Herouldmede Ruby 20th (Ruth)
Just a week before the herd were due to come into the sheds for the winter we noticed this young heifer had a slight lump under one of her eyes. Now cattle do get the odd lump every now and again, usually after having been 'biffed' buy another cow so we decided to keep an eye on it for the time being.
After a few days it became evident that the lump was growing, but the herd still being out for a few days we decided it best to leave her out and booked a vets visit for the moment they were to come in.
They came in in the morning and the Lisa from Belmont Farm and Equine Vets turned up in the afternoon to have a look. Once she's shaved the area it was obvious that Ruth had a massive abscess. Before she did anything Lisa took an ultra scan of the area to to be sure that there was no internal growth - and luckily there wasn't... just a whole heap of puss. In the picture of the scan the light at the top is skin and the line half way down the screen is the bottom of the infection - 4cm down!
After we'd established it was just an abscess all she had to do was create an opening and then gently remove all the infection. This took some time as most of it was quite compacted and needed to be broken down in order for it to be squeezed out.. and there really was quite a lot to remove. When she was checking to make sure all the puss had gone she discovered that the infection had broken right through to her mouth so she was given a massive dose of antibiotic with a follow-up in 48 hours. Hopefully there won't be a secondary infection but we'll be keeping a keen eye on her just to make sure.