Cow Stuck in the Mud

If you have been in my consult room in the last couple of weeks, you may have noticed a certificate of merit from the UK RSPCA for helping rescue a jersey cow stuck in deep mud. Many people have asked me about it, (I put it up as a conversation piece) so I thought I'd share the story.

I worked in the UK doing locum work for around 8 years. My last job was in a town called Wadebridge, in north Cornwall. Around lunch time we received a call from the RSPCA requesting assistance for a cow stuck in mud. I thought this sounded like a bit of fun, so volunteered to head out.

I was met at the farm by the RSPCA inspector and 2 fire trucks.....this was going to be a bit harder than I thought. We walked down to the river and saw the cow sunk up to its neck in sticky, smelly mud. Apparently the RSPCA had inspected the farm the week before after someone complained about the lack of water for these cows. Instead of putting in a water trough, the farmer decided to move the fence line to include part of the river. The poor cow went down for a drink and got caught in the sucking mud. Luckily someone walking past had seen the cow struggling and called for help.

The cow was quite distressed, so I gave it a light sedative then we got to work trying to free it. The mud was that horrible sucking sort of mud that made it impossible to just pull her out. Luckily there was a large tree nearby so the fire brigade set up a pulley system overhead, put some planks around her so we had somewhere to stand, and we started digging her out. We had to dig her out by hand so we didn't injure her, which took us over an hour. The fire fighters had their hazardous chemical suits on so they kept pretty clean. I just has a pair of overalls, so I got pretty dirty by the end. We then used the pulley system to pull her out and swing her across to the riverbank.

After so long in the cold water, she was very hypothermic, so we set up the flood lights on her, dried her off and started moving her legs for her. After another hour or so she still wouldn't stand. We organised a large amount of hay to give her some deep bedding and some rugs to keep her warm. Once she looked comfortable and set up for the night, we started to walk off. I think she saw her opportunity and got up, ran past us and carried on down the road. Luckily one of the fire trucks had just left to return t station, so we radioed ahead and got them to chase her back.

The cow made a full recovery, and the farmer was let off with a warning. Unfortunately he didn't learn his lesson, and 4 weeks later one of my colleagues was back out to the farm rescuing another cow stuck in the same place.