Boric acid.
Why had I entered this profession? I could have gone in for something easier and gentler—like coalmining or lumberjacking.
This old man had once told me that he left school when he was twelve, whereas I had spent most of the twenty-four years in my life in study. Yet when I looked back on the last hour or so I could come...
Over the years I knew her she always looked at me like that - as though I was a quite pleasant but amusing object - and it always did the same thing to me. It's difficult to put into words but perhaps...
Maybe ye don’t know it, Mr. Herriot, but this is the best time of your life.’ ‘Do you think so?’ ‘Aye, there’s no doubt about it. When your children are young and growin’ up around ye—that’s when it’s...
I had such a frightening experience last week, Mrs. Pumphrey continued. I was sure I would have to call you out. Poor little Tricki—he went completely crackerdog! I mentally lined this up with flop-bo...
I can't bear it, Mr. Herriot. He was like a Christian was that pig, just like a Christian.
His favourite ploy was to push his leg round the corner of the table and withdraw it repeatedly just as the cat pawed at it. Oscar was justifiably irritated by this teasing but showed his character by...
What I didn’t notice was that the passenger seat was not fixed to the floor but stood freely on its sledge-like runners. I dropped into it and went over backwards, finishing with my head on the rear s...
This time, the seat went over quicker than usual and I hurtled backwards, coming to rest with my head among some Wellingtons and my knees tucked underneath my chin. A row of surprised faces peered in...
Then the nose moved along the rubber tube up to the bottle and back again, sniffing with the utmost concentration. When I removed the needle the nose began a careful inspection of the injection site....
The two of us stood gazing at the gleaming rows without any idea that it was nearly all useless and that the days of the old medicines were nearly over. Soon they would be hustled into oblivion by the...
She’s out, Jim! The bugger’s out! Well this was great. Anybody who has driven a car with a hysterical cat hurtling around the interior will appreciate my situation.
Old Herriot may be limited in some respects, but by God, he can wrap a cat.
My mind went back to my school-days and an old gentleman talking to the class about careers. He had said: If you decide to become a veterinary surgeon you will never grow rich but you will have a life...
It was to a moribund horse, and Mr. Sidlow, describing the treatment to date, announced that he had been pushing raw onions up the horse’s rectum; he couldn’t understand why it was so uneasy on its le...
If you decide to become a veterinary surgeon you will never grow rich but you will have a life of endless interest and variety.
If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans. You’ve nothing to worry about there.
As I say, I rather pride myself on this little expertise and even today my veterinary colleagues have been known to remark: Old Herriot may be limited in many respects but by God he can wrap a cat. As
Siegfried once told me he had spent half a morning trying to stuff a uterus up a cow’s rectum. What really worried him, he said, was that he nearly succeeded)