Work Experience: Vet Practice

At the beginning of the week I phoned the vet’s asking if I could go today. Claire, the trainee nurse, made sure that Friday was fully booked, so that I could see as many consults as possible.

The first consult was a Schnauzer. He had been brought in because his owner had been having a lot of trouble with fleas. Despite having a look, Suzanne couldn’t find any. But the owner was advised to use Frontline rather than un-prescribed, shop brought flea treatment. Suzanne also gave the dog a vaccination against canine parvovirus, canine distemper virus, leptospirosis and infectious canine hepatitis. These are vaccinated against in the same inoculation.

During the second consult a Labrador was brought in with a lump under its eyelid. The lump may cause irritation to the eye and uneven distribution of tears, which may cause ulceration. Despite this the lump didn’t seem to bother the Labrador at all. Suzanne took a blood smear test by using a needle and taking samples of substance out of the lump. The results often take three-four days to get back to the vets.

The next consult was a Terrier who had been bitten around a week previously. The dog was very protective of its ear and wouldn’t let Suzanne near it. She kept her distance and only went towards the ear as soon as she thought it was safe to do so. Suzanne asked the owner to go back to the vet’s in 10 days just to make sure that there wasn’t any risk of gangrene.

Finally I saw a Labrador with an infected ear. The ear was “crusty” on the external area and it was swollen and red within the ear canal. There was also a small amount of puss within the ear. Suzanne prescribed an anti-inflammatory ear drop which needs o be dropped into the ear twice a day. The Labrador would need to be seen within the next 10 days to see whether it was clearing up. Also Suzanne asked the owner whether she could tell that the Labrador was in pain. The Labrador had painful joints, but she wasn’t vocalising her pain. Therefore she prescribed Previcox, which is a stronger and more expensive version of pain relief, such as Metacam.

Work Experience: Dairy Farm

Me on Saturday, before going to the farm

On the farm, in the winter, it can be quite difficult to keep warm. Therefore I’ve found myself wearing a ridiculous number of layers. I thought it would be interesting for you to see what I wear, so that you have an idea of what to expect when doing dairy farm experience in the winter.

My coffee

On Saturday I wore a pair of leggings, a pair of walking trousers and a pair of waterproof trousers. I also wore two old t-shirts, two hoodies, an oversized fleece and a waterproof coat. Wearing three pairs of thick socks helped to keep my feet toasty and a woolly hat kept my head warm. Normally at 9 o’clock in the morning a mug of hot coffee, with milk straight from the cow, helps to keep my hands warm.

My main advice is to wear old clothes, that you don’t mind getting covered in cow poo, iodine and cattle feed. In the first few weeks of going to the farm I made the mistake of wearing a relatively new hoodie and I’m still finding feed and straw in the pockets. Also I have come to the point where I don’t bother with how I look (considering that we all get covered) on a Saturday, but only about how warm and dry I’ll be. 

Work Experience: Dairy Farm

Today I've decided to write a different post compared to the other’s that I've written. Recently quite a few people (mainly Lucy Phillips – Hi!) have asked me what “dipping” is and why we do it, therefore I've decided to write this post.

The parlour

Premilking dip

After bringing in the cows and feeding them, we dip the teats with conditioning dip. The pre-milking dip is used to clean the udders. This helps to reduce the amount of bacteria that’s spread by the clusters and the amount of bacteria that finds its way into the milk supply. This can reduce the spread of mastitis among the dairy herd. Dipping the teats also promotes the letdown of milk which helps to speed up the milking process.

Postmilking dip

When the cows have finished milking, we dip the teats with postmilking dip. We use an iodine based dip which helps to destroy the mastitis organisms that are on the teat. Postmilking dips prevent the development of new infections by about 50% and are useful in overall milking hygiene.

Clusters

On the farm we have a system of identifying cows with mastitis, other infectious diseases and those that are in calf. Red (mastitis) and blue (infectious disease) tape indicate that we need to wash the clusters before putting them onto another cow and green tape (cows/heifers in calf) shows us that they may decide to kick. When wiping away the premilking dip, we don’t use the same tissue to clean the cows after those with blue and red tape. 

Work Experience: Dairy Farm

20ml oxytocin

Yesterday was an incredibly chaotic day, so sorry for this post being uploaded late.

Again I started my Saturday with milking cows. Some people have asked me what I do when a cow tries to kick me when I’m dipping their udders. I presume everybody’s answers to this will be different but I dip just as the cow puts her hoof down, so that she has very little time to react. I've also been told to approach them from between the cow’s back two legs, so that she can’t get a very good aim and catch your arms between her leg and her body (which hurts, trust me!).

One of the cows, with mastitis, was just about to finish her course of antibiotics. So Michael asked me to draw up 20ml of “oxytocin”. This is the drug that is injected into a cow with mastitis, I don’t know whether this is what every dairy farmer uses, but this is what the dairy farm that I go to uses. I thought that this would be a really easy job to do but the antibiotic was like golden syrup. It took a lot of strength to draw up the 20ml and I even had red fingers to show of my struggles.

The inner part of the horn

Michael told me that that morning a calf had died. Including the emotional aspects of losing a calf, I found out that it also means a loss of £200-£300 for the farm.

The outer part of the horn.

