We're over half way done with this externship! NO! It's going by too fast!
Thursday and Friday were both fairly slow days so I'm mushing them together too.
Thursday morning we were called out to a calving. The calf was backwards and slightly tilted. I placed the chains and after a couple of pulls, with the pully, we were able to twist the calf into a more appropriate position. I kept my hand on the base of the calf's tail while we pulled to make sure it didn't bend backwards. The vet was nice enough to snap a pic of me, pretending I know what I'm doing, while I guided the calf out.
The calf was surprisingly alive, but it didn't look like he would survive for long. He wasn't very lively and was rather puny.
Later that same day I went out on a call to see a sick cow. While doind mmy physical exam all I could hear were some slightly harsh lung sounds on the left side...and I couldn't even find the heartbeat. I thought it was due to my inadequate abilities in examining cows, until the vet checked and said she couldn't hear any heart sounds either. (That made me feel a lot better) Based on all of the signs and the information the farmer gave us, we suspected hardware disease. We gave some antibiotics and popped a magnet down the cows throat.
On Friday morning, we went to collect blood from a group of cows to be tested for BVDv. I had never collected blood from a cow before but it was pretty easy. I got the hang of it and Murphy and I got blood from all of the cows in no time. Then, the farmer showed of some of his calves for a while. He had a lot of very handsome bull calves. He started talking about genetics and scoring and breeds....a lot of it went over my head but what one thing I am sure of is you can never post too many picture of cute calves. So here.
There was one calf who looked a little duller than the rest. His head was a little more dome-shaped and one of his hear was smaller and deformed. It looked like the other calves had been trying to suckle his small ear, mistaking it for a teat:
Later, we were called out to two calvings. Murphy and I were both able to go along to both of them. The first cow wasn't even dilated yet. (whomp whomp) The vet gave some PG and said to look for more obvious signs of labor over the next 12 hours, and that we would send another vet out that evening to look at her again.
At the second calving, the uterus was twisted clockwise, almost 180 degrees. We rolled the cow and with a little bit of cow surfing, managed to get the uterus back to the proper orientation. (Cow surfing with where you roll the cow over on ther back, but use a plank pressed against her belly to keep her uterus in the same position). Once her uterus was untwisted we found that she wasn't dilated. Yep, the second call in one day to an non-dilated cow.
The last thing scheduled for Friday was RMT testing about 160 cows at a dairy. RMT=Rapid Masitits Testing. In the States we call it the California Mistitis Test. Take a bit of milk from each quarter (quarter=teat) and swirl it with the blue test solution. If the mixture starts to thicken or gel, then it's positive, and you mark the cow accordingly. Once we got the hang of milking, it wasn't that difficult, aside from the occasional kicking cow... and occasional falling poop. Even though we were all covered in a nice layer of poo by the end, it was actually pretty fun.
Here's Murphy demonstrating a technique for staying warm in short-sleeve coveralls:
On the way back to the office we met one of the vet's pups. An adorable, precious, playful, little Golden (my FAVORITE breed). We played fetch for a while and he posed for the camera...
When we arrived (super late), we met our airbnb hosts, Mo and Bobby. They greeted us with warm, homemade lemon and ginger tea and a warm stove to gather around. Excellent ending to a long day.
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