The Bovine Bugle

Up to our armpits in trouble at monthly herd clinic

Today was monthly herd clinic with Dr. Steve Wadsworth. We had the list of the animals to check all made and the cows all sorted when Dr. Steve came into the barn. The heifer calves that were born the end of March/beginning of April were the first animals to be attended to. Dr. Steve dehorned them right away, so that he could check them in an hour or so before he left the farm to make sure they were fine.

Then we started running animals into the milking parlor to do preg. checks and post-calving checks. The fresh cows were doing fine. About half the cows we checked for pregnancies were pregnant, a little below our normal success rate. The open, or not bred, cows were all cycling normally so we will catch them next time. We had one last cow to check in one of the maternity pens. Dena, a 10-year old cow, had not eaten her grain last night or this morning so we wanted Dr. Steve to check her over. We thought she was just having a little indigestion. Much to our surprise, and Dr. Steve's, Dena had a twisted stomach, or DA (displaced abomasum). This was the same thing our other cow, Bess, had surgery for a few weeks ago.

Dr. Steve had another clinic to do that morning, but he said he would be back in about 2 hours to do the surgery to fix the problem. The surgery went fine, and Dena was an exceptionally good patient. Dr. Steve felt that the poor quality forage we were having to feed the cows had probably caused the problem for Dena. She was alert and fine when Steve headed off to his next call.

Below: After making a small incision in the cow's stomach, Dr. Steve inserts a needle and tubing to allow for pent up gas to escape. The vet puts the tubing in his ear so that he can hear for the last of the gas to go, bringing great relief for Dena, an exceptionally good patient.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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Posted by Blogger Chris at May 6, 2005 03:15 PM