A Rush to Judgement

D. E. Larsen, DVM

Prologue: Bovine Brucellosis is a reproductive disease of cattle. It occurs in other animals to some extent, namely, the bison of Yellowstone. Brucellosis causes Undulant Fever in man. There has been a program to eradicate the disease in cattle in this country since the 1930s. We are very close to eradication, with only a few areas of concern. Vaccination of breeding animals has been mandated for many years.

***

“Yes, this is Doctor Larsen,” I said as I answered the phone. “Just who do I have the pleasure to be talking with this afternoon?”

“This is Doctor White, I with the State Veterinarian’s Office,” the good doctor replied. 

“What can I do for you guys today?” I replied.

“I was wondering if you could tell me about the brucellosis vaccination status of a heifer in one of your herds.”

“Sure, it will take me a few minutes to pull the file and go through the vaccination reports. But you guys should have all that information. I mean, after all, we are required to send you a copy of all the brucellosis vaccinations we do.”

“Well, we don’t really have a perfect file system for all those little pieces of paper. It is probably easier for you to find it than for us to find it.”

“If that’s the case, why do we have to send those in to your office?”

“That’s a different topic than what I have. I have a set of ears here, from a heifer sent to slaughter from one of your herds. She tested positive for brucellosis, and we need to investigate the herd.”

“Can you give me a herd name or number?” I asked.

“I think you have it listed under Bill,” Dr. White said.

  “I don’t want to alarm you or anything, and I can look up that heifer with no problem, but I can tell you that particular herd has a bunch of cows, calves, and bulls at the State Fair right now.”

“Oh! My God, I will talk with you later. We have to get that situation under control right now.”

***

With one positive test and a set of ears from the slaughtered heifer in hand, Doctor White, with as many staff members the office could spare, headed to the state fairgrounds to save the state from a massive exposure to brucellosis.

Poor Bill, he didn’t know what hit him. They’re sitting there, resting after just getting the cattle unloaded and settled in their stall space. All of a sudden, here comes Doctor White and his growing entourage. The entourage has grown, now including several members of the fair board and their staff.

“We are going to quarantine these animals,” Doctor White said, holding up the set of ears dangling on a loop of twine. “We have to investigate a positive brucellosis test in this heifer you had slaughtered last week.”

“What are you talking about?” Bill said with a wry smile as he stood up to tower over the meek Doctor White. “She was just a heifer that we decided didn’t match up to what we wanted in our herd. There wasn’t anything wrong with her except she wasn’t pregnant.”

“She tested positive for Brucellosis,” Doctor White said. “When we have a positive test in a herd, we are required to quarantine the entire herd until we can test every animal in the herd.”

“Will she was vaccinated for Brucellosis,” Bill said. “Did you talk with Doctor Larsen?”

“I started to talk with him, and then he mentioned that you were here with a group of animals from the herd,” Doctor White said. “It became more important to get down here and isolate these animals than to finish the conversation.”

“I don’t know. It sounds to me like you should talk with Doctor Larsen,” Bill said.

“Mister Williams has a set of pens that are not in use. We are going to move your animals over there while we finish getting this case investigated,” Doctor White said.

“You can leave all your stuff here. We just need to lead these animals out of this barn and over to the small shed on the other side of the show rings,” Mister Williams said.

“Okay,” Bill said as he motioned to his crew. “But you better clear a pathway of people. A couple of these young bulls are not what you would call socialized.”

So off they go, under the watchful eyes of Doctor White and his staff. They wanted to identify any urine or manure deposited on the trip to the new quarters.

While they were watching, Doctor Edwards, a young staff member under Doctor White, took the ears from Doctor White. He carefully examined the tattoos on the ears.

“They keep talking about this being a heifer,” Doctor Edwards said. “There is a good vaccination tattoo in the right ear and identification number in the left ear. Do we know how old this heifer was when she was slaughtered?”

Doctor White snatched the ears out of Doctor Edward’s hands. “Where are you going with that question?” 

