Food and Fiber Medicine and Surgery Rotation at Ohio State University

I've spent the past two weeks in Columbus, Ohio particpating in OSU's Food and Fiber Medicine and Surgery rotation. This was an absolutely amazing first rotation; I learned so much and was surrounded by some awesome people. The Ohio State students were in their last rotation of the year, so there was definitely an air of celebration floating around the hospital for the two weeks. I got matched up with two students, Lydia and Gabe, both of whom taught me a lot and never seemed to run out of patience with me (either that, or they just hid it well!).

This old man Nubian goat was one of our first patients. He was in the hospital when we started our rotation, but went home a few days later. Jared was in heart failure and had a high parasite load, so life was pretty tough for him. He had trouble getting up and down on his own, so we spent a lot of time helping him get up, encouraging him to move around a little, and keeping him comfortable. He was not one of our most exciting patients, but he did steal a piece of all of our hearts, especially when he got excited about a fresh bowl of grain :)

He certainly wasn't the only goat that we saw during the two week rotation. We had quite a few goats come in with reproductive problems: a few dystocias (when animals in labor aren't able to deliver the babies, for any reason) and some does with pregnancy toxemia. Many of these gals needed C-sections to deliver their kids successfully, and it's always kind of a surprise to find out how many babies there are, and if they are doing ok. One goat came in after being in labor all day. Her kid's feet were coming out her vulva, but she hadn't been able to get him any further than that! For some reason, her cervix hadn't dilated, so there was no way he was going to make it naturally. We all expected that little kid to be dead, since he had been stuck for quite a few hours, and we were hoping that she would have another kid still doing ok inside. To our surprise, the little kid was still alive! As some of us worked to sew up mom, the rest of us us worked to save him. A few hours later, both mom and son went home, hopefully to continue to do well! They weren't all so happy though; one little pygmy goat came in after being in labor for two days; her owner just left her in the field while she suffered. The owner's mother finally brought her in, and the kid was long dead. Luckily, the momma goat was doing much better when she left, so we were optimistic she might make it through the ordeal, even if her kid didn't... And finally, these two little kids were C-section babies born a little too early. They are sitting here in an oxygen cage, but after only two days in the hospital, they went home with their mom.

We also had a bunch of alpacas come in during our stay. Alpacas are camelids, so they are related to llamas and camels. They are primarily raised as pets and/or for their wool. They always come into the hospital with a companion, so they are always in pairs. They are hysterical to watch and have ridiculous habits. These guys loved to eat hay while they were laying down! These two were also big "singers"; as you walked in front of their stall, they would sing to you (and to the other animals). At one point, we had camelids in 4 stalls, so there was always a little chorus of alpaca noises. One of these alpacas came in with a tooth root abcess that needed surgery- you can see the swollen side of his face in the picture on the right. Before surgery he needed an x-ray of his skull to find out where the abcess was and how the surgeons needed to approach it. After the surgery, he stayed with us for a few days as the huge incision was left open to drain (and the bandaging was changed every day). He was a model patient for all of this, although during the very last day of our rotation, he decided he was officially done being poked and prodded (he hated getting his antibiotic shot every day) and spit on his student! You see, alpacas don't have very many ways to express their displeasure, so aside from kicking and laying down (cushing), their other option is pretty much to spit on you (which actually is more like vomit- they spit regurgitated food material). The alpaca on the left is one of the teaching alpacas at the university. This ridiculous looking fellow basically just hangs out until they need him for something. On one of our less busy days, we sedated him to trim his teeth and his hooves. What he really probably needed, though, was a haircut! Finally, these guys on the right are two more of our alpaca patients. These two were less than a year old were just too cute and pretty sweet. The one on the right was in the hospital to check a tooth root abscess that had been treated medically, so we didn't have to do much with them.

We also saw quite a few cattle- a pretty even mix between dairy cows and beef cattle, and even a few calves. These guys came in for wide variety of reasons; we saw quite a few dystocias, a few foot problems, a neurologic issue, and a few down cows. This little gal came to us when she was about two weeks old. Unfortunately, she had too many problems for us to save her, despite trying. She hadn't gotten enough colostrum (the first milk from the mother) which gives her immune protection against a lot of diseases. She may have also had an umbilical infection, but she came to us with two joints that were swollen and infected. Even though we tried treating her, she just never got better. In this picture, you can see that she also developed some neurologic issues as she got sicker; the right side of her face including her ear and eye lid are both drooping.

Because cattle are so big and often (especially in the case of beef cattle) not interested in cooperating, we have quite a few fun toys to help manipulate them. Any large animal that we need standing still and immobilized will come off its truck, down a chute, and into a transporter. These have a head gate in the front to catch the animal's head, metal sides that are moveable, and wheels, so you can move the animal where ever you need to! In many cases (for C-sections or abdominal surgeries), we can even do surgery in these transporters; the animals are lightly sedated and their surgery sight is blocked with anesthetic before surgery. We can prepare them for surgery and then move them directly into the surgery suite! This photo is a picture of Lydia on the transporter doing a rectal exam of this beef cow.

