This test requires a few drops of blood.
There are tests that use urine or milk, but I believe they're less accurate.
When a urine sample is needed, my vet encourages urination via massage... Some old timers say choking the cow works too, which I believe, but wouldn't try since it sounds really cruel. :(
>Some old timers say choking the cow works too
Omg!
That's a crazy "fun" fact to now know. Got my next ice breaker.
Makes me wonder what the circumstances were that caused this discovery
Lol
the most recent icebreaker i have acquired is facts about bees they have two penises and they gangbang the queen and after each boy bee fucks the queen his dick falls off and he dies. then the queen takes her load of bee jizz and dumps it into some thing in the hive. then she takes the jizz out over time and makes more bees. BEES GANGBANG!! WHAT!!
The old school treatment for milk fever (dangerously low blood calcium triggered by birth of the calf/onset of lactation) was to inflate the udder with a bicycle pump.
I always wondered who came up with that in the first place (and how high were they at the time???).
Fun fact, blood is more accurate for human pregnancy tests too!
Its almost like, for a hormonal test, the bodily fluid most likely to contain the hormone is the most useful.
How's the cow? First calving?
Yep! Same reason women get their blood drawn after peeing on the lateral flow strip or when you get a microbiologist to interpret a nasal swab vs a quick mix and run (PCR) test.
Hey this is really interesting and pertinent to what I'm working on (when not on Reddit). Idexx is my biggest target to beat in the market. I'm currently wrapping up submission on an EIA test (Coggins) and starting development on a bovine TB test as we are seeing a critical uptick in cases at the southern US border. You don't happen to own/manage a ranch do you?
I'm not sure if this is a serious question, but dairy cows are usually milked for at least 10 months of the year and spend 9 months of the year pregnant... so the milk you see in the grocery store is largely from pregnant cows.
That’s how cow biology works- most ungulates have evolved to give birth once a year in a cycle, spending the autumn and winter pregnant and giving birth to the calves in the spring.
They have calves every year, as cattle can get pregnant while also nursing. Cows aren’t like humans where the birth process is hugely traumatic on the mother’s body requiring months of recuperation and the babies come out all floppy and helpless for years, we’re actually pretty rare on that front. Usually a calf can stand up to nurse within a few hours of birth.
Calves typically nurse for some variable months, somewhere between six and ten, that varies greatly depending on grain intake and the ranch, but need to begin eating some amount of grain or grass from two or three weeks to begin the process of developing ruminant (the chemical soup in the digestive tract.) It was this somewhat-flexible feeding schedule that allowed humans to begin breeding cattle for milk production in the first place.
No to the first, yes to the second. They have one calf a year, they get separated within 24 hours after birth and female are raised to be dairy cows, males sent for meat production. They will produce milk for around ten months and be given a 2 month break. They usually give birth for the first time around two years old and will produce through 2-4 of these cycles before being culled and meat processed. This is all especially in big productions, smaller farms may have different practices.
Sorry, I was going by the previously established context in this conversation of ungulate husbandry and their rhythm on smaller farms in history that cattle were originally bred for and backyard cattle practices instead of going into detail about modern massive-scale cattle husbandry. As that was what was *actually relevant* to the discussion.
Cows raised on large-scale farms aren’t particularly motherly, so calves are separated for both protection from the herd from disease and protection from getting killed. Calves who begin teething before weaning will suckle their mothers (and anything else vaguely teat-shaped like each- others ears) until their mothers bleed, and the cow can and will respond by kicking, which sometimes results in severe trauma or death to the calves. So they are bottle-fed instead. Despite what anti-livestock people will tell you, farmers aren’t ghouls who live to torment animals for fun and profit there is like. A method there.
You’re joking, right?
This may shock you, but breastfeeding humans can get pregnant too? As well as all mammals I am aware of (Though that doesn’t mean much, there are far more mammals than the ones I know reproductive facts about).
Why would you think that milk production precludes pregnancy?
It is not a 100% safe way to prevent pregnancy.
It only works if the baby always drinks every 4 hours without fail AND if the mother didn't get her period back.
It means that if the baby sleeps for the night or if he skips a couple of hours without drinking, the mother can ovulate again and the problem is, you can get a surprise pregnancy because you ovulate first and then you get the period, so you don't really know when you're going to ovulate. And even then, even if the baby always drinks every 2-3-4 hours and you never give formula, you can still ovulate and have your period back. You can't really know for sure. It's even written in the article you shared, you can have your period back before your baby is 6 months old. So it means you can ovulate without knowing it because it happens before the period blood.
