Day 89- Holy Cow

    This week has been insanely busy. It is 7pm now and we left the house this morning at 5:30am, this 13 hour day was a breeze compared to Monday and Tuesday which where both just over 16 hours. We started the week in Nebraska and the feedlot was over 500 miles away so we had to make it an over night trip, in which this sign was in my hotel room! Too funny...


     Today we went to 3 feedlots in Kansas in which I did 4 field necropsy's. Due to the high volume of cattle you will unfortunately have some that die during the feed out process. One of the lots we visited today fed 30,000 head of cattle at a time, so inevitably some will die and feedlot owners want to know why. Well I got this profound honor today. I know it sounds like loads of fun but luckily for me today it was 108 degrees and my specimens had gotten pretty ripe in the Midwestern sun. I literally can not get the stink off of me!
     As ya'll know this last year is a learning process and as new vets we will make mistakes and embarrass ourselves. So I would like to share a couple of this weeks...well...FAILS....
     The doc motioned for me to follow him back to a small office just outside the cow pens to print some reports for the cattle we were about to process. As you can guess the break rooms and offices adjoining cow pens are not very clean, and stink of cowpokes who don't wash under their finger nails. As I turned the corner to review the data with doc I got a big surprise, actually two of them....two big ole boobies on a calender on the wall. As I quickly narrowed my sites in on the computer and tried to be as professional as possible, i.e. pretend I didn't see the boobies, there they were...about 6 inches from my head, eye level and starring me right in the face...more boobies. I prayed that the data would be short and sweet but of course it wasn't. I had to choke down my laughter for at least 30 minutes while the boobies starred at me!
     On Monday I was introduced to the secretary at a feed yard and to be polite I attempted to make small talk,,,
     Her: So hun where are you from?
     Me: Florida! But I am really enjoying Nebraska it is so beautiful here!
     Her: That is great hun be you are in Kansas!
  
   Today, as I attempted my first so;o necropsy I was trying to look like I knew what I was doing. I could tell the cow was pretty rotten and expanded with air or bloated, but I knew my anatomy and knew how to stay away from the danger zones....so I thought! As I made my first cut into the skin the cow exploded....literally exploded, I jumped back, tripped over her legs and hung my head knowing the someone was watching! I was deathly afraid to lick my lips all day...they are now very chapped!