The Bionic Vet - Episode Guide

Oscar, a two-and-a-half-year-old cat, has had both his back feet chopped off by a combine harvester. His owner has flown in from Jersey, desperately hoping that Noel's trailblazing surgery can save his life. In this opening programme, Noel attempts a world first, to save Oscar's life by giving him two new feet and the chance to walk again.

And it's life or death for eight-year-old Labrador, Mayo, who has crippling arthritis. One of his front paws has collapsed, and he'll have to be put down unless the bones can be fused together, offering him new rigid support. Inspired by the X-Men movie, Noel comes up with an extraordinary surgical solution that he's dubbed his 'Wolverine Technique'.

Although only just over a year old, Labrador Charlie is already living on borrowed time. An aggressive cancerous tumour is eating away part of his front leg. His owners, Louise and Mick, turn to Noel for help. His unique solution is to remove the tumour and replace it with a custom made implant that exactly mirrors Charlie's diseased bone, making him truly bionic: part metal, part dog.

And the survival of border collie cross Sasha is at stake as Noel sets about giving her a new bionic knee. Meanwhile, senior surgeon Michael Hamilton is challenged by his smallest patient to date, Zippy the chinchilla. Zippy has broken both of the tiny bones in his arm after falling from a shelf. Can Michael come up with an ingenious solution to secure them back together?

There's a dramatic and unforeseen setback for border collie cross, Sasha. Noel has already given her a total knee replacement and she seemed to be recovering well. But, in a totally unrelated incident, a disc has suddenly blown in her spine. More urgency and ingenuity are called for as Noel engineers a specially-designed bolt and prepares Sasha for her second major bionic operation.

And, when four-year-old cat Lottie is brought in after having been hit by a car, there's astonishment when the x-rays reveal the true extent of the injuries to her shattered pelvis. Noel thinks he can reconstruct and rebuild it, but complex surgical procedures can cost several thousand pounds and her owners only have a limited amount of insurance money available to finance Lottie's treatment.

Puppy, Ice, is just six months old and he's been rushed to Noel's referral centre having been trampled by a horse. The bones in his tiny leg have been shattered into twenty or more pieces. Noel tries to reconstruct the leg as he battles the infection caused by the horse's hoof. There are concerns, too, for Gatwick sniffer dog, Neo. He's been compensating for a serious knee problem in one of his back legs and requires significant surgery if he's to be able to rejoin his handler, PC Murray, back on the beat.

We also catch up with Lottie, the cat whose pelvis was shattered in a road accident. Noel reassembled the pelvis using a series of pins and a metal frame. Lottie's been making good progress but it's now time to find out how she'll take to her first session in the centre's hydrotherapy pool.

Noel is presented with another major surgical challenge. Seven-month-old puppy Jolly has a painful bone deformity in both his front legs. His owner, Christine, agonises over whether it's fair to put him through an operation in which Noel proposes to use a new technique to treat a bone growth deformity.

There's also an emergency rushed to the centre in the middle of the night - Breezy, a collie, has been hit by a car. Noel suspects a broken back but not everything is quite as it seems.

Another road accident victim, a cat called William, desperately needs a life saving blood transfusion and Flight, an excitable Labrador, puts his newly transplanted hip under real pressure when he can't contain his excitement at being reunited with his owner.

Noel attempts a rare operation which has only been carried out on two other dogs before.

Ianto, a nine-year-old corgi, has an infected cancerous growth which is eating away his foot. For Ianto's owner Gillian, it's heartbreaking: he's her sole companion and she can't imagine life without him. Noel decides that the only way to save Ianto's life is to amputate the diseased paw and give him a custom made prosthetic foot.

We also find out whether the groundbreaking surgery to correct puppy Jolly's bone growth deformity has been successful and whether he can now walk pain free. There's a rare visit from an unusual patient and a barn owl with a broken wing, plus the story of a stray Jack Russell terrier, Jade, who needs treatment on a dislocated elbow.