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 MOOING
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. Ha!
Peter's old partner, Julian Norton...
With a gloved hand and a lubricated finger, I'm well-equipped.
...now runs two practices... Come on, young man.
...one of them in the town where Herriot worked,
surrounded by the North Yorkshire landscape he loved.
Look at that! What a sheep!
And in the foothills of the Pennines...
I'm armed and ready.
...a new generation of town and country vets...
This is the closest tojames Bond I think I'm ever getting.
...also uphold the Herriot ethos.
Another day in paradise.
The teams are united...
We can probably knock this off ourselves, do you think? Pfft!
...never taking their eyes off the ball...
Oh! Howzat! Ha-ha!
...as they help animals of all shapes...
Didn't think I'd be hugging a turkey today.
...sizes... That's more like pulling a calf out.
...types...
Nearly done. Nearly done, Bertie.
...and temperaments.
Ow! He bit me!
It's definitely not glamorous.
Penile amputations still make me squirm a little bit.
But it's varied.
WOMAN BRAYS
You ought to know better!
It's rarely easy,
but they continue the Herriot tradition.
Ooh!
Treating all creatures... That's it, there we go.
...great... Oh, Merlin.
Come on! ..and small.
Hello! Ho-ho!
In Yorkshire, it's a tale as old as time.
Majestic beauty...
...and magnificent beasts.
COWS MOOING
But this heavenly cocktail
does come with a splash of devilment...
...because every rose... has its thorn.
COWS MOOING
At the practice in Kirkbymoorside,
Steve and Emma have rushed in their cat to see Peter...
Would you like to come through?
...with their whole family in shock after a freak accident.
Ancl who's this?
STEVE: This is Charlie. Charlie?
Ancl what seems to be the problem?
He's got a thorn sticking out of his eye. Oh, crikey.
Crikey, that is dramatic.
Put my glasses on and have a proper look at this.
I've just come home, and I called him, he meowed,
and at first I saw a little mark on his face.
I thought, "Has he been fighting?" Then I noticed the eye.
I need to sedate him to get that out.
There's obviously a risk of infection as well.
We've got to consider that it has gone through
to the anterior chamber.
So I might have to, er, stitch his eyelid across.
I may have to do,
depending on what it's like when we get it out.
Right, can I hang on to him? Ancl I'll give you a ring in a bit.
We'll look after him.
EMMA: Thank you. All right. I'll see you later.
Like Peter,
nurse Lucy is struggling to believe her eyes.
CLICKS TONGUE How have you clone that?
It's horrible, isn't it?
My first thoughts regarding Charlie boy
is I wouldn't be particularly happy
if I had a huge thorn like that sticking out of my eye.
We've got to proceed with caution and accept that Charlie boy
could lose his eye if we're not careful.
I'm just giving Charlie his an aesthetic now
because I need to abolish all his reflexes,
including his eye reflexes.
Quite a gruesome sight.
I've seen thorns before penetrating the eye,
but this is probably the worst one I've seen.
A, because of the size of the thorn,
and B, because of its depths of penetration.
Just want to have a look and see how far
that thorn's gone in, whether it's going through the iris
into what we call the posterior chamber,
where the lens sits.
Is it bad? Yeah. It's bad.
That has brushed past the iris.
That's going to be added complications.
This is a situation where Charlie could lose his eye.
We're just going to have to take it step at a time
and hope we can save it.
Across Yorkshire,
in Rodney Sheard's family, sheep farming is in the blood.
Come on, girls. Walk on.
Come on.
Matthew's my son.
He's going to take over when I retire,
if I retire,
and this little one, this granddaughter, Ella,
and she's just as keen a farmer as what we are.
MATTHEW CHUCKLES
So I know it's all gonna be in good hands.
Family's very important.
You've got to work and pass it on to next generation,
and then pass it on to grandkids, like, you know.
She were just interested straightaway,
straight into t'sheep.
She weren't bothered about their size or being scared.
She just wanted to have a go, didn't you?
And Ella already has a special bond
with her favourite sheep on the farm...
Put it down for him. ..Teddy.
She is very natural. She just knows how to talk to 'em.
They've had a bond ever since they both were born, to be honest.
She christened him Teddy, and it stuck.
