A little background

John reminded me last night that today would be our seven year anniversary.

“Huh? We only got married in 2009.”

“No, silly, the anniversary of the day we met!”

Now, tell me that didn’t melt you, just a little bit!

We may be a little biased, but we think the story of how we met is pretty cute.

John was in his fourth year of vet school at Purdue when I started my residency there in July of 2004. The fourth year of vet school is all clinical – the students are in the hospitals at the vet school, and most have the opportunity to go to a vet clinic “off-campus” to get some outside experience.

When I showed up at Purdue on July 15, 2004, John was on an off-campus rotation. His first day back to campus was Thursday, August 5. I was new to teaching the students on their Large Animal Medicine rotation, and John was on a Large Animal Surgery rotation.

Every Thursday morning, the students in Large Animal Medicine and Surgery gathered around a big table in the chart room for an hour with the LA Medicine clinician and residents to learn about clinical pathology. We called this form of torture Clin Path Rounds. We would hunt for some challenging bloodwork results (usually from a case that was currently in the hospital), and go through the two pages of bloodwork results with a fine toothed comb. For an hour. At 8:30 in the morning.

This particular morning, John just happened to sit next to me. And right in the middle of the “group discussion,” he fell asleep.

So I kicked him.

And he woke up, gave me a dirty look, and promptly fell back asleep.

So I kicked him again.

I took a long drink of my second coffee of the morning and said, “If I have to stay awake, so do you.”

Ah, romance!

The Purdue Veterinary School was so important to us, that we went back there to get some wedding photos taken.

This is part of the Continuum statue that is featured in front of the vet school.

This one is only funny if you knew that I spent the better part of 4 years passing tubes up the noses of my research horses. (Don’t worry, they were sedated, it didn’t hurt, and the tubes came right back out.)We even headed into the Large Animal Hospital… …Back into the chart room for a dramatic re-enactment.Don’t worry. It all worked out in the end. :)Happy Meet-iversary to us!!

Have you met Charlie?

Charlie was the bull calf who was born by C-section on our farm.

(You can read more about this in my guest post on Heather’s Three Kids and Lots of Pigs.) Charlie has done great, but his mom has had a little bit of a problem.

This is her first baby, and she is still a young cow. Sometimes, first-calf heifers don’t make enough milk for their babies. We need to make sure to keep an eye on the calves from these mommas.

After we turned Charlie and his mom out with the rest of the herd, Hubby Doc noticed something strange.

Charlie was trying to nurse from cows that aren’t his momma! Those mommas, and their babies, weren’t too happy about that.

But it wasn’t Charlie’s fault. His momma is a new momma, and she is spending a lot of energy trying to heal from her C-section, and she wasn’t making enough milk for Charlie.

Poor Charlie.

So we brought them both back into the barn, and started bottle-feeding Charlie.This is a little tricky. You want to make sure that you feed the calf enough so he’s not hungry all the time, and is getting all the energy and calories he needs. On the other hand, if you feed him too much, he’ll be full, and he won’t want to try to nurse from momma. And if he doesn’t try to nurse from momma, then she will completely stop making milk. And we don’t want that, either.

Charlie is getting fed 2 quarts of milk replacer twice a day.And boy, does he love his milk! He can finish that 2 quart bottle in less than 2 minutes! He’s a good eater.

When we check on him between feedings, he is still trying to nurse from mom. We know we are striking a good balance with his feedings because he is gaining weight, but he is still trying to nurse from mom.

Hopefully, as momma has a chance to heal more from her C-section, her milk production will increase and we will be able to stop bottle-feeding Charlie. If not, we will keep bottle or bucket feeding him until he is ready to be weaned and transitioned to solid food (3-4 months).  Way to go, Charlie!

On-call evenings

I can pinpoint my favorite moment of all time.

It was when I turned in my pager at the end of my residency.

I was thrilled to be finished with my on-call time. True, I was still in the beginning of my PhD research. I had lots of long days and late nights ahead of me. Put planned long days and late nights.

No more 2 am phone calls with cows in labor or colicky horses! Hooray!

Then I got married.

To a veterinarian.

To a large animal vet.

Who takes emergency calls.

(In case you forgot, my residency was in large animal medicine.)

Can you guess what this means? It means that I often get asked to help with emergencies. Small and large.

Hm. I meant small animal and large animal emergencies. But I suppose there are also emergencies that are small or large as well.  I help with them all!

One night I helped with a Labrador puppy who was playing too rough with siblings and got his eyes proptosed. (Kind of gross. It was before I was blogging, and have no photo. Know what a pug looks like all the time – kind of surprised? It’s like that, but more pronounced.)

I have helped with a few emergency C-sections on dogs.

I have helped with an emergency C-section on our own cows, and emergency care of our sick calves.

Last night I helped with a Pygmy goat C-section. On the tailgate of the vet truck. At 10:00pm. (At least it wasn’t 2:00 am!)

Although I do not have a pager, I still have a husband!

Bring on the emergencies!!

Before midnight, please.

Dairy cattle welfare

On Tuesday, Mercy for Animals (MFA), a radical animal activist group based in Chicago released a shocking video showing abuse of dairy cattle and calves.  There has been a lot of buzz about this video.

My friend over at Hoosier Farm Babe Tells Tails has already posted a very good discussion of this video.  I will not belabor the point much longer, but there are a few additional points I would like to make.

This type of animal abuse is against the law in Ohio, and the employee in the video that was performing the abuse has been arrested.  I would like to know how the person filming this undercover video could sit by and watch this abuse occurring without trying to stop it.  How can this person say that they are concerned about animal welfare if he sat back and let this abuse happen with not even a word?

The Ohio Farm Bureau and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) have both released statements regarding this video.  In a nutshell, both organizations feel that the abuse was unnecessary and remarkably cruel (obviously), and wonder what prompted this type of abuse.  I think it goes without saying that this kind of behavior is NOT acceptable under any welfare standards.  The AVMA has a number of welfare policies that have been in place for years.  I think it is important to note that this does not happen on all, or even on most, farms of any kind (dairy, beef, pork, or anything else), in any state.  At the end of the day, animals that are treated in this way are unhappy, and do not produce to their potential, resulting in the farmer losing money.  Please don't misunderstand - I am not saying that the only reason for these animals to be here is to make money for the farmer.  But that is part of their job, and if they are not treated right, they will not perform, and no one will be happy.

Finally, I would like to point out the very last part of the video, if you choose to watch that far.  The video closes with a black screen and the words "Ditch cruelty.  Ditch dairy."  Please, read these words, and think about what is the real mission of this organization and the real goal of this video.  They are not trying to improve animal welfare.  They are trying to use the aberrant behavior of one or a few individuals to cast a negative light on all of agriculture.  They are hoping that you will see this video, think that this is how all cattle are treated, and stop eating dairy and beef.  They would like for nothing more than to stop all kinds of animal agriculture.  I do not have a problem with them pushing that issue, but I do have a problem with them doing it under the veil of trying to advance animal welfare.