Droopy Ears and Drunken Behavior

Over the last couple weeks, I’ve been working with a farm having calves suffering from droopy ears and head tilts. This week I was called to a second farm, for a calf with the same symptoms, so I thought it was time to discuss.

Let’s start with a background. Farm A houses their calves in groups and feeds them milk replacer for the first month of life then switches them to waste milk that has been pasteurized. The calves that have been getting droopy ears are about 1 month old and are on the pasteurized waste milk.  Farm B had a calf that was about 3-4 months old, is weaned and is being fed hay, grain and water. 

One of the patients with droopy ears

Many times farmers will say to us “Doc- her ear is droopy and she’s walking like she is drunk!” Calves that have droopy ears and head tilts, suffer from what we call “otitis media,” a fancy way of saying and inner-ear infection.  The inner ear is responsible for hearing, obviously, but balance as well. There is an intricate system of bone and cartilage in the inner ear that works together with the brain, eyes and rest of the body to allow an animal, and a human, to know which end is up. When there is an infection in the inner part of this ear, the entire system is disrupted and the calves walk unbalanced, stumble and can fall down. 

The body is such an amazing unit that works so in synch, that we often take it for granted.  When these calves with inner ear infections are blind-folded, the head tilt is exacerbated and the balance is worsened.  We don’t realize how important eye sight is, and how much it helps compensate for deficiencies in other areas! So amazing! Anyway, I digress…

Most commonly we associate otitis media with the bacteria Mycoplasma.  Although this is a very common causative agent, it’s not the only bacteria involved in these situations. Farm A had been treating these calves with an antibiotic that Mycoplasma is susceptible to, but the calves were not getting any better, in fact they seemed to be getting worse.  Farm B had also treated the calf with the same antibiotic and this calf was not getting worse, but was slow to improve.  Because there are other bacteria that can be involved in otitis media situations, it was time to  take some real sample and submit them to the lab for analysis. 

 Farm A had a calf that was severely neurologic, was falling down consistently and had already had the appropriate treatment. Her prognosis was grave, so we chose to euthanize her and perform a necropsy. When I removed the ear, there was brown, thick discharge in the ear canal. Using a sterile swab and special culture media, I sampled the discharge, from both ears and sent it into the lab. I also sent in the other standard necropsy samples such as lung, liver, spleen, kidney, intestines, thymus, lymph node and heart muscle.  Usually in neurologic cases, we also submit the brain, however, I was confident that the neurologic signs were coming from the inner ear infection, so did not add the brain to my samples.

The results came back with several different bugs. There was indeed Mycoplasma cultured from one of the ear swabs that I sent in. The lab also cultured Trueperella pyogenes, Proteus Mirabilis, and Pseudomonas Aeruginosa.  So, where do all these bugs come from????

Let’s start with Mycoplasma. This is a bacterium that is commonly associated with pneumonia in calves and mastitis in cows.  It is found in the respiratory secretions of calves and is considered part of the “Bovine Respiratory Disease Complex” that I’ve discussed before. It is a contagious bacterium that can be transmitted from animal to animal in the milking machines, nose to nose contact, or from the environment. It has been shown to live for months in sand, ponds and in other cool, humid conditions.  As I mentioned earlier, it is susceptible to a few different antibiotics and when it’s the only bacteria involved in the situation, it can be cured.  Because cows shed the bacteria at different times, many farms routinely sample their milk to check for Mycoplasma. Due to its contagious nature and the trouble it causes for cows and calves, most farms will sell any infected cattle. Proper pasteurization does kill the bacteria so animals fed waste milk, or milk sold for human consumption is clean.

Abscessed udder from Trueperella pyogenes

Trueperella pyogenes is a common mastitis bacterium.  The bacteria are found on the skin of the cow and can be spread by flies and fly bites. It can also infect the udder if the teat end is damaged, the cow was not treated with clean hands or the cow is in a dirty environment. The bacteria form little abscesses in the udder of a cow. Because of the abscesses formed in the udder, these animals are very difficult to treat as very few antibiotics are able to penetrate the wall of the abscess to get to the bacteria. 

