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Cull The Ewe

 


Justas we closed the doors to the clinic andfinished upour Saturday morning consults, the afterhours emergency phone rang and I had to go treat a horse with a huge flesh wound. It was the sweetest horse and he cooperated so well with the whole process. As I was ready to leave the property, the farmers casually asked me to have a quick look at this ewe. It is so funny how predictable farmers can be. They always have a few other cases lined up for us to have a ‘quick’ look at.

I personally find most farmers to be very genuine people and will happily give in to their requests.

There I was staring at a mob of ewesfrom a distance and the owner kept pointing out one of them to me. She said that the ewehad developed a very large swelling under her abdomen butwas still eating and drinking well. As far as she could recall, the lump had beenthere for many months and had not changed in size. The ewehad not recently lambedand was not in lamb (pregnant).

She was wondering what the lump could be. The mob of eweswere pretty skiddishand that made it very difficult for me to have a close look at that particular ewe. When I suggested catching the ewefor a closer quick look, the farmer burst out laughing. She said it was impossible for us to catch the eweat this very moment and it would take a few hours to organise that! I definitely established she was a healthy ewe with a very large swelling under her abdomen.

My first thought was: she must have a hernia!

I took pictures of the eweand explained the only way to confirm the diagnosis would be a proper examination and herniaswould require surgical repair. The other possibility was an abscess (lump full of pus) but I would have expected the eweto be very sick by now. Then the farmer asked if I recommend culling this ewe. I stuttered and replied: ‘There is no need to rush to the decision of culling the ewe. She has had the lump for several months and is bright and happy. Leave it with me, I will contact my mate from Norway who regularly treats sheep and get her second opinion on the photosand get back to ya!’.

Ewe from a distance

I followed through with my promise and emailed my mate the pictures of the eweand history and asked for her second opinion.

In Norway, every sheep is considered very valuable and farmers will readily seek veterinary attention if any of their sheep are ill.

Unfortunatelythat does not apply to Australian sheep farmers because they run heaps of sheep onmassive properties and unless they are losing sheep in the dozen, they would never call out a vet. This is a generalisation and so does not apply to every Australian farmer.

I was secretly hoping my friend from Norway will offer me all the solutions to my ewedilemma. She promptly replied supporting my suspicion of hernia in this ewe. She said the herniation is probably due to aruptured ligament leading to intestines/organs poking through and just being held in place by skin. In Norway, they call it “vomiskinn” = “rumen in skin”. Heavily pregnant ewesor ones that have recently lambedseemedpredisposed todeveloping hernias in Norway.

She, did however,thinkthe location of theherniation in this ewewas particularlyodd. They usuallyherniatetoeither side of the ewe’s abdomen not below its midline.

Again she could not rule it outthe possibility of the lump beingan abscess. To my utter dismay, she then proceeded to explain they usually recommend culling these ewesas it is not cost-effective to treat them! I was simply shattered to hear the news because Norwegian vets usually get to do c-sections on ewes and all kinds of procedures to save them but this was not one of them!

I picked up the phone and called the farmer and explained that even in Norway, they would recommend culling this eweif she was confirmed to have a hernia. I was well aware the farmer was not keen on doing much workup for this ewebut pressed on with discussing all the options. I told her it is important for us to examine the eweto determine if it is an abscess or hernia or possibly even a tumour and only then can I give her my appropriate recommendations.

Sue, the farmer, picked up on my very disheartened vibe and out of nowhere said:

‘You sound very passionateand keen to give this ewea good go, would you like to operate on her to see if you can save her so long as the procedure is pro bono(i.e. no charge to her) and no strings attached if it doesn’t survive?

She was well aware of the risks and simply happy to give me a crack at trying to save this ewe. I was instantly filled with excitement and said:’Yes I would love to take you up on this great offer!.

