All Creatures Great and Small

Damn...

Blast!

Ah, there you are.

Siegfried, for Heaven's sake!

I need you dressed and ready to leave in five minutes.

-Leave? -Come on.

What time is it?

Gone six, I should imagine, so let's be having you, my boy.

Siegfried, for heaven's sake...

Stop whining, Tristan, and get on with it.

We've got work to do. Careful.

Can't you ask James?

You know perfectly well James has got a cracked ankle. The worst nuisance in this job.

Come on.

Go on, out, out! Shoo, shoo!

Quick about it! We've got a long stint ahead of us.

Am I allowed to know what's wrong?

You met Rob Benson's flock of half-breds before, didn't you?

Yes. James and I dealt with his in-lamb ewes last year. Why?

Grim work, Tristan. Dog got in among them, worried the flock.

They're now lying dead and dying all over the side of Sennor Ridge.

Oh, strewth!

Go on, go on, go on, you've got three minutes left.

Dead some time, I'm afraid, Mr Benson. Throat ripped out.

-What's the tally? -Three dead. Sorry, Mr Benson.

-I reckon I knowed it already. -What about the others?

I don't understand it. There's no sign of a wound on any of them, yet they're all down.

-They are alive? -Well, just about.

Sheep will run till they lost the will to live.

I reckon they'll die and all.

They're not dead yet, Mr Benson.

Took me 15 years to build that stock up.

Tristan.

What? Discharge from the nostrils?

Yeah. And there's all this drunken nodding of the head when you lift it up.

Check the breathing.

You're the student. What's going on?

Strange. Symptoms suggest...

Go on.

No. Couldn't be.

You have some intensely irritating habits.

It couldn't be, um...

What?

...calcium deficiency, could it?

Well, is it?

I thought that only happened after ewes have lambed.

Not quite.

These ewes have been subjected to sudden stress and exertion,

and that, in turn, has deranged the parathyroid.

And the result, you see.

Of course.

Massive calcium deficiency. That's brilliant, Siegfried.

Now look for calcium. Here we are.

See what I said, Mr Benson?

They're not dead yet.

Oh, aye.

So, apart from those three that were pulled down,

all the rest are suffering from calcium deficiency, Mr Benson.

Could've been worse, considering.

Aye, Mr Farnon. It could at that.

Right, then.

How many sheep did Benson lose in the end?

Three, I think. The rest were down, just about to peg out when I got there.

No more for me, thanks, Mrs Hall.

I'll cut your fingers off!

What was wrong with the sheep, Tris?

Well...

Well, it was very difficult to put a finger on it at first.

Then fortunately, I spotted it.

Derangement of the parathyroid.

-That was very clever of you to have spotted it, wasn't it? -Yes, well done, Tris.

Mind you, it wasn't easy.

What, derange parathyroid? I'd say not.

That's what I mean.

When one's fighting against the clock and the fate of

several dozen pregnant ewes hangs in the balance...

Absolutely.

I mean, wrong diagnosis could prove fatal, couldn't it?

-Thanks to you the flock was saved. -Thank you, James.

Well, Siegfried did his bit, too, you know.

One doesn't like to hog all the praise, does one?

No.

Morning, Mr Farnon. Lovely day.

Looking outside, I'd say it was a filthy day.

If this wretched snow sticks, it's gonna make it even worse.

I can tell someone's been losing their beauty sleep.

You what?

There are occasions when I wish young Mary was still here.

Tristan described your dawn exploits blow-by-blow.

Damn shame you weren't with us, James.

-Yes, I'm sorry about that. -I thought we managed rather well.

Don't be absurd.

You can't compare a student's work with that of a qualified man.

And to think I got out of bed! Thank you very much!

With a student one has to explain one's every move.

It takes time, you see. Time.

I think that's a jolly unfair thing to say, Siegfried.

Yes.

-Time for work. -Quite.

James, sit down, will you? James, um...

You did your best, Tristan.

Thank you.

I was only saying with James, we'd be back in half the time. That's all.

