It's a GIRL!!!!

I hope each and every one had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you all a blessed New Year!

The herd I went to today is a great herd for providing blog topics. Every time I go, I’m bound to do all sorts of things aside from the regular herd check.  I’m always talking about “herd check” and some of you may not know what that really entails. Mostly, it is checking to see if a cow is pregnant or not. Some people think that dairy cows just produce milk all the time.  They are mammals so they only begin to produce milk after they have had a calf.  Certain media outlets will claim that cows ALWAYS have to be pregnant and it’s a cruel thing to keep them that way. In reality, if a cow does not continue to have a baby every year, she no longer makes milk and will “dry up.” No milk=no cheese, yogurt, butter, half &half or any heavy creams used to make all those yummy Christmas desserts.  And maybe a topic for another day, but keep in mind that soy products have 152,727 times more estrogens in them than any dairy milk (organic OR non-organic).

The cow’s uterus takes about a month after having a baby to “involute” or get back to pre-baby state. At this time, she is making lots of milk. Some cows make up to 12 GALLONS, or more, of milk a day.  We normally wait about 2-3 months after having her calf to try to get her pregnant again. With a ~282 day gestation, this allows her to have a calf about once a year. Now, not all cows will get pregnant on the first try. If she is making a lot of milk, or has sore feet, other metabolic issues, or has fertility issues, she may need to be bred anywhere from 2-5 times before she conceives.  Most people give up trying to get her pregnant after about 6-8 times of being bred.  The longer it’s been since she had her last baby, the fatter she is getting and the less milk she is producing.  If she gets too fat, and then gets pregnant, most likely, she will have other, more serious metabolic issues, down the road.  It’s better to milk these cows until they are no longer making enough milk to pay for their food, and then sell them.

I took the ultrasound that records videos/images today and was sure to take a few pictures during herd check.  When using the ultrasound, I can tell a cow is pregnant as early as 28 days after she is bred. The fetus in this first clip is 37 days old. If you look really close, you can see the heart beating. It’s a really fast flutter in the center of the bleb.  The “bubble” it is in, is the amniotic sac.  Unfortunately the ultrasound only records 4 second clips, so you may have to replay it.  I’m always fascinated to see all the development  a fetus as young as this has!!!

This herd sells a lot of animals to bull studs and to other farms. They have animals with really high genetic potential and animals that are worth up to $100,000 or more. For this reason, they like to know if the cow is going to have a bull or a heifer. This way, they can market the animals and make sure they are around when she is having her baby, in case she needs help.  The next clip is a video of a 65 day old fetus. Although you only really see the back half of the calf, that’s what I’m looking at when I try to tell if it’s a boy or girl. This one is a GIRL!!!! You can also see the ribs, legs, heart beat and start to see some abdominal organs. Cool huh????

Also at herd check, we discuss various issues on the farm. It can be as routine as discussing when everyone should get their vaccines, or as serious as problem solving a serious disease outbreak such as mastitis, pneumonia, or even Salmonella. The veterinarian (and the farmer) is in charge of the overall health of all the animals on the farm and ultimately keeping the milk they sell as clean and healthy as possible.  Just a little responsibility I guess…..

Whirlwind Wednesday

I’m not sure if it’s the weather or the moon, or just December, but we seem to be having an increased number of calving issues this past week.

Wednesday started with a wake-up emergency page for a cow with a twisted uterus.  I was the doctor on call, so I raced out the door. No time for breakfast, or making a lunch. The call was a half hour north of the clinic, and my first herd check was 40 minutes south of the clinic.  I knew based on what time it came in, I was going to be late for my first herd check. We rolled the cow, as I’ve described before and when I could feel the feet, knew it was going to be a difficult pull- they were really big feet!  After lots of patience, lubrication and muscle, a live bull calf was on the ground.  I cleaned up and raced out the door.  The receptionist called my 8am herd check and told him I was going to be an hour late.  He was the first of 4 herd checks I had today.  The first three were without incident and I was able to get back on schedule.   

