ANIMAL HUSBANDRY

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This type of wound can also be surgically repaired if attended to immediately after it happens. But the after care is much more difficult, involving milking the injured teat with a milk tube and maintaining absolute cleanliness. Since the injured quarter would need to be infused with antibiotics during the healing process, milk from all four quarters would have to be kept from human consumption. Still, it is worth a try, and if it doesn't heal, there is always a second chance at the dry period. Good luck!

Last spring, one of our two dairy cowscame in from pasture with blood literally streaming from the large milk vein under her belly. I held a cotton pack on it until a neighbor came to help. He put cobwebs on the cut, and the bleeding stopped. We turned her out that night, and the next morning I found her dead in a puddle of blood. What should I have done differently?

You started out fine by putting pressure on the wound, and holding it until you got help, but a cut milk vein will not hold unless stitched. I have seen some real farmer ingenuity in stopping the bleeding from cut milk veins temporarily. These include everything from diaper pins to large paper clips. Still, when a cow lies down again, the thick wall of the huge vein gives way and bleeding starts again. Unless you feel competent to stitch a cut milk vein, call your veterinarian. Even he or she will have a difficult time, but at least they have the proper instruments and suture material.

Last fall, I read that three cases of rabies had been diagnosed in white-tail deer in a northeastern state. I had always thought of rabies as a disease of dogs, cats, and wild creatures that bite, such as raccoon, foxes, and coyotes. In our area, deer come into the pasturewhere we have our own livestock. Can they spread rabies to our domestic animals, and how would I know if a cow, horse, or sheep had the disease? I can't imagine that they go around biting and snapping as a rabid dog does.

Rabies, a fatal disease in all animals, was known in the past as "hydrophobia," which means fear of water. The most evident symptom in an advanced case of the disease is the inability to swallow, due to painful spasms, and later paralysis of the the esophagus. In all species, symptoms in early cases vary so much that it is considered by most veterinary texts as one of the most difficult diseases to diagnose.

The first thing that you as a livestock or pet owner should understand is that there are two forms of the disease, commonly referred to as "furious," and "dumb." The furious cases, the animal extremely agitated, charging anything that moves, biting, chewing, and seemingly unafraid, are the ones that receive the most attention and are the most frightening. Dumb cases are really more dangerous to humans, since they attract little attention, and the animal may seem "just a little off" or "strange."

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