Vets in Practice

Trude Mostue refuses to let her anxiety about her application to the Garston Veterinary Group affect her concentration when performing a life-saving operation on a Labrador named Jenny. Meanwhile, Joe Inglis has to deal with the nastiest job of his career to-date. Pepe the cat has been missing for a week and has returned in deep distress and stinking the place out. It transpires that his bottom has been infected with maggots which have eaten away at the flesh.

The Leonard family occupies a unique position in the world of veterinary medicine: all four brothers are vets. The youngest, Keith, has been qualified for a year but is jobless and his big brother Dennis is not impressed. Steve is experimenting with acupuncture on an arthritic golden retriever, and Tom has his hands full with the emergency delivery of twin lambs.

Sam Robinson tries to put a 13-stone Great Dane on a diet, whilst Joe Inglis does battle with a golden retriever that has an appetite for rubber toys. Surgery is Joe's only course of action, but he finds more than he bargained for when he begins to operate.

Trude Mostue has worked in Bristol ever since her graduation, and now it's her last day before she moves on to her new job, which involves treating the animals at Longleat Safari Park. In King's Lynn Craig Beck deals with an emergency: Katherine and Philip Ward have adopted a stray cat called Thomas who's having trouble breathing. Craig thinks Thomas may have feline Aids and might have infected the couple's pet cat Smokey. Meanwhile, Craig's wife Alison faces up to a challenge at RAF Marham, where the ferocious guard dogs are due for their annual check-up.

Fiona Green's new life as a diving instructor in the Bahamas begins with a close encounter with a pack of sharks. In England, Keith Leonard is in the rural splendours of Northumberland and his first case is a cat called Kevin Keegan. Keith's brother Tom is busy, too, taking care of a lamb with a broken leg.

It's Trude Mostue's first day at her new job and she's thrown in at the deep end with a cat called Lucy. Hannah Pollard is also working in a new environment - a brand new veterinary hospital in Southend, where she has to treat a stray collie. Meanwhile, in King's Lynn, Alison Beck is puzzled by Soda the cat and a case of disappearing lumps.

Trude Mostue's first case at Longleat Safari Park is a wolf with a serious eye infection. Elsewhere, Steve Leonard attends an acupuncture course whilst his brother Keith instantly recognises an operable condition other vets have missed for 10 years.

Craig Beck is used to dealing with other people's sick animals, but that doesn't make it any easier when he discovers that his own dog, Lady, may have cancer. Meanwhile, Craig's wife Alison adopts a cat who has been run over. In Cheltenham, Joe Inglis makes a little girl very happy by sorting out her hamster's broken leg. Joe's wife Emma goes to her local DIY shop for a hacksaw to fix Jasper the Yorkshire terrier's knee.

Trude Mostue is faced with a lame wolf from Longleat Safari Park, and an abandoned baby blackbird which will starve to death unless she can persuade it to eat some worms. However, Trude has other problems to deal with when she is frog-marched to the dentist by her boyfriend Patrick Evans. Meanwhile, Craig Beck extracts a few teeth from a 16-year-old cat called Oliver, whilst his wife Alison examines a lame dog.

It's Emma Inglis's first week in her new job in the Tewkesbury practice in Gloucestershire, and she's off to a nerve-racking start: Twiggy the greyhound has impaled himself on a stick and needs life-saving surgery. Meanwhile in Hull, Sam Robinson and colleague John Levison operate on a horse suffering from lameness and have problems with another patient - Fred the tortoise - as they battle to get him under anaesthetic. Elsewhere, in Southend, Hannah Pollard has to treat Freya, a sneezing rat, and sets off to visit some spiders.

In Cheltenham, Joe Inglis treats a Welsh springer spaniel called Harvey whose ears are bleeding due to polyps. On her weekly visit to Longleat Safari Park, Trude Mostue administers foot medication to an African antelope called an Oryx. In Hull, Sam Robinson operates on a ferret with a swollen testicle, creating serious implications for the animal's mate.

Craig and Alison Beck treat an energetic little dog called Reggie whose sexual appetite has put him off his food, and Billy the cat, whose heart defect means he, on the other hand, must avoid too much excitement. Meanwhile, Fiona Green is taking a year's sabbatical in the Bahamas, where she meets some old friends - human and animal - at a local dolphin sanctuary.

Trude Mostue treats a Jack Russell called Taffy who has been injured in an encounter with a postman. Steve Leonard attempts to help a cow who is reluctant to get to her feet, whilst his brother Keith treats a lizard who has gone off her food.

Emma Inglis operates on a cat called Herbie that has been trodden on by a horse, whilst her husband Joe's patients include Cap the sheep-dog, who has been hit by a car. Meanwhile, Trude Mostue performs a tricky operation on a rabbit called Biscuit to remove an injured eye. Later all three vet's take a nostalgic trip back to the vets' school at Langford College, Bristol, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

As the Christmas festivities approach, the young vets' surgeries are packed with patients. Before heading home for a traditional Norwegian celebration, Trude Mostue treats a puppy that has been trampled by a horse. Steve Leonard deals with a cat who has swallowed a needle, while Emma and Joe Inglis find room for a severely injured abandoned cat.