Ancl I can't part with him neither cos he's...
Well, he in't my sheep, actually, he belongs to Ella,
so she claimed it.
So Rodney has come up with a way of ensuring
that Teddy will have a long and productive life on the farm,
but he needs Julian's help.
The procedure that I'm intending to do on Teddy today, er,
is a vasectomy.
A vasectomised male sheep on a farm is known as a "teaser tup".
It's a very appropriate name
because Teddy literally teases the females into sexual activity.
It's a very good thing to do,
but the pressure will be even bigger today
because I understand that Rodney's granddaughter
is gonna be around to watch and learn.
Ella's developed something of a soft spot for Teddy recently,
so it's really important that everything goes to plan,
so fingers crossed we'll be all right.
SHEEP BAAS
Morning. RODNEY: Morning.
Ancl this is your sheep, your very own sheep?
Yeah.
So you won't know what on earth
we're gonna be doing to your favourite sheep today.
It's a bit of an odd thing, but you get to keep him.
He'll have a long and very happy life on the farm,
that's for sure.
It's the best job on the farm for a sheep.
It makes your life at lambing time a lot easier, doesn't it?
Because everything's in the same time period.
Yeah, consolidated.
Long clays, long nights, and not a lot of sleep,
so if you can have that over two weeks
rather than two months, it's better.
Stage one is getting the sheep in the right place.
It looks like Ella's got a plan.
Go on, Teddy. Come on, Teddy.
Good boy. Right we are, Teddy. What about...?
We“, that was easy. CHUCKLES
So, this is quite a... fascinating piece of equipment.
It looks a bit medieval,
but it's a really good way of keeping him restrained
and in the right position.
So it's like some kind of fairground ride for sheep.
Right, ready? Ready. Watch Teddy.
There he is.
There we are. Can I just adjust his testicles?
Yeah, aye, aye.
I'm happy with that, yeah.
So, we've got the sheep in position.
What I'm gonna be doing is performing a vasectomy.
So that's the plan,
and to make that work, I've got to take out the right bit.
The first thing that you worry about
is it's not great to have sheep on their back for too long.
The rumen can fill up with gas, and that can be a problem.
Ancl then the next big challenge is avoiding the blood vessel.
If you catch that, blood goes everywhere.
It's a bit of a disaster.
It's fiddly, it's technically challenging.
You know, it's tiny, kind of, surgery, so it's not the easiest.
HORSE WHINNIES
This is the second one
where he's almost burned the skin off.
The third cut is the deepest for David.
What we don't want is infection tracking into the joint.
Can be really, really serious.
And for Peter... Right, here's the tricky bit.
...it's a bed of thorns in theatre.
PETER: Good grief. LUCY: Oh, my goodness me.
CH RISTOPH ER TIMOTHY: In Kirkbymoorside,
Peter and nurse Lucy have been left shocked by Charlie,
the cat with a thorn in his eye.
LUCY: That all right?
Yeah, I can see perfectly, thanks, Luce.
And they're hoping they won't need to remove the eye.
Right, here's the tricky bit.
Good grief. Oh, my goodness me!
That's horrendous. That is massive.
We've got fluid leaking out of the eye now.
That's not surprising.
Aw, that is unbelievable.
The problem is that the length of thorn that was in the eye
takes it through the anterior chamber,
through past the iris,
which is the coloured part of the eye,
into the posterior chamber, where the lens sits.
So, the outlook is less clear
as to whether we're gonna be able to save this eye.
It's fiddly old job, isn't it? Very fiddly.
Very, very fiddly.
If we just suture it across the eye to protect the sight.
Ancl also, it will stop Charlie
wanting to get at it and scratch at it.
Well clone, Luce. Nice steady hand on there.
Well clone.
We won't know for some time whether this is going to be successful.
The biggest risk now is infection.
Be a bit comfier with that out, won't it?
A I... Oh, a lot.
Right. That's great. I'm happy with that.
We've just got to keep everything crossed now.
I'm going to load him full of antibiotics.
Come on, little man.
Ancl then I'm going to say my prayers.
A few hours later, Charlie's owners are back at the practice.
Hey, Charlie. How we you doing?
Well, that eye looks pretty comfortable to me.
