How quickly those two weeks went! I can’t believe I’m back already. And yet I’m utterly exhausted too. I have been working at Colac Veterinary Clinic in the Otways region of Victoria, which is mainly a dairy cattle region. I went with my good friend and fellow vet student Joanne, so we took turns at either going out on call with the vets or spending time in the clinic.

 

We lived in a tiny little cabin right next to Lake Colac. It would have been scenic had it not been the middle of winter, and one of the coldest they’ve had in years. The wind would blow straight across the water making it three times colder where we were than on the other side of the campsite. Some nights the cabin would shake violently and the rain would come sideways, making it seem like Lake Colac was goiing to engulf us. And did I mention it was cold?

 

The vets were all really friendly and I learnt heaps from them. Going out on call was so cool. The way they have their phone system hooked up to their cars sometimes made me feel like I was in a police car. They would get called out to different farms and new cases would crop up so they get sent there. We travelled great distances and sometimes I’d spend the entire day on the road. Despite the pouring rain and freezing wind, it was beautiful countryside, with green grassy hills and cows everywhere. Yet sometimes we would come suddenly into true native forest with eucalypts. I could imagine it had been untouched by humans and their conversion of native scenery into pastures and farms. Most times a haze of mist coated the hills and every now and then a moment of beautiful warm golden sun would peak through. I could pretend I was in a whole other country like Scotland and I imagined it looked very much like the United Kingdom.

 

You can’t tell I’m a city girl, can you?

 

If you had to ask me to describe what I learnt about on my two weeks I’d say this: LDA’s. LDA stands for Left Displaced Abomasum (the abomasum being the true stomach of cows). It is normally on the right. When it gets displaced it slips under the rumen (the big fermenting vat stomach) and ends up on the left. This makes them slowly get sick. We saw so many of them it started to become kind of boring at the end. To find it, you tap on the cow’s ribs while listening with a stethoscope, it makes an extremely distinctive ‘ping’ noise like bouncing an over-inflated basketball. To fix it, you can roll the cow (50% success) or intervene surgically (90%). Have you ever seen a cow up close? Imagine trying to roll that giant creature over! I learnt pretty well how to do it though, impossible as it seems at first. You tie her up in a certain way and pull to get her down on her side. Then with the help of at least another person, roll her onto her back, rock her from side to side for a bit then roll her onto her other side. I saw three LDA surgeries, which involves local anaesthesia (SW: if you’re curious, it was a line block Lignocaine at the left paralumbar fossa) then opening the cow’s side, sticking your arm in, finding the abomasum. A few sutures are placed through the omentum (attached to the abomasum), then through the ventral midline of the cow, effectively tying the stomach to the bottom of the cow. Absolutely fascinating stuff to watch and help with.

 

Other things I saw, there are way too many to mention them all. Some of them were cows with mastitis, causing them to produce gross looking milk. There were plenty of lame cows. The vet has to get the cow in the crush and make a pulley system out of ropes to get the cow to lift her foot. Dairy cows especially get lame since they are walking in wet mud which softens their feet, then walking on concrete and rocks every day which damages them. I also did lots of pregnancy diagnosis which is done per rectum. There were also horses and sheep, too many for me to describe.

 

Another major feature of my time there was calving. It is calving season for dairy cattle. Due to the intense nature of dairy production they often have problems giving birth and require assistance. I saw many of them with the vet, and got to help, using pulleys and chains to help extract the calf. In fact, on my first day I saw three, well into the night (I went on call after hours with one of the vets). Struggling to deliver calves in the pouring rain and pitch dark but for the car headlights and standing ankle deep in mud, it’s quite an experience, I can tell you that. On my second day, the vet had two cases to do: A bull and an early calving (which means the calf was already dead) He went to go attend the lame bull, and he handed me the bucket with chains and told me go for it. So I did my first unattended calving. Although the calf was already dead, I was pretty amazed by the whole thing, just getting to do it on my own! I was glad I’d had the experience the night before though so I knew what to do. There are things vet school doesn’t’ teach you though, like how darn slippery it is in there!

 

I was always pleased to come back to the clinic to the Lounge which was kept deliciously warm by a gas heater. On our ‘off’ times, and some afternoons when it was quiet, Jo and I would browse through their library, learning, taking notes and photocopying. And don’t tell anyone, that last day we were so exhausted we both fell asleep in that lovely little room.

 

Though the large animals and being on call was exciting, that isn’t to say that time in the clinic was boring. There were plenty of cases to follow and help with. That is one (of many) things I love about being a vet: the problem solving. You are presented with pieces of the puzzle and have to work out how to solve it. So even the ‘mundane’ cases were useful and interesting. I also got to see alpaca medicine in action. I saw plenty of surgery, and got scrubbed in for a few to help out. I helped take many x-rays. I placed catheters, intubated, gave injections and expressed bladders. These things are ‘mundane’ for a vet and yet I had never done the before, the little things like how to hold things in while the animal is moving is not something you can be taught in writing.

 

I also killed my first animal as a vet. It was a stray cat, stuffed with contagious cat flu, absolutely reeking of urine, and looking so sick and miserable I felt a tiny bit less horrible when I ended his life.

 

In the weekend between Jo and I travelled to Queenscliff and took the ferry across Port Phillip Bay to Sorrento for a 21st. I feel like I’ve travelled the world in these past two weeks – Colac and the Otways, Mortlake, Winchelsea, Queenscliff, Sorrento, Teesdale, Point Lincoln, Geelong and back home to Werribee.

 

I was happy to get home and crawl into my warm bed, telling everyone I was not moving from this location for a good while! I’m so glad to be home and see my family and fids. But I had an amazing trip, I learnt so much in just two weeks. Time for a good long rest now before Bacchus Marsh (another mixed practice) and then back to uni. It’s nice to be back :glare:

 

Now for some pics.

 

Lake Colac, which by the end of the trip I had dubbed "The Lake at the End of the World" (anyone else read that book?)

 

Crossing on the Ferry, looking back at Queenscliff

 

Fun with fizzers at midnight on a beach in Sorrento

 

Look what we found in the X-ray cabinet

 

And another

 

Lake Colac again

 

Geelong

 

Point Lincoln

 

I don't have a chance to read right now but I will come back but I wanted to say WELCOME BACK!

Welcome Back

I loved reading your story - very interesting. I didn't realise that so much goes wrong with cows.

That's awesome Chryso, sounds like you had heaps of fun. What is that animal in the first xray? Is it an echidna? Looks like a kiwi head on a wombat/armadillo body lol.

Good to have you back.

Hey welcome back

it sounds like you learned alot .

welcome back !!!!!

 

i love that sunset shot

 

p.s what bird is that in the xrays?????

Looks like some sort or crow?

Welcome back you have been missed!

Thanks all, it was quite an experience, I learnt heaps.

The first x-ray is indeed of an echidna. I like that you can see his spines. The second x-ray is of a kite which is a bird of prey.