Texas Equine Veterinary Association

www.texasequineva.com • Page 27 When I was in the third grade, a boy in my class got sent to the principal for saying the F word. I went home and asked my momma what it meant. She told me that the two dogs that were stuck together on the back porch a few months ago were doing that and that it was how animals made babies. I grew up thinking that someday I was gonna get stuck together with a woman that way in order to make a baby. It made me really aware of what my girls would take away from this event. I went over how we were gonna get the baby out. I went over how it got in there in the first place. I described the difference in skin thickness between cows and people. I told them about a uterus and an ovary. I told them how sperm coupled with an egg. I did all this without ever saying any of those grown-up words and while we were actually getting that calf out of the predicament it was in. ey never even knew I was teaching them a thing. I let them make the incision though the skin. I told them how lidocaine killed pain. I talked about how muscles made an animal move. I showed them the stomach aer we got in and told them how that was where food went when they swallowed. I taught them about sterility aer we shaved her hair and scrubbed her side with iodine. We cut open her uterus, and I watched their faces as we pulled a living calf out of a cow and assisted God in bringing a life into this world. I told them about how the baby was surrounded by fluid and getting blood from the momma through the belly button so it didn't need air until it was out on its own and breathing. I hung that calf upside down so the fluid could run out of its lungs and had them hold it there and suck the juice out of its nose and mouth so it could breathe. ese two kids were completely dissolved in the moment of birth. ey were building a memory that would influence their essences and color their imaginations for always. We finished, and everything went well. We were cleaning up and getting all the stuff that comes out when a baby is born washed away. I noticed that Emili, the oldest, le a spot of blood on her le white tennis shoe. I asked her why she didn't clean that off. She replied, "I am gonna show that to everyone at school on Monday. ere are lots of kids that can go fishing with their dads, but I am the only kid around that got to deliver a baby calf with my daddy this weekend." I thought about that statement a lot. So many veterinarians say that their careers kept them from having any time with the family. ey gripe and complain because they can't go fishing enough or take vacations. And I agree. It is overwhelming. But, oh my, how they have missed the opportunity to let those children take part in some of the most wonderful moments that life has to offer. Remember, anyone can go fishing on a Saturday aernoon. But how many kids get to help Daddy bring a new critter into this world and watch it take its very first breath? BO BROCK, DVM, DABVP From "Crowded in the Middle of Nowhere" written by TEVA Founding Member and Current Vice President, Bo Brock, DVM, DABVP. Available for purchase on Amazon. It was a Saturday aernoon, and I was gonna take Emili and Abbi (the oldest two daughters) fishing. In West Texas that is a huge undertaking because there are no fishing holes very close. A family in Seminole had opened a fishing pond, and it sounded like the kind of fun I wanted the girls to encounter. Kerri was gone with the youngest girl, and I had readied all the fishing equipment and was ready to see how many catfish we could haul in at the newly opened fishing hole. I spent days telling them about it and showing them how to cast and bring in the line. I told them that if we caught any, we were gonna fry them up and have them for supper. I told them I couldn't wait to show them how to clean and cook a catfish. We were all anticipating the adventure. I should have known never to look forward to anything being a solo practitioner in small-town America. Because just as we loaded the last fishing pole in the truck, the phone rang. A cow C-section was on the way. How do you explain to these two little souls that the fishing trip is off and we have to go work on a cow? As usual, they were both understanding. ey had never known anything different. Daddy was always having to leave and go work on something sick, and they had just come to expect it. But it really irked me! I was totally excited about taking them fishing. I explained to them that we were gonna do a surgery on this cow, and as soon as we were done, we would head to the fishing hole. I decided that if we couldn't fish now, we would later, and I would let them suture the incision on the cow. e cow arrived exactly an hour later than the grumpy ol' rancher said it would. He unloaded her and hollered at me that he was going home; he had plans with his family. Man, that just made things even better. e girls and I loaded the angry cow into the chute. She wanted no part of humans and was gonna whoop anything that got in her way. I don't really blame her. We finally got her captured, and she promptly laid down. If you haven't done much vet work on a cow, you probably don't know that when a cow lies down in the squeeze chute, you are in a mess. ere is no way to do a C-section on a cow lying down in a squeeze chute. She either has to stand up, or be rope tied and lying on her right side so the incision can be made in her le flank. is cow would not cooperate at all. So I explained to the girls how to tie her feet and restrain her so we could help her. I went about getting the ropes around her feet and legs, and then we gradually opened the side gate to the squeeze chute. e cow finally decided that she couldn't do it alone and somehow determined that we were there to help her. We had her calmed down and restrained. I began to explain why the calf wouldn't come out. I let them both put a palpation sleeve–covered arm into her birth canal before we laid her down so they could see how twisted up the calf was and much too big to come out that way. I am not sure they understood then, but when they have a kid someday, they will surely remember this poor cow. ey were both completely focused on getting that calf out of there. It was amazing to me how five- and seven-year-old children were so in tune to birth and the introduction of a new life into this world. I really felt a meaning to this moment with them. I felt like they were young, but were ready to get introduced into the world of babies being born. I spent a few minutes realizing how everything like this was new to them. It was so thought provoking to me to realize that this day with me, they were going to remember for all of life. FISHING

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