A week in the Clinic of Ruminants

This year, we have to do 30 hours in the ruminant clinic this year. We were all assigned a specific week where we have to do all our hours. 

One of the patients

We pre-arranged days to meet the vet to get our hours. We'd come in and do TPRs on the patients, and throughout the week there would be specific treatments and things we needed to do, like coprological examinations. We were then assigned a specific patient to write a report about - I chose Izabela the goat. 

My goat was scheduled for a mastectomy on Thursday - I got to monitor the anaesthesia for it, which is something that I really enjoy. I only had my stethoscope and a watch to measure everything though. In an ideal world, I'd have all sorts of monitoring equipment, but that's not always practical. We sedated her with Xylazine, then used Ketamine to induce anaesthesia. Both were given IM, and throughout the procedure I would periodically top up the doses. We also gave her ketoprofen. She was given an epidural, using Procaine. The surgery took about 1 hour and 20 minutes, and the removed mammary glands weighed 3.3kg! It was super interesting to watch, and almost immediately she was a much calmer and happier goat. Once she's recovered, she's going to a farm to be someones pet (no, really, I know how that sounds). 

 

The mammary gland after it was removed

On the subsequent days, we'd come in in the morning and give her her pain relief, and clean the wound. 

 

On Saturday, the people who were assigned sheep were taught how to trim their claws - I could have stayed, but Rob is visiting, and we went to a coffee shop for a few hours instead. I got some work done, and Rob learnt how to use ProCreate on my iPad.

 

One of the cows had given birth on Saturday night, and unfortunately the calf died early Sunday morning. The vet asked if we wanted to do a post-mortem examination, and obviously we all said yes. It was very interesting - the poor things lungs were very emphysematous. We think that was the cause of death, but I don't think there's going to be any more investigation. The heart had some suspicious looking hemorrhages too, so maybe some sort of virus. 

We also got to feel a fetus in a cow who is a few months pregnant. Very difficult to identify what I was feeling, but still super cool to feel! 

I really enjoyed this week, the vet was really great at explaining things. I think she'll be one of our teachers in 6th year.