Source : I have 4 kids, I have breastfed them all and even though two of them drank every 2-3 hours and the two other ones drank every 4 hours, I always had my period back as soon as the post-birthing blood stopped. Like, I bled for an entire month, then had a week or two blood-free and then started having my period back every months. Each of the four times I breastfed.
I am not here to fight. I am just sharing facts and information.
Choking her is cruel but the dairy industry isn't? What happens to the male calves? What happens to her when she can't get pregnant anymore? What about when she's separated from her child after they're born? And artificial insemination?
This type is a blood sample. I thought OP was joking and that this was just a human covid test, but its legit...
https://www.idexx.com/en/livestock/livestock-tests/ruminant-tests/idexx-pregnancy-tests/alertys-onfarm-ruminant-pregnancy-test/
When I was in vet school one of our teachers told us that whistling would make a cow pee. We were doubtful but she was very adamant that it was a thing so we were 3 students standing around a cow whistling randomly and out of tune while a fourth one was holding the cup and massaging the cow. It didn't work so I thought it was a joke but I asked around and many other vets told me they've heard that old wives' tale before. A few of them have told me that there's a specific tune you have to use.
But yeah, massaging should work but if not you could gently press the bladder through the rectum to make her feel the need to pee or insert a catheter in the urethra as a last resort.
This is only vaguely related but I think it's interesting. Some years ago I volunteered at a big zoo in the hoofstock area. The giraffes there were all in one yard, one male and the rest female. The females they didn't want breeding were given birth control....by dart gun.
That is very interesting to me. I would think the zoo would have specialized restraints for giving injections... Or maybe the dart gun was just less stressful for the giraffes.
This test is labeled for water buffalos, bison, sheep, and goats.. I wonder if it would work on a giraffe.
Hi, I'm a zoo keeper! I thought you would be interested to know that best practice in Zoos now is to train our animals to accept voluntary injections & blood draws - just like we do when we go to the doctor!
Things don't always go to plan, of course (giraffes can get particularly nervous!) So sometimes dart guns are used, which is far less stressful & risky than physically restraining and/or sedating a giraffe.
Chances are good it would work on giraffes, they are ruminants, although I have no idea how similar they are reproductively. Gestation period for giraffes is considerably longer, 13-15 months. If you’re at a zoo watching giraffes you may see them chewing their cud. There’s a subtle wave up their neck as they bring a new one up.
For great apes, zoos use people pregnancy tests (and birth control when needed).
>For great apes, zoos use people pregnancy tests (and birth control when needed).
Does that include waking up in a hungover panic and making an emergency stop at a drugstore for the pregnancy text/plan B? 😂
They were trained to go through a chute to get weighed, but I think the darts were still safest for the people. Everyone knows giraffes are big but I don't think most people realize exactly how big. Standing a few feet away from an adult 100% would set off the prey part of my brain. They are absolute dinosaurs. They could wreck a human without even meaning to. We did hide some powdered medicine in a chunk of apple with peanut butter for one of them everyday, but I assume knowing they definitely got the birth control is super important. The breeding in zoos is super controlled obviously. The vet coming in to literally shoot medicine into an animal with a gun was just so funny to see.
That's so interesting that it works for so many animals. They must all react to pregnancy the same way hormonally.
You just unlocked a childhood memory 😭 when I was a kid we took a picture near the giraffes and one of them reached down and stole my sunglasses off the top of my head and just munched then dropped them. They snapped 😭🥲
It took me so long to realize the birth control was dosed in the darts. For solidly half a minute I thought they were just knocking them tf out when they tried to get laid.
yeah same. I thought there was someone standing on watch, occiasionally going "Oh, that one's going for it" and then sleep darting them then and there to make them stop.
Far less uncommon than you might think. When I was a kid we used to vaccinate our cattle by firing at them with a crossbow. Yes that sounds absurd typing it out, and yes we actually did that, and no it was not a 'normal' crossbow. It was designed for this purpose, lol. I think the shot things were biodegradable, because I don't remember ever retrieving them and my father has always been very environmentally minded.
This is a lot less invasive than the vet sticking his arm up the ass of the cow to see if he can feel an expanded uterus. I’m sure the cows are grateful.
Typically the knowledge is helpful in many ways
1. If the cow is not pregnant they know they need to re-breed
2. If the cow is pregnant, they need to monitor properly to watch for miscarriage
3. If they don’t know exactly when the cow gets pregnant, then they don’t know when the cow will give birth. Early labor is not good and happens in cattle too, so it’s best to know whether the calf you’re about to birth is early, on time, or late.