Are you OK with it?
All we can do now is send Charlie home,
see him in a few clays' time,
just to see how he's getting on with this eye.
You're going home, Charlie.
Is that all right, little man?
Hey?
Good boy.
Here he is. Charlie!
Charlie. Now, he's got a funny lampshade around his neck.
That's just to protect him, so he can't scratch at his eye.
Ancl I brought the thorn itself,
so you can see how big the blooming thing was.
What is that?
That's the thorn that was in his eye.
Isn't that horrible?
Ancl he was very brave about it,
and he's been very brave since he came round.
So I thought you might like to take that home.
Thank you. THEY LAUGH
Right. Very good.
There we are. I'll just check him in a week's time
if you make an appointment, and I'll see you then.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
As veterinary surgeons,
we're never quite sure what we're going to see next,
and untill got him knocked out, I wasn't fully aware
of how far the thorn was penetrating.
So we've got to keep everything crossed now.
I've clone all I can. With a bit of luck, we'll be OK.
SHEEP BAA
Across Yorkshire,
Rodney's granddaughter's favourite sheep, Teddy,
has had his world turned upside down...
It does look like a medieval torture machine, doesn't it?
...sojulian can turn him into a teaser tup.
The point of Teddy, once he's been vasectomised,
is not to get anybody pregnant.
Teddy's presence gets them going and all fired up.
Ancl then we take Teddy out, put in some actual tups
and they do their thing.
Teddy's quite fluffy down here, I suppose.
So, the first thing to do is get everything tidied up, really.
What is it...? Manscaping.
Manscaping, that's it.
There's plenty of batteries left in these clippers
if you want to borrow them, Rodney! ALL LAUGH
So, Teddy's got the tidiest genitalia in Yorkshire,
I think, today.
He will be wondering what on earth's...
Going on. ..going on.
Sorry, Teddy.
It's all right, Ted. It'll all be over shortly.
BANNG
The first thing that you worry about is finding the right bit,
which is easier said than clone, actually.
You think it's gonna be obvious, but it never quite is.
Steady. Steady, Teddy.
I've got a very sharp thing there right near your balls.
Steady.
This is a small tube for Teddy,
but one kind of giant thoroughfare for sperm.
So, without it, he ain't gonna get anybody pregnant.
But he will still behave like a male,
so he'll be able to stimulate
all the females to come into season all at the same time.
So that's the first side clone.
It's a fiddly procedure. It's not one that you can rush.
But on the flip side of that, we've got a sheep here lying on his back.
So that is a fairly perilous thing to be.
There is that time pressure. I'm always aware of that.
Same again on this side.
Suture and cut.
Go on, Teddy. We're nearly done. Teddy.
Has been an absolute model patient.
This has sort of guaranteed his future on the farm forever,
hasn't it, now? That's right, yeah.
Antibiotics, just so it doesn't get infected,
and I'll put some spray on, as well. Ooh, jazzy.
Jazzy scrotum. Is he off to a party?
He'd be popular, wouldn't he, at a party, with silver testicles?
What about that? Coot.
Right... LAUGHING: He's clone.
He can spin around and go back to bed,
or back to his party, wherever he is heading.
Go on, Teddy. You're clone.
Brilliant.
Ella, we're all clone.
Teddy's mended. We're all done.
That's it.
He's been a really good boy,
so he definitely deserves a bit of a snack.
That's it. Brilliant. Well clone.
Are you gonna look after him for the next few clays,
just in case he's feeling a bit poorly or anything like that?
ELLA: Yeah. Excellent.
That's been a good morning's work, hasn't it?
So, the future is bright for farming in Dewsbury.
Yeah, hope so. Very good.
It's been great to catch up with Rodney again today,
and nice to catch up with Matthew and little Ella.
Rodney's a great role model, really, quite an inspiring farmer.
His love for his animals and his passion for farming
is really second to none.
You can tell that that's definitely rubbing off
onto the next generations.
When the Yorkshire countryside's beauty
is cloaked in darkness...
...hidden dangers lurk.
So, as each new day dawns...
...fresh challenges emerge.
And after an early call,
David's rushing to an emergency near Huddersfield.
I'm going now to see a horse called Boni.
