Friday went by so fast! Which was great...because it put us one day closer to the weekend! Holler
I started my day with three back-to-back calls. On the way to our first call, we got stuck in a herd of cattle that were being walked down the road between farms.
First call of my day was a bloated calf. Usually, they tap the abomasum and try to relieve the pressue in the abdomen, and then treat medically before resorting to surgery. This calf, was odd though. It had a ton of fluid in its abdomen, but it didn't feel like it was isolated to its abomasum. It felt like there was fluid moving throuhgout the entire abdomen. When we tapped the belly, we found dark, green fluid and pulling out about 1.5 liters. We suspected, based on the history the farmer gave us, that the calf may have suffered some trauma and ruptered its galbladder, and maybe another organ.
Second call was to visit a man who keeps a goat and a handful of sheep. We just gave the sheep and goat a quick once-over. If a client wants to purchase certain products from the veterinarian to treat his animals, then a vet has to have visited his farm/animals within the past year.
Third call, for me, was a heifer with a calf who was trying to come out upside-down (dorso-pubic presentation). We managed to pull it out, but unfortunately, the calf was not alive. The heifer, a jersey, pouted for a little while and refused to stand until the farmer tempted her with dandelions; then she up on her feet and on her way.
Murphy saw a cow with septic arthritis and a hip luxation. Increased levels of estrogen can cause the ligaments in the pelvis of a pregnant cow to become looser, which makes calving easier. Sometimes it allows enough laxity that the hip completely luxates. Whoopsies...The odds were not in this cows favor.
Murphy's second call was to assist with a dystocia. She helped pull out both calves and guided the second calf on her own! Live bull calf twins! Her day was gouing great...until she got stuck in the field on her next call. The farmhand had to haul them out with the tractor. Before they got stuck, they looked at a down cow with suspected milk fever. (Treated with CaMg, Dextrose, and Banamine)
Please note that Murphy is taking a picture and not helping with the situation in any way. Way to pitch in Murph...
Last call of the day was a dyspneic cow. She was orthopneic and has a large amount of snot pouring out of her nose. We checked for a foreign body (negative). She was running a fever. The vet suspected the cow likely had Catarrh (chronic granular rhinitis). This is a nasal granuloma, that is suspected to be associated with IBR and is more common in Jerseys. The use of IBR vaccine in the Waikato region of New Zealand is thought to affect how this virus presents, in that the infectious form is rare but granulomas continue to be fairly widespread.
As soon as work was done we set out for Rotorua! The drive was so pretty. Has anyone found an ugly drive in New Zealand?
We ate a five star dinner of ramen noodles and then set out for a pub. We found a nice little bar that had some craft beers (which, believe it or not, are hard to come by in the small farming town we've been working in). After a tasty drink we went home and fell asleep.
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