Labour of love: Britnee Smith’s beloved cow Ethel is well and truly on the mend after breaking her back leg. Picture: Rodney Braithwaite
Ethel is one of the luckiest Holstein cows in northern Victoria, after her owner Britnee Smith decided to take a chance on surgery to fix her broken back leg — despite the outcome being very much a gamble both physically and financially.
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Traditionally when a cow breaks its leg it often results in euthanasia, but Ethel was too precious to Britnee to let that happen.
“I just love her so much and I had to give her a second chance,” Britnee said.
And it seems that second chance is going to cost Britnee around $12,000. But she doesn't care about that either.
“People spend heaps of money on cats, dogs and horses and Ethel is no different to me and my family just because she is a cow,” Britnee said.
Ethel wormed her way into Britnee's family as a newborn calf. She spent the first six months of her life in the backyard and has always been super-friendly, ridiculously quiet and much-loved by Britnee's children Jarvis, 7, and Mabel, nearly 2.
New mum: Ethel with her first heifer calf, Maizee.
Ethel had just given birth to her first heifer calf, Maizee, and was being kept back at the dairy when she decided to jump the fence to join the herd and broke her leg.
“The Ky (Kyabram) vet was coming past and I asked her to meet me,” Britnee said.
“She took one look and said with the skin broken on both sides she couldn't deal with it.
Perfect patient: Ethel getting VIP treatment from Joel, Mabel and Jarvis.
“Knowing how much I love my cows she mentioned someone had taken their cow to the equine hospital in Shepparton and had success, so I decided to lift her into the horse float and get her over there.”
The equine hospital vet had only treated one other cow with a broken front leg and it was smashed, not a clean break on an angle like Ethel’s, so they were very much headed into unchartered territory.
“He told me it was touch and go and gave me two options; one was $20,000 and one was $8600. I decided to go with the cheaper option and see what would happen,” Britnee said.
Happy to be home: A curious Ethel is happy to back on the farm under Britnee Smith and her family’s care. Picture: Rodney Braithwaite
Ethel’s operation was on the night of October 7.
The operation itself was a success but Ethel wasn't too happy about staying at the hospital.
Britnee said the vets couldn't get over how well she responded when the kids came to visit.
“She would immediately brighten up and try to get up when the kids were around so it was decided to bring her home and treat her.”
Britnee's boss rigged up a special hospital pen for Ethel and she, along with the Kyabram vets, have been treating her.
Initially they had to lift Ethel up every day and she was milked once a day. Now she can get up on and her own and is milked twice a day.
She is currently giving 22 litres, which is pretty good considering the terrible start to her lactation.
Nearly there: Pins are due to be taken out of Ethel’s leg in late November.
She is due to head back to Shepparton to have her pins taken out and to make sure everything is okay at the end of November.
She will then face another six weeks in a cast.
“It has definitely been a lot of hard work,” Britnee said.
“We have had to re-bandage her leg daily and the vet recently cut her cast back because she has a rubbing wound and we need to look after that, as well as clean out her pen, put down clean bedding and make sure she gets lots of love and attention as well.”
Britnee is the herd manager for Brett Dixon at Merrigum, where the business milks 500 cows.
She does all the calf rearing, looks after the young stock and she can AI — although in her current role she doesn't have to.
“I work mainly with the animals because that is my speciality; I have nothing to do with growing grass or anything like that.”
Britnee currently has 14 cows of her own and would one day like to have her own small farm with her partner Joel Willett.
A lot of people have asked her why she would spend so much money on a cow and her answer is simple.
“Life isn't always about money.
“I had a very challenging childhood and home life and I found healing and peace in my animals and I still do today. I had to give Ethel a chance.”