The other two bacteria that were isolated from the culture are very difficult bacteria to kill. They are resistant to many drugs and the bacteria have little flagella that allow them to move or “swim” around.  Again, they are found in a dirty environment and commonly associated with fecal material.  They may not have been the true causative agent, but rather took advantage of the opportunity of an infected ear and are wreaking havoc along the way.

So now that I know what bugs I’m dealing with, what’s next? Well, we have been sampling Farm A milk for a couple weeks now, trying to see if the pasteurization of the waste milk is adequate and see if we can culture Mycoplasma from the waste milk. If we find a positive, she will automatically be culled. We know there are Trueperella mastitis cows, and they may be more of an issue than the Mycoplasma alone.  As I mentioned earlier, many of these bugs are found in a dirty environment.  Cleaning up the environment for these calves and the cows will go a LONG way in preventing these diseases from occurring.  We need to minimize, if not eliminate, the source of the bacteria for these calves. If you start with dirty milk, there is only so much you can do, to make it clean. Pasteurization helps reduce bacteria load, but it does not sterilize the milk.

Finding what is causing the issue is easy. It’s getting people to change their practices that cause more stress than anything in a veterinarian’s life!

Farm B’s calf seems to be more of a respiratory issue than dirty milk. She has had a fever that has coincided with the droopy ear. We have decided to try to flush her ear out with hydrogen peroxide and if there is no improvement, we can pop her ear drum to allow the “gunk” to drain. Overall I feel like she on the mend and has a decent prognosis. There does not seem to be any other calves affected so it’s not a “herd issue,” rather an isolated case.  She may always have the droopy ear, but as long as she continues to eat and grow, she can go on to be a productive animal.

Yummy! Vegetative Endocarditis with a side of Pericarditis.

Before I start this post, I would encourage anyone who does NOT have a warped sense of appropriate dinner conversations, like many in the medical field, to not consume ANYTHING while reading this one… You have been warned. 

I was asked to perform a necropsy (animal autopsy) on a dry cow at one of my herd checks the other day. This cow was a middle aged cow that had been dried off a month ago.  She went down in the stall, looked thin, unthrifty and did not even seem to have the energy to get up to eat.  She was housed in a separate facility with all the other dry cows.  

Refresher: a dry cow is a cow that is due to have a baby in 2 months. The last two months before they calve, the cow stops milking and the udder is allowed to regenerate and renew itself for the next lactation. 

Since this cow seemed to be sick, she was brought up to the herdsman on the farm so that she could be treated with the appropriate medications.  The herdsman gave her a bottle of calcium in the vein, and pumped her stomach with alfalfa meal and energy to keep the bugs in the rumen alive.  She was kept outside on the lawn, where she would have adequate footing and wouldn’t be at risk to slipping on concrete and further injuring herself. When the herdsman went out to check her a couple hours later, she was found dead.

To start a necropsy, we lay the cow so that the left side is down on the ground. We then cut back the front leg, then the back leg to allow full exposure of the inside of the cow. The abdominal cavity is opened and the right rib cage is removed.  When I removed the rib cage of this cow, I noticed severe hemorrhaging and bruising around the lower lungs and heart.  There was excessive scarring of the heart, to the sternum. The lungs looked relatively healthy. Based on what I was seeing, I decided to take out the lungs and heart in one chunk.  The picture above is the pericardium of the heart in my cow. This is the sack that the heart sits in. Normally there is straw colored fluid in the sack, preventing friction as the heart beats. A normal pericardium is very thin and pictured to the left. 

When I peeled back the thick pericardium to gain access to the heart, I was greeted with the lovely picture below and to the left.  The yellowish stringy material is all scar tissue.  You can also see the severe bruising on the inside of the pericardium.

I then opened up the right ventricle and examined the atrial-ventricular (AV) valve, following with the left ventricle. These valves are also normally very thin and smooth. The long strings seen in the picture are normally there and help with the movement of the valve. What are not normal, are the large chunks on the valve, seen in the circles.  This is where the “vegetative” term comes into play. 

