Day 74 - Dead Cow - What's Your Guess?

Just returned from the 83rd Western Veterinary Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.  I'm not sure how many vets and vet techs were there - but at least 8,000 I was told.  That's a LOT of like-minded folks in the same place.

Standing in various lines (for lunch, for coffee, for seeing Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs (!), etc.) I had lots of fun conversations with people who work all over the country.  And we all have stories to tell that entertain and educate.  The best stories, hands-down, come from the folks that do large animal medicine.  Cows, horses, sheep, goats, and pigs - AND the PEOPLE that go with them - make for the best stories.  Just because the environment they live in allows for a lot of variables.  Lots of things can go right.  Lots of things can go wrong.  And sometimes, things go really, really wrong.  :)  Once the ordeal is over, we tuck the story in our back pocket - happy that we survived to tell about it. 

My favorite story of the week came from a guy from Idaho who was hilarious.  His best story involved a recently widowed woman in her 70's that needed help with a heifer that was trying to calve in a large field.  He did not have a dart gun and he is not a cowboy who is good with a rope.  He and the 75 year old woman were not having much luck trying to chase the cow into the barn. Her son arrived on the scene to help, and the vet's hopes arose. But alas, he was mentally challenged and proved to not be of much help.  After a very long ordeal and near-death experience, he was able to get her tied to a post in the barn and deliver the calf.

Vets are stubborn folks.  Persistent.

And sometimes we think we are super-heroes that can't get hurt.  And that gets us into trouble.

I met another vet whose entire right side of his face is one giant metal plate because a horse kicked him with a hind leg.  His skull on that side was crushed.  I would never have known it - he looked perfectly normal.

And he still works with horses - everyday.  :)

I enjoyed the conference immensely.  I learned SO much.  Still processing through it all.

This picture above does not have a great story behind it.  But I thought I would share it anyway.  I was called out to take a look at this cow to determine cause of death.

You see, we vets also get to play detective from time to time.  We approach dead things the same way we approach sick living things.  We take in all the information we can and try to make the puzzle pieces fit.

This was a young to middle-aged cow in a herd of about 50 or so adult cattle.  The rest of the herd was completely normal and in good body weight.  No one was thin.  It was summertime and most of the calves were 4-5 months old still nursing their moms or were recently weaned.  Free choice mineral was available at all times.

This cow was seen earlier that morning appearing completely normal.  The farmer found her dead after a storm and called me to come determine what had happened.

The picture does not give as much information as I had in actually looking at her, but here's what I see:  there is a pond to the right of the picture and the water from the pond comes through a gap into a hand-built water trough that the cows can drink from.  She had essentially dropped dead into that trough.  Looking around her feet in the mud, there is no hint of a struggle.  She did not kick around.  It looks as if she was taking a drink from the trough and just died instantly.

There was a very small amount of blood coming from her nostrils and there was what appeared to be a burn mark on the wood near where she fell.  The rest of her appeared completely normal.

What is your guess as to what killed this cow? 

The winner will receive my voice on your home answering machine. 

:)