Judgement day arrived. Sue dropped off the eweand wished me luck with the procedure. We proceeded with putting the eweunder full anaesthetic. Check out the pictures below.

hernia repair in sheep

It was a pretty spectacular ventral abdominal lump and it felt hard and I was not really ableto reduce it (push it back) to confirm it was a hernia. I then stuck a needle in it and got some pus and that was indicatingthe lump was an abscess.

It was still very confusing at that stage and we were quite unsure about what we were dealing with.

hernia in sheep

Finally I cut into the lump and voila, I saw intestines and confirmed it was a hernia.

What followed was a very tedious job of trying to repair the abdominal wall.

confirming it was a hernia versus abscess

I had to drag Alana, one of my colleagues, into surgery to assist me in putting this together. It was one of the most difficult and exhausting surgeries I have ever performed and I could see why the Norwegian vets considered it not viable to routinely do.

It took us a total of four hours to suture the lineaalba back together and replace the abdominal content in their correct position.

Needless to say, Alana and I made the best out of a pickle of a situation. I promised Alana never to drag her into my future probono surgeries…

Alana & I working hard on possum

Justas we were recovering the patient, one of my bosses passed through and said: ‘Wow it still lookslike a herniaeven after you have repaired it’.

Let us just say my boss was luckyto be my boss because if he wasn’t, I may have strangled him at that particular moment in time.

He wasright in the fact that there was still obvious swelling there but nothing like beforeand the intestines were back were they belonged (in the abdomen).

sheep post op

I was so happy that my ewesurvived the four hours of surgery and recovered so well from her anaesthetic.

Icalled the owner to tell her the great news and she was baffled. She had not expected to pick up the eweas she suspected she would not survive the procedure. She drove in to pick her up and was so touched by how I kept referring to the ewe as ‘Possum’.Theewewas by no means considered a pet by this owner. However, Sue decided to name her ‘Possum’ as a thank you for my hardwork. We thoroughly discussed the post operative care and I strongly emphasized the importance of notbreeding from thisewe as she will most definitely herniate again.’Possum’ recovered really well and the owner kept me posted on her progress over the next couple of weeks.

happy ewe survived long anaesthetic

A few months later, I kept getting messages from Sue demanding I call her back URGENTLY.

My heart was beating really fast when I finally got a chance to return her call. As soon as she heard my voice, she said: ‘Rayya, guess what?’Possum had the most beautiful little lamb?’’Possummust have beenin early pregnancy when she had undergone themassive surgery.’Possum’ had defeated all the odds, survived massive surgery, hung on to her pregnancy and givenbirth to the healthiest and most adorable looking lamb.

Sue kept saying that Possum’s lambwasbigger and healthier than all the other ones in the mob. She was absolutely thrilled and told me she named the lamb after me. The price of this precious lamb was the evaporation of all my efforts to repair the hernia. Possum had re-herniated post-lambing.Her lamb had consequently learntto suckle from anabnormally positionedudder which waspushed backwards by the hernia.

Moral of the story, I won’t be operating on possum again, that’s for sure!

I just feelso privileged to have been involved in indirectlysaving two lives not just one-a ewe & her unborn lamb!

possum & rayya

rayya

Filed under: Favourite Articles, Rare Cases, Sheep Tagged: abdominal lump, abdominal wall, advice, anaesthetic, ask, assist, colleagues, Conditions and Diseases, cool, difficult, ewe, exhausting, female sheep, health tips, help, Hernia, how to, info, lamb, lambing, little lamb, Norwegian vets, Online vet, Possum, Sheep, suckle, surgery, swelling, vet care, veterinary question, veterinary surgery Source: http://rayyathevet.com/2011/09/12/cull-the-ewe/


 

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Rayya The Vet

I was born overseas and grew up in Lebanon. About 9 years ago, I left my family and friends behind to pursue my dream of becoming a veterinarian in Australia.

I have now been out in practice for the past 5 years. I absolutely love being involved with all types of animals and consider it my "calling". Whilst my job can be quite an emotional rollercoaster ride, I cannot fathom doing anything else for as long as I am living. I simply feel blessed every day that I am practicing what I truly love.

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