Ok, so this is a fast track perusal through past emails...
Well, another interesting week - we had a whole lot of puppies born last week. They are the University Beagles which are used for student practicals, mainly reproduction ones (no beagles are harmed in the execution of any practicals!) and then the puppies are sold for some exhorbitant amount since they are pedigreed and the pedigree stretches back as far as anyone can remember. The students are then allowed to name the puppies - so, not been narcissitic in the least, the students all name them after themselves and their friends! However, the last group were quite adament that they wanted to name one the the girl puppies after me, as there are no beagles named Kate (thankfully!) Unfortuntately, all the puppies were boys! But one of them got stuck, having failed to assume the correct diving position (arms pointing forward, head between arms) to be born, and was trying to get out with his little legs are his sides.... so he had to be rescued and had been dubbed 'Mayday' as a compromise to not naming any Kate!
Then this week we've had a new bunch of students. They're a pretty handy bunch, as a lot of them come from farming backgrounds and are very enthusiastic! We went out to a calving on Monday, so this was the first thing that they were doing and they were all very excited. So we get to the farm, and the boys all but leap out of the combi in search of this cow. Then we have to try and get the cow in the crush. So half the boys take off up the field (way too much energy for a Monday morning!) whistling and shouting and waving their arms, the not so agile students are all milling around the crush, directly in the flight path of the cow that we're trying to get in. So had to shoo half the students out the way so that the cow would actually go past, and then get the other half to calm the f*** down, and have a bit of respect for the cow that's in labour instead of chasing her flat out around the field!!! Anyway, we managed to get a live calf, which was pretty good.
Then yesterday I was called to sort out a calving in a cow that they had brought into the hospital. So I was thinking, 'Great. Controlled enviroment. Experienced people on hand to help. Couldn't be better.' Well, was I ever more completely wrong! I get down to the crush pens to see the BIGGEST cow I have EVER seen galloping full tilt down the crush. Honestly, it looked like an Eland. It was a HUGE Brahman cow. It was bellowing and charging at people standing outside the crush... My very first thoughts were, 'Oh, f***.' I then find out that those enthusiastic students that i mentioned earlier, had very kindly attempted to get her into the neck clamp before i got there (and there was only max 5 minutes between me finding out the cow had arrived and getting to the crush!). But she'd taken exception to this idea and barged right through, charged a student who was standing in her way and they'd just managed to get her back into the crush pens. Right, so, attempting to take charge of the situation, I requested that we get her in one of the crushs (without the headclamp!) so that we could sedate her. Now, i can see all the vets shaking their heads and going, 'hmmm, sedation and Brahmans' but there were very few other options. One of my prof's helpful suggestion was to shoot her! So I thought that sedation was probably the lesser of two evils. Anyway, as Murphy's law would have it (and I knew this would happen) she went down in the crush. Not ideal. We could then, at least, examine her without her trying to kill us. So we determined that the calf was dead and that it was coming upside down and that it was huge and that the cervix had closed again since she'd been calving for a while (2 days?) Right. None of these things make one want to dance for joy or anything. And we still had a cow that was down in the crush. So we determined that we'd have to do a C-section, because there ain't no way that calf was coming out any other way! And we still had to get the cow out of the crush!! The inital plan was to chase her out backwards, until she reached the back of the crush pens and then some how tie her up. Then if she went down we could just open the gates. I pointed out that although this was a great plan in the fact that we wouldn't have a cow stuck in the crush, if we opened that gates, that cow would be gone.... out the main gate and off towards Limpopo Province before we could gather our wits about us. So after a bit of rethinking, the crush gate was opened forward and the cow managed to stagger up (with a little bit of encouragement!), only to fall down a few feet passed that crush. Well, everyone piled on, and before you could say boo, the cow was pretty much tied down and unable to move!! So then we set about doing the C-section. Now, i haven't done very many C-sections (ok, 2 in my entire life!) so was feeling a little bit pressurised. Everything went smoothly, until we had to try and lift the uterus up to the wound edge so that we could cut the calf out. So the student and I are pushing and pulling and rocking this uterus to try and get it in a position where we could cut into it. The two profs were standing on the side line giving encouragement,'Just grab a foot and try and pull that towards the wound.' I looked at the student, who looked at me, and i'm pretty sure we were having exactly the same though,'how the f*** are we supposed to find a foot within the uterus of this 700kg cow, with organs and things all over the show?!!!!!' Anyway, we persevered and eventually managed to get the uterus in a position that both profs found acceptable. By this time, the student and i were sweating like anything, fully gowned and gloved and rock & rollin' the uterus! So we evetually managed to get the calf out and took bets on the weight... 47kg!!! No wonder we'd struggled! Anyway, I stitched up pretty quickly after that, since my back was killing me - 2 hrs we'd been busy! Then we still had to get the cow from her prone position into a pen... So after some strategic rope removal, a readjustment of the student that was sitting on her head to behind her rather than infront of her... banishing all the students to behind the safety of the crush, the student holding the blindfold in place (he wasn't actually sitting on her head, it was more like her neck!) hopped off, and up she came, luckily straight into the pen!
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