Listening to Temple Grandin deliver an address on the future of animal welfare and behaviour, Dr BA Rucker on dental radiology and developments in EOTRH and last but not least attending a small group workshop on equine radiology were only some of the highlights.

In the radiology (x-ray) workshop we were able to examine each joint and discuss the range of pathologies that may occur and the likely outcome with treatment (or without!) and the prognosis for long-term soundness.

Such a lot of information crammed into 5 short days sometimes leaves my head reeling.

Making my debut lecture at the AVA Conference was an experience and I have new respect for those who can stand up and present a lecture seemingly with ease. There were more bums on seats than I expected and lots of questions at the end – a sign that the audience weren’t bored to death.

Time to relax after that and a chance to catch up with old friends and solve the worries of the world over a few quite drinks.

Back to reality now, and to face the cold of Canberra after being in tee-shirts and shorts all week in tropical North QLD. See you soon!

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I was called out today by a farmer who noticed that one of his cows was having trouble calving. He ran her up into the race, and like all good farmers stuck his hand in to see what was going on. Bad news for the cow and calf, all that could be felt was a tail and some back legs. After getting a neighbour round for some help, it was decided that the calf must be dead as there was no movement or response to pinching, and they couldn’t get the legs up from under the calf to pull it out.

I got a phone call “Just wondering if you can do caesarians? We have a cow out here with a calf that is bum first and dead, and it just won’t budge. Can you come and have a look?” Thanks to my new grad years working in a mixed practice in Dubbo, cow caesarians were pretty run of the mill in big fat beef heifers and oversized calves in the dairy herd. By the time I left there 3 years later my Personal Best (PB) was 60 minutes from first cut to last suture, usually with a live calf on the ground.

When I arrived we ran the cow back up the race and into the head bale. Having a feel inside the cow, I also felt that there was little chance the calf was alive. After trying a few things to grab those elusive back legs, I was eventually able to push the calf forward far enough to be able to grab a back leg in one hand, and the hock in the other (can you imagine what this looked like with 2 hands deep inside this girl?) and successfully exteriorised a back leg. Another quickly followed, and with some hefty biceps-building heaving we had a calf out on the ground. Wait a minute, the calf looked like it swallowed!! Quick as a flash we had her up over the rails hanging head down so the fluid could be drained out of the lungs. After some rough stimulation and an 18G needle up the nasal septum (to stimulate the respiratory centre), the miracle calf (and she was a heifer!) started breathing again!

I left the owners to keep stimulating the calf and I went back to check on the heifer. Surprise!! There were another set of legs just waiting for me. This one was able to be pulled out easily but there looked to be no signs of life. This one got the same treatment and even though it was slower to respond, started breathing after a while.

So we had gone from a dead calf and a cow that needed surgery to two live calves and a healthy cow – and both the calves were heifers! If they had been a bull calf and a heifer the heifer is usually sterile due to the testosterone produced by the bull calf in utero (the sterile heifer calg is termed a ‘freemartin’). The cow after some hesitation started licking and nudging the calves and we left them in peace to mother up.

Driving away (and badly needing a shower and a change of clothes), I started thinking about the likely outcome of those three lives without intervention. As the song goes ‘everyone’s born and everyone dies’, I was glad that only one of those happens today. And by the way, the first born calf is called ‘Olivia’!

Until next time

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It is hard to believe that BEMVS has been going for nearly 2 years now.  It has been a long hard slog, and I am happy to say that it has exceeded all expectations, both professionally and personally.  I am so grateful for all the wonderful people in my life including both old friends and new.  The horse community, family, veterinary collegues and friends, industry companies and representatives and many others have been so marvellously supportive and I am humbled by the assistance and overwhelming support that I find myself surrounded by.  I love my job, and a great part of it is going to work and visiting with lovely clients and their horses.  As so much of my work is preventative medicine, the vast majority of visits are carried out in a low-stress environment and we can take the time to really get to know the individual patient and their humans.  Of course we still attend the colics, cuts and fence wounds and sick horses too, and as time flows we mourne the loss of old friends and welcome the new lives that enter the world.

While there are too many to list (and I am bound to leave someone out), I would like to take the opportunity to shout out a great big THANK YOU – you all know who you are!

As we leave winter behind and spring is peaking it’s head around the corner, we are swinging into foaling and breeding season.  For many horse owners around the southern NSW and Canberra region, it is also the time that hairy horses are brought in from their holidays and put back into work.   As the spring continues, keep an eye out for the lush, green grass that will start springing up and confine or use grazing muzzles on those founder-prone ponies.  We are also seeing a few cases of lice around as the winter rugs are pulled off.  The best place to check for lice is under the forelock – look for 2-3mm yellow-grey eggs attached to the base of the hair.  If lice are found, you will need to treat all in-contact horses (and all the rugs as well)< Stay safe and enjoy your horses!

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