The other big toy that we use, primarily to look at feet, but also for any superficial surgery on the legs or belly, is the table shown here. This table starts standing straight up and down, the animal can be brought up against it and immobilized against the side of it using two belly bands and the halter (which goes through one of the holes and holds the head still. Then the table is rotated so that the animal ends up on its side. The feet can all be immobilized with chains, giving you access to the feet without putting anyone in danger of being hurt. This bull on the right is being prepared for surgery to convert him into a "teaser bull". They use these bulls to tell them when females are ready to be bred, but since they don't actually want them to be the father, we did a vasectomy surgery to prevent them from actually getting the cows pregnant. This other cow came in with bailing twine wrapped tightly around her foot. Because she's a beef cow out on pasture, it wasn't noticed right away, so in order to get the bailing twine out and to clean everything up, she was put up on the table and her foot cleaned (here by Sara, one of the other students on the rotation). You can also see a tourniquet wrapped around her limb; we can use this to cut off most of the blood supply to the limb for short periods of time, allowing us to inject lidocaine to numb the area without having to sedate or anesthetize the whole animal. It's amazing how well this works; most of the time, after the lidocaine injection, the animals can't feel you working at all! She stayed with us for a few days, getting hydrotherapy of the wound every day, and finally went home with a cast on her foot to allow it to continue healing at home with support to keep the foot still and from getting infected again.


Finally, our last fun "toy" is a sling that we can use to hoist up any of the large animals (there are slings of all different sizes for different animals). Animals this large don't do well laying down for long periods of time, so "down" cows (cows that are not able to stand, for whatever reason) are sometimes hoisted up in the sling for a little while. There is also a huge tank that can be filled with water to help support them, so after being hoisted up, the cow can be moved along a track into the tank (the back of the tank comes off to allow you to move her in). In the tank, the back is replaced and it is filled with water, giving the cow a little bit of water therapy. For down cows, spending a few hours in the tank can help them a lot, although in a lot of cases, they are too sick and don't improve despite this effort. In the first picture, you can see all of us getting this cow into the sling. We start her one side, put the sling as far under her as possible, and then roll her over to get her positioned on the other side as well. As you can imagine, this is quite a feat with such a heavy animal. In the second picture, you can see us lifting her up.



We did also have a neurologic patient come in; this HUGE bull had been becoming progressively more neurologic over the past few weeks, and when he came to us he could basically just stand still and turn to the left; if we attempted to turn him to the right, he would fall over. He had a corneal ulcer on one eye from not being able to blink completely, and while he clearly wanted to drink, all he could do when he put his head in his water bowl was to blow bubbles. He was also stuporous, so he mostly just stood in his stall. That being said, he was also really big, so working with him was a constant challenge. The fluid line that you can see here was attached to a carboy that hung over his stall; it was filled with 18 liters of fluids at a time, and it STILL needed to be refilled multiple times per day. Also, since he spent so much time turning to the left, his line got twisted and frequently needed to be replaced. We were surprised to find that over the few days he stayed with us, with supportive care and antibiotics, he improved dramatically! On the day our rotation ended, he was able to turn to the right and to drink out of his water tub on his own! While this was great, it also meant that working with him became even more of a challenge! Hopefully, he continued to improved and got to go back home!

We also had a beef cow come in for calving watch; her owner had thought she might be in labor, but when she got here, it was clear that she still had a few days to go. Every day, we checked on her hourly to make sure that she was doing well and not showing signs of labor. While we fully expected her to have her calf overnight when we (the students) weren't there, she decided to let us be a part of her delivery instead. When we came in for our PM treatments on Sunday night, she was laying down and starting the process. We took short breaks during our shift to check on her, and soon she had delivered a perfectly healthy, perfectly happy little heifer calf! Our favorite moment was right after the deliver, when the calf started moving and making noise, and mom leapt up startled, wondering WHAT was going on behind her! By the time we left that evening, the calf had gotten up on her own and was starting to move around the stall. They both went home that very night. After having a very frustrating weekend with some really sad cases, it was really wonderful to just watch nature take its course and to see this healthy little calf be born! In the top picture, you can see mom cleaning off her calf right after she was born, nudging her along to try to get her up. In the picture on the left, the little heifer is standing and taking her first steps!


Finally, a few other miscellaneous cases! These little piggies came in to be neutered and officially count as my first pig neuter ever. In case you were wondering, Vietnamese Pot Bellied Pigs have REALLY BIG testicles. They also have really big voices, which, if you have ever worked with a pig before, already know. These little guys were so curious, if you sat on the floor, they would come up and sniff you, but the second you reached for them, they ran away. Catching them was a little bit of a challenge, and of course after you caught them they screamed bloody murder until you put them down. Unfortunately, we had to get their temperatures and weights and then carry them into the surgery suite; sure enough, the screamed the entire time!



We also had a few little goats come in for dis-budding. It takes the horns a few weeks to solidly attach to the skull, so dis-budding of horns usually happens in the first week or so of life. This one came in with his sibling to be dis-budded; we started by shaving of the hair and prepping the area with scrub, then cut around the little horn buds to remove them.











This little Boer goat came in because he was cryptorchid (meaning his testicles stayed in his abdomen instead of descending into the scrotum) and his owner wanted him to be neutered. He was my first chryptorchid surgery, and I LOVED this little goat, even though he pretty much hated me and hated being carried around. I got this little hug in before he completely woke up from anesthesia :)

Stay tuned for a next, much shorter entry on all the fun we had OUTSIDE of the veterinary hospital in Ohio!