Post by Lannie on Oct 15, 2014 14:37:00 GMT -5
It was like a waking nightmare. I went out to the barn this morning at 7:30 to let Oggie out to nurse Bandit, and I found her UPSIDE DOWN in the doorway of the barn, with her head down the slope out of the doorway. She was bloated so bad, and just making mewling noises, I thought I was too late.
I tried to get her up, but her angle on the slope, and the sheer SIZE of her belly made it impossible. I ran back to the house (quite a feat for someone of my age and decrepitness, and considering the distance), called the neighbor and said I had an emergency and could he please come right away, woke Rich up out of a sound sleep and told him to get dressed ASAP because there was an emergency in the barn, and ran back out.
When I got there, she was still alive, but her eyes were all rolled back and I knew she had only minutes left, and NOTHING I could do would right her, so I grabbed the knife in the hay room that we use to cut bale strings with, rinsed it off, swished it in teat dip sanitizer, and stabbed her. I had to stab her where she was the highest, so the air could escape, and once it was over with, I see it was WAY too low, and I went through some abdominal muscle, I think, but I laid over the top of her and pushed as hard as I could until the air was almost all out. It was just air, thank God, no foam. Rich showed up then, and just a minute later, the neighbor, and between the three of us we got her rolled over (we had to roll her over her back, because we couldn't roll her uphill). She got up on her brisket, and then immediately got to her feet, shaky, but alive.
I'm going to give her some oxytet later, and Rich is going to Faith for Sustain boluses (the advice I got was to give her 5 of them orally). Meanwhile, I'm checking on her every hour. So far, I haven't seen her lie down again (is she afraid to?), but at last check, 15 minutes ago, she was standing in the shade of a tree, swishing her tail and chewing her cud.
She's not letting me anywhere NEAR her right now, which presents a problem. I tried to get her back in the barn after she got up, but she was having none of it, and even as weak and shaky as she was, I'm no match for her. I let Oggie out with her so he could at least empty her udder (meanwhile keeping Cricket and Helen in the pen so he wouldn't try to nurse either of them). Rich and I went and got Oggie an hour or so ago, and put him back in his stall, in the hopes that maybe when he's hungry again and starts yelling, possibly Bandit will come to the barn on her own.
I'm right in the middle of her 8-day course of Pirsue for her mastitis (yesterday was day 4), and I don't know if I should skip that today and pick it up again tomorrow, but as it stands right now, IF I can get her back in the barn today, I have to tie her up in the headcatch, give her three shots of oxytet, which she HATES, then somehow stuff 5 big cow pills down her throat, and do the udder infusions. I'm thinking that's not going to go well.
Does anyone know if it would be OK to skip a day on the teat infusions? I've got this staph on the run now, and I don't want to waste the previous four days by giving it a break so it can get a better foothold, but on the other hand, I think it's more important to get the antibiotics in her at this point. Anybody have any advice on that?
She was SO bloated (and I think it was a simple case of being cast, not food related - they're on dry hay now) that the outside stab wound, now that she's deflated, is 15 or 16 inches below her hip bone, and right in line with it, vertically. I know I hit her rumen, because so much air came out, but I'm assuming the rumen slid back up where it belongs now, and there's just the wound through the skin and layer of muscle that I need to worry about. Would I be right in that assumption?
At least she's acting a bit more normal now. Her ears were droopy and her head was hanging bad at first, but she looks like she's pretty much back to normal now. I just need to worry about infection from the stab wound, and how bad it would be to skip a day of her Pirsue treatments. Just now when I was out there checking on her, I was about 200 feet from her when I saw her, and she turned and looked at me when I called her, but I took a step toward her, and she turned and walked away. Getting her in the barn ONCE later today is going to be a miracle, I think. I just hope she'll come to the pellet can, or Oggie crying. Otherwise, I won't be able to put a hand on her until SHE decides it's OK. She is so opinionated. But I can understand, the person she trusts the most in her life stabbed her. The thing is, I think Bandit's smart enough to realize that the stab relieved the pressure. I mean, it was only a few minutes, so she MUST have at least made the connection that I'd done something to help, even if it hurt. Well, anyway, I hope so.
And now that I'VE stopped shaking so bad, maybe I can think a little better. I've often wondered if I'd be able to stab a cow that was bloated, and now I know. I didn't even hesitate. It was that or she was going to be dead in a matter of minutes, and I couldn't bear the thought. It's going to take long enough for me to get the picture of her bloated and upside down out of my head. Geez. I never saw that coming. All the time I was out there with her alone, I kept hoping I'd wake up. I'm just so thankful I got out there when I did, and not 5 or 10 minutes later.
