Surgeries, milking, powerwashing, swine farm, tail bleeds, and heat waves!

These last few weeks have flown by-it's hard to keep track of everything that has happened! The heat wave last week may also have made my memory a little fuzzy!

The highlight of every day still is spending time with Dr. Currey and the fourth year students he brings out on clinical rotation. I can confidently say I am getting better at hearing pings, rectally palpating, performing ultrasounds on pregnant cows and heifers, performing tail bleeding, and giving fluids and injections! Two weeks ago was quite the experience hooking up the trailer to the farm's truck and backing it up and loading a cow onto it and driving her (by myself-yikes!) to the vet school. I then got to scrub in on her surgery where we discovered the reason she had been off feed was because her cecum was impacted. Not only did I get to practice my aseptic technique, but I was also able to put my hand inside the abdomen and palpate the liver up to the diaphragm and then reticulum with the magnet on its ventral surface and then feel the heart beat and blood rushing through the diaphragm! It made me very excited to start surgeries this fall.

In addition to veterinary related work, I have helped fill silos recently and have learned more about the cutting and proper storage of hay. In addition I have become an "expert" powerwasher washing everything from barn fans, manure scrapers, half hutches and pens, and the milking parlor twice a week. Needless to say after being completely coated with various things from powerwashing I will not be investing in one in the near future.

I still am getting up early twice a week to help with morning milkings and have become better at learning the "milking routine" and hop into help wash and wipe teats and apply milkers whenever I can. I also have become the official colostrum tester and bottler and have learned a lot about the importance of colostrum quality and proper testing and storage. I continue to feed calves several times a week and always get a kick out of their personalities and the funny things they do. Also, I have become more involved in health monitoring and administering antibiotics and medication to research and sick cows along with hormone injections when needed in the reproduction program. Last week I was able to assist with the tail bleeding of almost 200 cows. The most I usually do in a day is 10-15 cows so after a morning of helping bleed that many cows my arm was a little sore!

I still am continuing to learn a tremendous amount daily about the operation of a dairy farm and am continuously amazed by the dedication and commitment of the farm manager and various employees.

The first month!

It's hard to believe I have been working at MSU's south farms for a full month now! I guess time can sure fly when you're having a fun and working hard. I've spent most of my time at the dairy farm and a few days at the beef farms. Where to start....?

I remember saying after my first day at the dairy farm that I learned more in that first day than I ever have in a new job over the course of the first month. They had me practicing how to do tail bleeds, perform rectal exams, roll cows with displaced abomasums, move cows around, and learn about the different diets and the daily schedule of the cows and the farm. I realized after that first day that there would never be a dull moment and I was going to see a lot of action this summer. In the following days and weeks I would work every morning with Dr. Currey and the different vet students he would bring with him diagnosing displaced abomasums, performing rectal exams, drawing blood, administering medication and fluids, dehorning calves, and performing reproductive work with ultrasound pregnancy detections and embryo flushing and artificial insemination with Dr. Gunther. I'm learning more and more that veterinary medicine is not always black and white (even though the cows often are)  :)

I am also getting lots of experience handling cows and calves. Twice a week I go in at 3 in the morning to help with the morning milking. Walking a lot and talking or singing to the cows while I move them in and out of the parlor helps keep me awake along with an early morning "shower" compliments of the power washer as I clean up the parlor after milking is all done. Coffee has never tasted as good as it does those mornings!  During this time I've been able to build on the experiences I had with MMPA last summer and have learned even more about the milking equipment and have been able to help with cleaning and applying the milkers and applying teat dip at the end. Several times a week I also make milk replacer and feed the calves either by bottle or bucket. It's always fun to see how eager they are to see me coming with their breakfast or dinner and also see how much they grow from the time I get to witness their births until they become older and more independent and have more attitude. I have also become an "expert" gator and skid steer driver and have lots of experience cleaning alleyways and gutters and pushing up feed.

I am also busy working on a project at the dairy farm going through records back to 2003 and compiling a spreadsheet with the information of every calf and the colostrum (first milk) they received. I'm hoping to see if there is a relationship between the milk they received or the dam they came from and the later development of a disease (Johne's) that the farm has had trouble with.

My few times at the beef farms were also fun. I have been at the purebred farm twice and have helped with bull breeding soundness exams, pregnancy checks, and embryo transfer work. At the beef farm I was able to tour their facilities and learn about the operation and also helped with a project running cattle through chutes and checking their tails for damage. I'm still amazed how different beef and dairy cattle are in not only appearances but attitudes and demeanor.

Overall, I'm learning a lot and looking forward to continuing to in the next two months!