So we're doing several weeks worth of labs at the University of Alberta Dairy barn. Over the course of these labs we'll be learning how to do things like give an epidural, prepare a cow for a c-section, do gastric lavage, to a tail bleed, and several other things. We get to work with the little calves too, which is fun because they're just adorable.

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Above Ann milking the cow to do a California Mastitis Test --> Ann doing a tail bleed --> Claire and Erin fixing a pair of large animal clippers --> jen shaving for a c-section

Above Clair shaving --> Meaghan doing a tail bleed --> everyone (Ann, Brad, and Kristina) watching. I forgot to give Ann my camera this time so no pic's of me. 

WEEK 2 This week we did a paravertebral block on both sides of the cow, gave her an epidural, did a tail bleed, did a Peterson Eye Block (no pictures of that though, sorry) and gave 250mL of isotonic saline into each jugular vein. That was the messy part.


Above Ann washing her side of the cow for the paravertebral block (my side had already been washed because our cow was used as the demo) --> Ann -doing- the paravertebral block --> Then a couple of me doing the same thing. 
The paravertebral block is used to provide local anesthetic to the cow where we would be placing the incision for a c-section or a couple of other procedures. The needle we use is about 5 inches long.

Above Me doing the tail bleed --> A couple of the friendliest of the barn cats. It took a particular fancy to Meaghan. I had to lift it down off her neck because it -refused- to budge at one point --> Giving the cow IV fluids.

Above Ann getting the 5"needle into the jugular. You can see the nice arc of blood you get when it's in properly and you hold off the vein. That's how I got all messy. And yes, more fluids.(apparently I need to clean the lens of my camera..) Good fun all around. I think next week we get to stick our arms in the permanent hole in the side of some of the cows and feel the rumen... I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to that or not. The thought of it kind of creeps me out..


Above Yup, I was right, we had to stick our arms in the cow... Dr. Blair made me do it. It was gross. You can't really see where my black glove is against the black cow, but I put a little red dot to help. My hand inside the cow is touching my hand outside the cow. That's how far forward the Rumen (the largest of the 4 stomachs) goes. I could get my arm that far down too. Yuck.

Final week at the dairy barn, working with the calves

Above Cute little dairy calves... Dont you just want to hug them? Hehe. And Erin and Dr.Blair showing how to restrain the calf to give it the IV injection of sedative. It's kinda neat, they still have a really strong suck reflex at this age, so all you really have to do is stick your and in their mouth and they start sucking, and they pretty much restrain them selves, as you don't have to do much more than that and they stay pretty still for you.


Above And how to restrain the calf once it's sedated to install the IV catheter. This lab was largely to teach us the last few things we need to know to process the calves when we go calving starting in February. And that's the last time we go to the dairy barn!

Next week we'll be at the pig barn, but it's a shower in shower out facility, so I can't bring my camera in. The following week we're back at the Whitemid Equine center (hope it's not too cold!) and after that, it's February, and we start calving. I'm looking forward to it, I had a lot of fun last year.