I then had a call for a cow with bloat. Many people have heard that cows have 4 stomachs. In actuality, they only have one stomach, it just has 4 compartments that do different things, and look very differently on the inside.  The first compartment is the reticulum, it is sometimes combined with the second compartment (the rumen) being called the reticulo-rumen.  The reticulum looks like a honeycomb on the inside. 

The rumen is the largest compartment and takes up the majority of the left side of a cow. It is as big (and full) as a 50 gallon drum and functions as a large fermentation vat.  The rumen has millions of microbes that are digesting the forages that cows eat.  Ruminants like cows, are much more efficient at digesting and utilizing forages than humans are, because of the rumen. There are three layers to the rumen, the bottom is all liquid (rumen juice), the next layer is called the “rumen mat” which is the forage that is still being digested, and then there is the “gas cap.”  The gas cap is methane which is being produced by the microbes digesting the food.  In addition to the methane being produced, the microbes also produce volatile fatty acids, which are needed for other metabolic purposes in the cow, and then are absorbed by billions of tiny villi on the surface of the rumen.

The next compartment is the omasum. Inside there are many folds that looks like the pages of a book. In the omasum, more VFA and bicarbonate is absorbed from the digesta before it moves on to the abomasum, the final compartment.  The abomasum is often called the “true stomach” as it is the most like all other mammals’ stomachs, including humans.

There are 2 kinds of bloat- free gas bloat and frothy bloat.  Frothy bloat is when there are a whole bunch of tiny bubbles (kind of like a bubble bath or foam) rather than one big bubble.  Because there are so many little bubbles, the cow can’t burp them up, so it just keeps building and building and puts lots of pressure on the other abdominal organs and the lungs, making it difficult to breathe- even causing death.   When a cow eats very lush grass or hay, or had a significant diet change, frothy bloat can occur.

It’s hard to tell the difference between the two, until we pass a tube down the cow’s throat to see if we get a big bubble to release (free gas bloat). I couldn’t get any gas out by passing the tube, so I had to go to the next step. In this instance, we clip the left side of the cow, sterile scrub it, numb it with lidocaine and make a stab incision through the thick skin. We then insert a “trocar” which enters directly into the rumen. It’s like a little portal or blow hole.  When I put this in the cow, there was some free gas that came out and then there was the froth that soon followed, confirming my diagnosis.  

After some of the froth was relieved, I added a medication into the rumen, that helps make all the little bubbles form one big bubble so the cow can burp it up. Add some cow Pepto-Bismol, and she should be good to go in a day or two.  We leave the trocar in for about a week, allowing the cow to hopefully get the rumen microbes and layers back to normal function.  We then remove it and the hole closes up on its own.

After the bloat, I had one hernia to wrap, one more herd check and then had to get home to get ready for the clinic’s Christmas party.  I spent a lot of time driving between farms and saw a lot of cows. I’m glad I have Thursday off….

Friday Frustrations

Today was a quite a day. After getting home and hearing the tragic news of what happened in Sandy Hook, CT, my day doesn’t seem quite so rough. My thoughts and prayers are with all those families.   

I had an hour drive home from my last call of the evening and had an internal debate with myself the entire way,  on whether or not I should actually write about today’s calls.  When I decided to write about being a large animal veterinarian, I thought it was important to shed light on all that we do, some of it really cool, some of it joyous and some things are just down right frustrating. 

This post may be a bit disgusting to some,  so be warned….

My day started with a call at 7:00 am, from another veterinarian who was on call the night before.  The emergency call was for a twisted uterus (a.k.a. uterine torsion). The on-call doctor had to be at another farm for a previously scheduled appointment and wasn’t going to be able to handle this call. My first scheduled appointment was for 9am so I had the time to take care of the emergency.  

The uterus of a cow is suspended in the abdomen of a cow by two ligaments, called the broad ligaments and then attached via the cervix, to the vagina.  The more calves a cow has, the more stretched out these ligaments can get.  Active movement from the calf, inside the uterus, can cause the uterus to twist. I’m not sure anyone has actually watched a calf do somersaults inside the uterus, causing a twist; but usually as calves are repositioning in the uterus, there is an opportunity for a twist.  When the uterus is twisted, the birth canal is much tighter (picture the end of a bread bag as you close it up) and there is no way for the calf to be born without untwisting the uterus and opening the birth canal back up.

