January: the cold month.  

As we enter the next decade, I am happy to report there were no flying Reindeer incidents this Christmas season.  Since becoming a veterinarian, I have always volunteered to assist any ailing fliers for Santa.    I also extend this courtesy in the spring for the Easter Bunny.   You know if you have talents, it is nice to share it for worthwhile cause.

I limit what little free time I have to my church, Marble Memorial United Methodist, and to Monroe County - Stepping Stones.  This used to be the Horseback Riders for Handicappers in 4-H.   Now it is PEP or some other acronym I do not remember.  I am on their board of directors.  I help with problem issues with the horses they own or have in on lease. 

There are always interesting things that happen with horses; some are even predictable.  Lacerations and horses always come together and leave gaping holes or challenging biological puzzles to reassemble.  As I age, I prefer cuts that are higher on the body.  The act of inverting your head below your knees and being able to function is not as easy as it used to be.   I think there are vascular one-way valves malfunctioning when the need to stand up real quick when repairing a laceration.  The need for sudden body position change is because the sedation and local block is not working as the textbook implies.   Reorientation of yourself vertically and evaluating your safe exit in a millisecond takes longer with older reflexes.  You try to stay out of the danger zone around horses.  The danger zone at the front of a horse is the distance a horse may strike you with a hoof.  Presence of shoes is a critical impact force.   You are safer with your derriere touching shoulder or in close.  At this close distance, you may be compressed into a human pancake but that is preferred to massive head trauma. 

Repairing lacerations in winter has one advantage over a hot summer day; there is almost no chance insects will be intrigued to lay eggs in a wound.  Fly strike is a summer hazard that will result in larva in a wound.  This referred to as maggots.  Winter repairs have faster blood clotting, slippery footing conditions and seem to be in a wind tunnel referred to as the barn alley.  The Bernoulli Effect of restricting airflow in a constricted passage increases air turbulence.  This causes increased focus with cold wet knuckles gripping Olsen-Hagar needle drivers.  Use of surgical gloves dissipates the cold to the entire hand.  Getting things back together, then the instruments, and equipment back into the practice vehicle becomes a challenge.  Fingers do not function normally when frozen; they seem to ignore the messages sent by the brain.  I would have to set in the truck with arms crossed and shoved under my armpits for ten to fifteen minutes before they would start responding and feeling would return.  People other than veterinarians do not go out in ten degrees below zero weather and intentionally stick their hands into hopefully warm water.  After getting, them wet and then pull them out and exposing them to thermal and wind effects.  It really tests your fortitude.  You silently start saying the mantra; I love my job repeatedly.  It is true I love my job; well it really is more like play.  Some days have more play than others do though.  I can honestly say there has never been a full week in my thirty-seven years in private practice career that I wished I were doing something else.

I remember growing up how people of my now current age dising joint issues and the effect weather had on their lumbago, arthritis or ambition to do the same amount of work of younger years.  Previously projects taking a half-hour are timed in half-hour increments.  I can still do the same total amount of physical work but it takes more planning and time.   Remembering where tools are takes considerable more time than in my youth.

I distinctly remember a cow dystocia (difficult birthing) one January night.   It was eighteen below zero; wind was blowing out of the northeast.  When I got to the hobby farm the Angus was laying down on straw in an open sided shed.   The open side was on the east catching what seemed like gale force winds.  They did have a torpedo kerosene forced air heater going.  I was thankful for the straw and heat especially when I had to strip down to coveralls and using a rectal sleeve, Using  water and a lubricant I was able to get OB chains in place and connect them to a Iowa City calf puller.  This device increases the mechanical advantage as it has a buttock bar, an extension rod connected to a cable come along.  I was able to extricate the calf without it hip locking.  This sometimes referred to as being stuck.  When the cow halving the calf is small or has not reached full frame development prior to pregnancy it is like trying to pull a ten-pound object through a five-pound opening.   This case reminded me of a calf trying to give birth to a cow.  Thankfully, the uterus did not prolapse out.   With extended labor pushing or extensive traction or pulling there are after contractions that will evert the womb.  

During the process of extracting the calf out, placental membranes and birthing fluids encountered the metal parts of the calf puller.   Instantly they were flash frozen faster than Birdseye frozen peas are.   After finishing caring for the cow placing hay and straw around her to get her warmed up a bit I was froze like a human icicle.  Even with the heater in place, the open shed was bitterly cold.  It took me what seemed like two days to feel warmed up.  Hot showers are helpful but bone-chilling cold takes a while to bring your core temperature back to comfortable.

For more information about a specific case, consult your veterinarian.                   
The outside of a pet is good for the inside of a human.