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.