry. How you doing?
...and Rohin has some experienced help.
So, we've got Shona giving us a hand.
Probably a bit of a role reversal.
When I was a student, it was the other way round.
SHONA: I'm not very good at being nurse.
Nurse Shana, on the 'yob. Yeah.
Sheep have a really long digestive tract,
and that means when you're looking in the abdomen
trying to find a testicle that shouldn't be there,
it makes it really challenging.
I'll save your back. I'll carry him. STRAINS: I've got him.
I've got him... I think.
You all right? Can you lift that back end up, so...
Yeah. It's all right, I've got him. Got him? Yeah.
Right, let's go.
ROHIN: 'They are higher risk with an aesthetic,
'so you don't take it lightly.
'You only do this sort of surgery
'if you've really carefully thought it through.'
I fully expected the surgery,
but I didn't expect the cardio workout.
BREATH'! CHUCKLE
It's faffy, cos you're not prepared in advance.
Cos you've never clone one before.
The plan now, we need to try and see
if we can try and get a tube into his airway.
LARRY BLEATS Is that in your way? Yep.
It makes it really difficult because the mouth is quite long,
so you can't see the airway as easily as you can in a dog or a cat.
If you lift the soft palette with the tube, can you see?
I think I can just about make it out now.
Right, we'll get him settled.
Erm, do you wanna pass your stomach tube, Rohin?
ROHIN: The stomach contents, they're very likely to regurgitate
during this op, and if that goes into their lungs,
that can make them very ill and even pass away afterwards.
So, during a long an aesthetic,
to have this in position, reduces that risk of complications.
Heart rate's still pretty fast, to be fair.
Look at the amount of drool he's producing here.
All of that saliva is coming out.
If that goes back inside and reaches his lungs,
it can cause huge problems.
Do you think it goes over here? I'm pretty confident it's there.
So, I'd better get gowned up now.
Right, you happy, Megan?
As happy as I'll ever be. There's only one thing left to do.
She's making, like, a... MIMICS LABOURED BREATH
...a turkey with breathing trouble...
...and a vet with hearing problems.
I can't really hear anything, what...?
Julian, you're not that old, listen!
While for Peter, it's all about the vision.
I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that we haven't got a blind dog.
Do you mind if I sit down, Finn?
CH RISTOPH ER TIMOTHY: Near Huddersfield,
Matt's heading back to Gordon's farm...
where recently, he removed a pregnant cow's badly-infected toe.
It can be a shock to the system
when they're used to putting weight on two toes,
but all being well, it won't have affected her too much.
Morning, Gordon.
You all right? Matt, all right?
Good to see you again. Aye. Not bad.
Right... Ooh, hello!
Getting on all right, aren't we?
Tell you what she's putting weight on it well, isn't she?
She's getting around. Yeah.
She's held her calf as well, by t'looks of things.
Another few month, we'll have a little baby on the ground, won't we?
I mean, it were such a mess, wasn't it, that claw?
You do always wonder how well they're gonna heal
when they get that infect... and horrible,
but she's just not bothered, is she? No, it's healed up grand.
It has. No swelling.
Look at her.
So, yeah, the body forms
quite a nice little packing around the end of that stump,
and all the skin just slowly contracts down over it,
so I'm really pleased as to how that's healing up.
Everything's clearing round nicely.
It's always nice to see them when they can walk again
because when they have toes that are that infected and horrible
and they're not responding to anything, it must be uncomfortable.
But she's weight-bearing on it, there's no infection.
She can clearly get about quite well,
so it's not disrupting her life too much.
And she's clue to calve soon within the few months as well,
so... bonus.
It's a tense day at the hospital in Huddersfield.
ROHIN: I haven't felt anything yet.
Like you say, just feel along the body wall. Yeah.
Rohin's performing challenging surgery on Larry the pet lamb,
with Shona on hand to help.
Shall I go and scrub, just in case? Yeah, just in case.
In a sheep-first for the practice, they need to remove a testicle
that's stuck inside Larry's abdomen.
Usually, the testicle is much smaller than the one
that isn't retained.