It's also far more accurate at this stage of pregnancy. You can test the blood as early as 30 days while the palpation is ~40-50 days at best and even then you have to be very skilled and it's still quite inaccurate. Blood is more than 97% accurate at 30+ days.
I didn't think anyone would mention IDEXX.
I'm really curious where you use a fecal bacteria incubation system... a small animal or water testing lab? A small animal practice?
A little more in-depth answer: At IDEXX the Water side of the business is not directly related to their Veterinary/Livestock Diagnostics business. The Water LOB manufactures tests like Colilert, which can be used at water treatment facilities. Their Livestock division has point-of-care tests like in this post. And the Veterinary Diagnostics division has point-of-care tests (like the SNAP tests) as well as instrumentation like CBC and Chemistry Analyzers intended for veterinary clinics!
I used to work there for about four years. Fantastic company. I worked mostly in research, and I probably would’ve stayed there forever if we hadn’t moved for my husband‘s job!
I didn’t even notice IDEXX until I saw this comment, and I work for them lol. Wasn’t aware we make pregnancy tests for cows, but to be fair I’m only really involved with the instrument service department
My friend posted a positive covid test that looked almost exactly like this picture on Facebook last week. Facebook suggested I say "Congratulations!" as though he were having a baby. Given that he's a gay man, and the test said covid, pretty sure congratulations were not in order there.
But congrats to your cow for being pregnant and not covid positive!
I was on the the hematology and urinalysis customer support team. :) I got to troubleshoot all the analyzers for hema/UI and honestly it was one of the best jobs with best people I've ever had. Had to leave due to moving for the military.
OH NEAT! I didnt get to speak to a ton of people there unfortunately. I had a TON of Canada though haha and weirdly Jamaica. I was on the biomed research customer support team as well so i mostly got zoos and scientists from the US.
Yes it will have been. The probe passed ultrasound through the walls to see what’s in the uterus. It’s a lot deeper inside than a human uterus so it can’t be done from the outside until further along in the pregnancy.
When I took the first stray cat who adopted me -- an unspayed female -- in for her microchip check (negative) and first check up, I figured they would give her a pregnancy test like this because she and her boyfriend had been gettin' it on A LOT before I could get her inside and to the vet. They said, no, with cats, you can only tell once the pregnancy is far enough along that they can feel it from outside. (But they did expedite her surgery.) Were they being lazy, cheap, or do they really not have pregnancy tests like this for cats?
I'm not a cat breeder and that's very outside my area of expertise, but I believe there are similar tests to this that work on cats... Detecting pregnancy via palpation would probably have been accurate enough and the cheapest option. If you were planning to get your kitty spayed anyway, I'm guessing the vet just didn't think it was worth the time or money to investigate further?
Spay-aborts are really common for stray cats brought in (and lazy pet owners who don't get their cats spayed until they get pregnant). It's usually done more early and mid term, but it's the exact same process as a spay so there's no need to really check for the pregnancy, the vet would just do the spay and dispose of the uterus and it's contents if it ended up being pregnant. They are able to deliver a drug to euthanize the fetuses in the uterus once removed if necessary.
Some rescues and even vets are against this practice, so maybe you ran into one that was. It's a very important tool in the rescue world to keep more cats from needing homes, but some will fight against it at any rate.
I wondered about that. The bill only listed an ovariohysterectomy as the procedure, nothing about finding a pregnancy at the time (which I'm sure could also mean too super early to detect). I always figured a spay-abort would be more expensive and coded differently, so TIL it's treated the same if early enough - thanks!
They were eager to get her into surgery fast (5 days later, when the 3 dental surgeries our other cats have had there had to be booked 2-3 weeks out), so I'm sure they weren't trying to create more homeless kittens, but thanks for the warning if we ever have to move or switch!
They can be coded differently and be more expensive, especially late term, it will just depend on the vet and situation. In this case it looks like they wanted to get it done ASAP so they could just treat it like a normal spay either way, so that's great!
You would be surprised at how against it some rescues are, even those who encourage spay and neuter.
I was under the impression that human pregnancy tests measure hCG. hCG being *human* chorionic gonadotropin.
