#csection

“Alert: if you have a weak stomach….skip this post! Reason number 100079995 of why I love my job as a mixed animal veterinarian

Farm Call Synopsis:

Per the phone conversation, cow is down broadsided and in labor…..“something” is hanging out but no presentation. No chutes or pens available and no way to load, but there’s a fence and a tree close by to dally the cow off to. Older gentlemen–They seemed unsure…..so I figured I better call in 2 techs……one to rope and hold and one to help me.

We head out. T=9:40pm. We discuss game plan–cow has no presentation. We will rope her (maybe she will be down already), head twist her down if she’s up, put the epidural in and begin work. Surely the calf is just breach?!?!

We follow the men through the pasture with our truck. Every one empties pockets and grabs a flashlight/head light. Jordan and Jesse grab lariat ropes. Cow is down. Jesse gets a rope around her but she gets up. Jordan holds the rope and Jesse twists cow down. Ready with the epidural, I kneel down by cow and oh my word…..why are there intestines hanging out the vagina. What in the hell could this be??? I palpate…..no….it couldn’t?? Really?!?! Flashback to my days working in necropsy and the pics in the textbooks during vet school. Ok surely I’m not crazy (don’t even say what you’re thinking)?!?! Is there anyway around this other than a csection…..nope. Well it’s 10pm and we are mid-pasture knee deep in grass. This cow needs to make it to the clinic. 

Me to owners: Do you want to do a csection? Do you have a trailer…… I am feeling something crazy…..it’s either the csection or put her down, but either way, we are gonna take this calf out and see what it is!!!

They discuss and decide to try to save the cow. Good choice. This is something I really enjoy doing….granted it’s late and we gonna be at it a while but it will be worth it! Really, I think they wanted to see the outcome, too.The trailer is brought out and backed up to the cow. We use ropes and brute shoving force to get the cow on the trailer. Loaded finally, we find that since I left the lights on my truck– it’s dead and needs a jump. The men have a diesel so it jumps off easily. We head to the clinic. 

After getting her unloaded and in the chute (trust me–this was way harder than it sounds…..she was tired, scared, and hurting), we began prepping for the csection.I do my typical surgical approach. Nothing about that was easy…..I’m sure both boys are sore and tired this am. I know I am. But wall-la!!! There it was….how cool. 

Me to Jesse: take plenty of pics!!! This is really cool!! However, we had no time to gawk at it. I had to get the cow closed. We could investigate later. 30 minutes, a few stitches, and injections later we were done!  Now time to check out our anomaly……

Diagnosis–schistosomus reflexus (more simply put—calf was turned inside out or the spine is inverted and the organs are on the outside of the body). This is a very rare congenital disorder found in primarily ruminants. Although viable in the uterus while growing, they don’t make it to take their first breath–it’s fatal.  In this calf’s case, he was completely enveloped in his own skin……see pics below. We had to cut the skin to get it out during the csection and further cut it to see the rest of the calf.

 T finished=12:45am

It’s likely I won’t see another one of these in my lifetime so I had to share! Enjoy–cuz this is really cool! “

Everyone meet Ezra.

He was born 29/11/2019 at 3.29am, delivered via emergency Caesarian section weighing in at 8lbs 10oz.

It’s been a traumatic week but also an exhaustingly euphoric one. Never felt this way before.

My mental health team are really pleased about how I’m doing, but it’s still early days and I’m being closely monitored. I’ve got a lot of support so I reckon I’ll be just fine.