Ancl that's just another level of challenge here,
trying to see if we can locate it.
There is no other way to describe it,
we just have to fish around
and feel a testicle-like structure and bring it out.
Definitely the most difficult castration I've ever signed up to.
MONITOR BEEPS
Ah-ha!
I think I feel something.
It is pretty deep in the abdomen, though,
so it's trying to see if we can bring it out.
It's just underneath all this stuff around here,
there is something that feels pretty suspicious.
There it is.
I don't think I've ever been that happy to see a testicle in my life.
MEGAN: Shall I tell Shona not to...
You can tell Shona not to scrub, if you like, yeah.
SHONA: Yay, me leaving helped!
SHONA LAUGHS
SHONA, SING-SONG: Rohin has found the testicle.
ROHIN: Ancl look how tiny it is.
So, we've got it, it was really low down.
It's been quite hard to get this out of the abdomen
and in a position where we can remove it safely.
There we go, it's coming now.
So that is a testicle there... that's come out.
Good job, Rohin. Thanks for the moral support.
That's all right. I'm glad it's gone well.
Got to close him up now so... Yeah.
Hopefully, a nice recovery. "we'll keep going.
We'll go and do some horses' teeth.
See you later. See you later, guys.
While Shona's work here is done,
there's still plenty to do for the rest of the team.
ROHIN: They are very prone to getting wound breakdown,
cos this sheep is not gonna be well-rested
in the way a dog would be,
so we're putting quite a few layers in there,
make sure this is gonna stay closed.
Do you wanna snip that?
Now we're gonna have to get rid of the other testicle.
There we go - and just look at the size difference.
So that's what we've just removed/
That's how big it should be.
That's the challenge we had.
Here it comes.
Does this make you cringe? No?
MEGAN: It should make you cringe. It-It makes me cringe.
THEY CHUCKLE Yeah. There we go.
We can't relax until he's woken up
because they are just higher risk than most animals
at having problems on recovery.
Good stuff.
What a good boy.
What a miserable 24 hours Larry's had.
No food, surgery, but in the long run,
it will all be worth it.
You getting up now? Steady, steady, mate.
So, I think what I'll do is carry him back downstairs
to his little recovery pen that we've got for him.
Nice clean bed.
Right, Larry.
That's it, steady.
Are you gonna stand up?
Up we get, there we go.
He's wobbly, but he's doing OK.
So far, so good.
You know, just get him to heal over the next few weeks.
I know Vicky's gonna keep a close eye on him
cos she loves him so much.
Ancl then, all being well, he'll just have a normal life,
live with his mates in the field as she always wanted him to.
Across Yorkshire,
it's six weeks since Peter removed Finn the Labrador's eye,
and the cancerous lump revealed by his first CT scan.
That looks pretty good, doesn't it? I'd say that's pretty bang-on.
PETER: 'One of the big concerns was
'that by putting traction on his optic nerve,
'I could cause problems in the other eye and cause blindness.'
So, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed
that he's doing OK ancl that we haven't got a blind dog.
So with Nigel and Finn living close by,
he wants an old-fashioned, personal scan.
Hello. Who's this?
I was wondering how he was getting on,
but I think the proof of the pudding's there.
Yes. It did.
Do you mind if I sit down, Finn? 'Ey? Good boy.
'Ey? I can see the eye, it looks absolutely fine.
No, there's nothing wrong with that other eye at all. Excellent.
His pupil is constricting and dilating as it should be.
He follows you about with the good eye.
He's not lost that peripheral vision. Right.
Even though he's missing the eye here,
he's still aware...
Yes. ..of where things are.
It's not bothered him iota, losing the eye.
Do you know, animals just get on with things, don't they?
They don't make a fuss.
There's no hypochondriacs in the veterinary world.
THEY CHUCKLE No'.!
He's very loyal, isn't he?
I mean, the way he's cuddling up to you there, you're his hero.
THEY CHUCKLE
Finn's been a working dog all his life,
but this year, he'll be ten,
and that's enough for somebody who's been out three or four clays a week.
