22/03/2025
For those interested, a little update on our very sick cow, sweet H**e L1. 🐂
Last weekend was very tough for her. Saturday we hit 40 degrees (Celsius), and she appeared to struggle in the very hot, dry weather conditions. At least she was still eating and drinking, and had control of her bodily functions. Sunday she came to the cattle yards for more medication, and I could see some inflammation appearing on the left hand side of her head, specifically around her ear. The previous week before this was her 4th week of treatment, and there was still no response to her medication. 😩 I ended up deciding to swap to a different antibiotic to see if I could get her some comfort, and separated her from Samurai to a clean paddock on her own with her heifer calf just incase the worst was to happen… really the change of antibiotics was a decision of desperation to try to save her. I figured if I couldn’t save her, at least I would be killing her with kindness. We can only assume what was to happen in the coming 48 hours was a result of that decision. 🥹
Monday I walked the paddock to check her and her calf, and the inflammation around her left ear was now increasing… her ear was actually frozen in one position and she was unable to move it. It looked incredibly painful. I rang our vet again, who was away and wouldn’t be available until early Tuesday morning… we talked about some possible scenarios as to what might be happening, and agreed she was fully medicated, now isolated and able to rest, the weather was at least cool, she was still eating and drinking, and it was the best we could do until Tuesday morning. I worried like hell about her for the rest of the day. That evening before the sun went down, I checked her one more time and the inflammation was now enormous and had now travelled down her face putting pressure on her left eye, and suddenly there was now a huge lumpy mass the size of a softball behind her ear. What the hell is that. 😳 An abscess perhaps was my first thought, but holy moly if it is, that’s enormous. That night I was woken by the cattle herd becoming restless around midnight, calling out which is generally unusual and a sign of them alerting me to some sort of activity in the paddocks, so I headed out to the sick cow with a spotlight immediately thinking the worst. Scanning the paddock with the spotlight trying to find her, I suddenly caught the glow of her eyes at the hay ring consuming silage at a rapid rate… that seemed unusual as only hours before she could barely move her left jaw from inflammation. Had something happened to the big mass behind her ear? I really couldn’t see any change in the torchlight.
Early Tuesday morning I was eager to see how her night had faired, and checked her as the sun was peaking its head out from the horizon. Oh my goodness, she’s still standing in the same spot eating silage! Surely she hasn’t been there for 6 hours. 🤦♀️ But yes, judging by her gut fill, she’s been busy eating for some time. I also noticed that the inflammation around her eye and jaw had subsided… must be an abscess has burst, surely, but the huge mass is still behind her ear, so maybe a partial burst? But where… there’s no exit wound on her face. Then I realised - oh wow, it’s burst into her ear canal. 🤢 Not the greatest exit point, but gee, it’s seemed to have given her some immense immediate relief, so much so that she’s decided to eat silage half the night to make up for the past 4 weeks.
She still needed to go to the cattle yards Tuesday morning with her heifer calf ready for the vet, but alas she had other plans. First a quick lap of the paddock running, the fastest I had seen her move for a month. She eventually ran down the laneway to the cattle yards with calf in tow. Our wonderful vet arrived and we inspected her in the crush, sticking 2 fingers in the entrance of her left ear he pulled out a sample of pus. Yes, it’s an abscess that has partially burst into her ear canal. And she smelt putrid. He stuck a clean needle into the huge mass still behind her left ear and some pus came out with the needle, but it was rock hard, so we decided to make prep her to make a major incision into the mass. A hole was made about the size of a 50c piece into the mass where hard, granulated pus emerged… there was handfuls of it. The vet ended up making a second incision lower down so we could pump an iodine solution into the top incision and flush all the infection out. Our discussion in the yard led us to the conclusion some sort of foreign matter, such as a grass-seed, had entered one of her saliva ducts in her mouth, entering her saliva gland where it has been festering for weeks. Foreign objects in the body gradually get encapsulated within a pocket of pus, and hopefully leave the body at some point, the exit point sometimes in odd locations. She looked a mess but it was a huge relief the problem had finally been solved. Recovery was our next stage.
H**e L1 has spent the past 3 days resting in a paddock on her own with her calf, enjoying some supplement feed. The incisions have closed, the inflammation is gradually decreasing, but she has a long way to go yet.
A few photos for those keen to see her journey this week. I’ve also added a diagram of the glands of a cows head so you get an idea of what we believe has happened. The worst photo of her surgical procedure will be in the comments, so feel free to scroll past it if needed.
😊
