Oh do I have quite the humorous cattle story that would be criminal to keep to myself. Everyone should have the pleasure of laughing at my expense! As I have stated before in posts and in my profile, I'm a Veterinary Nurse. My class was assigned to a reproductive Angus cattle farm to do some clinical hours with large animals. The morning started off without a hitch as we corralled a couple of heifers, placed them in the cattle alley, and put the first heifer into the chute. *Just as a side note, this particular style of alley and chute was designed by an autistic woman whose goal was to limit the stress of the animal when corralling them into these small areas. The heifer seemed very calm, occasionally mooing at us as we practiced placing harnesses and jugular blood draws. The veteranarian on staff was very knowledgeable with many years of experience in large animal medicine. He explained everything that they do at the ranch even going into detail on how they mass produce embryos of elite cattle to sell. We were all having a pretty good time, as far as I could tell, and I know I was having just a blast. The veterinarian then asked if any of us would like to draw blood from a tail vein, and me always wanting to try everything that is offered, quickly rose my hand and stepped up to the chute. The veterinarian got in first and showed me as I stood off to the side, just how I was going to walk in and do the blood draw. He lifted the heifer's tail and she managed to squirt out a bit of feces onto his overalls. We all kind of chuckled and then he stepped out so that I could go in next. Filled with an undying eagerness I walked into the chute and stepped up to the cow's behind. The veterinarian stood close to monitor and was giving me good pointers as I felt along the tail for the exact spot I needed. Being a kind gentleman and in an attempt to aid me, the veterinarian said he would hold the tail up for me. As soon as that tail went up in the air, Bessy (the name I decided to give my sweet cow friend) took aim and fired. From my stomach down to the boots I wore were literally covered in **** (feces). And of course, like a true trooper, I looked down, looked back up at my classmates, smiled, and laughed. I sure wasn't going to let a little bit of warm brown goo get me down so with tail still high up in the air, I poked and got blood on my first try!
I sort of waddled my way out of the chute and like any other animal lover, instead of immediately going to wash off, I was more concerned with my patient. Unfortunately (the one down side to my story) the heifer had been in the chute for such a time that it had blocked the jugular artery causing her to not be able to walk. We were all pretty shaken up as we saw her desperately trying to stand on her front two legs to get back out to the pasture.
Thankfully there was only good news after we had departed from the ranch. The veterinarian informed us that she had recovered fully and was doing just fine. They had given her some pain medications and this seemed to do the trick. As for me I have lots of photos and my stained jeans to never let me forget about my wonderful experience!
Cheers!
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