Ferry Ride

Weekends mean emergency duty.  Emergency duty means one never knows where one might be or what one might see.  On this cold late October morning it meant a ferry ride across Lake Champlain to a farm near Ticonderoga, NY to see a sick cow. 



Lake Champlain ferry with the Crown Point Memorial in the background

Almost a year ago during a blinding snow squall our closest link to New York State dropped into the lake in a controlled demolition.  The nearly century old bridge had been found to be unsafe due to severe cracking in the cement of it's piers.  Around six weeks later a free ferry was established to bridge the gap until a new bridge is opened.  Since we have a few farms on the New York side of Lake Champlain, we get to take an occasional ferry ride. The last autumn leaves mixed with a cold, light rain as I chatted with a former client who was on today's ferry crew.  I must admit, the forced down time can be relaxing, sometimes fun and often scenic.



Ready for surgery



Today's call was to examine a cow that had stopped eating and dropped in milk production.  The farm's hired man had already listened to her and diagnosed a left diaplaced abomasum, commonly referred to by farmers as a "twisted stomach".  Although I knew this hired man was pretty good at diagnosing a twisted stomach, he is sometimes hard to take.  He's never at a loss for words and always ready to offer his view of the situation.

"It's a twisted stomach, ain't it, doc?"

"Yup, she should be OK for surgery"

"I knew it was.  I was right, wadn't I? Already gave her a bottle for ketosis.  I coulda been a vet, you know."  Off he went, toting buckets of milk to feed a bawling line of calves.

He was right as he usually was.  His expertise could only extend so far, though.  This condition required an operation.  A cows abomasum (her fourth stomach) normally lies low and to the right of her midline. When it displaces it fills up with gas and floats up like a balloon, usually to her left side.  This is a common condition in dairy cows and it is our most frequently performed surgical procedure. 

For the surgery, the cow is sedated and novocaine in injected so that her entire side is numbed.  She is shaved and scrubbed, then from her right side I reach around pull the stomach back into it's proper place.  Everything is sewn down so she can't displace again. The whole procedure takes 45 minutes to an hour and she is usually eating and making milk by the next day. 

New Bridge Pylons

Today's surgery was no exception.  Everything went as planned, my patient cooperated beautifully, and soon after a conversation with the hired man about gagging calves I was in the truck for the ride back to Vermont.  My emergency pager was ringing and instead of a relaxing boat ride I had been speaking with a worried owner about my next emergency case.  Our ferry docked, the gate came up, and my big white truck disembarked toward my next weekend call.