caeserian section

2-06-2012-caesarean section on old bossy

      the above drawing is as it appeared to me when i was in my 20's doing internship from college working on a 250 cow calf operaation , raising purebred simmental cattle at the time. i had the midnight calf watch, and would be given sundry jobs , but for the most part my job was feeding cows and checking for cows giving birth , and then checking for heat. a typical purebred simmental beef heifer or bull would run around 1000 dollars when it hit the ground . some cows we had were worth over 25000 per cow in 1976. at that time simmental were just getting started as dual beef breed, having both milking and beef ability. and the calves were generally large as well as the cows and the bull. our bull there weighed in at over 2409 lbs. and was purebred . 

    with big cows producing bigger calves , calving problems were quite common when a cow was crossed with other breeds as they were registering  3/4 blood cows as purebred. all our cows on the farm were artificially inseminated and will show you that in another discussion. our bull was worth over 50000 dollars and therefor to expensive to just let him run with any old cow, much to his dismay. also some of the cows they were breeding to were on the small side and he was huge and could potentially hurt them. so they collected his semen by hand(another discussion).that for sure was definitely not my job. 

      i had delivered or help delivered 60 calves and three sets of twins,  as i let cows birth naturally as they could . tried to not rush things but instead stuck to a rigid schedule laid out for us by the farm manager. 

      to deliver a calf it usually involved assessing the size of the calf by donning a plastic glove and inserting your hand inside her privates and feeling the size of the calf's hooves and also feeling the orientation of the hoof as to assure it wasnt a breach birth. if the hoof was particularly large as they sometimes were , and depending on how long the cow was in labor and if there was enough room in the pelvic area to allow birthing to continue , we would either allow her to continue on her own for awhile as natural is best. second option was to attach chains to the front legs over the thick part of their leg and brace against her rear , and help her by pulling on the calf. 

       if it is breach , you try to roll the calf in the uterus. most times we would just contact a vet at this time though. you were never sure you had rolled the calf is he main reason. and also the cord may wrap around the calfs neck and effectively strangle it inside the womb. time was of the essence in these cases 

       if there wasnt enough room in the birth canal and calf wasnt able to even enter birth canal then this indicated a large calf . action needed to be taken swiftly also as the end result may be possibly death for both. well this lead the vet to one of two options for delivering the calf . caesarean section or split pelvis was the options available to him.

      tonight i am trying to tell a story of how the vet and i went about doing a cesarean section on old bossy. the split pelvis will be told in detail later. 

      we had assessed that she needed help and the vet asked me if i was up to helpng him out. well at the time i was studying livestock production and needed to know everything about cattle. guess this was the place to do it. our home farm had cattle but we never had half the calving problems these guys were having with these large boned cattle. getting a vet out and at time paying him 90 dollars was small compared to what the cow and calf was worth . 

      we shaved a one foot square at the end of her rib cage and about 2/3 up her abdominal wall.in the middle of that and after giving her a local anesthesia and disinfecting, he made a four inch incision through four layers of muscle. all the time the cow who was also administered medicine to make her drowsy but not pass out as she was standing as we were doing all this. after he got through the fourth layer of tissue the hole opened up into her abdominal cavity. the weather was cold and steam rushed out of the hole and billowing clouds, made it hard for the vet to see momentarily then he showed me the uterus and i could see the calf inside struggling with life as he moved when i looked in. the vet instructed me to get on the other side of the fence and he would hook the calf chains around the calfs hind legs and we would pull the calf up and out of the cow when he was ready. he sliced the uterus and quickly he attached the chains through a hole in the uterus and guided first one leg then the other as the uterus stretched t allow the calf to exit and i heaved the calf straight up over the cows back , 

     the calf was now laying on the cows back and wasnt breathing, so the vet said to me to get the calf off the cow and sling it over the fence behind her allopwing the calves hind legs hangin over the top of the fence . the vet grabbed a rag and wiped the mucous off the calf.  all this is quite slimy and and he slapped the calf's face a couple of times and it started in bawling for its mom assuring us he was ok.i must say at this point , part of the reason the calf was over the fence with its head down was to clear the fluids out of its lungs. it worked great as everything just gushed out of the calf. he was moving normally and it was now time to sew mom up before she lost her numbness and realized what we had done to her. we placed the calf by the mom's head and she tried to lick but we had the halter short as we still had a hole in her side to close up. 

      as we were closing the cow up the vet was assessing her condition and was mentioning to me things i didnt know , about how fast her uterus shrinks after birth . he explained her natural hormones were already changing her as he stuck his hands in and started stitching up the uterus. as he finished that i asked him if the ovaries on a cow were in proportion to size of the animal. he says good question , let me show you he says , as he digs out folds of pink muscle and fat globs and eventually he produces a slight grey pink round globe . about the size of a golf ball . and i was amazed as it was probaly the same size as a womans ovaries and he remarked the same observation and giving me a reason for that. 

    he says the female of any species that reproduces as such as a cow and a human , are only born with so many eggs . once those eggs are used up she cant get pregnant any more. similar to menopause in women. 

    well he folds her all back inside the hole in her side and settles everyhing back into place . pointing out here other anatomical features as went. stitching up her four layers of muscle , with all the inner stitches getting dissolving sutures , and the outside was stitched with sutures that would have to be removed in  couple of days. 

     well the surgery was a success,,, the calf was healthy, and i never looked at that cow the same. i know the nature of this discussion may offend some . but i am trying to relate it as matter of factly as i can. it will give you insight as to how far technology has advaced even farming, and maybe you will have a better understanding of what it takes to be a farmer.