A shopping list and an answer

May 16, 2011|Bill Croushore

If you will recall from last week’s column, I shared a few little-known facts about cows with the exception of one that was false. I promised to share with you today which one was the lie. Was it that cows stand up rear legs first, their nuchal ligament that acts like a bungee cord for their head, the standing sleeping habits of the bovine or their inability to lie flat on their side? The answer will follow, but first . . .

In the interest of the well being of our clients’ cattle, I’d like to propose a small shopping list of things no cattle farmer should be without. It isn’t what you might think. Yes, most of them have barns and tractors and silos. They don’t need me to tell them that they need those things. This is more of a “Gee, I’ve never thought of that” list.

No dairy farmer should be without a box of clothespins. Besides the laundry, clothespins have other uses — sometimes lifesaving uses. Dairy cows produce a lot of milk. In order to make a lot of milk, their udder requires a huge blood supply. As the blood exits the udder, it travels in large, and I mean large, veins that run on both sides of the cow’s belly in front of the udder.

Cows, being the careless and sometimes high-strung type, have a tendency to lacerate these very large veins. A cow can bleed to death in a matter of minutes if one of these vessels is lacerated. But, if a clothespin is applied to the squirting vessel, it can shut off the hemorrhage immediately until the veterinarian arrives to place some sutures.

Another thing that farmers should have around is some liquid soap and vegetable oil. Both are necessary and one won’t work without the other. I’ll explain.

Cows have a tendency to get a condition called rumen tympani, commonly called “bloat.” Cattle on high grain rations or legume (clover and alfalfa) pasture get a type of bloat caused when a stable froth forms in the rumen. Like suds on a beer, the cow can’t burp off this froth. The result is an uncomfortable and often deadly case of bloat.

In order to dissolve the froth, we can give the affected animal a surfactant, which destabilizes the foam and allows the animal to burp again. An effective home remedy calls for one part vegetable oil, one part liquid soap and six parts water given orally. The belching will commence in about five minutes. No smoking, please, unless you want to see a cow breathe fire.

Finally, I’d like to include a couple of items to revive sluggish newborn calves. Many times, when a farmer or the veterinarian has to help deliver a calf, it’s because there is a problem. It may be the calf is too big for the cow to deliver on her own, or there is an abnormal position of the calf. Either way, these calves are usually born sluggish. Since we don’t have a neonatal ICU for cattle, we improvise.

Add to the list a safety pin. When a calf is first born, the most immediate challenge is to get it to start breathing vigorously. One trick to make the calf take a couple of deep gasping breaths is to stick it between the nostrils with a pin. Some say this stimulates the respiratory center to encourage deep breaths. I think it just makes the calf really mad, but they will take a couple of good, deep breaths whatever the reason.

Another item for the shopping cart is some clear Karo syrup. The type of sugar in clear Karo syrup is able to be absorbed into the calf’s blood stream directly from the lining of its mouth. Some calves have a hard time waking up after delivery and just an ounce of this magic stuff can help to give it a jolt so that it is ready to nurse.

Now that the shopping list is complete, I’d like to just let you know that cattle don’t sleep while standing. If anyone has ever told you that they were on a successful cow tipping trip, they were lying. Cows do sleep quite soundly lying down with their head buried in their flank — so soundly, in fact, that I’ve had to poke more than a few cows that I thought were dead. After my rude interruption, they hit the snooze button and went back to sleep.


Daily American Articles