The Cow and the Bull — Dr. Hartfield

This week I had a new client call to say they needed a few of their cows and bull examined. Of course we love getting new clients and seeing new cases so we set them up for the earliest appointment.

They ended up coming in later that afternoon and we got right to work.

The first cow had several issues. She had been losing weight and just not doing well for the past few weeks. I did a full exam and discovered a few things. The biggest issue was that her bladder was very distended (full) and filled with purulent exudate (pus). Gross, right? I started her on antibiotics and did a few more things to get her fixed up.

I checked with my technician to ensure the gates were secure so I could let her out of the chute and load in the next cow.

The second cow had also been losing weight, but seemed to be doing okay otherwise. We did a fecal and full exam. After working her up and treating her, I stepped around the corner to check and make sure she was good to be turned out with the other cow.

Ummm… problem. The other cow was gone. WHAT???

I frantically looked around for the cow. I mean she’s a cow...how hard could she be to spot, but she was nowhere to be seen. I checked by the trailer and what did I find? The gates were not latched. She literally just walked out for a nice little stroll somewhere in Holdenville.

Before I went into straight panic mode, I called Preston (my husband) and told him to get his horse and get over here as fast as possible! My assistant was instructed to drive up and down every road in the area and FIND THAT COW!

Thank goodness these owners were being way beyond cool about the entire situation. But believe you me WE were GOING to find this cow!

While we waited on my husband and my assistant to locate the cow we went ahead and examined the bull.

The bull didn’t have anything significantly wrong. I decided to deworm and give him a multi-min injection (vitamin). The owners had brought what they thought was dewormer and wanted to give it to him while there. It didn’t have a label on it so I was a little concerned, but they were certain it was dewormer. We finished with the bull and put him in a holding pen.

My assistant called to inform me they found the COW! Thank you LORD! She was down the road about a mile, grazing in a field. Preston arrived, pushed her down to the clinic, roped her and loaded her on the trailer.

Crisis averted. For the moment.

After loading the cow, we needed to load the bull onto the owner’s trailer. I get back to the holding pen and this bull is laying down, snoozing very loudly with drool coming out of his mouth. He looked like he had taken a HUGE sleeping pill.

I get him up and he staggers onto the trailer.

This is very concerning to me, obviously. I start to panic once again (I’m really earning this new client) and think, what did I give that bull to make him act this way? Then I remember… the dewormer.

I turn to the owner and ask, “Are you sure that was dewormer? He acts like he has been sedated?”

He tells me he is sure. I tell him to watch him close and call me with any issues.

I get a call later that evening from the owner.

“Um… doc, that was a tranquilizer that we gave that bull earlier, not dewormer.”

Oh dear…

The owner explained how they had gone to another vet earlier in the week to get a tranquilizer to help catch a wild cow. The vet had not labeled the tranquilizer so they assumed it was the dewormer.

So thankful that in this entire scenario the outcome was a good one. We caught the cow without incident and the bull just had a nice little nap.

However, there is much to learn from this.

In this scenario, did my assistant remember to chain the gates? Did the gates get chained and the owners walked through them and failed to lock them back? Maybe to both of these. The important thing to understand here is ALWAYS check your gates! If you walk through a closed gate, make sure to close it back.

If you are a veterinarian, never, ever, ever let a prescription/medication walk out your front doors without a proper prescription label on it. Period. There are no excuses for that.

If you are an owner and your vet doesn’t put a label on it … ask them to! This bull could have suffered far worse than a nap if there had been another type of drug in that non-labeled bottle.

I also kept my cool through the entire ordeal so I did consider it a very successful day! Thank goodness to great clients who were also calm and cool :) My assistant? I didn’t yell … I am pretty sure they were beating themselves up over it enough to not need a lecture from me. But I bet it won’t happen again!