Dog stuck in slurry got away lightly despite 'spectacular' diarrhoea - Julian Norton

Luckily, his owner was on hand to come to the rescue.

Thanks to recent rainfall, the contents of the slurry pit had a more liquid composition than usual, which made it possible for Rossi to swim rather than flounder.

His owner rushed to the side of the lagoon and was just about able to grab him and scoop him out of the poop. It had been a close call, but worse was to come.

Rossi had an appointment with the hosepipe and a stiff brush.

By the time I saw him, the Labrador looked and smelt relatively fresh.

“I gave him a right good scrub with a stiff brush and plenty of washing up liquid. And then I shoved the hosepipe in his mouth and gave him a good rinsing,” explained his owner.

He’d done a very good job and initially it appeared that Rossi’s rinsing had averted any more problems. But twelve hours later, things had changed, which is why he was at the vets.

“All of a sudden, he developed spectacular diarrhoea with blood in. I thought he needed some treatment.”

Rossi looked none-the-worse for his dip, and continued to wag his tail with enthusiasm, so he wasn’t exhibiting any signs of serious illness yet. I started my examination with a good sniff. He passed that test.

Next, I took his temperature and then listened carefully to his lungs. Submersion (and vigorous rinsing with a hose pipe) could easily have led to fluid – of one type or another – entering the airways, with serious consequences.

He’d got away quite lightly, but one could only imagine the extent to which Rossi’s intestinals had been overwhelmed by extraneous bacteria. I reached for an injection of antibiotics, confident that a five-day course would solve his problem.

But Rossi was not the first patient I had seen in this predicament.

About ten years ago, I arrived at a local dairy farm to do some routine fertility work in the cows. But there were no cows ready in the pen, which was unusual and the farmer, when he appeared, looked flustered.

“I could have done with you about an hour ago,” he said, red-faced. I didn’t think I was late, but he went on the explain.

First thing in the morning, he’d found a cow in the cow shed who had clearly had a calf in the middle of the night. But there was no calf to be seen.

Eventually, the poor newborn was spotted bobbing around in the middle of the slurry lagoon, next to the cowshed.

The calf had been born in the passage, from where it had been scraped up by the automatic scraping machine, which continuously moves backwards and forwards to keep the surface clean of cow poo.

“I couldn’t work out where the little calf was, then I suddenly spotted it. Poor thing was bobbing about in the slurry. It had been automatically scraped!” he explained.

“So, I went and got a ladder and lowered it in. Then I climbed down and lifted it out. It was pretty slippery, but what else could I do?” he said, matter-of-factly.

I was pretty sure this kind of rescue broke all the health and safety rules on a farm. What would have happened if the ladder had slipped? I dare not imagine.

But, apart from the obvious problems, the recovery was relatively smooth. Before seeing the cows, I gave the calf a check over.

Again, relatively clean and dry and bedded in deep straw with a heat lamp overhead, the calf had enjoyed a lucky escape, although it was a lot more smelly than Rossi!