So, a long and happy retirement for him.
But one old dog isn't quite ready to put his feet up just yet.
After 40-odd years in practice, this is a first for me,
carrying out the scan, and I don't wanna be left behind.
Yes, I could be considered to be a bit of a dinosaur,
but in this case, it was particularly useful
because Finn is going to lead a fantastic life now.
It's lovely to see him looking so well
and pretty much back to normal.
Yeah, yeah, very much so.
Thank you very much. Very good.
Nice to see you. Ancl you.
Ancl I'll leave you in peace, Finn, is that all right?
I'll leave you in peace. Good boy.
Near wet her by...
Come on then, guys!
...Nicky has an ever-increasing family of feathered friends.
So, I am mum to - chicken and turkey-wise -
at least 20 at the moment,
but obviously, they're gonna increase.
Maybe 23, just don't tell my husband.
But there are no secrets between lovebirds Bod and Fanny.
I love my turkeys.
I know people don't quite necessarily agree
cos they look quite ugly, but I only have two,
and they are obsessed with each other,
they love each other.
They mate for life
and when they lose their girl or boy,
they never mate again.
That's why I only have two.
He would die without her - he'd die of a broken heart.
So this is an especially worrying time.
Today, Nicky's had to bring Fanny to the practice to see Julian.
Are you not feeling very well?
'Ey? You feel a bit rough?
She's been coughing or sneezing. WOMAN: Yeah.
Now, she's making like a...
MIMICS LABOURED BREATHING ..noise.
I'm worried. I know people are gonna take t' mick out of me,
but I've raised her from a baby and, well, she's my pet.
It's OK. Good girl.
JULIAN: Do you want to come through?
Hello, come through.
This is Fanny.
So, she's a pet... a pet turkey, is that right? Yeah.
And so, what's Fanny up to?
It's the breathing and the coughing that she's got.
She's been like this a couple of weeks.
All the other birds are totally fine.
I'll get my stethoscope, shall I? Right.
It's all right, babes.
GIRL: It's OK. Good girl.
I can't really hear anything, what...?
Julian, you're not that old, listen!
Oh, I can hear it when I put me ear... Yeah.
There is some noise, isn't there?
There's like a vibrating noise. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Down there, it sounds OK,
but I'm guessing just...
It sounds upper, doesn't it?
Oh, yeah, you can hear it, actually, right up in the throat.
FAN NY CROAKS
Ooh, there you go, did you hear that, Julian?
Oh, it's get... it's getting worse.
Still to come... So how has everything been?
...Rohin's back in the ring with Larry the lamb.
There you go, mate, that's it.
And don't mention the C-word...
When you think of Christmas clay,
the muscles on the leg are quite big.
"Julian's turkey troubles continue.
Shut your ears, babe, don't listen to him.
I can't believe you just said that. FAN NY CROAKS
CHRISTOPHER TIMOTHY: At the practice in Wetherby...
I didn't think I'd be hugging a Turkey today.
THEY LAUGH
"Julian's examining Nicky's turkey, Fanny,
who has breathing problems.
JULIAN: Any discharge from her eyes or from her nose?
No, nothing like that. No.
DEEP CROAK Good girl.
They do get upper respiratory infections.
They do? Right. Yeah, or they can do.
Um, and that would be typically rhinitis, laryngitis,
an infection or inflammation in the back of the throat.
I mean, I think probably the easiest thing would be
to get her on some antibiotics.
I'll get you some injections to give.
Will you show me where to put it?
I'm gonna do the first one and then you can see.
OK, thanks.
So, I'd just go down there, just in the leg.
Just in the sort of chunky bit there. Mm-hm.
And their muscles, when you think of Christmas clay,
their muscles on the leg are quite big.
Julian!
Shut your ears, babe, don't listen to him.
CH UCKLING I can't believe you just said that.
I know, but I'm just thinking... Fanny, don't listen.
I don't look at your thigh and go,
"Ooh, yeah, that'll be nice on Sunday".
No, but... you're not gonna eat me, are you?
