DairyWorks™ Management Systems

Animals can only express their health problems through unusual activity; it is your RESPONSIBILITY to observe and find these animals who are trying to "talk" to you. Animals can not produce milk nor grow at the maximum rate if they are not healthy. You are RESPONSIBLE for your animal's welfare. It is essential that you know and understand how to identify these animals and perform the steps to a complete physical examination.

IDENTIFYING SICK ANIMALS

A good herdsman will:

Constantly be looking for animals demonstrating abnormal behavior, looks, walk, appearance or attitude.
Separate sick or abnormal animals from the group as soon as possible. Move them to a designated hospital or treatment area to be evaluated promptly.

Approach each sick animal with an OPEN MIND, not with a preconceived idea of what the problem is. When you think you know the problem before you do the physical exam, you may;

miss signs or symptoms that are important
miss a second, concurrent problem
start taking shortcuts, get into bad habits and bad routines, ultimately causing you to miss important information about the animal

GATHERING STATUS INFORMATION

You need to know the following information BEFORE starting the physical exam:

Age
Days in milk (stage of lactation)
Milk production: most recent, last test day, last lactation summary
Pregnancy status

This information will help you figure out the animals problem:

e.g. a cow <20 days in milk has a much higher risk of having ketosis, or DA than a cow with much longer days in milk
e.g. a cow with high milk production 2 days ago but with no milk today has a high risk of having hardware disease since a sudden drop in milk is a cardinal sign of hardware disease

This information helps you select one of the three options available to you for managing the sick animal.

Treat according to protocols prescribed by your veterinarian
Observe
Cull

THE DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS YOU NEED

A physical examination is nothing more than a systematic, routine analysis of all major organ systems of an animal. You will need the following list of equipment and supplies. Your veterinarian can teach you how and when to use these:

Thermometer
Stethoscope
Palpation sleeve
Ketosis test strips
Preprinted form to enter information

STEPS FOR DOING THE PHYSICAL EXAM

Appearance - Normal: bright, alert, content, good body fill, good body condition, good udder full vs. Abnormal: depressed, sad, droopy, thin, off feed, no milk
Temperature - Normal: 101.5 - 102 vs. Abnormal: 102 - 106 which indicates infection somewhere in a major body organ

Examination: Left side:

Rumen - place stethoscope behind the last rib. Normal: 1-3 contractions per minute (sounds like slowly crumbling paper bag). Abnormal: no sounds or low-grade, constant whimpering movement
Displaced Abomossum - place stethoscope under the last rib (left side). Normal: does not occur; "thud" sound is heard when thumping your finger while listening with stethoscope. Abnormal: high-pitched gas "ping" at or behind last rib
Lungs - place stethoscope in triangle from point of elbow. Normal: "breeze rustling through grass"; 15-25 respirations per minute. Abnormal: loud, bubbly or rattling sounds; labored breathing
Heart - stethoscope positioned at point of left elbow. Normal: 2 sounds to each beat; "lub/dub" 50-75 beats per minute. Abnormal: gushing sound; washing machine sound; rapid rate
Windpipe/hardware check - stethoscope positioned on the windpipe while simultaneously pinching the cow's shoulders. Normal: windpipe sounds like "wind whistling through trees"; no "grunt" when pinching the cow's back. Abnormal: interrupted stop in breathing temporarily; "grunt"
Face, Nose and Mouth - Normal: no swelling, clear or no nasal discharge, gums pink, tongue and teeth OK. Abnormal: swelling, lumps, bumps, pus discharge from nose, crusty nose, erosions on tongue, foul smell from mouth
Lymph Nodes - in front of shoulder and in groin/gut area. Normal: small, difficult to feel. Abnormal: large "bumps", easy to identify
Udder - Normal: milk from each quarter is normal, no swelling. Abnormal: clots, flakes, watery, brown, swollen, hot.

Examin Right Side of Animal: Repeat for rumen sounds, DA, lungs, and lymph nodes

Examination: Back end of animal including the following:

Vulva (below rectum) - Normal: pink, none or clear discharge. Abnormal: yellow (jaundice) or pale/white
Manure - Normal: color consistency, smell. Abnormal: diarrhea, constipated, black tarry, foul smell
Uterus - Normal: open or pregnant. Abnormal: enlarged, swollen, watery or foul smelling discharge
Pelvis (boney box surrounding rectum) - Normal: smooth, boney structure Abnormal: swelling, lumps, bumps
Urine (stimulate are below the cows vulva and test with Ketostix for color change) - Normal: no color change on Ketostix. Abnormal: color change to pink or purple which indicates the animal has ketosis

Adding it All UP

List all of the abnormal findings:

How many deviations from normal did you find?
What organs were affected?
What pattern do you see?

List all of the normal findings:

What organ systems are normal and not part of the animal's problem?
What pattern do you see?

e.g. if there is no elevated temperature, you know that you DO NOT need to administer antibiotics!