“Didn’t See This Coming” – Kelvin Fletcher Left ‘Surprised’ by Concerning Health News Just Minutes into Fletcher’s Family Farm

Kelvin Fletcher admitted his “surprise” after one of his calves was given an unexpected diagnosis in the latest episode of Fletcher’s Family Farm.

The Emmerdale star and his wife Liz Marsland have been sharing their farming journey on ITV since 2022.

Now in their fourth year of farming, the couple and their four children return to the Royal Cheshire Show to compete with their bull calf Ray.

Unfortunately, the day before he’s due to make an appearance, Kelvin reveals Ray has “taken a turn” and calls in on-site vet Matt to take a look.

After admitting he was in “two minds” over whether to show him, Kelvin explains Ray is having trouble settling down in the exhibitors’ tent.

Matt takes Ray’s temperature and discovers he’s running up to 103 degrees Fahrenheit, a touch over the ideal average of 101.5 degrees.

“Quite often we’ll see it,” Matt explains. “He’s had quite a bit of stress with that, he’s had a journey.

“It’s the stress of transport, it’s the stress of show. That higher level of stress knocks through immunity a little bit and he’s just started with a bit of pneumonia.”

Although Ray’s condition sounds daunting, Matt assured Kelvin that pneumonia in cows is not nearly as concerning as it can be in humans.

“Farmers will hear the term pneumonia and it feels a bit alarmist, because we wouldn’t describe something as pneumonia in humans unless it was, sort of, on death’s door,” Matt went on. “But we refer to pneumonia quite commonly in cattle.”

Matt tells Kelvin he’ll be giving Ray an anti-inflammatory to bring down Ray’s temperature and the swelling in his chest as well as a one-off antibiotic. He then advises Kelvin to “leave him be” for a while to bring down his stress levels.

“Poor Ray,” Kelvin says. “It’s an incredibly rough start to this year’s show. I’m just hoping the medicine takes effect soon and the vet will be back first thing to see how he’s faring.”

Comforting Ray after his appointment with Matt, Kelvin admits: “Well, that’s a bit of a turn of events, really.

“That shows what the experienced farmers [know]. It’s a good job that they alerted me to that because I would have absolutely missed that, I would not have known to look for that.

“So, looks like we’ve got in just in time there. I’m feeling, yeah, a bit surprised. I was not expecting this. You’ve just got to roll with the punches, haven’t you?”

Kelvin told viewers that he’ll make a decision over whether to show Ray the next morning, as the priority was making sure the calf’s health was back in track.

Tune into the latest episode of Kelvin and Liz’s farming adventures to discover if Ray was healthy enough to make his debut.

Fletcher’s Family Farm continues Sundays at 11:30am on ITV1 and ITVX.