Ranching Differences

We got a kick out of Pioneer Woman's blog yesterday (her post about a cow prolapse). We count on having a handful of prolapses every calving season and if a cow happens to be in the barn when she prolapses she might get some special treatment. We'll wash her uterus off and get it back in and shove the hose inside her to help keep the uterus from prolapsing again. But if she prolapses in the pasture, her uterus gets dusted off as best it can and shoved back in. We don't doctor our cattle much so a prolapse cow doesn't get any anti-biotics or sedatives (the last prolapse we had was a very wild cow, so Jason had to use a 2x4 to sedate her); if she lives, she gets culled in the fall. Of course we respect that every ranch is different and there isn't just one right way to ranch, we just laughed at the differences between us and Pioneer Woman's ranch.

Now on the note of not doctoring much, it seems contradictory that we perform c-sections. We really only do a c-section if Dr. Mortimer is around to do them (Jason is hoping to learn how to do them so he can do it on his own). His students get the hands-on experience and we don't lose a cow and calf. We got to watch a c-section yesterday. It was the first one I've been able to watch.

WARNING. The pictures are graphic, so I'm warning you now, if you were queasy looking at the calf-pulling pictures, don't look at these.

Jason gave the epidural, then her side was shaved, her kicking leg tied up and Dr. Mortimer scrubed her with vedadine scrub.

The vet student opening her up. This is after she had lidocain to numb her side.

This poor vet student couldn't get the uterus/calf up to the incision. Doc had to sleeve up to heft the calf up.

I bet you didn't know that a cow's c-section was a spectator's sport. The boys thought it was pretty cool to watch.

The uterus.

Chaining him up.

And pulling him out.

Doc giving instructions on how to sew her back up.

The end product - a little bull weighing in at 76 pounds. They had to do the c-section because the heifer's pelvis was too small. She'll obviously be culled in the fall. As of this afternoon both mother and calf were doing good.

We have less than 30 cows left to calve. They induced those this morning, so they will calve within 36 hours (Yay! We'll be done calving by Thursday morning!). Cory on the Abbot induced his yesterday so Doc and the vet students went over to help him (cows that have been induced usually need more assistance) and then they will be back here tomorrow morning. So since the vet students aren't here tonight guess what we are having for supper. Cold cereal. That's right. I'm tired of cooking. Three meals a day, seven days a week, for four weeks.