Day at the Dairy!

Yesterday for my Animal Health and Hygiene Laboratory we went out to the dairy and learned how to do physical exams on dairy cows. Well, it was a very new experience for me! Dairy cows are huge and messy! We took temperatures and used stethoscopes to listen to the heart and the gut sounds. Then, we did rectal exams. I put on this plastic glove that went all the way up to my shoulder and just went for it. I had no idea what I was supposed to be feeling around for but all I can say is that there is a lot of space in there and it feels mushy and gooey. After that we learned how to draw blood from a vein on the underside of the tail. It was pretty hard to do. For one thing the tail was hard to hold with one hand will jabbing for a vein with the needle in the other. Also, the cow did not like it! I was straddling a drainage gutter and I had just hit the vein when all of the sudden the neighboring cow whacked me with her tail! I nearly fell in the gutter and I lost the vein. After that the vet showed how to "tip" a cow. All he did was tie a rope around her belly in a special way and as soon as he tightened it she just fell slowly to the side. It was wild! It was a very exciting day for me but I'm sure that I don't want to be a cow vet! They're too messy!