Ethical Decision-Making in Livestock Management
Learn the complexities of ethical decision-making in livestock management as Lindsey guides us through the emergency procedure of salvaging a cow carcass and saving a calf after encountering a double prolapse. Follow along as she takes you through a C-section and the considerations involved in salvaging the calf while addressing the cow’s condition.
What You’ll Learn:
- What practical challenges are faced in salvaging a cow carcass and saving a calf during a double prolapse emergency procedure
- Understanding the complexities of a double prolapse, including rectal and vaginal prolapses, in a pregnant cow
- Insights into the utilization of cow and calf post-procedure, from entering the food supply to recycling internal organs and hide
Subscribe for more information about emergency procedures in cattle handling and life as a butcher. Whether you’re a farmer, veterinarian, or butcher, this episode offers practical knowledge for handling challenging situations in livestock management. Give us a like and follow and get ready to elevate your knowledge and appreciation of beef!
Transcript:
Lindsey Fulton: So I’m in here, you can see we’ve got a double prolapse on this cow. This is a rectal and a vaginal prolapse, which I’ll be totally honest, I didn’t know a pregnant cow could have a vaginal prolapse. This one did. This one was also due to calf within the next 4-5 days. So what we did with her, the farmer brought her in, we euthanized her with a shot, they call it a terminal pregnancy of blood volume going to the fetus. On standard, you have about six minutes to get the calf out before you probably don’t have five calves.
My girlfriends and her pets weren’t able to make it today and kind of gave us directions on what to do when the farmer was able to stay and help. So basically we made a flank incision. It’s kind of hard in my knockbox, they kind of fall whichever way they’re going to fall. So there’s definitely preferable sides to these sections. We didn’t really have a choice. We did go ahead and dig in. You can see we did hit the intestinal cavity. I did not nick a gun though. Right here, didn’t nick a gun.
The farmer was able to get on the inside. If you do this, make sure you’re changing the hind legs up if you can, because you can get kicked if they’re neural shut down. It’s part of the death process of cattle. And they will kick you probably harder than if they were alive. So we were able to grab a hold of the leg and get a leg up, cut the placenta open, and pull the calf out. Make sure to post some pictures of us with the baby calf who went back to the farm to live a long, healthy life.
Fortunately for the mom here, she will enter the food supply now. She will be hamburger call cow, basically a call cow.
So she will go all into hamburger and we’ll probably only hang her about three days in my cooler And then we’re going to get her ground up and the rest of her Internals hide will go on to be recycled and reused as well So not a happy ending for everybody, but we were able to salvage a baby calf And now she is able to enter the food supply and still be used A used product. So thanks for following along. Sorry This was a little more gruesome than I usually share but this is life on the farm and like the Butcher Shop. Thanks for following along, guys.