After using the power washer to clean the equipment, we got to work on trimming cow’s feet. The first cow, 666, has always been a bit crazy, so getting her into the crush was reasonably difficult. Half way through trimming the first hoof, she started shaking her head about to try and get out of the crush. She didn’t manage to get out, but she did manage to rip off the outer part of her horn. I didn’t know that the horn had a soft inner part so when I saw the blood I was quite worried. Michael told me that it was okay and the outer part of the horn would be on the floor somewhere, but to make sure that no infections set in, we used blue spray on the wound.

The other cow’s feet were all in good condition. But we did shave the tail and the freeze number of one of the cows. The freeze number needed shaving, because in the parlour we couldn’t see her number to put into the computer system so that she could be feed. 

Work Experience: Vet Practice

Unfortunately Wednesday's are always incredibly quiet at the vet's. Therefore I only had the chance to see three consults and help the nurse clean up. 

The first consult was a post-op check of a Doberman cross. She'd been neutered two days before and the vet just needed to check that everything was healing properly and no infections had set in. The owner said that she hadn't seen the dog licking or scratching the wound, however, she had seen a small amount of discharge. The vet, Suzanne, informed the owner that this is normal. However, if the volume or frequency increases the owner would have to contact the vet’s. Suzanne wasn't entirely happy with the slight redness and tightening of the skin around the wound, so she booked to see the dog on Friday.

The second was a Labrador being discharged from today’s surgery. She had been spayed in the morning and had two lumps removed, one from her neck and one from the base of her spine. She was a relatively old dog so she had been given fluids during the procedure and also given a morphine based pain killer afterwards. The fluids were to assist the functions of the liver and the kidneys. The morphine based pain killer caused the Labrador to mumble (or as Suzanne put it "sing") which is a side effect of the morphine. It’s completely normal but Suzanne could tell that the owner was a bit concerned because the Labrador isn't usually a vocal dog.

The last consult was for an elderly dog. He had recently become incontinent and had lost the use of his sphincter. This may have been due to a lump that had been found and removed previously. The lump may have caused the muscle to stop working properly. Suzanne told the owner that there is little than can be done to assist with incontinence, especially with males. She suggested washing him and keeping him as clean as possible, to prevent urine burns on his skin. Suzanne also suggested trying to make a sort of nappy, out of a t-shirt and absorbency pads. However, with a homemade nappy, you'd have to be careful that the dog didn't trip on it. 

Hopefully I'm going to start going to the vet's on a Monday from now on. This is because I may be able to see more consults, as they tend to be busier at the beginning of the week. 

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Work Experience: Dairy Farm

I started my morning, on the farm, at 7:45. I began milking straight away. Getting into the routine of conditioning dip, clusters, iodine dip has become second nature to me. After milking around 90 cows we brought some more in from the barn. The cows and heifers from the barn have either recently calved or are lame. One heifer had calved earlier in the morning, so we milked her for the colostrum.Colostrum is high in energy, proteins, vitamins and minerals, that's needed to reduce the health problems of the calf. The colostrum was taken straight from the jar and emptied into a bucket, which was used to feed the calf. 

My job, after having milked, was to use the hot pressure washer to wash the jars and clusters. This is not as easy as it sounds, because you have to make sure that the suckers don't come loose from the clusters (or they won't be cleaned properly) and because the pressure washer is quite heavy. 

I then went with Michael to see the cows that were bulling and to ring the vet who would be artificially inseminating them. Michael pointed out to me that the cows that were bulling, were sweating and steaming much more than the other cows that were with them.

The cow that was very stubborn and wouldn't move

Following this we went to the barn to bring in four dry cows and three cows that have been having problems with their hooves. The first cow took 10 minutes to get into the crush, because she was being incredibly stubborn and not moving. Using a knife, a rasp and blue iodine spray we tended to her feet. Michael explained that the outside of the hoof, where the pedal bone is, is what the cow walks on. Therefore the middle of the hoof must be trimmed to prevent sole ulcers (caused by bruising) on the softer, overgrown areas of the horn and promote weight bearing on the outer parts of the horn. 

The tools we use for hoof trimming

On the third cow's back left hoof, Michael showed me an inter-digital growth. Not all cows have one and this was the first that I'd seen. A inter-digital growth looks a bit like a middle toe between the cloven horn. I was told that it is best to keep the inter-digital growth, rather than cutting it away. However, the hoof must be trimmed regularly to prevent the pinching of the inter-digital growth, which would then cause swelling and discomfort for the cow. 

The hoof having had the block fitted

The last cow that we tended to had cracked horn on her back two hooves and her front left. This may have been to do with stress, but she has had lots of problems with her hooves in the past. So Michael was unsure way this had happened. We only had chance to set a block on her back left hoof before she began to become too upset. The crack had made some of the horn loose, so we had to use clippers to cut away the horn which looked a little bit like a slipper. However, removing the "slipper" made the hoof bleed. I had to hold some paper against the bleeding to staunch the flow. This was difficult because the cow kept moving and we were using a heater to dry out the hoof, so that we could apply the block, so my fingers kept getting too hot. (You attach the block by roughening the surface of the hoof, drying it out, applying resin to the hoof, and to a wooden block, and placing the wooden block onto the hoof and letting the resin dry.) 

Finally, because I'm learning to drive at the moment, I drove down the farmyard. Laura has promised to give me extra lessons whenever we have any spare time. Hopefully I will become a bit more useful when I can drive, because I'll be able to do the feed round by myself and do a few jobs on my own, which will allow Laura and Michael to do more during the days that I am on the farm.