Post by Shalali on Jul 20, 2009 22:37:17 GMT -5
Here is a copy of the letter I sent to my herd- shareholders, as I don't think I can write this again. Most of my shareholders don't know that much about cows, so please forgive the explanatory tone.
I'm in tears as I write this. I hope she is okay, I don't think I can stand it if she isn't.
Also, my husband left yesterday for an 18-day business trip to Australia, so that makes things even harder and our air conditioner broke today so I'm having a hard time right now.
I'll be going to milk Sally Jo out in the morning after milking the other girls, so I'll give y'all an update then, if she is still alive.
Sally Jo is very sick. She is spending the night at the vet’s office. She was given a pain medication that has a 36 hour milk withdrawal time on it. I don’t know if she will get another dose. It is similar to ibuprofen, as it is an anti-inflammatory. So, if she lives, we will have to give her milk to the pigs for 36 hours after her last dose.
This morning she was her usual self. When we went out to milk this afternoon, she didn’t eat any hay and she wouldn’t let me milk her. She kicked, moved around, laid down, and even stepped in the bucket. She was having spasms of pain and would hunch up and curl up her lip. She acted like she wanted to lay down more than stand, and she would stick out her legs and stretch out her neck when she had the spasms. She also had some diarrhea. Her temperature was on the high end of normal. I called the vet and they recommended bringing her in. At the vet’s office, they did an internal exam and felt either a foreign body or a tumor. They checked her for a displaced abomasum, DA, or twisted gut. She was negative for that, but the trailer ride into the vet’s office could have given a false negative because it jostled her up. They check for that by tapping her sides and listening for different kinds of sounds with a stethoscope. They ran blood work, and everything is fine, her CBC is normal and her liver and kidney functions are normal (all good signs). So, they kept her over night so they can check again to see if what they felt has moved (then it would be a foreign object, hopefully working its way out of her digestive tract) or to see if she is still negative for the DA after settling down from the trailer ride. If it is a DA, there might be a surgical option (if the vet has enough experience, and it is caught early enough before gut tissues becomes necrotic). The other option would be to take her to the Colorado State University where they have a veterinary school. We’ll get the opinion of both vets on staff at the clinic where she is at in the morning before we make a decision.
Before we left to take her to the vet’s office, her spasms seemed to decrease in frequency. At the vet’s office, right before we left, they gave her some alfalfa, and she tucked right into it, so she seemed to be feeling better.
My gut feeling is that she got a hold of a piece of garbage, i.e. plastic bag or feed sac or bailing twine, and is trying to work it out of her system and it is causing abdominal cramping. I don’t think it is a tumor, as I believe we would have seen other signs of declining health, instead of our normal bright-eyed, shinny, happy, Sally Jo. What I don’t know is if she will make it through this. I certainly hope so and will do as much as I can to ensure that she does make it through, but blockages in the intestinal tracts of cows are often fatal. It is very hard for me to write these words, but I’m trying to be realistic. As many of you know, Sally Jo was my very first cow and is still my favorite. She is the girl that got me to fall in love with cows. I hope that she lives, and I also hope that she does not suffer.
I will keep you informed of how she is doing. If she does not make it, it will effect the herd-share program, as she is the highest producer at 3-4 gallons a day. I don’t know how I will handle things from a herd-share standpoint and hopefully I will not have to deal with that. If she doesn’t make it, we can start to have discussions on how to deal with that, as it will be a few months before my next girl to calve will calve. Hopefully we won’t have to talk about that at all, but if we do, I will try to be as fair as possible with all of you and try to give you several options.
So please, keep Sally Jo in your warmest thoughts.
This morning she was her usual self. When we went out to milk this afternoon, she didn’t eat any hay and she wouldn’t let me milk her. She kicked, moved around, laid down, and even stepped in the bucket. She was having spasms of pain and would hunch up and curl up her lip. She acted like she wanted to lay down more than stand, and she would stick out her legs and stretch out her neck when she had the spasms. She also had some diarrhea. Her temperature was on the high end of normal. I called the vet and they recommended bringing her in. At the vet’s office, they did an internal exam and felt either a foreign body or a tumor. They checked her for a displaced abomasum, DA, or twisted gut. She was negative for that, but the trailer ride into the vet’s office could have given a false negative because it jostled her up. They check for that by tapping her sides and listening for different kinds of sounds with a stethoscope. They ran blood work, and everything is fine, her CBC is normal and her liver and kidney functions are normal (all good signs). So, they kept her over night so they can check again to see if what they felt has moved (then it would be a foreign object, hopefully working its way out of her digestive tract) or to see if she is still negative for the DA after settling down from the trailer ride. If it is a DA, there might be a surgical option (if the vet has enough experience, and it is caught early enough before gut tissues becomes necrotic). The other option would be to take her to the Colorado State University where they have a veterinary school. We’ll get the opinion of both vets on staff at the clinic where she is at in the morning before we make a decision.
Before we left to take her to the vet’s office, her spasms seemed to decrease in frequency. At the vet’s office, right before we left, they gave her some alfalfa, and she tucked right into it, so she seemed to be feeling better.
My gut feeling is that she got a hold of a piece of garbage, i.e. plastic bag or feed sac or bailing twine, and is trying to work it out of her system and it is causing abdominal cramping. I don’t think it is a tumor, as I believe we would have seen other signs of declining health, instead of our normal bright-eyed, shinny, happy, Sally Jo. What I don’t know is if she will make it through this. I certainly hope so and will do as much as I can to ensure that she does make it through, but blockages in the intestinal tracts of cows are often fatal. It is very hard for me to write these words, but I’m trying to be realistic. As many of you know, Sally Jo was my very first cow and is still my favorite. She is the girl that got me to fall in love with cows. I hope that she lives, and I also hope that she does not suffer.
I will keep you informed of how she is doing. If she does not make it, it will effect the herd-share program, as she is the highest producer at 3-4 gallons a day. I don’t know how I will handle things from a herd-share standpoint and hopefully I will not have to deal with that. If she doesn’t make it, we can start to have discussions on how to deal with that, as it will be a few months before my next girl to calve will calve. Hopefully we won’t have to talk about that at all, but if we do, I will try to be as fair as possible with all of you and try to give you several options.
So please, keep Sally Jo in your warmest thoughts.
I'm in tears as I write this. I hope she is okay, I don't think I can stand it if she isn't.
Also, my husband left yesterday for an 18-day business trip to Australia, so that makes things even harder and our air conditioner broke today so I'm having a hard time right now.
I'll be going to milk Sally Jo out in the morning after milking the other girls, so I'll give y'all an update then, if she is still alive.