Apparently, he's got a few nasty injuries.
The owner's just found him in a field,
so a bit worried about this one.
You being a good boy?
For Boot's owner, Faye, it's been a distressing start to the day...
I know, my darling.
He's come in this morning with three cut legs.
One is quite nasty.
Looks like he's got spooked in the field last night.
...and especially bad timing.
Boni is 12. He's come over from Malta.
He's a rescue. He was previously a carriage racer.
So, we were just getting nicely
building up his hacking out and everything,
and then this has happened.
I'm also pregnant, but I've got a few friends that are helping me.
So I absolutely wanna make sure that he's sorted
and he's got the best care.
Leg injuries are always a worry with horses.
Obviously, we're worried about infection, blood loss,
if it's gonna compromise any joints.
So, we'll have to see what the wounds are like.
If there's really bad damage
and one of the tendons or ligaments has gone
and the horse is uncurably lame, it could be really bad news.
So, I don't really know what I'm gonna have to do until I get there.
Hi, you all right? Hi.
Now, then, mister. 'Ey, hello.
This is Boni. Boni.
What you been up to, mate, eh? Good boy.
You having a sniff?
So, do you think he might have run into some barbed wire,
or what do you think's happened?
I think there was a roller in the field... Right.
...and I think he's got spooked by something and slid straight into it.
Shall we just walk him out onto this little bit here?
We can have a look in daylight.
SHE CLICKS TONGUE Good boy.
Good lad. HORSE WHINNIES
Now, now, darling. Good boy.
So, he's got a few quite nasty cuts. Three different legs, as well,
so we're gonna give him a little bit of standing sedation,
just calm him down, let me have a closer look.
All right, darling.
I'm cleaning it up with some antiseptic.
There's kind of two, three grazes there.
But that's relatively superficial,
so... that's gonna heal all right if we keep it clean.
This is the second one.
Ancl this has got multiple small grazes.
There's two sections there where he's almost burned the skin off.
It's a little bit dirty, so this is gonna need a really good clean-up.
Good boy.
Now I need to have a look at the... back right.
I think you can see it better from this side.
So, this is the one that looks a bit deeper.
There's still a slight bit of haemorrhage,
so I'm using a sterile swab and just gently seeing, especially down here,
where it's near his ankle, if there's any kind of depth
or penetration there and have to really worry about the joint.
We can sort the skin out,
but what we don't want is infection tracking into the joint.
It can be really, really serious.
One teat looks quite shrivelled up. Right.
Rohin hopes milk issues don't turn things sour.
We've got two kids here.
Ideally, we'd want there to be two teats for them to suckle from.
If there's only one, the rate of mortality is known to be higher.
And whilejulian has noses twitching...
Have you got some new aftershave? I might have.
...will Teddy impress his ladies?
It's like a Saturday night out with t'lads, you know.
CH RISTOPH ER TIMOTHY: Near Huddersfield,
David's sedated Faye's horse Boni.
He's lost a bit of skin there.
There's a decent, like, 50p-size defect. Yep.
He's cut three of his legs on a field roller,
with one leg especially concerning.
If I can, if he tolerates it,
I'm gonna try and just get a couple of stitches in there. Uh-huh.
I think there's a bit of skin missing, so it may not fully close,
but if I can close it up as much as possible,
it'll heal a lot faster.
Faye is pregnant,
but rescue horse Boni is already her big baby,
although David knows he has to be wary.
I'm only spraying a little bit of local in there now.
It's just awkward.
Obviously, you need to be gentle with him,
and you need to be ready to spring back quickly, as well.
There's always a risk, which is why I'll lean back.
So, he can still kick.
I know, I know. It's all to help you.
As sedated male horses often do, he's showing us his manhood.
It's just another danger for my head when I'm bending underneath a horse!
Although I'm not sure if I'd rather be kicked
or hit in the head by his penis, but...
Let me just go round that side and tie it off.
Good boy. Good boy.
This is his just waking up a little bit.
All right, darling. It's all right. HORSE NEIGHS
He's starting to get a little bit agitated now, I think.
WHINNIES
I think he's starting to wear off his sedation a little bit.
Good lad. Good boy, Bon. Steady, mate, I'm tying.
