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One of our girls had surgery and I survived!

Krista Stauffer

So let’s start this story off with some fun facts about a cows stomach. They have one stomach with four compartments. The rumen, the reticulum, the omasum & the abomasum. The rumen is the largest part of the stomach. It can hold up to 50 gallons of partially digested food. The recticulum furthers the softening process of the food & turns it into cud. I am told the recticulum is the part where if the cow eats something bad(like metal) it will get stuck in this compartment. The omasum is a filter and it breaks down the cud. The abomasum is pretty much like our stomachs. It breaks down the food, uses the nutrients and sends what is not needed to the intestines.

Now that you have a little cow anatomy under your belt let’s get to the part of why she had to have surgery. She had a twisted stomach. The cows stomach is on the right side of the cow. Sometimes cows lay too far over or will even roll. When they do that, the stomach flops on over to the other side. The stomach then gets twisted, kind of like a kinked hose. When that happens, it cannot function properly. A stomach that doesn’t function properly leads to a cow starving, starving leads to death and that is not something we like to happen. The first sign you will see the left side of the stomach start to bloat.

Thankfully farmer is very on top of his game and notices even the smallest details of his girls. He caught it most likely right after it happened. He contacted the vet, the vet confirmed our suspicions and scheduled a surgery. The vet decided it would be best to do the surgery at the clinic instead of the farm for sanitary purposes. He picked her up, took her to the vet and gave us the call when she was ready.

When we arrived they were shaving the hair on her left side and underneath the front of her stomach closer to her front right leg. They then sterilized the both areas, gave her an antiseptic to numb her and made an incision on the left side. At this point, farmer was watching me very closely as the blood poured onto the ground. Ok… it didn’t pour, but there was quite a bit of it. This whole time she was just standing there letting me love on her. Even chewing her cud at times.

(Here she is waiting to start! This is also how she was most of the surgery)

He kept taking his little squirt bottle and cleaning around the area to help prevent infection. The vet let me check out the hole and it stunk so bad! I am sure that I could have felt the inside if I wanted. I honestly cannot remember if he gave me that option because at that point I was just trying to keep my face off the ground. I do not do well with blood.

(This moment & the initial incision was when she was very uncomfortable!)

He then put his arm in, grabbed the stomach and began to stitch in some heavy duty string. Once he did that, he took the stomach, pushed over to the other side, took those pieces of string, and poked them out through the bottom; which was shaved and sterilized earlier. The vet assistant was on the other side to grab those strings and tie them off. The string is used to insure her stomach doesn’t twist again. It honestly happened that fast. Our vet said that once a cow has a twisted stomach, they are susceptible of having it happen again. It was amazing how quick of a process it was and how making that choice to spend $300 saved her life.  He then stitched her up, sterilized it one last time and presto… she was done!
(They pulled the string through to insure her stomach would not twist again.)

He brought her home that afternoon, she was put back in with the rest of the cows and is doing amazing. She has a scar that I am sure will be covered with hair eventually. But the awesome thing is that she is healthy and alive!! Too cool, right?!

My cow had surgery and our vet saved her life.

UPDATE: September 2014, almost a year later. She is still doing amazing, she is currently on her dry period awaiting the arrival of a new calf. As you can see below, the yellow arrow points at her scar as well as a piece of one of the strings that is helping to hold her stomach in place. Isn’t it amazing?! You would never know with the exception of the scar that she ever had an issue.

 

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Krista Stauffer

Owner at Stauffer Dairy
Krista didn't grow up on a farm but fell in love with a dairy farmer and now works alongside her husband on their family dairy farm, raising five children. Despite her non-farm upbringing, she embraces farm life, enjoys gardening, and remodeling their farmhouse. She also runs a successful women's boutique, manages social media for local businesses, and serves on the board of a non-profit creamery, showcasing her dedication to entrepreneurship and community service.
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