What are the benefits?

Versatility

In large-animal medicine there is a multitude of everyday situations in which the Air-cow cushion genuinely optimises the success of treatment. The system proves highly effective in the recovery from various pathologies:

Hypocalcaemia (milk fever), hypophosphataemia and hypomagnesaemia

These deficiencies usually prevent animals from getting up or cause them to fall. The value of the Air-cow system is to place the animal safely in the device while it receives the necessary veterinary care.

This avoids all the complications linked to repeated falls, the worsening of injuries caused by unsuccessful lifting attempts and the resulting pain.

It completely eliminates numbness, the main complicating factor of recumbency. Air-cow can be used just as easily for a cow down in the barn in winter as in the pasture in summer.

Sciatic syndrome and traumatic calvings

Calving can regularly lead to complications. One of the most frequent is the lack of space in the birth canal as the calf passes through: this causes inflammation of the birth canal but above all of the pelvis and the nerves running through it, resulting in paralysis of the hind limbs which, despite appropriate treatment, can take days to resolve.

This in turn causes further complications due to prolonged recumbency and is often fatal for large-framed animals.

Air-cow keeps the animal in a physiological position for as long as recovery and the resorption of the oedema require, ultimately increasing its chances of recovery.

Septic shock

A common pathology, often following mastitis or metritis in cattle, septic shock causes extreme stress and high fever, cessation of feed intake and therefore a drop in blood potassium, resulting in recumbency and an inability to get up.

While the progression of the disease can be stopped with appropriate antibiotic treatment and infusion, the resulting complications (anorexia and hypokalaemia, hypocalcaemia, hypophosphataemia, pressure sores, wounds…) remain problematic.

By keeping the animal standing, the Air-cow cushion is extremely useful as it optimises an often costly treatment (antibiotics, fluid therapy, NSAIDs…).

The Air-cow system limits the consequences of prolonged recumbency and greatly increases the chances of the animal getting up once the primary infection has been successfully treated.

In everyday practice, field vets are regularly called out for this kind of pathology (a downer cow with septic mastitis). Very often we manage to cure the disease, yet 3 or 4 days later we still have to euthanise the animal — despite the successful treatment — simply because it can no longer get up (prolonged recumbency).

Fractures (calves)

Some fractures, such as those of the pelvis and femur, unfortunately cannot be treated with a cast or a splint.

The Air-cow device keeps the animal in a physiological position for as long as bone healing requires, instead of euthanising it, as is often the case today.

NB: we have tested a prototype designed for animals between 100 and 300 kg with which we successfully treated pelvis/femur fractures in calves.

Welfare during the transport of injured animals

Injured animals that cannot get up or move are often transported with whatever means are at hand, tying the animal up and dragging it mechanically — often traumatic, even if unintentionally so.

Using the Air-cow device in these particular situations considerably reduces the stress and the injuries associated with them.

Physiotherapy

The cushion was also designed for physiotherapy.

Air-cow

What are the benefits?

Air-cow

Benefits

Air-cow

Animal welfare

Versatility

Hypocalcaemia (milk fever), hypophosphataemia and hypomagnesaemia

Sciatic syndrome and traumatic calvings

Septic shock

Fractures (calves)

Welfare during the transport of injured animals

Physiotherapy