Disclaimer: this blog may not be easy reading for the squeamish. Some kind of gross stories and pictures may follow!
So my Hawera veterinarian buddy Steve promised me months ago that when calving season arrived, I could help him out on call and learn how to deliver cow babies. I've been anxiously awaiting this weekend since he suggested the idea about 6 months ago! I flew up to Hawera to visit him last weekend. He graciously took off Friday to pick me up from the New Plymouth airport (no shuttles or taxis really make the 1hr drive from New Plymouth to Hawera). We had a relaxing day catching up, in preparation for a weekend of being on-call! Yeehaw!
Our first stop on arrival to Hawera was the grocery store to get grub to fuel us on our busy weekend of calls. Look what was lining the streets of downtown Hawera!!
AMERICAN FLAGS! I sure as hell bet they were to welcome me back. :)
Since it's kind of hard to bring a cow into a hospital or clinic, dairy vets like Steve must drive to see all their "patients". Here was our 'ambulance' for the weekend that took us to all the different farms with sick (or laboring) cows.
The correct Kiwi term for this vehicle is a "ute" (pronounced "YOOT"), short for "utility vehicle".
Steve warned me to bring warm clothes that I didn't mind smelling like cow poo and rotten cow flesh. I went to the thrift store in Blenheim earlier in the week and made some great purchases that were warm, cheap, and actually a little stylish! (had to dress to impress those Taranaki farmers, ha!). I planned to throw them in the garbage when the weekend was through--- no carrying stinky cow clothes in my luggage back South!
Steve provided me with the necessary overgear--- overalls, overtrousers, and gumboots. We had them positioned perfectly right by the door so when we got a call, we could just step our feet in, pull them up, and hop in the ute! Just like the firefighters do! :)
The first call of the weekend was sad. I learned that baby/mommy cows die a LOT more often than baby/mommy humans do. I got practice examining the female cow anatomy. It is MESSY and requires your whole arm! Gloves only help so much. They make this silicone barrier cream that does just that--- creates a great barrier between your hands/arms and all the cow fluids. When you clean your hands/arms when you're done, they *almost* don't smell like cow anymore. :)
The 2nd call was for a sick, nonpregnant cow. As we parked the ute, Steve said "quick go help that guy deliver the cow!" I had no clue what I was supposed to do. Steve said "just pull!". They was a rope around the calf's head and chains around the calf's two legs (while it was still inside mommy cow, mind you). And me and Steve and the farmhand just pulled and pulled and pulled and then this slimey thing came out!!!
Happy Birthday to you, Mister Calf!
Here's me and the lil calf and mom in the background. Yay, my first "delivery"!
Below is a stall that the sick cows are placed in--- a pseudo "exam room". There are rails on the side, a gate in the back, and the cow's head locks in a vice in the front. This is so they don't move around (and run away!) when you try to examine them.
If only they had this sort of thing for screaming squirmy 2 year old toddlers as I attempt to check their ears!!
We tended to all sorts of sick cows, not just laboring ones. This one was chewing on everything in sight (including the bars of the stalls!) This is a sign of "ketosis"--- where basically the cow is starving and is using more energy than it's consuming.
Metal bars are NOT tasty.
Here's Dr Stephen, hard at work listening to a cow's lungs. One had pneumonia and he let me listen. I made the correct diagnosis!
Here is Dr Stephen "drenching" a cow with a yummy molasses syrup--- basically forcing it to eat and get necessary calories in.
This poor cow had a severe stomach bug. Here it's getting oral rehydration (a tube down its stomach and fluids pumped in). Humans HATE things like this. This cow didn't seem to mind. Must've been Steve's gentle touch ;)
Steve let me help on all sorts of procedures, like starting IV's (I wasn't any good at that), administering medicines, giving epidurals (I was good at that!!) and most fun, delivering cow babies!!!
This was definitely my favorite delivery. The farmer was struggling to pull the calf out, so called Steve. This one took a PULLEY to get out! Tons and tons of pulling (I am so weak). But, once the calf came out, it looked floppy and not so great. We hung its hind legs over the railing and let it hang down head first. While Steve cleared up the mommy mess, I tended to the baby cow. With some stimulation and TLC (and lots of hope!!), it perked up and started coughing. YAY! I was so happy.
(Yes it is this gross, and yes the calf is actually alive.)
It was a fairly busy weekend. Steve's weekends on-call end on Monday at 8am. Of COURSE, we got a call at 7am for a prolapsed uterus. In the snow!
It hardly ever snows in Hawera. Let alone this much! Luckily the ute had four wheel drive.
On the way to the farm we drove by a school. I guess they don't have tickers on the bottom of their TV screens here as they probably almost never have to cancel school b/c of snow.
Lucky kids!
No real snow plows either. Tractors with plow attachements on will suffice.
We arrived at the snowy farm. It started to sleet. Brr!
This was the poor cow! (pardon the gross photo, but I think it shows a point). She delivered a few days ago and her uterus had prolapsed. Yep, all her girl parts are on the outside. Poor thing.
But Dr Stephen did a fantastic job shoving it back all in! She was very weak and cold, so he wasn't sure she'd survive, but the farmer took her (more like dragged her) to a warm barn. Hopefully she made it!
And after that, we were done the on-call weekend! Time to enjoy the snow. We took advantage of the 4WD and explored the area.
This photo was in Stratford. They got about a foot of snow. Some locals said it's the most they've seen there in their lives!
It was quite neat to see the ponga (fern) trees covered with snow.
Meanie Dr Stephen trying to pelt his lovely vet assistant Lindsay with a snowball. Not nice!!
It was a beautiful winter wonderland in the dairyland of Taranaki.
I even made a snowman in Steve's backyard. I used small lemons for its eyes and tiny mandarins for its nose! I think the mouth were mini pomegranates. :)
All in all it was a tough, tiring, but fun weekend. A real eye-opener to the work of a veterinarian, and also of farmers. The work is super messy, often smelly, and hardly ever sterile! The economics of farming are interesting as well--- the cost of the treatment to keep an animal alive is often too much for a farmer to afford, sadly. The weekend made me glad to see a different career, and at the end of it all, I'm still glad I became a GP. Even though they sometimes yak and yak and bitch and moan and cry and squirm, I prefer humans over cows as patients. I'll have to look at getting one of those stalls and head vices for my exam room though.
Just kidding! :)
