Techniques & Procedures: Doctoring in the Field

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This week was full of working cattle. We received about 12 trucks with the last of our steers and heifers. We’ve moved and doctored both the steer and heifer herds each day. I learned a lot about the common medicines and treatments used in yearling operations, as well as procedures and techniques for successfully doctoring in the field. I learned how to tie down cattle, where to administer each medicine and how much to administer, some common signs and symptoms of hoof rot, pink eye, and other conditions to be aware of, and more.

For foot rot, we treat with SulfaMed. We generally give a full 35 ml syringe to our steers and heifers. It is administered intravenously, so ensuring that blood enters the syringe upon drawback is vital. We check this before we inject and then halfway through the injection. At the end of the syringe, it’s important to make sure you do not inject the air bubble into the vein. If injected, the air bubble can travel to the heart and stop it for long enough to kill the animal.

Another big issue we are dealing with is pink eye and fox tails in eyes. We don’t have foxtails here, but the heifers came from California, so we are still finding some in their eyes. For eye problems we generally give an injection of Draxxin to treat the infection. We then glue an eye patch over the affected eye to help prevent more bacteria, dirt, or other foreign objects from entering the eye. If there is a foreign body in the eye, the eye can be flushed with LA 200 to clean it out further.

I was able to rope quite a bit this week, which I am very excited about. One of my main goals for this summer was to get better at riding and roping, and I’ve done a fair bit of that. I’m learning about which medicines to administer for what, and how to tie down yearlings in the pasture. I’ve been learning from my mistakes and improving daily. I am very grateful for how patient and eager to teach the cowboys here are. The foreman and the hired hands make themselves readily available to teach me and do not ever get frustrated or upset with me when I struggle.

Further than that, I was able to watch a little bit of colt breaking, specifically halter breaking. It was super interesting to learn all of the little tips and techniques that they use to mentally program these horses. The one was a bit of a stubborn colt, so once they got him laid down it was cool to see the immediate behavior change in him.
Overall, I am continuing to have a great and rewarding experience here and I am so grateful for this opportunity.

Submitted by: Isabella Schultz
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team