LAUGHTER Not that we're gonna eat this one.
Sorry, little... little Fanny.
I didn't mean to be... be rude.
I don't think she's taken any offence at all, has she?
But mention Christmas to a turkey...
and you might get some gravy.
Oh, Julian, I'm really sorry.
What's happened?
We've had, um, an accident.
You know what that is, Julian?
That's punishment for saying about her having a Christmas leg.
I know, she's getting her own back. LAUGHTER
Come on. NICKY STRAINS
Right we are. That's it.
Thank you. Bye.
She just probably wants to get back to her husband.
Not all of us do, but she does, she does love him.
I think that is actually the very first and only time
I've treated a turkey.
Any respiratory issue can be a very serious problem,
so I think it was important that we got some treatment underway.
Thanks, guys. See you later. WOMAN: Thank you, bye.
JULIAN: 'Fingers crossed,
'they're gonna make a good improvement.'
just over a week later...
Come on, babies! I know.
...Fanny's injections haven't been a walk in the park.
Or garden.
The first clay, which was the next clay after seeing Julian,
she was up that tree.
Ancl my husband climbed it to catch her to give her injection
for her antibiotic, and he fell out of the tree and hurt himself.
So, er... SHE LAUGHS
Yeah, the first clay didn't go so well!
But after a painful start to treatment, there's good news.
All the croaking,
the noise that was in her throat, everything's gone.
Ancl now she's back to normal!
COCKEREL CROWS Aren't you, baby girl?
And it's not just Nicky who's delighted Fanny's better...
No, you're not Christmas dinner!
...for her other turkey, Bod...
Oh, who's a good girl? There you go.
...it's like all his Christmases have come at once.
Her husband won't let me anywhere near her now!
He is sending her off. SHE LAUGHS
Oi-Oi! You've got her back!
I know people think they're ugly, they're not.
They make the best pets.
Ancl she's been my pet, I've raised her from a baby.
I hope they will both live a long and happy life.
Look how happy he is to have her back.
And, for me, that makes me happy.
A couple of weeks after his complex castration surgery
on Larry the lamb,
Rohin's headed out to Calderdale - hoping to find a happy valley.
It's been a bit of a nervous wait to see how he's got on,
and I'm really keen to just find out how he's doing.
Nice to see you again. Morning. Good to see you again.
So, how's everything been?
Even from clay one, he was eating, he's fine,
he's recovered really well.
He bounced back straight away? Fantastic.
Yeah. Yeah? Oh, that's really good.
I think the only thing now then is to look at the wounds, isn't it?
See how they're healing.
If it's all going well, we can take those stitches out.
To help his wounds heal... There we go, mate, that's it.
...Larry's been in solitary confinement since the surgery.
I'm really happy with that, it's held together really nicely.
Not just the skin, but you can feel underneath,
there's no swelling, there's no infection.
I'll start taking these out.
There you go, mate. Who's a good boy, Larry?
Ancl this should be the last one at the bottom.
Is that the stingy one?
I'd say he's absolutely at the point now where
he can go out and be with the others and have a happy life
after all he's been through.
There we go. Come on, Larry.
Don't eat the plants.
There you go, mate.
ROHIN: With a spring in his step, just in the wrong direction.
It's his first taste of freedom in a while,
and he doesn't quite know what to do.
So long as he doesn't disappear down the road -
then we'd have another problem. But he's doing well.
SHEEP BLEAT Bless. Aw, listen to that.
That noise he just made when he saw his mates,
that broke my heart hearing that.
You can tell he's having the time of his life now, isn't he?
VICKY: Back with your friends, Larry, eh?
He's hiding behind them now... LAUGHING: Yeah!
...in case we do something else to him.
I didn't think you'd see that much happiness in a sheep.
I'm really pleased about that.
That was our biggest reason for doing the operation,
was the fact that, if we didn't make sure he was castrated,
he couldn't live with his friends who he's been brought up with.
You can tell how happy it makes him to be there living with them now.
They're a social animal, ancl it just puts a smile on your face
seeing him being so happy now.