There are a few different ways to get the uterus untwisted.  Some people will use their arms and get the calf to start swinging. If you can get enough momentum, you can swing the calf the whole way around, opening the birth canal. After years of playing softball, I find this to be way too hard on my shoulders.  I almost always opt for rolling the cow. In this situation, we lay the cow down on her side and as one person applies pressure on the stomach, via a plank or themselves, holding the uterus in place, two other people roll the cow over. This is essentially swinging the cow around her own uterus. I’ve had very few instances where this hasn’t worked.  Then it’s just a matter of delivering a calf! Easy right???  Or something like that…..

My next call was for a routine herd check. During these appointments, I check with a portable ultrasound to see if the cow is pregnant or not. The earliest I can tell a cow is pregnant is 30 days after she was bred.  I can even tell if the cow is going to have a boy or girl (bull or heifer) if they are between 60-85 days pregnant! I’m not sure the cow really cares what she is having, but this farmer does!!!  

Call number 3 was another calving. This was a situation where the calf’s head got stuck on the pelvis, on its way out. The head was bent way down to the left and its neck was almost bent in half. This was just a matter of having long arms to reach in, find the head, get it in position and pull the calf. Still a job in itself, but is about medium difficulty in the realm of calvings.  

The next call was a cow with pneumonia. With the weather being warm, then cold, then warm again, it tends to wreak havoc on cows respiratory systems.  Her prescription was amoxicillin for 5 days. I think she’ll be just fine.  

Next call was a beef heifer that scratched her eye. She needed some eye medication and to stay out of the sun due to her photosensitivity.   She may have some corneal scarring, but hopefully we caught it early enough where she will regain complete sight.

I was really hoping that was going to be all the calls we had for the day as I was planning on going to my little cousins Christmas program this evening. I had to leave my house by 5 to make the program on time, and after the day I had already had, a shower was an absolute must. But as I’ve said before, we are on call 24/7/365. The weekend on-call doctor was still doing her other regularly scheduled calls when yet another calving came in. I was the only doctor available,  so batter up….

This was a beef cow and when I arrived at the farm, I saw only one foot out.  After further questioning, I found out that this poor cow had been trying to calve since Wednesday.  Now, waiting two days before you call the vet is completely and utterly unacceptable. I made this clear to him when I found out, but either way, I had to get the calf out.  Cows have calves on their own, without any help, all the time. But, when a farmer knows a cow is starting labor, they should be checking that cow every hour to make sure she is progressing. If there has been no progress after an hour, assistance is needed, or at least the cow needs to be checked to make sure things are lined up the way they should be.  Still, every hour there should be progress and the calf should be born within two hours.

This calf was coming backwards so I only had the back feet- make that one back foot. I had to go find the other one.  I found the back foot and was able to get it up into the birth canal, but the calf’s hips were too wide to get through.  The calf was dead, and had been for quite some time.  We always want a live calf and a live cow, but life doesn’t always work that way. In cases where the calf is already dead, we do what we can to save the cow.  This requires a fetotomy, or “cutting” the calf out. The cow receives an epidural so her back end is numbed. We have special tools that we use to protect the cow as we use cutting wire to cut the calf.  These can be 3 hour jobs in certain cases. Luckily I only had to make one cut; splitting the pelvis of the calf in half. With one leg and hip removed, there was enough room to pull the rest of the calf out.  The cow stood up and walked around the pen when we were all done. 

After I was all cleaned up, tools disinfected, and I’m climbing back in my truck I look at the clock: 4 pm. I was cutting it close, but I thought I would still be able to make the Christmas program.  As I’m half way to my house, I get YET ANOTHER call for a cow with a prolapsed uterus (I’ll talk about this another time).  There was no way I was going to make the Christmas program and hence my Friday Frustration.  In this job, we never know what is going to happen or when. It would be really nice to be able to walk out the door at 4, turn the phones over to an emergency clinic or shut the phone off all together, but that’s not the career path I chose. Like I’ve said before, I really do love what I do, but there are times, that what I love to do, takes over from other things I want to do.  I want to tell you about the good, the bad and the ugly; today was a little of all three.  