Circles are the vegetative lesions on the valves

These large vegetations are colonies of bacteria that have taken up residence on the AV valves. In order for the bacteria to get to the heart, the cow had to have had bacteria in her blood; a term we call septicemia.  In adult cows, diseases such as pneumonia, mastitis (infection of the udder), metritis (infection of the uterus), or acidosis (decreased pH in the rumen) can all result in septicemia.  The herdsman could not recall any of the previously mentioned diseases in this particular cow. 

Now as I mentioned, the pericardium was also diseased. This is termed pericarditis. Pericarditis alone is most commonly caused by “hardware;” sharp pieces of metal that have been ingested and have poked through the lining of the stomach, through the diaphragm and into the pericardium.  Cows are non-discriminate eaters, so they will not pick around a nail or scrap of metal, when they take a bite of food. To try to minimize hardware disease, many cows are given a magnet, which sits in the reticulum or bottom of the rumen to catch any metal they may eat. 

In this case, I could not find any signs of hardware when I examined the stomach and diaphragm.  I suspect that the septicemia that caused the endocarditis was severe enough to also cause the pericarditis.  
 

Endocarditis is usually treatable with long term antibiotic therapy. Because there are several different kinds of bacteria that can cause endocarditis, a blood culture would be needed, to find the right antibiotic for the job.  Treatment can take up to 3 weeks and can be very expensive. And sometimes we don't know what is really wrong with them, until we perform a necropsy and find this! 

As disgusting as you may, or may not, find this, it really is awesome when a necropsy reveals such wonderful lesions and an obvious cause of death.  Because I’m one of those with a warped sense of appropriate topics for discussion at the dinner table, all this talk of vegetation has made me hungry... Til next time!!!!  :-)

"Baby"; I can't pee!!!!

"Baby" still a little sleepy from anesthesia

“Baby” came to see me on Monday. He is an 8 year old, castrated, male goat, that was shivering, reluctant to stand up and would not eat. His owner is also a veterinarian, but works mostly on small animals and did not feel comfortable diagnosing and treating her own pet. When “Baby” arrived at the clinic, he was standing, had a temperature of 101F and was shivering. His stomach was working well and his heart and lungs sounded normal. During his physical exam, I heard him grinding his teeth, which is a common sign of pain in animals, as is shivering.  After discussion with the owner, and further assessment of “Baby,” we determined he was “blocked.” This means he has urinary stones or “calculi”, which have blocked the urethra, and prevented him from urinating.  

Urolithiasis (urine stones) is a severe, painful emergency situation. If the calculi are not cleared from the urethra, the urine backs up, can cause damage to the urethra, and if there is enough urine in the bladder, can even cause the bladder to rupture.  The penis of a male goat (buck) is similar to a male sheep (ram), but is very different from cows, horses, pigs, dogs and cats. Over to the side, is a picture of a male goat penis. The urethral process (#2 in the picture) is very small and is often the site of obstruction in blocked goats.  The presence of testosterone in intact, male goats allows for adequate development of the urethra from the bladder to the end of the urethral process. When male goats are castrated at a very young age, the urethra is not as developed therefore predisposing a wether (castrated male) to blockage.  Many times we recommend our goat clients to feed a urine acidifier along with the hay and grain. Ammonium chloride is the most common urine acidifier used, and it drops the pH of the urine to slow/prevent the formation of stones.

So after I diagnosed “Baby” with a urinary tract blockage it was time to have a discussion with the owner as to our next step. The most common first step to correcting the issue is to cut off the urethral process of the penis.  Many times, this is enough to provide immediate relief. We do not have an X-ray machine at the clinic, so I was not able to take a radiograph of the goat to see if there were more stones in the bladder.  We decided we would start with removal of the urethral process and if this did not solve the issue, then we would need to open up the abdomen, and the bladder, to try to flush out the stones with a catheter.

“Baby” was sedated with an injectable anesthetic. Because this is a very painful situation, the injectable sedation was not sufficient.  We also have a gas anesthesia machine at the clinic, so we completely anesthetized him with gas to perform the procedure.  After a little bit of effort, we were able to exteriorize the penis and cut off the urethral process. Immediately we were getting a steady stream of urine. Based on the apparent relief, we woke “Baby” up and did not proceed with the much more invasive procedure.  As soon as he was awake enough, he started chewing his cud; a much better sign than grinding his teeth!!!