Typical. It's the last little bit. Yeah.
I was pushing my luck, really.
Good lad. I know, I know.
Try from that side again.
All right, darling. Good boy. It's just the thought of it now.
I'm not doing anything, he's just...
He knows now. He's picked up on it.
I think he's clone really well, to say how big a cut he's had.
I've closed down the big hole at the top.
It's much, much better,
and then there's a long, thin, fairly superficial stripe down.
It looks a bit worse than it is.
I'm gonna put some sterile manuka surgical honey in the area.
That will keep it nice and clean. Bandage over the top.
'I think he's lucky, judging by those injuries.
'If it had been a few centimetres either way
'and into one of the joints or ligaments,
'it could have been really nasty.'
Right. Excellent.
I'll give you some antibiotic sachets to put in his feed as well.
Brilliant, yep. Good lad.
He needs to rest, keep any infection at bay,
and then I'll be back in a couple of weeks, hopefully,
to get the stitches out and give him the all clear.
Hopefully, we should see that starting to close up a little bit.
So, plenty of treats and cuddles is what's needed now.
In Wetherby,
like at any veterinary practice,
there are all kinds of smells.
And many aren't pleasant.
Did he have a poo?
Oh, on the owner's shoe, and it went all underneath.
He had a poo on the shoe! He had a poo on the shoe,
and it went under. She stood on it. I smelt something.
Ancl then she ended up going into the consult room with no shoe on.
No shoe! We had to take the shoe in the back...
One shoe on and one shoe off. ..and clean it up.
But the two Lucys have detected a refreshing new aroma in the air.
Have you noticed, er, Julian's been smelling nice recently?
He actually has! It's not just me, then?
“Nan? Yep?
Have you got some new aftershave? I might have.
What's it to you? You do actually smell very nice.
LAUGHTER Mmm. Yeah, I like it.
I've never been interested in this sort of thing,
but I walked past a man in the street the other clay,
and I thought to myself, "God, he smells really nice."
And I didn't say anything, because that would be weird.
Generally, I smell of vaguely of mud and vaguely of rancid dog ears,
so I thought it was time to make a change.
Olly always says I smell like a ferret. Nice.
Well, we do have a lot of ferrets, don't we?
Yeah, one in today, yeah. I don't think I smell like a ferret.
But I've been into Greggs or something and I smell like a ferret.
What do people think of me?
I once had a job working in a pizza takeaway
at the same time as I was working on a pig farm.
Oh, no! We never got any customers.
It had to shut down in the end.
No-one knew it was me, but I couldn't get the smell out of me.
Pig smell gets into your skin and... Oh, no...
...a little bit like... my new... 'Ey!
...my new aroma. THEY LAUGH
Over at Rodney's farm,
Teddy the tup won't be needing his Brut or Old Spice...
Right, Teddy!
...afterjulian's vasectomy gave him an important job to do.
Well, today is an exciting day
because Teddy has just now been made into a teaser,
so we can use him to get sheep cycling, ready for t'tups.
He's going to have fun, but he won't get any babies, so...
But he'll have a long life, so that's the main thing.
Rodney and his son Matthew...
Teddy, I'm off for your girls now. Right, let's get it sorted, then.
...just need to round up Teddy's ladies.
BANNG
Come by. Lie down!
Come by!
Steady! Steady!
Walk on, come on.
Come on.
This is where it all starts. This is where we get going.
Come on, girls.
Go on.
Steady.
She's coming, because she's wagging her tail.
It's a sign that she's coming into season, so that's grand.
Come on, ladies. Come on.
Yeah, this is the first time they're seeing Teddy,
their first meeting.
Come on.
He looks keen, doesn't he? He does, doesn't he?
Quick, in't he? Yeah.
He's like a kid in a candy shop.
Once he settles down, he'll just go round them all automatically.
Knackered already! LAUGHS
It's like a Saturday night out with lads, like, you know.
Except it's the other way around with him.
He's running on after ladies, like.
He'll be worn out by tonight. THEY LAUGH
Across West Yorkshire,
Matt and Shona have come to a school in Leeds,
where they're celebrating World Animal Day.
LAUGHTER
All right. How's it going? Lovely to meet you all.
