(8/2019) It is very rare that I'm called out to a barn that doesn't have electricity. While they may not have operating room quality lights, barns usually have adequate lighting for me to do whatever it is I need to accomplish. Truthfully for the majority of situations I don't have to see that well anyway. Vaccines and Coggins tests are so routine that I just need enough light to read the labels and fill out the forms. One time I was even able to hit a jugular vein on a cow in almost complete darkness. That being said, my preference is to have bright lights in every barn so I don’t take a chance on missing some subtle finding.

In most of the dairy and beef industry, cows that are born with horns are dehorned. However there are a few breeds in which the horns are kept for showing. I only have a few clients with longhorn cows. These farms compete their cattle in shows. Aesthetics are important in showing, and the horns are not removed. The longhorns do seem to regularly injure each other with their horns, so my colleagues and I are frequently called to do laceration repairs, seemingly only on the longhorn cattle. In fact I can only recall two lacerations I've repaired on cattle that were not longhorns.

One farm keeps high quality show longhorns of multiple championship lines, as well as good breeding stock. They keep the cows in small groups with extra room, to try to prevent injury. However, one night around dinner time, there was a disagreement between a few cows. One of the prize bulls ended up with a deep cut on his hind leg that would need stitches. He was also supposed to go to a show in 2 weeks. The owners were hoping to have the wound fully healed by then, so I was called out to repair the wound.

The bull was housed in a very nice barn that usually had lights. However, just as I was pulling into the driveway it started to storm. Less than 10 minutes later the power was out. Everyone pulled out their cell phone flashlights and while that was enough light that I could suture the wound, I was grateful when a large, high quality, flashlight was also produced. Even though this was a very nice bull that was used to being handled, he was not going to tolerate the typical horse level of standing sedation for the laceration repair. I know because I tried to repair the wound after a small amount of sedation, and he immediately started kicking at me. I decided it was safer for everyone involved if I just gave him enough sedation to lay him down. Normally I'll work with cows in a head chute or stocks, however in this case a gate was used to hold him still so I could give the injection without him turning one of his horns into me.

A few minutes later he was laying on the straw on the barn floor. I cleaned the wound and gave him a local anesthetic block to numb the cut. I then proceeded to stitch his skin back together. While it wasn't a very deep wound, he'd opened up a flap of skin that left the muscle layer below exposed. In order to have a nice cosmetic appearance with just a tiny scar, it definitely needed over a dozen sutures. Truthfully this bull was lucky. I've seen far worse injuries caused by longhorns including penetration into the chest cavity and eviscerations of intestines onto the floor. Long horns can cause big holes. I was very pleased to see that this was a superficial wound that didn't appear to be any deeper than the skin.

One of the things they don't teach you in vet school is that your average owner can't hold a flashlight still on a wound. Instead they shine it on the floor, at the ceiling, in your eyes, and basically everywhere but the wound. I've actually experienced this phenomenon on multiple occasions. I'm not sure if its because looking at the wound makes them queasy or they just get distracted. In fact all of the vets at the clinic carry a headlamp in the car because of this known fact about the typical owner's flashlight holding skills. However, as luck would have it, the batteries in my headlamp were dead. I was left with the son holding the light while his dad yelled at him to keep it still and shining on the wound. After I finished the repair I asked the owner if they wanted me to bandage the leg. While a bandage is ideal, its only ideal if the bull would be cooperative enough to let them take it off and clean the laceration site. A bandage that stays on too long is much worse than no bandage at all. The owners assured me that they'd have no problem changing it. After I applied the bandage, I gave the bull an antibiotic shot, left instructions, and was on my way. The farm still did not have power restored but luckily the lack of electricity didn't have any effect on the quality of care that was provided.

While I don't know how the bull did at the show, I do know that his wound healed well and he was able to attend.