I'll remind you of that the next night call we get.

James' fault.

My fault?

Careless of you letting yourself get kicked by that idiot horse.

Well, I'm terribly sorry, but I think the horse bears some of the blame, too.

You're supposed to be intelligent, the horse isn't.

All that stinking farmer could do

was to examine that horse to see if it had damaged its pastern.

Right, that's what I want to know, James. How is it?

There's nothing wrong with it.

James. Your ankle.

Oh! Well, it's still a bit tender, I'm afraid.

You feel up to coping with surgery?

Oh, yes. I think I could hobble my way through it.

Right, that means, Tristan, you and I deal with all the visits.

-So I am of some use. That's wonderful. -Now stop sulking.

Now, listen to me.

With lambing time coming on,

I advise you to cancel your social life, all right?

Do you know, James, that boy is shaping up to be a first-class vet.

You know, Siegfried, he might like to hear you tell him that sometime.

Tell him?

He's conceited enough as it is.

I wish you'd seen

how he handled himself out at old Benson's place.

The Farnon blood, James.

Breeding will out.

Thank you, Mrs Hazeldine.

-Thank you so much. -Bye-bye.

Next, please.

Come on. Sit. Sit. Good dog.

Farnon about, is he?

I'm afraid not, no. He's visiting clients.

-Herriot, isn't it? -That's right.

Sit still, you blasted dog, or I'll show you a whipping.

Roderick Perowne. I expect you'll have heard of me.

I live at Cairn Top Bridge.

Yes, of course.

-I'm very pleased to meet you. -No, I never shake hands.

I can't abide these empty bourgeois gestures.

I wanted you to look at my dog, if you will.

Fine.

-Right, then. -I shouldn't do that if I were you.

Sligo's trained to chew at any hand he's offered.

Oh, I see.

Perhaps you can get him onto the table for me, please.

Here, Sligo. Come here.

-Blast! -(SLIGO GROWLING)

Old miserable, disloyal sack of bones.

Now look what you've done.

-Your hand all right? -I suppose so.

Right.

Well, I'd better examine Sligo.

Look at his chest, Herriot.

He's got a filthy gash there, somehow.

Oh, that's nasty.

Looks as though he's been through some barbed wire or something.

Poisonous stuff. I can't abide it.

-When did it happen? -Can't say.

The wretched dog had been missing for days.

I have a good mind to give him the flogging of his life.

Would you hold his head, please?

I order you to sit still. Hmm?

-Stray very often, does he? -First time since I've had him.

Right. Will you hold him tightly, please?

He's under orders, Herriot. He won't budge.

-(SLIGO GROWLS) -Ah!

-Blast! -It's all right, Mr Perowne. No damage done.

I can't abide bad manners.

Won't accept from humans. I don't see why it's accepted from animals.

-He's a very fine animal. -Yes, I agree.

I got him from Wales.

Do you know what some of those degenerate farmers

do down there when a working dog gets to be six or seven?

Well, I don't know that part of the world very well, actually, Mr Perowne.

They shoot 'em. Perfectly sound, healthy animal.

Take them out and shoot them. Can you imagine it?

Well, yes, I had heard that kind of thing does happen.

Would you hold him very tightly, please?

One of those degenerates shot Sligo,

made a hash of it, so I thrashed him and took the dog.

You must be very fond of Sligo.

I loathe all animals.

Humans, too, for that matter, but I will not...

I refuse to stand by and see living things needlessly suffer.

Ah, Tristan, your turn to man the telephone, right?

Oh, well, I was rather hoping James would, actually, I mean, being house-bound.

Abandon hope!

You're on standby for emergency calls. Agreed?

-But Siegrfried, there's no... -Agreed.

Hodgins!

# Great Benbow lost his leg By chain shot, by chain shot #

-How's it going? -Just one more and I'm through.

You are a good man.

Your friend Roderick Perowne was in today.

-What, The Hatter? -Hmm.

Ah, he's a rare sight these days.