Today is a snippet of how to raise awareness,
how to raise education, really, for people about animals,
how to look after animals.
Ah, brill. White rabbits! SHONA: Look at them.
'|t doesn't really matter how big or small the animal is,
'they're just as important, and we're here to help with that.'
This one's George. Oh, George.
He's very soft, aren't you?
He's very clean, as well, in't he, for a white bunny?
It's quite nice to be seeing some enthusiastic students
and trying to inspire them to encourage other people
to look after other animals properly.
Hello, Mildred. Come on, let's see how you're getting on.
They're in such good condition.
So, it's always nice to see any rescue animal getting a home,
but rabbits, particularly, can be quite neglected in some cases
because they're not the easiest thing to look after at all.
But these guys look like they've got a happy life here at the school.
Well, now you've introduced me to your pets here,
I've brought one of my pets, Dennis, to introduce you to.
Ancl he's a little bit different to these guys,
more of the cold-blooded nature.
So, this here is Dennis.
This is my pet bearded dragon, and he was actually an RSPCA case.
He was rescued from someone that couldn't look after him.
He was really thin, and it took me a long time
to get him back to eating relatively normally.
Even now, I still struggle to get him to eat his veg.
Want to hold him now? There you go.
You just literally just use your hand,
and he'll feel your heat, and you just put him...
Dan's really keen to hold him.
There you go. What do you think?
Yeah, it's cool. I think it's cool an' all.
While Dennis is going down well...
He's very nice, like, just chillax.
LAUGHTER
...assembly won't be so "chillaxing"...
I'm feeling a bit nervous. Nervous. Yeah, a bit nervous.
Well, we are just gonna talk in front of the whole year group, so...
Yeah.
...for the student speakers...
Good morning,
and welcome to our special animal assembly.
...or the vets.
I think we're up after these guys,
so I can feel the blood pressure rising a little bit,
but I'm sure it'll be all right.
Think they're setting the bar quite high. Yeah.
A nation is judged by the way it looks after its animals.
Always be kind.
APPLAUSE
Good morning, everyone. It works. Excellent!
Brilliant panda suit, by the way.
Animals around the globe desperately need our help,
and every little thing that we can do with them
makes a massive difference.
So, how many of you have got pets at home?
Loads of you.
It was about one degree outside.
It was very wet... WHISPERS: Matt tells a good story.
...and then it just set off with me attached
and mud skiing behind it.
Awesome. LAUGHTER
The kids, they seemed to enjoy the clay, didn't they?
And they seem really quite passionate about the animals
and caring for them as well, don't they? It's...
It is. They really engage with it all.
They can relate to all these stories.
You know when you had to rescue that pig, did you get injured by it?
So, it's a good question cos it is quite often dangerous, our job.
'They had quite a few questions to ask us.'
What's your favourite animal?
I think we could have been asking questions all clay, actually.
Can we have a big round of applause, please?
APPLAUSE
OK.
To round off their good day of charity work,
Matt and Shona just need to line some palms with silver...
just one, please. There you go.
That's 70p. You keep the change, Rita.
All right.
...especially as it means Matt can line his stomach.
The samosas are legendary with these guys.
Ancl Rita, I have to say, coming out here, got her cat outfit on.
She is raising an awareness, raising money
and producing some fine-quality food as well.
MAN: Thank you, Rita. Thank you very much. Enjoy.
When it comes to caring for animals,
one of the Huddersfield practice's newer clients
definitely feels the love.
And Rohin's heading to his smallholding with a big difference.
We're going to see Thomas, who's one of our local clients
in maybe one of the more unusual places we go to see.
It's a... He owns a big quarry.
But his hobby, I think his passion, is looking after farm animals.
We're into quarrying and demolition, but I just like the animals.
We've got sheep, we've got Highland cattle,
we've got geese, we've got alpacas.
And there's one animal in particular
that quarry man-cum-farmer Thomas really digs.
I'm in love with the goats, to be honest with you.
Even though they do cause me a lot of grief,
I've got a soft spot for goats.
I got a brand-new Mercedes, and the neighbour rung me and said,
"Do you know that your goats are jumping all over your new car?"
When I got home,
it were absolutely covered in hoof marks, but I got over it.
