06/21/2023
I thought he was dead. Laid flat out, the cows were standing over him.
Just this morning I had watched him run with the other calves. A big healthy calf he was a favorite of mine.
Now this.
I rolled him over. Propped his head up. He was breathing fine. Coughing a little from the dust he had been laying in, now mud coating his mouth and eyes. He seemed happy to be upright and wasnโt as close to dead as I had originally thought. But he was not alright.
His head was thrown back as hard as he could. No matter how the rest of him moved the neck stayed arched. I put my finger in his mouth to check for temperature.
The lips and jaw were flexed so tight I couldnโt get my finger in. I didnโt need to now. Just to be sure I called the vet. It was after hours but she answered her personal phone. Apologizing profusely I explained the symptoms. She asked how long it had been since he had been banded. Two weeks, that confirmed it for her.
She, in turn, confirmed my worst fears.
Tetanus, sometimes known commonly as lock jaw. His chances of survival were slim.
Having been threatened with, and given, tetanus shots my whole life I have a healthy fear of the infection. A contamination found in the soil, manure, or saliva the tetanus bacteria is harmless. Until it enters an oxygen free area where it develops and grows. Such as the sack after the band cuts off blood flow.
Big calves are more likely to have trouble with tetanus after being banded. Possibly because of the longer time it takes for the sack to fall off. The greater the distance of the injury site from the central nervous system the longer the incubation is supposed to be. With a shorter incubation period accompanying a higher death rate. Apparently the bigger size of the calves isnโt enough for that to help too much.
My big calf checked all the boxes. Two weeks after being banded. Less than three months, but getting close, and crazy big for his age. An adopted calf he was doing so well. Too well.
After calves reach an advanced stage treatment is unlikely to help. Did this count as advanced? He had been flat out. But with help he was able to get up and was happily walking around. With his nose stuck straight in the air, muscles tightly contracted. The third eyelid was pulled down, tight and exposed. It was late enough that recovery seemed unlikely.
We treated him the best we were able. Now all there was to do was wait.
Death from tetanus isnโt caused by the infection itself. Instead animals will die of starvation, dehydration, a blocked airway during spasms, or damage to the nerves that regulate breathing, heart rate or other organ functions. It isnโt a pretty, or kind death.
I pause a moment to be grateful this is a calf not one of my children. The thought of having to watch a loved one go through this, the way it used to be, with no hope of cure is terrifying.
The connection between an injury and the onset of the muscle spasms has been recognized down through the ages. The names comes from those muscle spasms, both lockjaw, for the extreme clinch of the teeth and tetanus, from teinein, or taut, for the tight muscles that can break bones as they slowly kill. It wasnโt until the late 1800โs that the bacteria was found and isolated giving rise to the vaccination.
Now a vaccination can be given to calves like it can to humans. Given at the time of banding it can prevent this terrible thing from happening. Which is much easier than treating it. Or watching a big healthy calf die a slow agonizing death.
You canโt do better until you know better. Now we know and can include the vaccine at the time of banding. Hopefully we wont have to go through this again.