~Lannie
I tried to get her up, but her angle on the slope, and the sheer SIZE of her belly made it impossible. I ran back to the house (quite a feat for someone of my age and decrepitness, and considering the distance), called the neighbor and said I had an emergency and could he please come right away, woke Rich up out of a sound sleep and told him to get dressed ASAP because there was an emergency in the barn, and ran back out.
When I got there, she was still alive, but her eyes were all rolled back and I knew she had only minutes left, and NOTHING I could do would right her, so I grabbed the knife in the hay room that we use to cut bale strings with, rinsed it off, swished it in teat dip sanitizer, and stabbed her. I had to stab her where she was the highest, so the air could escape, and once it was over with, I see it was WAY too low, and I went through some abdominal muscle, I think, but I laid over the top of her and pushed as hard as I could until the air was almost all out. It was just air, thank God, no foam. Rich showed up then, and just a minute later, the neighbor, and between the three of us we got her rolled over (we had to roll her over her back, because we couldn't roll her uphill). She got up on her brisket, and then immediately got to her feet, shaky, but alive.
I'm going to give her some oxytet later, and Rich is going to Faith for Sustain boluses (the advice I got was to give her 5 of them orally). Meanwhile, I'm checking on her every hour. So far, I haven't seen her lie down again (is she afraid to?), but at last check, 15 minutes ago, she was standing in the shade of a tree, swishing her tail and chewing her cud.
She's not letting me anywhere NEAR her right now, which presents a problem. I tried to get her back in the barn after she got up, but she was having none of it, and even as weak and shaky as she was, I'm no match for her. I let Oggie out with her so he could at least empty her udder (meanwhile keeping Cricket and Helen in the pen so he wouldn't try to nurse either of them). Rich and I went and got Oggie an hour or so ago, and put him back in his stall, in the hopes that maybe when he's hungry again and starts yelling, possibly Bandit will come to the barn on her own.
I'm right in the middle of her 8-day course of Pirsue for her mastitis (yesterday was day 4), and I don't know if I should skip that today and pick it up again tomorrow, but as it stands right now, IF I can get her back in the barn today, I have to tie her up in the headcatch, give her three shots of oxytet, which she HATES, then somehow stuff 5 big cow pills down her throat, and do the udder infusions. I'm thinking that's not going to go well.
Does anyone know if it would be OK to skip a day on the teat infusions? I've got this staph on the run now, and I don't want to waste the previous four days by giving it a break so it can get a better foothold, but on the other hand, I think it's more important to get the antibiotics in her at this point. Anybody have any advice on that?
She was SO bloated (and I think it was a simple case of being cast, not food related - they're on dry hay now) that the outside stab wound, now that she's deflated, is 15 or 16 inches below her hip bone, and right in line with it, vertically. I know I hit her rumen, because so much air came out, but I'm assuming the rumen slid back up where it belongs now, and there's just the wound through the skin and layer of muscle that I need to worry about. Would I be right in that assumption?
At least she's acting a bit more normal now. Her ears were droopy and her head was hanging bad at first, but she looks like she's pretty much back to normal now. I just need to worry about infection from the stab wound, and how bad it would be to skip a day of her Pirsue treatments. Just now when I was out there checking on her, I was about 200 feet from her when I saw her, and she turned and looked at me when I called her, but I took a step toward her, and she turned and walked away. Getting her in the barn ONCE later today is going to be a miracle, I think. I just hope she'll come to the pellet can, or Oggie crying. Otherwise, I won't be able to put a hand on her until SHE decides it's OK. She is so opinionated. But I can understand, the person she trusts the most in her life stabbed her. The thing is, I think Bandit's smart enough to realize that the stab relieved the pressure. I mean, it was only a few minutes, so she MUST have at least made the connection that I'd done something to help, even if it hurt. Well, anyway, I hope so.
And now that I'VE stopped shaking so bad, maybe I can think a little better. I've often wondered if I'd be able to stab a cow that was bloated, and now I know. I didn't even hesitate. It was that or she was going to be dead in a matter of minutes, and I couldn't bear the thought. It's going to take long enough for me to get the picture of her bloated and upside down out of my head. Geez. I never saw that coming. All the time I was out there with her alone, I kept hoping I'd wake up. I'm just so thankful I got out there when I did, and not 5 or 10 minutes later.
~Lannie