cattle

Today is Honey‘s 18th Birthday! To celebrate, Diana brought over a basket of special treats from the chimp house, plus some pears from our very own orchard.

The cattle recently underwent their biannual foot trimmings. To trim our cows’ hooves, we utilize the services of a professional trimmer who brings specialized equipment that lifts the cows onto their sides and briefly restrains their legs. If their feet are in good shape, the trimming takes less than a minute per foot and the cows are quickly back to their normal routine.

Here, Meredith gets medications and vaccinations before being released from the chute:

Facilities and Grounds Technician, Teresa, adjusts Honey’s halter while the trimmer works on Honey’s feet:

Most trimmings are uneventful, but during Betsy’s trim, we discovered an anomaly in the medial claw of her back foot. It turned out to be an abscess—a fairly common injury, but one that would normally result in lameness. Betsy had showed absolutely no signs of discomfort whatsoever. She is one tough cow!

The abscess was opened up and drained and Besty was given medication and a bandage tough enough for a cow (is there anything duct tape can’t do?):

Dr. Erin conducted further exams, complete with x-rays, in the days following. Here, she utilizes standing sedation in one of our barn stanchions to safely treat Betsy’s foot:

After getting Betsy’s hoof cleaned up and examined, we attached a block for her comfort. Blocks are wood or polyurethane prosthetics thay are applied with a high-strength adhesive to a cow’s good claw when they have an injury which may be painful—this allows their weight to bear on the good side of their foot and relieves pressure on the painful side.

Radiographs of Betsy’s foot showed the possibility of bone changes near the abscess, so Dr. Erin felt a trip to the Washington State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital was warranted, just to be safe. Besty was loaded into our trailer for a trip to Eastern Washington for the afternoon:

The team at WSU, led by Dr. Olivarez, is highly skilled at bovine medicine and, just as importantly, they are incredibly caring and compassionate:

Once in the hospital, Betsy’s is led down an alley and into a stall:

Similar to a foot trim, she is then tilted onto her side:

Besty was given a thorough examination and treatment. Thankfully, the pathology was determined to be limited to the hoof and the vet team thought that with a little rest in the barn and proper follow-up care, she would heal just fine. She was then given a new hoof block and bandage:

The folks at WSU thought that Besty, age 18, might have been the oldest cow they had ever treated in the hospital.

When we got back to the barn late that night, Betsy was immediately greeted by her long-time herd mates who very clearly missed her:

We are hopeful that Betsy will be able to rejoin the girls in another week or so. For now, she is happy to eat her extra feed without any competition from her bossy friend, Honey: