Last week I had my farms rotation, which is my second to last rotation of this year. It has been such a great break from sitting in lecture halls for hours on end and slaving over cadavers in the anatomy lab.

So here are a couple things that I have learned in this rotation:

  1. Drawing blood from jugular veins in sheep
  2. Drawing blood from tail vein in cattle
  3. Auscultations (listening with stethoscope), percussion (pinging certain structures), and succussion (palpating an area while listening with a stethoscope)
  4. Stages of parturition
    1. Restless nesting behavior, cervical dilation, myometrial contractions (can last anywhere from 1hr-12hrs)
    2. Ferguson’s reflex (contractions initiated by fetus in the birthing canal), myometrial AND abdominal contractions, straining reflux (if not in stage 2, vaginal palpation shouldn’t cause any straining) (can least 30min small ruminants, up to an hour in cows)
    3. Expulsion of all fetal membranes (time varies, if it takes more than an hour in a horse then it is an emergency but is considered normal if it happens in a cow).
  5. I was able to observe a pig blood transfusion
    1. I also learned that pigs are ulcer machines if they get stressed or are off feed.
  6. There were many cattle that came in with a displaced abomasum (DA) which is when there is torsion to the left or right of the abomasum disrupting normal gastrointestinal function
  7. Any surgery that enters the gastrointestinal tract is considered automatically a ‘dirty’ surgery, meaning not sterile.
    1. There was a bull that presented as ‘aint doing right’ and off-feed. Physical exam showed a ping on both the left and right abdomen indicating gas
    2. A blood pH was taken showing alkalemic blood (basic), low in Cl-.
      1. This indicates that the abomasum ( the true stomach of bovines) was not producing hydrochloric acid as it should be or that it was getting diluted due to fluid build-up. If it was an intestinal problem, we would see the blood pH as acidic as there would be a loss in bicarbonate in the gut (a basic chemical that neutralizes the hydrochloric acid leaving the abomasum)
    3. The vets elected to go straight to surgery and found a compacted feed blockage in the pyloric sphincter exiting the abomasum. They went in, removed the feed, and closed him up.
    4. The bull was given fluids and was eating normally again that night.
  8. Bulls usually present lameness in the front feet (due to increased muscle/mass in the cranial half of their body) and cows usually present lameness in their hind feet.
    1. Lameness could be due to an abscess/ulcer, overgrowth, corkscrew claw were the hoof wall grows into a spiral, and really pretty much anything else that can damage the feet.

Sorry that this post was kind of all over the place and didn’t have much purpose. I just wanted to get something posted. If you have any questions about anything in my posts that you want me to expand on feel free to ask, it’ll honestly help me study. Also, I know I promised to tell you all about the bobcat that my wildlife team is treating but I am still wanting to hold out until it is released to a rehab center before I post anything

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