Monday I was at a dairy doing preg checks on their cows, when the herdsman asked me if I would mind looking at a cow that he thought had Milk Fever. Milk fever is a condition where the cow has low circulating levels of Calcium in the blood stream, and will cause the cow to not be able to rise.
I agreed with the herdsman that the cow did indeed have milk fever, so I went to my truck and got a bottle of Calcium to administer IV to this cow. While I was doing this, another cow approached me. The down cow was between the two of us, but this cow appeared very angry. She was blowing snot, and pawing at the ground. My tech saw what was going on and said, "Mike, be careful, I don't think that cow likes you." I was already fully aware of this, the question was, what should I do about it. I didn't want to make any sudden movements to set this cow off, but I was also out in the middle of the pen, and didn't really have anywhere to go to get away from her.
I slowly rose to my feet, trying to keep the down cow between us. I figured the angry cow would at least have to jump the down cow to get to me, and maybe that would give me time to run to the nearest fence. As I backed slowly away, the cow started to charge. I was fortunate to make it to the fence just before she did, she actually helped me up and over the fence with her head. Maybe I need to get back into training for another Marathon, that was a little to close for comfort.
On the other side of the fence, I talked with the herdsman about the need to get the angry cow out of the pen, so that we could treat her for Nervous Ketosis, a condition which can cause aggression in recently fresh dairy cows, and that I was quite certain this cow was suffering from.
So with the help of several people we were able to get her to a chute, where I administered several different products to her to try to treat the ketosis that she was suffering from. I then left instructions with the herdsman on follow up treatment for this cow in the days to come.
Well, several days went by and I'd forgotten about this cow, until the owner of the dairy called me yesterday and said he thought he had a cow with a displaced abomasum (a condition where the cow's true stomach fills with gas and displaces from it's proper location.), and that he'd like to bring her to the clinic to have me surgically correct it.
When he arrived, and my tech opened the trailer gate, he instantly recognized the cow as she helped him over the fence. Once we got her in the chute at the clinic, and she proceeded to blow snot on all of us, and to hit anyone with in striking distance with her head. I said to the owner "I recognize this cow." "You do?" he questioned, "How come?"
So we shared the whole story with him, of her trying to hurt us on Monday. "No wonder the guys asked me to check her he said. They new how upset she was and didn't want to mess with her. Those rotten buggers didn't even bother warning me that she was ketotic. She could have killed me like three times this morning!"
Fortunately we were able to get her treated and no one had gotten hurt. The owner of the cow was now much more careful loading her up to take her home. You might say he was even a little scared of her, whereas when he'd brought her over he was blissfully unaware that she posed any danger to him.
No comments:
Post a Comment