Got Blood??

Happy New Year!

Wow, it’s been two weeks since I’ve last posted! I went through all my calls of the last week, and was trying to remember some of the “not so ordinary” calls.  On Friday I was called to do a blood transfusion on a calf. This calf was suffering from profuse watery diarrhea-most likely from septicemia.

The blogger won't let me load any pictures today, so I apologize for a "read only" post!

If baby calves do not get clean, good colostrum, are born in a dirty environment or suck on dirty teats from Mom, there is opportunity for fecal material to enter the calf orally or via their umbilical cord. This is one of the many reasons that we remove the calf from the cow as soon as the cow has had the opportunity to lick the calf off.  These newborns have very little immune system and rely solely on the antibodies that are found in colostrum from the cow. The better the cow’s immunity, the better start the calf will get once it is fed its colostrum. However, even if they are fed the best colostrum in the world, if there body is overwhelmed with bacteria; they may still end up septic.  They dehydrate very rapidly, as they have very little body reserves, and can suffer many subsequent issues based on electrolyte and fluid imbalances in the body.

Most of the time, we try to rehydrate these calves by putting in an IV catheter and running fluids and electrolytes directly into the vein. We also start them on antibiotics to help with the septicemia.  If the situation is severe enough, we can give a blood transfusion. This is essentially adding more antibodies from an older healthy cow, directly to the calf so that it has a better chance to fight off the bacteria. It can drastically help a calf if it is done early enough in the disease process.  To perform a blood transfusion we find an older, healthy cow that has been screened for various diseases based on the individual farm.  We then restrain the cow, clip an area over her jugular vein, sterile scrub the area and insert a needle into the vein. The blood collection bag has “suction” to it, much like the ones used when humans give blood, so it fills automatically.  The bag also has an anti-coagulant in it so that the blood does not clot as the bag is filling.

Once the bag is full, it is time to prep the calf for the transfusion. The calf is pre-medicated with a steroid so that it decreases the chance of having an immune reaction to the blood it is receiving. Cows have many different blood “types” so we don’t really worry about having to cross match the donor’s blood with the calf.  Cross matching is much more important in horses, dogs, and cats, where there are fewer blood types.  The calf is then restrained, the area over the jugular vein is clipped and scrubbed and an IV catheter is placed. We then attach the blood bag and a bag of fluids to the catheter and slowly give the calf the blood.  The whole process takes no more than an hour and within several hours the calf will often appear to perk up and start drinking on its own.  It’s rare that a calf will get a second transfusion.

Blood transfusions work, but they are a band-aid. We only perform blood transfusions a handful of times a year. If calves are born in clean, dry environments, given good quality colostrum within 6 hours of birth and are kept in a clean dry environment after being removed from the cow, they take off and do well from the start.  The majority of our clients know this, and do a great job at getting calves off to a great start. However, no system is 100% perfect and sometimes we need a band-aid to help a few along.