A22-Lancasttr Fanning, Saturday, May 23,1987
On The Road With Veterinarian
(Continued from Page Al)
without cause until it was deter
mined that drift from the barn
spray-painting operation had
contaminated the meadow with
lead poisoning. The Editor
remembered the evening in the
1940 s when Dr. Denlinger, just out
of college and ready to start
practice, had stopped in to see his
Dad at milking time. Denlinger
immediately became the herd
veterinarian and Denlinger and
Dad share a lifetime friendship
including membership in the
Paradise Sportsmen Club. In
addition, the Editor remembered
when Zilhardt, just out of college,
became Denlinger’s assistant 30
years ago next month. Now
Zilhardt is serving the third
generation on some farms.
When we arrived at the farm of
A haircut of the belly.
“That tickles.”
the milk-fever patient, we gave the
victim her “bottle of stuff’. And by
the time we had cut open and
drained a lump of bad, smelly puss
from another cow in the herd, the
milk-fever patient had her ears up
and was chewing her cud. We
traveled from tramped tits (Doc
doesn’t see why cows are so
stupid) to hoofrot and sore feet.
Along the way we talked. Talked
about cow numbers. Since the herd
buyout, Doc has noticed that in
many of the other herds still in
business, where there is a nook or a
cranny, the farmer has stuck an
extra cow into production. In
addition, one farm that had 26 cows
now has been divided into two
farms with a total of 96 cows and
young stock.
We traveled from farmers who
hardly knew anything about the
cow we were to treat, to farmers
who kept extensive health records
on each cow and had the
veterinarian write his diagnosis on
the barn record sheet. Then we
talked about yew bushes. You
know the ornamental trees you
may have around your house. Well,
Doc says they don’t make good cow
food. In fact, he recalls several
instances when trimmings from
these bushes, thrown in the
meadow, poisoned the cows. Some
died on the spot.
We traveled from checking
pregnancies (Doc says if there is a
calf in her she’s pregnant), to
checking results of a TB test. And
we talked about somanotropin.
Doc just smiles when you talk
about giving the growth hormone
by injection each day. He says
when you stick a needle m a cow’s
neck every day, she is likely to get
angry and lay and wait to kick you
and the milking machine to
kingdom come the next time you
try to milk her. “These cows are
not dumb, ’’ he says. Except when
they tramp on their tits, we
guess.
The morning quickly passed, and
we stopped back at the house for a
sandwich and met Mrs. Zilhardt
who often takes farm calls and
sends messages out to the truck
radio.
After lunch we did the operation.
When it was over, the patient got
up and returned to her stall. She
probably had a tickle in her belly
though she didn’t say anything
about it. And when the Amish
farmer found out that the pictures
we took were for Lancaster Far
ming he thought it would be great
fun for his children to see one of his
cows upside down in the pages of
Guernsey Convention Sales Set For Tonight
PITTSBURGH The American Today features the National evening.
Guernsey Cattle Club opened their Heifer and Convention Sale in the On Monday the group will hold
annual 110th convention yesterday Grand Ballroom of the Sheraton, their annual \ business meeting on
at the Sheraton Hotel in Station The sale begins with the sale of Monday. One item to be decided is
Square, Pittsburgh. seven ET calves. The 44 top- a possible name change of the
pedigreed consignments are organization. At noon time, an
housed in the Station Square awards luncheon will conclude the
garage, directly across the street convention
from the Sheraton.
Following farm tours on Sunday
the group will honor the Guernsey
youths at their banquet in the
Planned activities for the
opening day included a meeting of
the board of directors, seminars, a
mall promotion, the president’s
reception, and a cruise on the
Gateway Clipper.
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Dr. Curtis Zilhardt checks the surgery kit before an on-the
farm operation.
visit.
their farm newspaper. Hope you
enjoy it children!
When the operating utensils
were back in the truck, we washed
our boots and said good-bye to the
* » •?
farm family as we drove out the
lane. And the operating table, for
an hour, again became another
cow stable gutter north of Kinzers.
Look for complete coverage of
the convention in next week’s
Lancaster Farming.
4 *
fat