Procrastination
Trip Start
Dec 26, 2006
1
15
19
Trip End
Jan 20, 2007
Haßfurt,
Germany
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
presentation for tomorrow, I have about half of it done. so, I thought
I'd tell you about the rest of my weekend story. Sunday night I took
the train from Rothenburg to Haßfurt, where Dr. Eller's clinic is. His
associate, Ellen picked me up, she was the one I ended up riding with
the next day as Dr. Eller was going to London for a mastitis
conference. We got to the clinic (adjoined to his house), and promptly
got called out again for a dystocia. I learned a few good tricks from
Ellen with regards to maneuvering difficult calves, and we got the babe
out. We got back to the clinic and stopped into see Dr. Eller and his
wife, had a bit of dinner and chatted. I learned that his house is
actually his families old mill (built in the 1500's!!) that he
renovated to live in a few years ago. He is the first in his family who
was not a miller. How cool is that? His practice is VERY successfull,
and he is a very foreward thinker in regards to dairy practice. He
brings ideas about production medicine and protocols from the states to
his farms in Germany. Their practice coveres a very large area, and
they routinely drive a couple hundred kilometres a day. The day I rode
with Ellen, we went to three farms in the former East Germany, which
are old socialist farms. They're different from the west as they're
bigger (400-2000), and the buildings are telltale. The buildings are
like a warehouse style, with free stalls and the like inside. It's kind
of odd, but it works. The scenery there was great, too. It was in the
hilly, mountainous area. Anyhow, Ellen is really cool. Super intense,
but awesome. She grilled me on surgery protocols, palpating and the
like, but she also let me do more than anyone else ever has-after only
one day! I think part of it may have been that I am a student of Dr.
Erskine's. He came over a few weeks ago and rode with Ellen one day,
while he was there to give some mastitis talks. Ellen thinks he's just
a genius. She told me she regretted the fact that she passed up a few
times to visit with Erskine while he was here, and she regretted it
once she met him, so she was going to talk as much as she could with
me. And she did! I think we covered everything humanly possible in the
24 hours. I'm trying to get her to come to the states and visit. I
think she'd love it.
I took the train home Monday night, and then was back in the clinic
Tuesday morning. This week I am on Orthopedics, which is pretty much
joint issues, and a few udder things thrown in. We have lavaged more
infected joints than I thought could exist. It surprised me at first
how many lame cows with joint involvement come into the clinic. And
they treat them (unlike at home). They lavage with iodine, gentamicin
and ampicillin. If it's bad enough, then they preform an arthrotomy, or
even an arthrodesis. There's one that may get an arthrotomy on Friday
if lavage doesn't cut it. I'm kind of hoping for it, because I want to
see it (not exactly what the cow wants, but oh well).
So, tomorrow is thursday, which means only two more days in the clinic.
I've also got my presentation tomorrow afternoon, should be relaxed and
fun. Hopefully I can come up with enough for an hours worth! I should
get back to work on that....
See ya,
Beth
