All Creatures Great and Small

After treating a cow for milk fever, James finds that the cow refuses to get up. All remedies are tried, until James hears creaking from the hips, and diagnoses a broken pelvis. He recommends calling the butcher immediately. The farmer disagrees and tries an old remedy of putting a fresh sheepskin on the cow’s back. The cow then rises. Siegfried reminds James that a cow that has just calved has loose pelvic ligaments, which would cause the bones to creak. James realizes his mistake. A year into practice, James has much more experience, but he isn’t infallible.

Mrs. Pumphrey acquires a pig, whom she names Nugent. James becomes Uncle Herriot to him as well. James is then sent to help Angus Grier. Grier guesses what James will need to do in each case, and James dutifully listens to him. But Grier is consistently wrong. When the practice gets a call from a lady about a dog with a bone in its throat, James ignores Grier’s advice and brings long forceps. But when he arrives, the dog is fine, and James falls back on Grier’s suggestion of a tonic for pharyngitis.