Best Day Yet!

So today, as you can probably tell, was the best day yet! Milking this morning went smoothly, I fed some calves, and then checked them for infection in their umbilicus. I had felt one that was infected my first day here, so I kind of knew what I was looking for, but still not 100%, so when the guys came to check the calves and give them their jabs I was pleased that most of the ones I had selected were right! So that was good. Then we had breakfast and headed over to the farmers dads farm to wrangle some pregnant cows over to this farm. (side note, on the way over there the farmer found out that the price of milk has gone up, that that was good for him!) So we got to the farm and first had to sort the cows into the ones we wanted and the ones we didn't. It actually went very smoothly, and me and one of the guys herded the reject cows back on the quad bike, then herded the ones we wanted over to the farm. Herding instinct is really an amazing asset to handling cows, of you can get a few to go the direction you want the rest generally follow and it makes your job so much easier! Especially when you're herding some 30 odd cows down the road! But we got ten here easily enough! Then we took a break for dinner while we waited for the vet to come check out a cow that's been sick for a little while, she's really thin and has been off her food. The vet came and decided to do a LDA which is a left displaced abomasum. I haven't done that anatomy yet but basically she tacked the abomasum, which is the 4th stomach in a cow to the body wall so it stays put. It was really cool! And she was explains stuff as she did it. Though without the background some of what she said was a bit confusing, but I'm sure will come in handy this year! After that it was pretty much time to milk again, so we did that. We started a bit late but flew through it, we are very efficient! Then I went to look at a calf that had been born and saw ANOTHER cool thing. So I went to look at the calf, a heifer, looking normal. When I went to see the cows number on her butt there was this really weird thing hanging out of her. It looked like a balloon but made of cow skin. I really wasn't sure what I was looking at. It didn't appear to be part of the cow or a twin, but I figured the farmer would tell me when he came to get the calf. It turns out that its what happens when early in in the cell division of a zygote a bit of the dividing cells break off and kind of form their own, I don't know what to call it, bit of body. There's usually hair, skin, flesh, and sometimes bone. I think it's basically like a non-formed twin. The farmer said he had only ever seen it one other time, so I feel pretty lucky! After tea (risotto, so good) we went back out to get the calf and her mum, and that went very smoothly, though we just found out that the pens are full, so there may be more work to do tomorrow! There was a beautiful sunset which was the perfect end to a fantastic day! Though I am quite tired and my feet hurt (paying the price for having cheap wellies!) but my time here is almost up so I don't have to wear them too much longer! The pictures below are of the LDA. The first is through all the body wall with the peritoneum at the bottom (it's shiny). The 2nd is the "sows ear" which (I think) is a fatty bit of the abomasum that you use a lot in surgeries to tack to the body wall. The last is it all sutured up!