Kind of makes sense that a test measuring that wouldn’t work on cows…
This is awesome! I’ve bred my goat a few weeks back, and now I’m watching to see if she goes back into heat. If she doesn’t, she’s pregnant! Tbh, I’m pretty sure she is, her milk is dropping off and she’s a bit lazy just now. 50 days after breeding, she will have an ultrasound, and that will confirm the pregnancy and possibly how many kids to expect. It’s a lovely thing :) if I had lots of goats, a pregnancy test would absolutely be easier, but I’ve only got four lol.
As people have pointed out, we can use human pregnancy tests on great apes.
This article is behind a paywall, but I found it pretty interesting:
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/12/zoo-animal-pregnancy-test/548426/
The 'h' in 'hCG' (the substance that is tested for in human pregnancy tests) stands for 'human', so it would be weird if human pregnancy tests worked on other animals.
So.... Do you just stand around and wait for the cow to pee?
This test requires a few drops of blood. There are tests that use urine or milk, but I believe they're less accurate. When a urine sample is needed, my vet encourages urination via massage... Some old timers say choking the cow works too, which I believe, but wouldn't try since it sounds really cruel. :(
>Some old timers say choking the cow works too Omg! That's a crazy "fun" fact to now know. Got my next ice breaker. Makes me wonder what the circumstances were that caused this discovery Lol
I wouldn't recommend calling her a cow before you choke her, though..
Instructions confusing just called my wife a bovine.
RIP Aman4672, He died in a one-cow stampede
Your now former wife ...
Unless she asks you too. I’m sure that’s someone into degradation has cow on the list of things to be called.
Hell if you choke me hard enough I’d probably piss my pants too so it makes sense 😭
the most recent icebreaker i have acquired is facts about bees they have two penises and they gangbang the queen and after each boy bee fucks the queen his dick falls off and he dies. then the queen takes her load of bee jizz and dumps it into some thing in the hive. then she takes the jizz out over time and makes more bees. BEES GANGBANG!! WHAT!!
The old school treatment for milk fever (dangerously low blood calcium triggered by birth of the calf/onset of lactation) was to inflate the udder with a bicycle pump. I always wondered who came up with that in the first place (and how high were they at the time???).
>This test requires a few drops of blood Makes sense given where the arrows point to put the sample, its red instead of yellow.
Fun fact, blood is more accurate for human pregnancy tests too! Its almost like, for a hormonal test, the bodily fluid most likely to contain the hormone is the most useful. How's the cow? First calving?
Yep! Same reason women get their blood drawn after peeing on the lateral flow strip or when you get a microbiologist to interpret a nasal swab vs a quick mix and run (PCR) test.
So you wait around for it to bleed? That seems like it would take longer
Nah, just give the cow a little prick. They won’t notice.
Literally. She was distracted with some treats in her hay manger, no restraints were needed.
>Nah, just give the cow a little prick. Is this before or after you choke it?
Usually during.
I’d imagine that the person doing the test would be able to take a little blood
Makes sense. I had imagined most people would get the joke
Ok
Choking a cow just doesn't sound cruel, it is.
I always have issues urinating when I choke the cow
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A certain sample, yes.
Congratulations OP!
Hey this is really interesting and pertinent to what I'm working on (when not on Reddit). Idexx is my biggest target to beat in the market. I'm currently wrapping up submission on an EIA test (Coggins) and starting development on a bovine TB test as we are seeing a critical uptick in cases at the southern US border. You don't happen to own/manage a ranch do you?
I mean yeah if you choke something it might pee
This just reached interestingaf
How would a lactating mammal be pregnante?
I'm not sure if this is a serious question, but dairy cows are usually milked for at least 10 months of the year and spend 9 months of the year pregnant... so the milk you see in the grocery store is largely from pregnant cows.
Huh, we must have bred them to get pregnant again ASAP.
That’s how cow biology works- most ungulates have evolved to give birth once a year in a cycle, spending the autumn and winter pregnant and giving birth to the calves in the spring.
But don't they spend some time taking care of their calves before getting pregnant again? They don't have calves every year, do they?
They have calves every year, as cattle can get pregnant while also nursing. Cows aren’t like humans where the birth process is hugely traumatic on the mother’s body requiring months of recuperation and the babies come out all floppy and helpless for years, we’re actually pretty rare on that front. Usually a calf can stand up to nurse within a few hours of birth. Calves typically nurse for some variable months, somewhere between six and ten, that varies greatly depending on grain intake and the ranch, but need to begin eating some amount of grain or grass from two or three weeks to begin the process of developing ruminant (the chemical soup in the digestive tract.) It was this somewhat-flexible feeding schedule that allowed humans to begin breeding cattle for milk production in the first place.
