(8/2019) It is very rare that I'm called out to a barn
that doesn't have electricity. While they may not have
operating room quality lights, barns usually have adequate
lighting for me to do whatever it is I need to accomplish.
Truthfully for the majority of situations I don't have to
see that well anyway. Vaccines and Coggins tests are so
routine that I just need enough light to read the labels
and fill out the forms. One time I was even able to hit a
jugular vein on a cow in almost complete darkness. That
being said, my preference is to have bright lights in
every barn so I don’t take a chance on missing some subtle
finding.
In most of the dairy and beef industry, cows that are
born with horns are dehorned. However there are a few
breeds in which the horns are kept for showing. I only
have a few clients with longhorn cows. These farms compete
their cattle in shows. Aesthetics are important in
showing, and the horns are not removed. The longhorns do
seem to regularly injure each other with their horns, so
my colleagues and I are frequently called to do laceration
repairs, seemingly only on the longhorn cattle. In fact I
can only recall two lacerations I've repaired on cattle
that were not longhorns.
One farm keeps high quality show longhorns of multiple
championship lines, as well as good breeding stock. They
keep the cows in small groups with extra room, to try to
prevent injury. However, one night around dinner time,
there was a disagreement between a few cows. One of the
prize bulls ended up with a deep cut on his hind leg that
would need stitches. He was also supposed to go to a show
in 2 weeks. The owners were hoping to have the wound fully
healed by then, so I was called out to repair the wound.
The bull was housed in a very nice barn that usually
had lights. However, just as I was pulling into the
driveway it started to storm. Less than 10 minutes later
the power was out. Everyone pulled out their cell phone
flashlights and while that was enough light that I could
suture the wound, I was grateful when a large, high
quality, flashlight was also produced. Even though this
was a very nice bull that was used to being handled, he
was not going to tolerate the typical horse level of
standing sedation for the laceration repair. I know
because I tried to repair the wound after a small amount
of sedation, and he immediately started kicking at me. I
decided it was safer for everyone involved if I just gave
him enough sedation to lay him down. Normally I'll work
with cows in a head chute or stocks, however in this case
a gate was used to hold him still so I could give the
injection without him turning one of his horns into me.
A few minutes later he was laying on the straw on the
barn floor. I cleaned the wound and gave him a local
anesthetic block to numb the cut. I then proceeded to
stitch his skin back together. While it wasn't a very deep
wound, he'd opened up a flap of skin that left the muscle
layer below exposed. In order to have a nice cosmetic
appearance with just a tiny scar, it definitely needed
over a dozen sutures. Truthfully this bull was lucky. I've
seen far worse injuries caused by longhorns including
penetration into the chest cavity and eviscerations of
intestines onto the floor. Long horns can cause big holes.
I was very pleased to see that this was a superficial
wound that didn't appear to be any deeper than the skin.
One of the things they don't teach you in vet school is
that your average owner can't hold a flashlight still on a
wound. Instead they shine it on the floor, at the ceiling,
in your eyes, and basically everywhere but the wound. I've
actually experienced this phenomenon on multiple
occasions. I'm not sure if its because looking at the
wound makes them queasy or they just get distracted. In
fact all of the vets at the clinic carry a headlamp in the
car because of this known fact about the typical owner's
flashlight holding skills. However, as luck would have it,
the batteries in my headlamp were dead. I was left with
the son holding the light while his dad yelled at him to
keep it still and shining on the wound. After I finished
the repair I asked the owner if they wanted me to bandage
the leg. While a bandage is ideal, its only ideal if the
bull would be cooperative enough to let them take it off
and clean the laceration site. A bandage that stays on too
long is much worse than no bandage at all. The owners
assured me that they'd have no problem changing it. After
I applied the bandage, I gave the bull an antibiotic shot,
left instructions, and was on my way. The farm still did
not have power restored but luckily the lack of
electricity didn't have any effect on the quality of care
that was provided.
While I don't know how the bull did at the show, I do
know that his wound healed well and he was able to attend.