A big hello to every one out there! My clever son has set up a blog for me (together with this website).

A client rang me two weeks ago and asked if I would look at her cow. The cow had collapsed in her paddock and had been unable to get up for 10 days. The last time I treated a cow was a good 16 years ago but I am always up for a challenge and this was one of those ‘nothing to lose’ cases so we might as well try. I knew that other veterinarians had had good results getting ‘downer cows’ up with acupuncture and I had also used acupuncture to treat back problems in many dogs over the last 20 years. Not owning a car wasn’t even an obstacle. My client picked me up and we were off to look at the cow.

Out in the paddock, the cow was on her side in some distress, stuck in a muddy, smelly hole. She did not appear to have an obvious injuries and we were able to get her propped up on her front so that she was more comfortable. A few acupuncture needles (similar to working on a dog really) and a session with the TENS machine later, she was able to raise herself slightly off the ground before collapsing again. Things were looking brighter. Her conventional veterinarian had given her some calcium, and she had not had a calf and was not suffering from milk fever. The other positive was that she was a small cattle breed. These were all in her favour. I gave the owners some rehabilitation exercises and instructions to prop her up with hay bales. She was then given a chinese herbal formula at 10 times a medium dog dose to strengthen her back end. We decided to have another look at her in a week.

My client reported her gaining a bit more strength over the next few days and then the day before my revisit, SHE GOT UP! This made us all very happy and the revisit was cancelled because there was no way she was going to stand still for us to stick anything else into her.

Till next time,

Cheers

Dr Kim Lim