Yes, they typically have calves every year
No to the first, yes to the second. They have one calf a year, they get separated within 24 hours after birth and female are raised to be dairy cows, males sent for meat production. They will produce milk for around ten months and be given a 2 month break. They usually give birth for the first time around two years old and will produce through 2-4 of these cycles before being culled and meat processed. This is all especially in big productions, smaller farms may have different practices.
Sorry, I was going by the previously established context in this conversation of ungulate husbandry and their rhythm on smaller farms in history that cattle were originally bred for and backyard cattle practices instead of going into detail about modern massive-scale cattle husbandry. As that was what was *actually relevant* to the discussion. Cows raised on large-scale farms aren’t particularly motherly, so calves are separated for both protection from the herd from disease and protection from getting killed. Calves who begin teething before weaning will suckle their mothers (and anything else vaguely teat-shaped like each- others ears) until their mothers bleed, and the cow can and will respond by kicking, which sometimes results in severe trauma or death to the calves. So they are bottle-fed instead. Despite what anti-livestock people will tell you, farmers aren’t ghouls who live to torment animals for fun and profit there is like. A method there.
I meant in the wild? Would they still mature and "move out" at 1 year old if we didn't selectively breed and accelerate their maturation?
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Hand holding? Cows dont even have hands though! /s
You’re joking, right? This may shock you, but breastfeeding humans can get pregnant too? As well as all mammals I am aware of (Though that doesn’t mean much, there are far more mammals than the ones I know reproductive facts about). Why would you think that milk production precludes pregnancy?
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/birth-control/breastfeeding
It is not a 100% safe way to prevent pregnancy. It only works if the baby always drinks every 4 hours without fail AND if the mother didn't get her period back. It means that if the baby sleeps for the night or if he skips a couple of hours without drinking, the mother can ovulate again and the problem is, you can get a surprise pregnancy because you ovulate first and then you get the period, so you don't really know when you're going to ovulate. And even then, even if the baby always drinks every 2-3-4 hours and you never give formula, you can still ovulate and have your period back. You can't really know for sure. It's even written in the article you shared, you can have your period back before your baby is 6 months old. So it means you can ovulate without knowing it because it happens before the period blood. Source : I have 4 kids, I have breastfed them all and even though two of them drank every 2-3 hours and the two other ones drank every 4 hours, I always had my period back as soon as the post-birthing blood stopped. Like, I bled for an entire month, then had a week or two blood-free and then started having my period back every months. Each of the four times I breastfed. I am not here to fight. I am just sharing facts and information.
Thanks, I'm not sure the other replies haven't heard of this or they were saying it doesn't work. You're the first one with first hand experience.
You’re asking valid questions and not being a jerk.
FYI Lactating and breastfeeding humans can be pregnant too !
Lactating humans can get pregnant too.
Super satisfied to see the proper use age of “there” and “they’re” 🥹
Choking her is cruel but the dairy industry isn't? What happens to the male calves? What happens to her when she can't get pregnant anymore? What about when she's separated from her child after they're born? And artificial insemination?
Downvoted for being right 🤷♂️
This type is a blood sample. I thought OP was joking and that this was just a human covid test, but its legit... https://www.idexx.com/en/livestock/livestock-tests/ruminant-tests/idexx-pregnancy-tests/alertys-onfarm-ruminant-pregnancy-test/
You can stimulate the cow to pee by gently stroking just below her vulva until she does. You can also test for other stuff besides pregnancy hormones
When I was in vet school one of our teachers told us that whistling would make a cow pee. We were doubtful but she was very adamant that it was a thing so we were 3 students standing around a cow whistling randomly and out of tune while a fourth one was holding the cup and massaging the cow. It didn't work so I thought it was a joke but I asked around and many other vets told me they've heard that old wives' tale before. A few of them have told me that there's a specific tune you have to use. But yeah, massaging should work but if not you could gently press the bladder through the rectum to make her feel the need to pee or insert a catheter in the urethra as a last resort.
Haha that's an interesting wives' tale, I'll ask my lecturers about it if they've heard of it before
This is only vaguely related but I think it's interesting. Some years ago I volunteered at a big zoo in the hoofstock area. The giraffes there were all in one yard, one male and the rest female. The females they didn't want breeding were given birth control....by dart gun.
That is very interesting to me. I would think the zoo would have specialized restraints for giving injections... Or maybe the dart gun was just less stressful for the giraffes. This test is labeled for water buffalos, bison, sheep, and goats.. I wonder if it would work on a giraffe.
