“If you have a horse that has very bad diarrhea, you actually get a healthy horse’s feces," Gold said. There are also beneficial microbes at the other end of the GI - or gastro intestinal - tract. “You’re taking the tube and going down into the stomach, and from the stomach it will get passed down to the GI tract," Gold said. (Shelley Schlender for VOA)Īnimal doctor Jenifer Gold says it can then be transfused into another cow through a tube down its throat. Hershey the cow's open porthole reveals what’s left of her latest meal, a mass of warm, wet grass in the process of being digested by microbes. These microbes can counteract the toxins of harmful gut microbes, so to gather a “donation,” Callan and his team insert a tube through the porthole and siphon out the greenish liquid. He says its potent odor comes from microbes digesting the grass. "After it’s in and it’s healed, they don’t feel it any differently than normal skin.”Īs Hershey calmly watches, Callan opens the porthole to reveal what’s left of her latest meal - a mass of warm, wet, stinky grass. “We often get asked whether or not it hurts," said Callan. ![]() He gathers the microbes directly from her stomach through a small plastic porthole in her side. That’s got to be close to at least 800 patients.” “We probably bring her in twice a week to provide rumen fluid for treating our patients," said Rob Callan, who harvests microbes from Hershey’s stomach on a regular basis. One donor is a black-and-white cow named Hershey. In the United States, this unusual treatment was first inspired by animal doctors.Īt Colorado State University in Fort Collins, veterinarians use donor animals to cure digestive disorders in other animals, not with a kidney donation or a blood transfusion, but with healthy gut microbes. The process involves rebalancing a sick intestine with fecal microbes from a healthy donor. If you have an interest in Old West America you will enjoy reading Cow by the Tail.Medical doctors fight many infections with antibiotics, but a procedure that makes many people cringe can be more effective in curing serious infections. Recently reread this book and think I enjoyed it more the second time around. Benton does know how to spin a yarn but I'm convinced he lived the events he wrote about. My teacher and I argued about whether it was fiction or a true story. I first read Cow by the Tail in the early 60s, found it in my small town Texas school library. If you have an interest in Old West America you will enjoy reading Cow by the Jesse James Benton tells it like it was, with all the colorful language of the times. ![]() Jesse James Benton tells it like it was, with all the colorful language of the times. He's an old-timer, and he can spin a good yarn.more He crossed the Texas Panhandle as the crow flies, had a fling at mining in one whoopie town, Tombstone, Arizona, and tackled dairy farms, locomotives, and butcher shops along with steers and injuns. ![]() Jesse James Benton tried his hand at a heap of things. ![]() The Comanche Indians were friendly and Jesse lived with them a piece, went on hunting trips, and fell heels over head in love with an Indian gal. Made a better hand than many that were older, could rope a steer first try, spot a tampered brand, and shoot off injun raiders on a trip to Dodge City. Jesse hankered for the cowboy's life, and joined an outfit when he was thirteen. Back in 1872 his family took him to Texas by wagon train, settled in Denton County, and built a ten-by-twenty cabin, room enough for twelve, not counting dogs, with a porthole for Betsy, the shotgun. Jesse hankered for the cowboy' Jesse James Benton - that's the way the family Bible had it, though they changed the James to Jones whenever it seemed politic - is an old-timer. Jesse James Benton - that's the way the family Bible had it, though they changed the James to Jones whenever it seemed politic - is an old-timer.
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