The second week of my internship here at Auburn University started out and ended greatly.
On Monday, we began with an exciting case of a cow going into labor. She was experiencing difficulty while giving birth and appeared lethargic. Dr. Stockler palpated her both rectally and vaginally and found the fetus was only the size of a large cat and was backwards. When Dr. Stockler finished, the owner of the animal was able to palpate her himself. While he was palpating, her water broke. We gave her a couple hours to attempt a natural birth before proceeding with treatment. She was not making any progress, so we took action. The entire vet crew performed a standing caesarean section and removed the aborted fetus. It was diagnosed that she had to abort her calf due to heat stress. She has made a full recovery and the results from the fetus’s necropsy are pending.
Wednesday could be titled the “Day of Feet,” because all of the animals that came in had foot injuries of some kind. Two cases of Interdigital hyperplasia came in at the same time. Both were treated on the table and are now doing very good. Although, the highlight of the day was definitely when a bull came in, heavily lame on his left forelimb, and had a very serious amount of swelling around the limbs ankle joint. After an x-ray, we determined he had degenerative joint disease, caused be a later collateral ligament that had been corrupted. That day the bull was treated with a poultice wrap to reduce the swelling, and a follow-up procedure took place on Friday.
Students after decorating for Dr. Kuca’s birthday
Thursday was one of the clinicians, Dr. Kuca’s, birthday! We decorated the round room and give him candy. Other than those festivities, a serious case of mastitis came in the left-hind quarter of a mother cows udder. On Thursday the infected area was palpated and diagnosed, while her further treatment came the next day.
Text book picture of mastitis.
Friday was very busy. We started the day by amputating the mastitis tit. After it was amputated the affected area was flushed. She is making a nice recovery in the hospital and is supposed to return home soon. This was also the day we treated the bull with degenerative joint disease. After sedating the bull, they removed the joint fluid from the injured area in order to fuse the joint. While he was still sedated, he was put into a cast in order to limit the mobility of the joint and let the fusion of it take full effect.
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