It is early January at the Royal Veterinary College, and the young vets have just three more months of clinical placements before they face their all-important final exams. That also means only three more months to master all the skills they need to go into practice as fully qualified vets. At the same time they are learning how hard it can be to lose a patient they have grown fond of.

Elly Berry grows very attached to her patient Finn, a seriously ill golden retriever with swelling and infection around his heart. Elly joins world-renowned surgeon Professor Dan Brockman for the surgery and touches Finn's beating heart.

Charlie Tewson is assisting in orthopaedic surgery. His case is Ruby, a toy poodle who fell and broke her leg coming out of a beauty parlour. The surgeons must use innovative orthopaedic techniques to save Ruby's leg.

Amy Clithero is helping to anaesthetise Stuart Little (by name, not by nature), a sheep whose unusual addiction to ginger biscuits has made him overweight and seriously ill.

Judy Puddifoot has a hard time at the PDSA, where her dyslexia and difficulty with maths makes calculating anaesthetic doses a serious issue between her and her supervisor.

Dru Shearn is based at a vets in rural Somerset and learns a hard lesson about the cost of TB for cattle and dairy farmers. He also takes a trip to Longleat, where he helps treat a zebra with a suspected sinusitis. Show less