“If she wasn’t two years old, she wasn’t eligible for a brucellosis test,” Doctor Edwards said. “If that’s the case, this positive test isn’t a valid test.

As soon as Bill and his crew returned to the main barn for another group of animals, Doctor White pulled him aside and showed him the ears.

“Can you identify this tattoo?” Doctor White asked. 

“Yes, that’s our heifer, that’s her tattoo,” Bill said.

“How old was this heifer?” Doctor White asked.

“Hell, I don’t know off the top of my head,” Bill said. “All my records are at the house. I guess I could call my wife and see if she could find a birth date. Doctor Larsen keeps pretty good records. I am sure he would be able to give you a pretty close age.”

“Do you think she was less than twenty-four months?” Doctor White asked.

“Oh, yes, all our heifers due to calve next spring are less than twenty-four months,” Bill said.

“Well, you guys can finishing moving this bunch over to the quarantine area, and I will go to the fair office and see if I can get ahold of Doctor Larsen.”

“I am going to be pretty upset if we move these bulls over there and you come back and tell us everything is okay and we can bring them back,” Bill said with a frown on his face.

“Look at the size of these ears compared to the older cows,” Doctor Edwards said to Doctor White. “I can stay here and watch this bunch while you go talk with Doctor Larsen.”

“Okay, that will be good,” Doctor White said. “You stay here and monitor these, and I will go talk with Doctor Larsen. If his records can confirm the heifer’s age, we can remove the quarantine.”

***

“Doctor Larsen, this is Doctor White. I wonder if you can confirm the age of this heifer from Bill’s herd?”

“Yes, I have the file right here. I vaccinated this heifer last summer when she was seven months old. And then we did our pregnancy exams a month ago. She was not pregnant. My records don’t list a specific age, but based on the seven months at the time of vaccination, she was less than twenty months. Doctor White, I don’t think she is test eligible. I think a vaccinated animal has to be over twenty-four months to be eligible for a brucellosis test. That positive test you have can’t be valid, can it?”

“No, it can’t be valid,” Doctor White said. “Now I have to go tell Bill that we had things all upset for nothing.”

“Bill is a good guy. He will laugh most things off. Just tell him the truth, and you will be surprised.”

“What do you mean, the truth?” Doctor White asked.

“Just tell him you’re just a public employee trying to cover your ass. I guarantee you, he will laugh.”

Photo by Lukas Souza on Unsplash

From the Archives, one year ago

The Upgrade

The Last Ditch Effort

The Last Ditch Effort 

D. E. Larsen, DVM

“Bob, this is the third time I have checked this heifer,” I said. “Everything I feel is normal. Are you sure you’re not messing up with the breeding? I mean, your semen tank has adequate liquid nitrogen?”

“We are using the same semen on all of these heifers, and everybody else is pregnant,” Bob said, shaking his head a little. “I have Erma and Cara both watching every move I make when we A-I one of these heifers. If something was being done wrong, I would be told about it.”

“I have checked her 3 times, and the active ovary has been the right ovary every time. It could be that she has a segmental aplasia in her ova duct, and I’m just not feeling it. Or it is too small of a defect for me to feel.”

“Can you fix that sort of thing?” Bob asked.

“No, I don’t think you can fix that in the cow,” I said. “Maybe a fancy surgery over at the college, but I don’t think so. The other problem is that sort of a defect is probably heritable.”

“But you could probably have an ova duct that was plugged from an infection or something,” Bob said.

“Yes, I guess that sort of thing is possible. I’m not sure how you fix that sort of thing. And then you get back to the inherited defect possibility. You don’t really want to perpetuate that sort of thing in your herd.”

“I really want this heifer pregnant,” Bob said.

“Have you tried breeding her with a bull?” I asked. 

“I have a good A-I match for her. Do you think there is anything we could do?”

“If the right ovary is the dominate ovary, and it is the one that ovulates every cycle, and she doesn’t get pregnant. The one simple way to make the left ovary active would be to remove the right ovary.”

“Do you think that would work?” Bob asked.