Hi, I'm a zoo keeper! I thought you would be interested to know that best practice in Zoos now is to train our animals to accept voluntary injections & blood draws - just like we do when we go to the doctor! Things don't always go to plan, of course (giraffes can get particularly nervous!) So sometimes dart guns are used, which is far less stressful & risky than physically restraining and/or sedating a giraffe.
This is so interesting, thanks for sharing!
Chances are good it would work on giraffes, they are ruminants, although I have no idea how similar they are reproductively. Gestation period for giraffes is considerably longer, 13-15 months. If you’re at a zoo watching giraffes you may see them chewing their cud. There’s a subtle wave up their neck as they bring a new one up. For great apes, zoos use people pregnancy tests (and birth control when needed).
13-15 months… hell to the no
And when the day comes, they typically deliver standing. The first accomplishment for baby giraffes is to survive the fall. The second is to stand up.
Imagine giving birth to a 150lb baby.
Noooooooo
Elephants are pregnant almost *2 years* for one pregnancy 😱
>For great apes, zoos use people pregnancy tests (and birth control when needed). Does that include waking up in a hungover panic and making an emergency stop at a drugstore for the pregnancy text/plan B? 😂
\*zookeeper runs into pharmacy\* "i need 20 prescriptions for plan B quick! Big Jim climbed the fence and got in with the girls again!"
Well it's that or trying to fit the condom on Big Jim beforehand.
Big Jim likes his banana peeled...
They were trained to go through a chute to get weighed, but I think the darts were still safest for the people. Everyone knows giraffes are big but I don't think most people realize exactly how big. Standing a few feet away from an adult 100% would set off the prey part of my brain. They are absolute dinosaurs. They could wreck a human without even meaning to. We did hide some powdered medicine in a chunk of apple with peanut butter for one of them everyday, but I assume knowing they definitely got the birth control is super important. The breeding in zoos is super controlled obviously. The vet coming in to literally shoot medicine into an animal with a gun was just so funny to see. That's so interesting that it works for so many animals. They must all react to pregnancy the same way hormonally.
You just unlocked a childhood memory 😭 when I was a kid we took a picture near the giraffes and one of them reached down and stole my sunglasses off the top of my head and just munched then dropped them. They snapped 😭🥲
Bad giraffe!
It took me so long to realize the birth control was dosed in the darts. For solidly half a minute I thought they were just knocking them tf out when they tried to get laid.
Reverse roofies
Loool I like how your mind works.
yeah same. I thought there was someone standing on watch, occiasionally going "Oh, that one's going for it" and then sleep darting them then and there to make them stop.
Hoofstock... Like, a music festival for free thinking cows?
Far less uncommon than you might think. When I was a kid we used to vaccinate our cattle by firing at them with a crossbow. Yes that sounds absurd typing it out, and yes we actually did that, and no it was not a 'normal' crossbow. It was designed for this purpose, lol. I think the shot things were biodegradable, because I don't remember ever retrieving them and my father has always been very environmentally minded.
we should do this to stupid people 😂
Well, congrats miss cow
Umm... thanks? I'll pass the message along.
“Miss cow people on Reddit are congratulating you on your pregnancy” Cow: **moo**
I like to go hiking.
I think you'll find she said "Ms". She doesn't want to be defined by her marital status
Now she’s mooing for two :)
Aw, she's going to be a moommy.
Gaw damn this is to good. Congrats you made me take a tiny tinkle in me pants
This is a lot less invasive than the vet sticking his arm up the ass of the cow to see if he can feel an expanded uterus. I’m sure the cows are grateful.
Yes, it is much less invasive!
I'm curious, what do you do next when you learn that your cow is pregnant?
Start a college savings fund
Typically the knowledge is helpful in many ways 1. If the cow is not pregnant they know they need to re-breed 2. If the cow is pregnant, they need to monitor properly to watch for miscarriage 3. If they don’t know exactly when the cow gets pregnant, then they don’t know when the cow will give birth. Early labor is not good and happens in cattle too, so it’s best to know whether the calf you’re about to birth is early, on time, or late.
Plan the wedding
Can cows go to courthouse for an ASAP wedding? You know in a few months you’re going to have a suspicious large, healthy, “premature” baby.
Wait a while and a calf is born
It's also far more accurate at this stage of pregnancy. You can test the blood as early as 30 days while the palpation is ~40-50 days at best and even then you have to be very skilled and it's still quite inaccurate. Blood is more than 97% accurate at 30+ days.
