Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Setting a cow on fire.. a funny story from my past

Yes you read the title correctly I have quite the story for you about how I set a cow on fire once a few years back.  Yes I Martha can add to my list of skills...  Setting cows on fire!!   OK this is the story. So at my clinic I used to work at in the middle of nowhere small town, we see both small and large animals a had a horse stall as well as a circle area and squeeze cage for cattle. One old farmer dude brought in a heifer that he just brought down from the mountains and saw it has a lump on the side of the neck. So doctor examined the lump and thought it was a tumor that should be cut off and sent in for testing. He asked if I would come outside and help him because he was just going to cauterize (use heat at high temps to instantly stop bleeding or cut.) it off but he needed an extra hand. I mean I don't know a lot about cow medicine so as far as I can tell things are going well, the cow is all squeezed in and it was all calm.  Then Bill (my doctor) asks me to do cautery because he needs both hands free, to I don't know, touch the tumor or something.  So I'm like "sure". So he makes an incision and opens the pocket and tells me to get that bleeder on the side. I touch the cautery to it and suddenly POOF!!! The whole head of the cow caught on fire and its all down the neck and back with little blue and yellow flames.  Imagine a big fireball around this poor cows face. I shriek drop the cautery and like run away. The cow started to freak out (obviously)  and the owner who is right there as well and is smart enough to keep a bucket of water in the trailer, tosses it on the cow, while the doctor stands there staring in shock. OK so fires out, the cow is OK, a little singed but OK.  We finished up but without cautery, obviously.  Turns out these cows were all sprayed with ivermection a wormer spay right before coming down the mountain and that is highly flammable. The owner didn't know this and he brought the cow right in to us soon after getting it.   It was super crazy; I mean how many times you can say "today I caught a cow on fire".

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