Today was an unexpected rough day at our farm. Our morning began with a great blessing: cooler weather! We enjoyed milking, almost shivering. We did our chores, fed our cows and calves...and noticed that one of our dry cows was acting sluggish. Her name is Undies...(it's a long story) we acted quickly, calling the veterinarian as soon as we moved her to the milking barn for easier treatment. Our suspicions were correct...something was wrong...our girl was definitely feeling under the weather...but it was so much more than what we thought. Our awesome vet Dr. Nancy was on the scene, and diagnosed a Left Displaced Abomasum (she flipped her stomach to the wrong side of her body-can be painful & deadly, fixed only by surgery). BUT....after a thorough check up, Dr. Nancy also found that our dear Undies also twisted her uterus. It is as painful as it sounds. Dr. Nancy called it the worse case of cramps you can possibly think of. This completely changed that treatment that we needed to do....we now had an emergency on our hands. We needed to do the stomach surgery as well as a c-section for the calf, thereby untwisting the uterus. We had no idea what caused these ailments....but we needed to fix them for Undies.
We had a couple of risks to evaluate before we started the surgeries. If we did the c-sections, odds were not in our favor for a live calf. It was too soon for the calf to live, the lungs would not be developed enough to breathe easily. We wanted to save Undies...so we opted for the surgeries. The stomach surgery went well, and then Dr. Rich arrived to help with the c-section. Somewhat of a miracle happened though, Undies had started labor while we were working on her stomach and was able to deliver her calf normally. We were excited to try, since this would be better for the cow, but maybe not as good for the calf. Dr. Rich pulled out a backwards heifer calf, alive, but struggling to breathe, then Dr. Nancy yelled for help....there was a 2nd calf!!!!! Twins!!!!
Dr. Rich pulled the 2nd calf, also a heifer calf, but also struggling to breathe. We looked like an emergency delivery room: 2 doctors, each working on separate patients, with 2 assistants (Jon and I) working to help. With help we thought we had the calves breathing well, until the 1st born calf had a seizure of sorts and stopped breathing. Within 30 minutes the 2nd calf did the same....all that work and time and we couldn't save the calves, no matter how hard we worked. We had the best vets, providing the best care for our animals, but it wasn't enough. It's with joy I can report that Undies is doing ok, BUT she's no where near out of the woods...she's got a long road ahead, but we'll be with her every step of the way.
Today, even though the results were not all great, we are grateful for the excellent veterinarians that we get to work with. Being a large animal vet is a hard job, but we are blessed to have some very qualified vets to help us when our cows are in need. So today...we pay tribute to some great veterinarians! They are the BEST!
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
4 comments:
I write this blog to share my passion for my cows and farming, please be respectful of that. I reserve the right to delete those comments which portray hate, call names, and are out right disrespectful. If you have an honest question, I will respond, to explain what we do on our farm, why we do it and how we do it. Please read with an open mind. My time to blog is short, as most of our days are spent caring for our beloved cows. Thank you!
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Praise the Lord Jesus for sparing your cow, and trusting all will be well for her.
ReplyDeleteSorry you lost the calves though... that's always so heartbreaking. You try and try, and nothing you can do will save them.
Be blessed, Carra
What a terrible situation! It's good that the heat has gone down, she will have an easier recovery.
ReplyDeleteThe hot weather has been so hard on them all...last week one of my showring stars went into labor ten days early and wouldn't dialate, it was hard pull and the next day she had a 108 degree fever. They thought she might not make it but she pulled through!
When these thing shappen first it reminds you how easy it is for something to go wrong...but then they pull through and you remember how tough they can be!
Hope Undies continues to do well. I certainly agree with you in how much we appreciate the work of large animal veterinarians!
ReplyDeleteI would like to note that Undies is doing MUCH better! Better than the vets expected! She had her last dose of post surgery antibiotics yesterday and now is receiving only a little extra sugar for added energy and extra vitamins for quick healing. It makes me so happy when we get to prove the vet wrong ;) Thanks to all for your concerns!
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