Please Leave Your Cows, Pigs, Goats, and Horses at Home

Sorry guys, I'm just not interested in large animal and equine medicine. In addition to the cows, pigs, goats, and horses, I'm also not interested in the chickens, donkeys, turkeys, camels, alpacas, ostriches, emus, sheep, and any other farm animal I have failed to list.

I will however take care of your dogs, cats, pocket pets, and exotic pets, and I am interested in wildlife, marine animals, and zoo animals. I just don't happen to care for the farm critters. I really like specialty medicine too (so don't expect much help for your healthy pets-I'm not likely to be very useful when it comes to vaccines, unless fluffy and meow are having an allergic reaction!).

I'm not really sure why I don't care for farm animals, I just don't. Horses are cool, don't get me wrong, I just don't really have any desire to work with them after graduation. It's not the lifestyle for me.

We had our two hours of cow lab today. We had lectures on Tuesday and Wednesday and then labs were split between yesterday and today. We started by examining a cow in a chute and talking about our observations. Our cow was an adult female red Angus mix. Next a doctor showed us how to halter the cow with a rope and each of us practiced. We used weigh tapes to determine the weight of the cow (1267lbs).

During the second part of lab, we practiced basic physical exam skills on a line of cows in a stanchion. We listened to heart and lung sounds, to rumen contractions, found a pulse in the tail, checked mucous membrane color, determined body condition score, examined for pain, and basically worked our way around the cows. No one got hurt, but I was fairly certain someone in my group was about to get injured at one point! Our cow was very tired of having her back end and tail messed with and was really hoping to get rid of us if she harassed us enough. Silly cows, but can't say I wouldn't feel the same way if people were messing with me for hours! The good news though is that they were going back to full feed bins when they were released back into the yard (nothing like a tasty meal to melt all your troubles away!)

It was fun, just not nearly as fun as playing with dogs, cats and exotics in my opinion haha. Coming home and taking a shower felt awesome, although much to my disappointment, I still smell like the farm. My coveralls and boots smell worse though. I can't wait to do laundry! I promise to add a couple of pictures as soon as I have my camera with me!

***Disclaimer: None of the animals are harmed by placement in the chute or stanchion. These are approved, safe and ethical methods of cattle restraint that allow the cows, students, and faculty to remain safe during handling. ***