Early start and off to the shelter. Treated a few sheep with nasty nasal discharge, one of which also had horrible scabs all over it’s nose, ears and mouth.. I think it may have a concurrent auto-immune disorder as well as the generalised pneumonia that is amongst the flock, but I treated them all as best I could before heading down to an emergency call that came in. A local farmer who is impoverished and has just had major heart surgery had a herd of cows of which a couple were collapsed and dying. On arrival, the farmer was almost in tears when telling me about the state of his cows (totally about 12 in all) and was worried they had been poisoned. The big cow I first examined had been collapsed for two days in the heat of the Mexican sun and was very much in deaths door. I did my best to drip it, get some drugs into it and get it up, but I couldn’t get it on it’s feet and I suspect its chances of making through the night are slim. I gave it lots of pain killer to ease it’s suffering and the plan is to head back first thing tomorrow morning and see how it is. I also treated another collapsed cow but had a lot more success in getting it up and about. My gut feeling is that rather than poison, these cows are simply starving and the farmer is simply destitute with nowhere to go. I‘m going to help him as much as I can and the grand plan is to take him some food tomorrow morning for his animals. I can’t put my finger on any sort of poison or infectious cause but will have to have a review of things shortly.

The final stretch of the day was to treat a few other cases at the shelter that needed a hand. They went fine and then it was time for a fantastic family meal with Agatha, Alberto, Pablo and Daniela – really nice to eat out in their garden and has definitely re-energised me ready for tomorrow!

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