The picture is of the urethral process that I cut off. You can see on the right hand side of the picture, a reddened portion of the urethral process. This is most likely where the blockage was.  “Baby” was sent home with a prescription of urine acidifier, pain medication and antibiotics. Hopefully he has no further issues and neither do the other 4 wethers on the farm!!!!

My Week in Review: Feeling like "Dr. Death."

The last week has been a rough one for my own confidence as a veterinarian. Don't let any vet fool you, we all have these days/weeks. Usually they are few and far between. There isn’t a particular case that stands out, so I thought I would just review my calls since last Thursday’s post. Brace yourself.... 

Friday: I had two smaller herd checks that went off without a hitch. J Then I had a call for a cow with a right sided DA. Upon examining this cow, her manure was very dark, almost black, and pasty and she truly did have a right DA. When cows have very dark, pasty manure, we often think of bleeding stomach ulcers.  The digested blood in the manure, make the appearance of black manure. Based on all her physical exam findings, I recommended that she be euthanized or sold for slaughter immediately as she was a very poor surgical candidate.

Saturday: I was on call over the Easter weekend and only had two calls on Saturday. Thank goodness! One was for a cow with nervous ketosis. I’ve talked about ketosis in a previous post. But a quick review… When cows are in a negative energy balance, which is very common post calving, they start to break down fat to supply the body with the energy it needs. Through this process ketone bodies are formed. Now the brain needs sugar and cannot use ketones for an energy source.  Certain cases of severe ketosis result in “Nervous ketosis.” These cows are exhibiting neurologic signs because they brain has been deprived of sugar. They start to lick walls, are unsteady when walking, will press their head into a corner and do all sorts of other crazy things that make you think she is drunk.  This cow had a baby two days prior and was exhibiting these crazy neurologic signs. Her treatment was dextrose in the vein, with Vitamin B complex added, calcium, and dexamethasone. The steroid (dexamethasone) injection is to help stimulate the liver in the process of gluconeogenesis (sugar formation).  The farmers were then instructed to continue her treatment with propylene glycol, orally, for the next couple days.  Usually these cows respond well.  I tried to find a video  of a nervous ketosis cow to show you, and this was the only one I could find. It's not the greatest, but gives you an idea. Nervous Ketosis Cow

The second call was for another right DA.  This cow was in much better shape than the cow on Friday so I performed surgery on her, which I thought was routine and went well for a RDA surgery. (Don’t forget about her, I’ll be coming back to her….)

Sunday: My parents decided to come down for Easter dinner, so I had the ham all set to go in the oven at 10am when the pager went off.  It was for YET ANOTHER right DA down in Massachusetts!  Rather than the ham going in the oven, it went in the crockpot and off I went for the lovely hour drive south.  Again this cow’s surgery went well and I was able to get back home and finish making dinner before my parents arrived. Thankfully the rest of the day was quiet.

Monday:  Two herd checks.  The first herd check had complaints of all their baby calves dying within a week after birth. Almost always, calf issues come back to cleanliness of the milk and the equipment (buckets, bottles, etc) feeding the calves. All the calves are fed from one cow on this farm so we thought we better start with the source- her.  We took a sample of her milk and cultured it on growth media in our lab. Sure enough, there were “too numerous to count” (TNTC) bacteria in the sample.  After discussion with the farmer, they decided to sell the cow and start using a different cow for the calf milk. We shall see if this improves the situation. 

Tuesday:  My big herd check day.  I’m usually on this farm for 3-4 hours a week.  I was done with herd check around 11 and called into the office to see what other sick cow calls we had holding. The only call was for another possible DA cow.  This client’s farm is another good hour away from the clinic so I again headed south.  The cow was further along in lactation and did not actually have a DA. Instead, I think she ended up with a bad chunk of feed and had indigestion.  Her treatment was “pink pills” (essentially pepto bismol) and time.  She should be just fine.