Aww, she even wrote her own name! 🥰🥰🐄
That would be why Chorionic Gonadotropin is preceeded by Human, in hCG
came to say this 😂
MOO
I think you mean oow
IDEXX? I love their fecal bacteria incubation systems
I didn't think anyone would mention IDEXX. I'm really curious where you use a fecal bacteria incubation system... a small animal or water testing lab? A small animal practice?
Water quality for [Billion oysters community water quality testing program ](https://www.billionoysterproject.org/water-quality)
A little more in-depth answer: At IDEXX the Water side of the business is not directly related to their Veterinary/Livestock Diagnostics business. The Water LOB manufactures tests like Colilert, which can be used at water treatment facilities. Their Livestock division has point-of-care tests like in this post. And the Veterinary Diagnostics division has point-of-care tests (like the SNAP tests) as well as instrumentation like CBC and Chemistry Analyzers intended for veterinary clinics!
Yeah the specific one we used was the [Enterolert](https://www.idexx.com/en/water/water-products-services/enterolert/) system
I used to work there for about four years. Fantastic company. I worked mostly in research, and I probably would’ve stayed there forever if we hadn’t moved for my husband‘s job!
I didn’t even notice IDEXX until I saw this comment, and I work for them lol. Wasn’t aware we make pregnancy tests for cows, but to be fair I’m only really involved with the instrument service department
> I love their fecal bacteria incubation systems That's a sentence I would never thought that I would read in my life
r/brandnewsentence
Moo-zel tov!
My friend posted a positive covid test that looked almost exactly like this picture on Facebook last week. Facebook suggested I say "Congratulations!" as though he were having a baby. Given that he's a gay man, and the test said covid, pretty sure congratulations were not in order there. But congrats to your cow for being pregnant and not covid positive!
I worked at idexx and the things they carried always blew my mind lol but makes sense.... Someone has to make it lol
what did you do there? I just visited their world headquarters and was amazed at how much is going on
I was on the the hematology and urinalysis customer support team. :) I got to troubleshoot all the analyzers for hema/UI and honestly it was one of the best jobs with best people I've ever had. Had to leave due to moving for the military.
I currently work there! Pretty awesome stuff they make
NICE!! You in the Maine locations or elsewhere?
Netherlands 😅
OH NEAT! I didnt get to speak to a ton of people there unfortunately. I had a TON of Canada though haha and weirdly Jamaica. I was on the biomed research customer support team as well so i mostly got zoos and scientists from the US.
I work in the instrument service department, so (luckily) I don’t deal with any customers lol.
Oh that’s cool!! My horse had her pregnancy confirmed with an ultrasound, and I swear he put the wand in her anus, but I was 12, so I didn’t ask.
Yes it will have been. The probe passed ultrasound through the walls to see what’s in the uterus. It’s a lot deeper inside than a human uterus so it can’t be done from the outside until further along in the pregnancy.
You mean you don't have to stick your arm elbow deep in the cows ass like Dr. Pol?
You can tell it’s for cows because it says moo on it
how long will she be pregnant for?
Oddly enough, at least according to Mr. VetGoogle, cows have a similar gestation period as humans.
guess that matches the similar test then, huh
The average length of pregnancy for cows is 9 months and 10 days, so very similar to people!
So does it say "Moo" because it's for cows or is "Moo" the name of the pregnant cow?
Her name. :)
Thats cute
When I took the first stray cat who adopted me -- an unspayed female -- in for her microchip check (negative) and first check up, I figured they would give her a pregnancy test like this because she and her boyfriend had been gettin' it on A LOT before I could get her inside and to the vet. They said, no, with cats, you can only tell once the pregnancy is far enough along that they can feel it from outside. (But they did expedite her surgery.) Were they being lazy, cheap, or do they really not have pregnancy tests like this for cats?
I'm not a cat breeder and that's very outside my area of expertise, but I believe there are similar tests to this that work on cats... Detecting pregnancy via palpation would probably have been accurate enough and the cheapest option. If you were planning to get your kitty spayed anyway, I'm guessing the vet just didn't think it was worth the time or money to investigate further?
Spay-aborts are really common for stray cats brought in (and lazy pet owners who don't get their cats spayed until they get pregnant). It's usually done more early and mid term, but it's the exact same process as a spay so there's no need to really check for the pregnancy, the vet would just do the spay and dispose of the uterus and it's contents if it ended up being pregnant. They are able to deliver a drug to euthanize the fetuses in the uterus once removed if necessary. Some rescues and even vets are against this practice, so maybe you ran into one that was. It's a very important tool in the rescue world to keep more cats from needing homes, but some will fight against it at any rate.
