Lift or move your animal within ten minutes with Air-cow and protect animal welfare in every situation.
Air-cow
Benefits
Several techniques exist today for lifting and rehabilitating heavy animals.
However, these methods can be:
traumatic for the animal;
dangerous to handle;
difficult to set up;
labor-intensive and time-consuming;
costly.
Air-cow
Animal welfare
As animal welfare becomes increasingly important, a device like Air-cow is especially valuable. It keeps the animal comfortable in a natural, physiological position throughout the entire recovery period.
Versatility
In large-animal veterinary medicine, the Air-cow cushion can help improve outcomes in many everyday situations. The system is particularly well suited to supporting recovery from a range of conditions:
Hypocalcemia (milk fever), hypophosphatemia and hypomagnesemia
These deficiencies can leave animals unable to stand or cause them to collapse. With Air-cow, the animal can be safely supported in the device while receiving the necessary veterinary care.
This helps prevent complications from repeated falls, worsening of injury from failed lifting attempts, and the resulting pain.
It also helps prevent numbness, one of the main complications of prolonged recumbency. Air-cow can be used just as easily for a cow lying in the barn in winter as for one lying in the pasture in summer.
Obturator paralysis and traumatic calving
Calving can sometimes lead to complications. One of the most common occurs when the birth canal does not provide enough room for the calf to pass. This can cause inflammation of the birth canal, and above all of the pelvis and the nerves running through it. The resulting paralysis of the hind legs can persist for several days even with appropriate treatment.
This situation can cause further complications from prolonged recumbency and can prove fatal for large animals.
Air-cow keeps the animal in a natural, physiological position for as long as needed for recovery and for the swelling to subside, increasing the chances of recovery.
Septic shock
Septic shock is common in cattle following mastitis or metritis and causes extreme physical stress, high fever, and a halt in feed intake. The resulting drop in blood potassium levels can cause the animal to remain down and unable to stand.
Although appropriate antibiotic treatment and fluid therapy can stop the disease from progressing, the resulting complications — anorexia, hypokalemia, hypocalcemia, hypophosphatemia, pressure sores or other wounds — remain problematic.
By keeping the animal upright, the Air-cow cushion provides valuable support and helps optimize the effectiveness of often costly treatments such as antibiotics, fluid therapy and NSAIDs.
Air-cow helps limit the effects of prolonged recumbency and significantly increases the animal's chances of standing again once the primary infection has been successfully treated.
In daily practice, veterinarians are regularly called out for this type of condition, for example for a recumbent cow with septic mastitis. The infection can often be treated successfully, but three or four days later the animal sometimes still has to be euthanized because prolonged recumbency has left her unable to stand.
Bone fractures in calves
Some bone fractures, including fractures of the pelvis and femur, unfortunately cannot be treated with a cast or splint.
Rather than euthanizing the animal, as still often happens today, Air-cow keeps the animal in a natural, physiological position for the entire period needed for the bone to heal.
Note: we tested a prototype designed for animals weighing between 100 and 300 kg. With it, we successfully treated pelvic and femoral fractures in calves.
Animal welfare during transport of injured animals
Injured animals that cannot stand or walk are often transported using whatever means are available. Sometimes they are tied up and mechanically dragged. Even without intending harm, these practices can cause new injuries.
Using Air-cow in these situations significantly reduces the animal's stress and the risk of additional injury.