At about 3pm an emergency call came in. This was for a beef cow with a prolapsed uterus.  I know I need to discuss this in more depth and promise I will at some point. I am just waiting for one where I actually remember to take a picture. Anyway, in this area, the wind was BRUTAL on Tuesday. It was about 35-40 degrees out, but with the wind, I’m not sure it felt much above 10 degrees.  Of course, this beef cow is outside and the client just happens to live on top of a mountain.  This was not a good situation. The owner had been at the state department of agriculture all morning for a meeting and the cow had prolapsed at some point while she was gone. She was not sure how long the uterus had been out, but she was willing to try for the cow.  The uterus was very friable, edematous and the tip of it was actually white from lack of blood supply. I gave a valiant effort, but too much time had passed and I advised immediate euthanasia of the cow.  And now begins my feeling of being “Dr. Death- the bearer of bad news.”

Wednesday:  Two more herd checks. On the first farm, there were a batch of calves that did not get dehorned when they were little. I’m not 100% sure of the reason they were missed, but either way, they were so now I get to take them off when they are much bigger.  I had a student riding with me that day which was a great learning experience for her.  We spent a couple hours dehorning heifers, which is a great workout to say the least.  The arteries that supply the horns are even more present in older animals, than in younger. As you remove the horn they begin spurting everywhere until you can get the cauterized.  So, needless to say, after about doing 15 animals (30 horns), I had blood spatter, all over and was feeling like I better not get pulled over or go into any Stewart’s shops or someone will arrest me thinking I just murdered someone/something.

 When I called in to the office, I learned of yet ANOTHER RDA. I’m not sure what is going on with the feed, or the sun or the moon these last two weeks, but there has been a ridiculous amount of RDAs.  I get to the farm and immediately find the cow that is sick. I can tell the abomasum has twisted and rotated on itself causing a torsion and the cow seemed to be getting bigger as I stood there. As I’ve mentioned before, RDAs are a bit more of an emergency than LDAs and as the stomach rotates around itself, it cuts off blood supply, acts like an osmotic gradient and starts to fill with fluid, rapidly dehydrating the cow. The owner still wanted me to try surgery.  It was a disaster. The stomach had been cut off from blood supply for too long, was friable and the abomasum was full of fluid. I was able to get the abomasum unturned, but was not able to correctly fix the situation. I closed her up and suggested she be euthanized as the surgery failed.  

 

He then had me look at a second cow with an LDA that I was also going to perform surgery on.  Her surgery went a little better, but still not as flawless as I would like. When cows are in-utero, the umbilicus is comprised of three vessels. One of these goes to the liver ("a" in the figure), while the other two("b" in the figure) go to the bladder.  After a calf is born, these vessels no longer function for blood circulation. The two that went to the bladder become ligaments of the bladder, while the one that goes to the liver becomes the “falciform ligament.” Many times as cows get older the falciform ligament essentially disappears.  This was a first calf heifer and her falciform ligament was still very present. This was causing issues when I was trying to correct the DA. As I try to pull the abomasum from the left side of the cow, down along the body wall and up to the right side, it kept catching on this ligament. I was able to suture only the omentum (the connective tissue of the intestines) rather than the actual abomasum itself.  It may be just fine, but when you only tack the omentum, there is still a chance that she will get another DA sooner than later, as the omentum is not as strong as the actual stomach lining.

From there I had to go look at two more sick cows. One of which had ulcers and the other appeared to be shutting down. Her manure was very yellow, her body temperature was subnormal and she looked very sick. I could not find an obvious reason for her state, and therefore had little to suggest to the farmer to help her out.  Her recommendation, again, was slaughter.

Finally, I received a call from the farmer from Saturday. His cow had the right DA.  I had been talking to him throughout the week and it seemed as though the cow would perk up, do really well, then crash again. By Wednesday, he thought he was hearing another right DA. I thought I better check her out so headed his direction. Sure enough, the first surgery had failed and I had to repeat it. Unfortunately, you can’t just open the cow up through the same incision. Instead, I had to tip her upsidedown, on her back and perform surgery on her underside, rather than performing it standing. The surgery seemed to go fine and I haven’t heard from him today, so hopefully no news is good news. 