But with tiny hooves taking their first steps,
he's called Rohin about more serious concerns.
These were born this morning.
The mum has got one teat that she's feeding on,
but the other doesn't look right to me.
In the first few clays of life,
they really need to get enough milk from the mother
in order to produce a proper immune system, really,
so the antibodies in the milk are absolutely vital for survival.
If they don't get that, they can often end up passing away.
So, yeah, it can be a bit of a worrying situation
when you go to this sort of thing.
Hiya, Rohin. Hello, Thomas. How you doing?
When they were born, I just checked the milk's coming out of the teats.
One teat looks quite full, they're getting milk out,
but the other side looks quite shrivelled up.
I've seen 'em feeding,
but whether she can sustain it out of one teat or not, I don't know.
If I... Do you want me just to hold the horns?
Yeah, do you want to just... If you keep her steady there.
She'll be a bit wary. OK, yeah, yeah. Understandably so.
What I'm always wary,
if she gets a bit panicky and stressed and runs around,
I don't want her to stand on 'em. Yeah.
We're just gonna give her a bit of a general check-over,
see what is the reason why there's no milk from that side.
We've got two kids here.
Ideally, we'd want there to be two teats for them to suckle from.
If there's only one, the rate of mortality is known to be higher.
Is it cause for concern?
I'm just feeling if there's any, you know, lumpy areas
or mastitis or anything. Right.
To be honest, rather than a problem
in terms of infection or milk production,
it's just not being let down as much as we'd want it to.
Could it be a delayed reaction?
Well, yeah. I think one thing that could help her,
if we give her a little oxytocin injection.
Yep. So, this is a hormone
that normally, when the kids suckle, that's supposed to stimulate
the milk and the milk production to happen like that.
Ancl if we do this, it might just make sure
these two get enough antibodies on board,
which is the critical thing in the first few clays.
She's a good mum as well.
She's really taken to them, hasn't she? Yeah.
It's an interesting spot, this. It's a really nice facility.
Ancl you can tell Thomas really cares about his animals
and wants to do everything perfectly by the book,
which is really nice to see.
We need to keep an eye on 'em, make sure they get enough colostrum,
enough milk over the next 48 hours, cos that is critical.
Hopefully, that injection will do the trick,
but, yeah, fingers crossed.
Still to come...
Morning. You good? Hiya.
The moment of truth. Yeah.
After the thorn in his eye, is Charlie's future rosy?
Hopefully, fingers crossed, he's got his sight back.
While for David's horse... Let's have a look at these wounds.
...it's three legs... I'll have a look at the back one,
which was the one that needed stitches.
...and a baby. Is he a good boy, is he?
CH RISTOPH ER TIMOTHY: Near Huddersfield,
Rohin's back at Thomas's quarry-cum-farm...
Now, then. Hello.
...where two newborn goats were unable to feed.
BLEATING
I've just come to see
how those two little goat kids and Mum are getting on.
It was a bit of a stressful situation at the time.
We ended up giving Mum an oxytocin injection,
which helps to stimulate milk let-down
and encourage her to produce enough milk for the two kids.
Hi, Thomas, how are you doing? Hello, hello.
Nice to see you again. You OK? Hello.
Yeah, not so bad, thank you. Here we are.
Ancl is this the same two as last time? Yeah, yeah.
They've come on very well now.
Yeah, they're all looking good, aren't they?
They're all looking nice and happy and healthy and bright, aren't they?
Mum's doing well. Hello, little one, you ok?
I think they'll be glad to get out and start experimenting... Yeah.
...and start being in a group. Exploring the real world now.
Definitely, yeah. Fantastic. Yeah.
So, with the kids all right...
Here we go. Right.
...Thomas's quarry team now have some high-vis goats.
Here we go.
Got their friends to join them now as well, look at that. Nice.
They'll be having fun, aren't they? They are.
Tell you what, I could watch this all clay.
It's entertaining, isn't it? Yeah.
We're gonna build them a little bit of a playpen
with some toys and some climbing frames and stuff.
Yeah. Oh, amazing, yeah.
BLEATING
It's absolutely fantastic to see Mum and the kids all doing really well.
You can tell how much Thomas cares about them, as well.