“It would work, but the better question is, do we want to go to that extent. I have told you before if you work hard to get a slow breeder pregnant, you have her to work on her and a couple of her daughters in a few years. Infertility is very heritable.”

“Okay, let’s do it,” Bob said. “If it doesn’t work, nothing is lost. Maybe you will be able to see if there is a defect when you do the surgery.”

“Maybe I would be able to see a defect. But if it is big enough to see, I could probably feel it. We could send it in for histopath. It might be helpful to know if it is an inherited problem.” 

***

A few days later, I returned to Bob’s place to do an ovariectomy on the problem heifer. I had done it once in school on a mare. That procedure was done with a flank incision. We used a tool called an ecraseur that cuts the ovaries off and controls bleeding with a tissue crush, similar to an emasculator.

The are many procedures for spaying heifers as a herd procedure to enhance weight gain when on pasture or feed. Some of these are done with special instruments through a vaginal incision. On this heifer of Bob’s, my plan was to use a short flank incision on the right flank and ligate the ovarian vessels and the oviduct at its attachment to the uterus. There would be no need for speed because there are not a hundred heifers waiting behind her.

***

“Are you ready to do this, Bob,” I asked as I unloaded my stuff from the truck.

“As ready as ever, I guess,” Bod said. “Even if the right ovary is not the problem, she should still be functional with the left ovary. Am I correct in my thinking on that point?”

“You are correct. My thinking is that she will get pregnant on the first breeding after this surgery. We will see if my guess is correct.”

“Guess!” Bob said. “Are we doing this on a guess?”

“An educated guess,” I said. “At times, that is the best we can do in this business.”

“Okay, I understand the situation. Let’s just get it done.”

With that discussion completed, I clipped and prepped the right flank. I had never approached the ovary in a heifer, but in the mare, it was right there at the incision.

I made a short incision, less the six inches long, high on the right flank. I carefully incised the peritoneum. that last thin layer of tissue before entering the abdomen. Air rushed into the abdomen, and the intestines settled into the lower abdomen. There hung the right ovary.

If I was using an ecraseur, I would be done in a couple of minutes.  I ligated the ovarian pedicle. Then I ligated the oviduct at its attachment to the uterus. I removed the right ovary. There was no rethinking the decision at this time.

“What do you think?” Bob asked as I was closing the incision.

“I don’t see any abnormalities. That is a good thing. That means there is no inherited segmental aplasia. It will be interesting to see what the pathologist has to say.”

“Yes, I been thinking about that,” Bob said. “I don’t think it matters. It will just be another expense, and what’s done is done. It will either work, or it won’t.”

“You are right there,” I said. “But five years down the road, if another question pops up on one of her offspring, it might be good information to have.”

The histopath report showed extensive scarring in the oviduct. That was good news for Bob, even if the source of the scarring was unknown.

***

“Has it been two months since we did the surgery?” I asked Bob as he was running the heifer into the chute.

“She cycled only a few days after her surgery. There must have been some prostaglandin release with the surgery. Anyway, I bred her on that cycle, and she hasn’t cycled again. I am hoping you were correct in that educated guess. It’s been forty days since I bred her. I guess I might be a little anxious.”

We secured her in the chute and started a rectal exam. I carefully retracted the uterus and palpated the left ovary.

“She has a nice large CL on the left ovary. That is the first activity on that ovary that I have felt.”

“What about the pregnancy?” Bob asked impatiently.

I ran the length of the left uterine horn through my fingers. A forty-day amnion slipped through my fingers.

“Yep, right at forty days,” I said. “Looks like I don’t get fired this time.”

“I could have lived with an open heifer,” Bob said. “Your thought processes just sort of amaze me at times. I wonder how many heifers get sent down the road because they have a dominant ovary and an occluded oviduct?”

“This wouldn’t be a practical procedure on a commercial heifer. They have to fit in the producer’s program, or they go down the road. I would never recommend anything different.”

***

This heifer delivered a nice bull calf almost 8 months later. She remained a productive cow in Bob’s herd for many years.

Photo by Spence Selover from Pexels