Tuesday (yesterday)

Tuesday morning we took care of the Bassett and then headed off to do the weekly dairy herd check at George Farms. I met more of the family and was further harrassed for wearing my Select Sires hat by those who had not met me the week before. We pregnancy checked a few dozen cows and then looked at a sick cow with mastitis. We then moved on to their dry cow pen and pregnancy checked a few problem cows. We headed back to the clinic to look at a cat with hind leg problems and a dog with a similar issue. We had just started on the cat when we got a call from the dairy that they had a cow with a dystocia. Both the dog and the cat were placed in cages and I drove us back out to the farm. We arrived and Dr. Fillerup pretty much just said "have at it" and let me go. I won't lie; I was kind of excited to try one on my own. At school you only ever get to have a tiny piece in a procedure. We gave the cow an epidural after cleaning her up and then I sleeved up and went hunting for a calf. True to the farmers opinion, the calf was coming forward and was alive, but the head was nowhere to be found. Puzzled, I moved the calf's legs around and pushed and prodded, looking for the neck and head until all of a sudden, it was right in front of me, lined up and ready to deliver. I told Dr. Fillerup it was all luck because all I'd really done was jiggle the calf around a little, but he encouraged me by saying that luck was all about being prepared and knowing what you're supposed to be looking for. I like that philosophy. It took three of us to pull on the calf before it was actually on the ground. I then was slightly repulsed to see that the barnyard chickens swarmed the calf to peck off the afterbirth and the cartilage on its feet. Welcome to the world baby calf. We cleaned up and packed up and I drove us back to the clinic, a little prouder than I had been when we left. We ended up taking radiographs of the cat's pelvis and diagnosing some arthritis and proliferative changes that, coupled with the cat's obesity, were causing his problems. The dog we ended up sedating and taking radiographs of also. It was a cute australian shepherd mix who had more separation anxiety than he knew what to do with. His radiographs showed marked hip dysplasia of his left hip with severe femoral head and neck changes. It amazed me that the dog was walking as well as it was! It was close to 6:00 by the time we got both pets out of here and I was famished. The colt had gone home that afternoon as had the Bassett hound in the hopes that he would have an appetite at home. It was another successful day at the clinic.