After Tuesday and Wednesday, I felt like my only recommendation was euthanasia on more cows than I was saving; hence the “Dr. Death.”  You’d think that dealing with euthanasia and these death sentences would get easier with time.  As part of “self-preservation” you will hear many veterinarians say they have to separate themselves from it. It doesn’t mean we can’t be compassionate, and that it doesn’t affect us, it does. It is a great responsibility to recommend putting an animal out of suffering and I’m glad I can give animals that liberation, but it doesn’t make it easy and it certainly isn’t fun.  Next week is another week.

Bloody Noses and Fevers

I’ve been working on a case for the last couple weeks on a farm that seems to be having some respiratory issues. The milkers have noticed several cows that have come into the milking parlor with bloody noses. One cow was described as having a “foul smell” to the nasal discharge while the others seem to be more just blood tinged mucous.  I hope by now, you’ve all learned to not eat while you are reading my posts….

The picture is one of the aforementioned cows.  The herdsman has also been concerned with several “first calf heifers” that have been spiking temperatures of 104-106 F, about 1 week after calving.  They are down on milk, not eating like they should, but seem to respond to anti-inflammatories and antibiotics. 

Let me pause to explain to those who may not know what a “first calf heifer” is.  A “first calf heifer“ is a cow that has had her very first baby.  In the dairy industry we use this term very frequently.  We still call her a “heifer” because she is still growing and has not yet reached her full mature cow size.  We call her a “first calf heifer” because she just had her first baby and has entered her first lactation.  Cows will continue to grow to mature size until they are about 3-4 years old.  They have reached sexual maturity, at 1 year of age, and therefore we breed them to have their first baby by the age of 2, but not physical maturity until 3-4.
Ok, back to the case.  So upon physical exam of these animals, I’ve noticed some clear nasal discharge (a good thing), normal temperatures, normal stomach movement, heart and lung sounds, normal manure and uterus discharge; pretty much completely normal physical exam for a fresh cow (new mom).  So now what???

In veterinary school we often heard the phrase; “If you hear hoof beats, think horses, not zebras.”  In my world, this means, if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it’s probably a duck!  So, when I see bloody noses in cows, my first thought is usually; “did they have a lung abscess/hematoma that popped from a previous pneumonia event?”  My second thought is “did someone hit them with the skid steer pushing up feed?” If the answer to the first two questions is no, then I turn to the zebras, the very important DO NOT FORGET ABOUT zebras, such as Foot and Mouth Disease, Bluetongue and other foreign animal diseases that must be reported to the state veterinarian, resulting in a very fast quarantine and Plum Island certified veterinarians taking samples.  EEEEEEEEKKKK!!!

To see one cow with a bloody nose is not really a big deal, and almost always, I chalk it up to a lung abscess that blew. But, this farmer gave me 4 cows with bloody noses. After discussing with the other veterinarians in the practice, I decided it was best to take blood samples to submit to the lab.  When we pull these blood samples, we usually have to wait two weeks and then pull another sample called a “convalescent sample”.   These blood samples get sent to the lab to check for antibody titers to various common respiratory diseases. Taking two samples, two weeks apart, allows us to see if the cows antibody response to the virus has come down as the cow’s body starts to deal with the virus.

A normal cow’s temperature ranges from 100-102.8 F.  When they have temperatures as high as 105-106 F we often think immediately of viruses.  Bacterial infections will raise a cow’s temperature, but usually not as high as a virus will.   These high temperatures along with other cows in the herd having bloody noses in the barn were most likely due to one of the 5 or 6 bugs associated with pneumonia in cattle, also known as Bovine Respiratory Disease Complex, or BRD.  When I received my finalized report for the first round on blood samples taken, it looked as though these cows have a few different bugs they are dealing with.  The first bug is “Coronavirus.”

Coronavirus (Corona) is an old bug in a new form.  More commonly Corona is known to cause diarrhea in baby calves and winter dysentery in adult cows. It’s one of the bugs that are always around in cattle and when we go looking for it, we find it. To help a newborn calf deal with Corona, we vaccinate mom when she is very pregnant and starting to make her colostrum. This way, the calf will hopefully receive the protection it needs as starts life.  It is recently starting to show up in multiple cases of respiratory disease in cattle of all ages. Unfortunately the vaccine used to prevent diarrhea in baby calves, has not been seen to help much with adult cows with the respiratory form of the disease.  There is lots of money going into research on corona and how it plays along with the other common bugs associated with BRD in cattle.   