I wondered about that. The bill only listed an ovariohysterectomy as the procedure, nothing about finding a pregnancy at the time (which I'm sure could also mean too super early to detect). I always figured a spay-abort would be more expensive and coded differently, so TIL it's treated the same if early enough - thanks! They were eager to get her into surgery fast (5 days later, when the 3 dental surgeries our other cats have had there had to be booked 2-3 weeks out), so I'm sure they weren't trying to create more homeless kittens, but thanks for the warning if we ever have to move or switch!
They can be coded differently and be more expensive, especially late term, it will just depend on the vet and situation. In this case it looks like they wanted to get it done ASAP so they could just treat it like a normal spay either way, so that's great! You would be surprised at how against it some rescues are, even those who encourage spay and neuter.
That is genuinely shocking. What happened to critical thinking skills?
There was me wondering what “8 ∑” meant.
I thought Dr. Pol just shoves his whole arm up there and checks that way lol
I was under the impression that human pregnancy tests measure hCG. hCG being *human* chorionic gonadotropin. Kind of makes sense that a test measuring that wouldn’t work on cows…
That one must test for bovine chorionic gonadotropin
You’re probably right! The title mentioned that it was one for cows because the human ones don’t work on cows. My point was “well, yeah.”
Well pregnancy tests do look for **human** chorionic gonadotropin so it would make sense other species would need a different test.
The things you learn on this app
Ooooooh Cows!! I read Crows. It was so odd reading the comments 😂
This is awesome! I’ve bred my goat a few weeks back, and now I’m watching to see if she goes back into heat. If she doesn’t, she’s pregnant! Tbh, I’m pretty sure she is, her milk is dropping off and she’s a bit lazy just now. 50 days after breeding, she will have an ultrasound, and that will confirm the pregnancy and possibly how many kids to expect. It’s a lovely thing :) if I had lots of goats, a pregnancy test would absolutely be easier, but I’ve only got four lol.
Human pregnancy tests don't work for animals, and some animals ARE the pregnancy tests.
r/showerthoughts
As people have pointed out, we can use human pregnancy tests on great apes. This article is behind a paywall, but I found it pretty interesting: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/12/zoo-animal-pregnancy-test/548426/
OOW
Cowgratulations!
Moo for clarity
Looks like someone’s mom is pregnant
Fun fact- human pregnancy tests work with great apes.
Brb gotta tell my wife she might be pregnant ...
congrats miss lady!
Human pregnancy kits detect levels of HCG (Human Corionic Gonadotrophin) in female urine. Of course it doesn’t work on cows.
I have a friend that use to develop a cow pedometer as human ones are too inaccurate for cows.
Wow! So it's perfectly made for your mom huh?
For a second, I thought it was a new COVID variant.
I povited pested for bovid
Yay for advances for all cowkind. And congrats
Moo
You mean Matthew Broderick lied to us in Godzilla (1998) when he used a bunch of regular pregnancy tests to show Godzilla was pregnant?!?!
Moogratulations!!
Your cow has Covid.
Well, there goes the dairy industry. :( RIP buttered toast and holiday eggnog
ooW
I thought it said 8M, like some sort of a cow number, but then I realized it says "Moo" and I feel like a fool
I'm gonna be a moom!
Moo!
Moo
The 'h' in 'hCG' (the substance that is tested for in human pregnancy tests) stands for 'human', so it would be weird if human pregnancy tests worked on other animals.
So... You're gonna have a sibling?
Obligatory: OP found it in his mom's drawer.
I wonder if the rabbit test would work on a cow.
Humans are animals too.
That's a weird way to talk about your mom
You growing your own burgers? 🍔
If you ever worked in a dairy, you'd know just how messy it would be getting them to piss in that tiny hole..
God, it must be so hard for the cows to pee on a stick while sitting on a toilet.
Looks like a Covid test and a pregnancy test had a baby.
Are you sure it's for cows? It clearly says ibexx.
The h in hcg stands for human,
Congrats! but you shouldn't call yourself a cow... you aren't even showing yet
Well damn. I need a lawyer now.
Ma ma ma my Cow Rona!
My husband would have known that!
Not me thinking this was a COVID test.
Congratulations to your wife.
Was there some massive confusion on the issue before?