Bovine Surgery and Lameness 3rd Edition

Book Preface

Having discarded the prefaces of the first two editions of “Bovine Surgery and Lameness”, the third edition has some changes in its format. However, the emphasis of this paperback, designed to be available in the car for easy access (rather than gathering dust on the practice bookshelf), has the same aims as its predecessors. It should give the “nuts and bolts” or “how to . . .” of the previous editions. It has an additional author, Owen Atkinson, a dairy consultant veterinarian who has over twenty years experience of intensive dairy cattle practice in England. Owen has completely rewritten the lameness chapter, and has also reorganised the introductory sections to give greater emphasis to supportive therapy and certain selected diagnostic procedures.

Other changes include expansion of the surgical management of abomasal disorders to include laparoscopic techniques introduced into veterinary medicine over the last 15 years. These techniques have been clarified by greater use of line drawings, that were appreciated in the second edition. Three such line drawings illustrate the front cover.

As well as ethical considerations, the problems of the economic viability of any surgical intervention in cattle must be carefully assessed. The importance of sterile surgical packs, effective anaesthesia and asepsis cannot be over-emphasised. Failures in operative procedures in cattle lead to a natural reluctance by farmers to agree to repeat such operations. The attention today (2018) on the worldwide attempts to reduce antibiotic usage is also relevant to bovine surgery, where effective asepsis often makes post operative antibiotic cover unnecessary.

The quality of veterinarian-farmer communication is particularly relevant at a time when ethical considerations have become more important. The general public is now more conscious of animal welfare and their view, as consumers and customers, should not be ignored. The veterinary profession has an important role here. For example, the need for pain relief should be promoted in routine procedures such as disbudding/dehorning and castra-tion, frequently performed by the unsupervised farmer following instruction by the veterinarian. The relatively recent recognition of the usefulness of NSAIDs to reduce post-operative pain is applauded and their more widespread use is encouraged in this revised edition.

Other challenges in the bovine surgical field cannot be avoided, such as surgery in a suboptimal environment e.g. a dusty dark cowshed late at night, or the ill-lit corner of a field. More hypothetical challenges such as the layperson’s question: “is castration justified?” fall outside our remit in this book. However, wherever possible a practical approach has been suggested, including some handy tips often learned the hard way.

Despite this book often describing the surgical correction of conditions once they occur, the reader is encouraged to make efforts to prevent problems, such as an unacceptable incidence of displaced abomasum cases, or of digital dermatitis. Whilst other books, (see further reading section) are able to explore preventive measures in greater depth, we have included in this edition some discussion boxes to promote a preventive approach.

The authors would welcome comments and suggestions for improvements. We have often given only our personal preferred surgical technique, aware that in other hands there can be excellent alternatives.