The other bug that seemed to be mucking the waters was IBR, Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis.  The actual virus that causes IBR is Bovine Herpes Virus-1. This is another common bug found in the BRD complex in cattle. There are several good vaccines on the market for IBR and although these respiratory vaccines may not prevent the disease, they certainly lessen the severity of the disease.

 For this particular herd, we may need to re-evaluate the vaccination protocol to see how we can help booster the first calf heifers’ immune systems.  Cow’s that just had a baby need to have as smooth a transition into being a milking cow as possible, and having high fevers and dealing with pneumonia is something that definitely sets them back.  All the cows pictured are doing just fine and the cows that had high fevers are doing much better.  We continue to monitor temperatures and look for bloody noses and hopefully as the outside temperature starts to steady, so will the cows!

Toxo and Karma

Where do I even start for this post????? These last two weeks have seemed a bit crazy. But, as I think back on any previous week, they all seem to be that way….  I worked a short week last week, as I took a mini-vacation to Georgia, to meet my newest nephew.  It was a whirlwind trip, too short, but oh so worth it! Before I left, I had to cram all my herd checks into the shortened week and as usual, pick up any sick cow calls for the day. 

One of the calls was for a herd of sheep. This is a new herd that was co-mingled from 3 different herds.  As previously mentioned, it is lambing season and about a third of the 40 ewes had already lambed.  This shepherd was having trouble because there were two first time ewes that each had lambed with twin, dead lambs.  The ewes were completely normal and didn’t seem to miss a beat. But finding dead lambs was a bit alarming to the owner.

If there were only one set of dead twins, it would not be as alarming, and we probably wouldn’t perform a bunch of diagnostics to figure out the cause of the dead twins. However, with two sets of dead lambs, and several other lambs since, that have been born alive but have soon thereafter died, we decided it was best to send samples in to the diagnostic lab.  A complete “abort panel” costs about $500 for just the testing alone, not to mention my time and costs associated with examining the ewes, the farm and preparing the samples.  Due to the significant cost, I spoke with a pathologist at the lab, and we decided to test for only the most probable causes.  The samples we must submit are blood from the ewe, a piece of placenta, and various samples from the dead lamb such as: heart, lung, liver, spleen, adrenal glands, kidneys, skin, stomach contents and blood.  



Toxoplama gondii

I’m still waiting on the histopathology report (microscopic evaluation of the tissues), to support the blood findings, but the blood from the ewe came back positive for toxoplasmosis. This is a disease that is commonly carried by cats. It is a protozoa that is found in the feces of cats and is zoonotic (transmissible from animals to humans).  Contamination of the sheep feed with cat feces is usually how the disease is spread.  Growing up we always had “barn cats” and loved playing with them.  It wasn’t until vet school that I understood why having barn cats really wasn’t the best idea from a disease transmission standpoint.  Most farms don’t have litter boxes for the cats; instead the cats usually use bedding, hay or even silage for their litter boxes. This is precisely how sheep can end up getting toxoplasmosis.  It is treatable, and this farm has begun treatments for the sheep as I continue to wait on the lab for a final report of their findings.

I felt like this week was also “Beat up Dr. Telgen week.”  I’m not sure I ever really believed in karma, but the more I work in this field, the more real it seems. 

The first day back from my mini-vacation, we had a meeting at 7am to discuss a new insurance policy that the clinic will be participating in, from there the day was shaping up to be a doozy.  I had 6 bulls that had to be examined to get ready to go to the bull stud.  Because so much of the dairy industry uses artificial insemination as a means to get cows pregnant, there is quite a demand for genetically superior bulls to contribute to the gene pool.  Based on DNA evaluation, bull studs will select the animals that they want from a particular farm. These bulls will then go to the bull stud at an early age, to finish being raised, and start the semen collection process.  Before they go, the herd veterinarian must do a “pre-screening” to make sure there are no contagious diseases on the animal, no heart murmurs, respiratory disease, lameness due to poor conformation, abnormalities in the reproductive organs of the bulls and some blood testing for various transmissible diseases. Once cleared, a health certificate is made, and they are on their way to the bull stud.

