Friday was another physical exam lab. In two hours, we did swine, sheep and neonatal calf. Sheep and swine were about what I expected. Swine is mostly about observation. Body condition, behaviour, mentation, discharge, cleanliness, things like that. There isn't a lot of hands on. Sheep are fairly similar to other species, with a couple of key sheep specific things to look for, like anemia and checking feet.
Then there were the calves. One was two weeks old, one was three weeks old.
I really can't put into words how freaking adorable these little guys were. Big wet noses, long lovely eyelashes, big floppy ears... Ooh, it's enough to melt your heart.
So two of my classmates and I set to work examining this little bull calf. I'd been a bit nervous about doing this. Baby animals can be extremely unpredictable. Kittens are tiny balls of love, fluff, claws and teeth. Puppies are love, fluff, teeth and urine. Foals are tornadoes of flying feet when you try to restrain them at that age. I find adult cattle hard enough to work with sometimes, let alone three week old babies,
It quickly became obvious there was a foolproof way to restrain this little guy - just let him suck on you. Oh it didn't really matter what. A hand, a boot, a knee... As long as he could try to suckle something, he didn't really care what was happening to him. We checked his sclera, felt his joints, checked his umbilicus, felt for a pulse, took a heart rate and lung sounds, with him clamped on someone's hand the whole time. He had no teeth, so it didn't hurt. Mostly it was weird. He kept at if for the whole 20 or minutes we were working with him, just alternating between the three of us. Part of me wonders how long he would have kept trying before he realized there was no food. If nothing else, his persistence was admiral!
My coveralls went prompty into the laundry. Mostly for biosecurity and hygiene. But also just to get the calf slobber off.
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