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….