After checking these bulls, I had physical exams to perform, some more blood testing and health charts to do on animals going to a sale. Then, I had two herd checks and 4 DA’s to cut.  The second DA patient seemed a bit more high-strung than the other cows. Even though we sedate them, if they are the least bit worked up before we even start, the sedation can be counteracted by adrenaline.  This particular cow did not even like me clipping her, and decided to let me know it with a kick to the shins.  Now this isn’t the first, nor the last time, that I’ve been kicked, but regardless, it’s always a surprise and still leaves a mark.  The bruise is now starting to show its lovely colors and is still a little tender to the touch. If the kick was the only wound of the week, I wouldn’t complain and sound like such a wimp, but then Wednesday happened.

About 3pm I get a call for a calving.  This is on a farm that handles most of the calvings themselves, so you know when they call; it’s going to be bad. This was an older cow that had a broken tail head.  So right where the top of her back meet her tail, it was broken down into the birth canal, making for little room for the calf to come out. To top it off, the calf was HUGE.  It was alive when I arrived. When we were discussing our options, the herdsman said that the cow was a priority and the calf was not.  This is never an easy thing to make a decision on, but based on the situation, we decided to try to save the cow.  Instead of doing a C-section, we were going to perform a fetotomy, which is cutting the calf out in pieces.  The wire we use is a cutting wire, so to try to get the wire positioned in a very small space with a very large calf and my own arms, is quite a feat.  My hands and arms show the battle wounds.  I always laugh when people ask me if I want a manicure to go with my pedicure. These hands are working hands, and not made to look pretty….

This was a mess of a calving. I ended up calling in another veterinarian to help as my arms were so fatigued from making the first three cuts.  The calf was just huge, the cow’s uterus had started to close down on the calf, and there was little room to do much of anything.  The only part left to get out was the hips. Now, I’m not a short person, and the farmer and the other veterinarian helping, are all at least 5’10,” so length of arms was not an issue. Unfortunately with the uterus clamped so tightly down on the calf and the cow being so big, we were unable to even reach the hips to pass the cutting wire around it.   We tried all the tricks we knew of, from trying to prolapse the uterus, pumping water into it to “float” the hips back to us, but all to no avail.  After 4.5 hours of trying, we decided we weren’t making any progress and it was time to call it quits.  The cow was eating and drinking by the time we left last night, but a call to the herdsman this morning revealed that the cow had died overnight as well.  There is only so much a cow can take, and although we really try our best, sometimes we lose it all.

It's not ALL Work....

This past week I had the pleasure of attending the 2^nd annual “Milk Lovers Ball.” This is a new event that the Tri-Country Holstein club has put on to raise money for various scholarships and events. Last year they raised $4000+ for farmers that suffered from Hurricane Irene. This year there were two women that were very involved in the agriculture community that died suddenly and unexpectedly over the last year. One woman died from a very aggressive brain tumor and the other from spinal meningitis. The money raised at this year’s event is being used to create two one year scholarships in each of these women’s name.

The agriculture community is a tight-knit community, so it’s really great for clients, nutritionists, financial lenders, veterinarians and other people from various aspects of the agriculture community to get together and socialize.  We had a wonderful dinner and music from a live band. There was also a raffle with lots of wonderful gift baskets filled with gift certificates for golf, dinner, hairdos, jewelry, wine and more!!! The best part was I actually won one! (I never win anything, so I was quite excited!) 

Gift Basket I won

 

It may seem weird that as a professional you become friends with your clients. In the agriculture community, this is quite common. Everyone has the same interests and love for an industry that works so hard for so little.  We all work together to achieve the same goal. So, maybe no gory pictures or heroic-sounding stories this week. Instead we showered, shaved, maybe donned a little make-up and traded out our barn boots and coveralls for dancing shoes! Just a taste of what life outside of being covered in manure, blood and guts, is like!
 

Myself and Friends