Nature is Fascinating!!!!!!

 

It’s Monday, which means, that we have our scheduled Monday morning Doctors meeting. This is a meeting where we discuss schedule changes, specific cases, and other various veterinary topics. I work in a 5 veterinarian clinic. Currently Dr. Shelly is on maternity leave, which leaves Dr. Erin, Dr. Sonya, Dr. Melissa and I to share emergency duties. Unlike many small animal veterinary clinics, which utilize an “Emergency Clinic,” large animal veterinary clinics provide emergency services to their clients 24/7/365. Dr. Sonya was on call for the weekend, and was called for a calving this morning at 6:30am, therefore having to miss our Monday morning meeting.  

When we are called to “calvings”, it means that for some reason, the cow is having difficulty having the calf and the farmer has tried to assist, but feels that it is beyond their scope of experience.  When we arrive at the farm, we want to be as clean as possible and assess the situation. Using a disinfectant, we wash the cow’s vagina and then put on a shoulder-length glove to ensure we do not introduce any bacteria into the birth canal. Dr. Sonya noticed that in this particular case, she was feeling two noses.  After much discussion with the farmer, they decided on a performing a C-section. I was called into assist with the surgery as it is very difficult to pull a 100 pound calf out of a 1200 pound cow, while she is standing up.

The cow was sedated, clipped, surgically scrubbed, and blocked (aka numbed) with lidocaine so she did not feel the incision. One of the hardest parts of the surgery is to get the uterus over to the incision site without intestines and the stomach getting in the way.  We really try to minimize the amount of amniotic fluid that enters the abdomen of the cow, so we try to exteriorize the uterus as much as possible.  Bloody picture coming, if you have a weak stomach!!!!!

Normally a calf comes out with both front feet and the head first. Kind of like diving into a pool… That being said, when we do a C-section, we are searching for the back legs of the calf.  We found the back leg of the calf, opened the uterus and then pulled the calf out of our incision by both back legs.  The calf was normal up until the neck. IT HAD TWO HEADS!!!!!  And was ALIVE!!!!

 

There were two mouths, 4 eyes, but only 2 ears.  This is another genetic anomaly. There is no hormones, or antibiotics or any "drug" we give to cows that causes this. We don’t really know why it happens, but our thought is that the fetus started to split into twins, as an embryo, but never finished.  Many times, these anomalies die and are reabsorbed by the cow, before even coming close to full term. This calf was still alive, which is unusual.  The head was really heavy and he was unable to hold his head up. Calves are precocious animals, therefore can see, hold their head up and walk within minutes of being born.

 The farmer was going to try to feed it with a bottle to see which mouth it could drink out of. It apparently could drink out of the right side. Usually there is really only one truly functional side.  Based on the difficulty of being able to hold his head up and therefore walking, and future issues with balance, eating and overall survivability; this calf will be humanely euthanized.  Mom is doing fine and as you can see in the pictures, is resting comfortably next to her baby.  These occurrences are few and far between. Some people think I’m crazy, but I do find these anomalies so cool!!!!

Welcome!!!

People have told me again and again that I should start documenting the craziness that occurs in my life, as a food animal veterinarian. So here is my attempt and writing my experiences, joys, trials, and tribulations.  I'll try to remember to take pictures, but they may be few and far between. Although I hope I can provide some entertainment, I will also try to explain the what, and why's of what happens. Hopefully through reading this, you and others can really understand what animal agriculture is about, and how important farming and protecting America's food supply really is!  I encourage you to leave comments and questions!

This is a calf with a cleft palate. This is a birth defect that is often seen in humans. As the calf develops, the two halves of the face failed to completely fuse together. This creates a "cleft" in the upper portion of the mouth. This calf was still able to suck from a bottle, however, more often then not, the space does not facilitate a sucking ability.  I name him stitch, because I thought he resembled Stitch from "Lilo and Stitch."