Learning The Hard Way: Fire in the Barn
Posted on October 1, 2009
“Learning the Hard Way” is a new column in the Veterinary Examiner meant to impart experience and knowledge from memorable experiences in the veterinary field and in the clinics. The goal of this column is to allow you to learn from other’s mistakes, instead of learning from your own. Names of individuals (human and animal) and institutions will be changed to respect privacy. If you have any experiences that others can learn a lesson from, please submit them to editors@vetexaminer.com. If your story is published, you will be sent a free gift from us.
Learning the Hard Way – Fire in the Barn
It was a scorcher. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the sun was directly overhead on a searing summer afternoon. The thermometer on the wall read a boiling 103 F in the shade. I was a senior student at the time and walked out of the barn to the outdoor pens to check on my downer cow patient. As I approached her, I saw she was lying laterally and was no longer sternal as I had previously left her. She had pushed aside the hay bails that were propping her up and rolled onto her side into the direct sunlight.
As I entered her pen and attempted to pull her back up sternal in the shade, I noticed that she was somewhat non responsive. I quickly took her rectal temperature and noted a blistering 107 degrees F. I quickly ran back into the barn to notify the clinician on the case and started to pour bottles and bottles of isopropyl alcohol into a bucket to try and cool the cow down. I made it back outside first and began dowsing the recumbent cow with the alcohol to begin the cooling process as I was waiting for additional help to come.
After thoroughly soaking the cow, Dr. Jordan and two other students made it out of the barn to give me a hand. We placed a halter on the Holstein and pulled while the others pushed her body to try and get her positioned sternally and into the shade; however, our efforts were fruitless as the 1500 pound Holstein was lying as a limp pile of dead weight and not even attempting to help us get her out of the searing sun. After about 10 minutes in the sweltering heat pushing and pulling and coaxing the cow, Dr. Jordan picked up the “Hot Shot” electric prod and brought it to the recumbent cow. There was a strange feeling that came over me that something was just not right when he picked up the prod. The rest of the story seemed to occur in slow motion after this point. As Dr. Jordan touched the prod to the Holstein’s hide, I saw the blue spark jump from the prongs. I yelled “Wait!” as I finally realized that mixing alcohol and electricity is a bad idea, but it was too late. The entire cow lit up in flames along with the surrounding hay and the adjacent canvas tarp. We all scrambled to climb over the walls of the pen and grabbed a nearby hose. As quickly as the conflagration started, it was put out. I stood there traumatized and watching in horror despite the cow’s relatively calm demeanor as it merely turned, looked at its burning body, and let out a moo. Dr. Jordan continued to hose down the cow and the hay even though the fire had already been put out.
When I finally overcame my initial shock and trauma, I examined the cow and found that luckily, she was relatively unharmed. Thanks to the nearby hose and the quickly dissipating alcohol, the cow didn’t experience any burns on her skin, but only a few singed hair tips and a small blister next to her melted ear tag.
The lesson of this story is pretty obvious, but it certainly does not only pertain to our large animal patients and electric cattle prods. Many similar stories also have been told about small animal patients when alcohol surgical preps and cautery are combined, or when oxygen and lasers or cautery are mixed. I have been told by several owners about their dog’s tick which they tried to eradicate by pouring alcohol on the tick, and after that failing, attempting to light a match to get it to let go.
Luckily the cow was not overtly harmed by the fire, but this is one lesson that I hope you will learn from my experience and not through your own.