His enthusiasm's kind of infectious.
It's just a really happy situation to be part of, I think.
At the practice in Kirkbymoorside,
it's two weeks since the cat with the thorn in his eye
had Peter in a panic...
PETER: Good grief. That's horrendous.
LUCY: That is massive.
...and owners Steve and Emma are desperate for good news.
Today, we'll find out if Charlie'll be able to see again.
We don't actually know what the damage is.
Fingers crossed, he'll regain his sight.
Morning. You good? Hiya.
The moment of truth. Yeah.
Do you want to come through? Yeah.
Hello, Charlie. How are you?
Have you been a good boy? Have you? Let's have a look.
Yes, I know that stings a bit when it goes in, doesn't it?
I'm sorry.
Once it's unstitched, hopefully, fingers crossed,
he's got his sight back.
This is the moment of truth, really. I've got one stitch.
Good boy.
Good boy, I know you're fed up with it now, aren't you?
That's it. Lovely.
You can see where it went in there, Rach, can't you?
Oh, Charlie... Charlie, this is looking quite good.
That's healed.
Oh, brilliant news. He can see again.
There we go. Great.
Well, Charlie, is it nice to have your eye back?
You know, there was a possibility we could have lost that eye.
There's no infection there.
Ancl up until we took that stitch out,
I wasn't sure what we were going to find.
Excellent.
Didn't want you with a patch on your eye, did we?
LAUGHTER
Be a good lad.
Nice to see you. Thank you very much.
Any problems, give me a shout, all right?
We will do, thank you. Bye. Thanks a lot.
I think it is the biggest thorn
I've ever had to remove from an eye in 40 years in practice.
But the cornea has totally healed.
I think Charlie will now be very pleased,
and I'm going home a happy veterinary surgeon.
Back over near Huddersfield...
...David's checking on his own patient
who suffered a freak accident.
In case I need to see what I'm doing.
Boni the rescue horse panicked his pregnant owner, Faye,
when he cut three of his legs.
Hi. How are we doing?
All good. Good. Hello, mate, how are you?
But today, Faye's had to hand over the reins to her friend Sue.
So, I was expecting to see Faye this morning... Yes.
...but| understand there's been some good news?
Yeah, there's been some very good news.
Yes, she's had a baby boy this morning, early hours. Fantastic.
So, yep, she's got another baby to look after now as well as this one.
Well, let's hope he's healed up well, then.
Let's have a look at these wounds. So, he had the ones on the front.
There it was. That's brilliant.
That's absolutely fine.
That's perfect. I'll have a look at the back one,
which was obviously the much bigger one that needed stitches.
Good lad.
Wow, that looks so much better than I thought it would.
That's brilliant. Even the centre's held together.
There's a small, little scab in there, in that middle,
but that's fantastic.
I'll just get those stitches out, and he should be good to go.
He's been exceptionally good. just the last one to get out.
That's it.
He's really good for that.
He's been such a good patient throughout.
I'm sure Faye's gonna be pleased, that bit of a relief
when she's still in the hospital with her baby.
It's a big clay, but that's brilliant.
Yeah, she'll be home today, so I wouldn't be surprised
if she paid a visit tomorrow, knowing Faye.
No, no. Bless her. Eh?
And a couple of months later... Huh, who's this?
Is he a good boy, is he?
...Faye's two babies are getting to know each other.
So, this is Finlay.
He's been up a couple of times, but this is the first time
that you've been awake and you can say hello, isn't it?
Oh, you clever boy.
And Faye's wasted no time... Stand. Good boy.
...getting back in Boot's saddle. WHINNIES
He's all good. I think a small amount of work
and just keeping his joints moving's
gonna be a really good thing for him.
David did an amazing job on the stitching-up of his leg,
and his recovery has just been fab.
For him to come back round and be like he is,
and his character is coming out of him so much,
it's amazing to see.
I couldn't have asked for a better horse
cos he's so gentle, and he's been so kind.
It's fab, and I'm so pleased that he's back how he is now.
I think in the next few years,
this little one will have your very own saddle for Boni,
and we'll get you out riding, eh?
That'd be good fun, wouldn't it?
Yeah. Oh!
Oh, it's hard work. Yes, it is.