MONROE - Grace and Wyatt had to get quick check-ups Wednesday as they entered the Green County Fair, but neither seemed impressed that the check-ups were being quickly completed by two good-looking doctors, both with a sense of humor.
Maybe it doesn't matter who in surgical gloves is touching you, because when they are looking for warts and ringworm and pinkeye - anything infectious or contagious - it must feel a bit like an insult. After all, Grace and Wyatt came to win at the fair.
Doctors Phil Frost and Edward Demianiuk cleared Grace and Wyatt and wrapped green paper bands around their little cow tails. They were free to go to the barns, with a kick of their heels, if they wanted.
Frost, from Brodhead Veterinary Medical Center, and Demianiuk, from Monroe Veterinary Service, are this year's Green County Fair veterinarians-on-call, volunteering their time and services through the Rock Valley Veterinary Medical Association. Rock Valley VMA includes veterinarians from Rock, Green, Walworth and Jefferson counties, and rotates its members to provide vet services at county fairs and other area events.
With about 25 years of veterinarian experience each, and walking around in surgical gloves, Frost and Demianiuk understand when somebody politely declines to shake their hand.
Checking most of the 279 county fair cattle entries, from nose to tail, Frost and Dr. Ed (as Demianiuk is more commonly called) worked in tandem from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, July 18, the opening day of the fair. Ethan Andre, entering the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine this fall, fair supervisors and volunteers Nathan Hartwig, Kathy Watson and Dewey Meier joined them.
Some entries were expected to drop out because of near-100 degree temperatures.
"The worst part of the fair - the days are hot, but it's when the nights don't cool down," Demianiuk said. "If the nights don't get below 70 degrees, the animals can't cool off."
"Cattle are what we worry about the most," Frost said. But the vets will also walk through the other animal barns - sheep and goats, rabbits and chickens - checking for distressed animals.
Pigs, which do not sweat or perspire, are automatically misted with water right in their pens, and Frost said the 4-H and FFA entrants are "being pretty diligent" about keeping the cool air moving in the barns.
This is the third year the fair has checked cattle for infections and contagions before entering the barns. Previously, cattle were bedded down in the barns first, and the vets walked through to do their checks. But that process created a risk of transferring infections.
The new process is much more "proactive," Frost pointed out.
It also takes a lot longer, Frost said, but trying to get all the animals through in a half day meant loaded trailers were backed up as far as the gate and sitting in the sun.
The cattle must be unloaded, but the vet check usually takes less than 30 seconds for each animal. Healthy cattle are given permission to proceed, and any questionable animal, a rarity, is turned aside before entering the barns.
The day-long process also gives the doctors brief moments to confer and to joke a bit between small waves of check-ins.
"We should have rain Thursday or Friday," Demianiuk predicted Wednesday, walking around with his hands in surgical gloves in the 99 degree noon-day heat, "because, if I recollect, we always get rain on Thursday or Friday of Fair Week."
Maybe more hopeful than convinced by the Dr. Ed's prediction, the rest of the team nodded, laughed and then started telling stories about past fair rains.
Demianiuk predicted a specific 1.87 inches for Green County - with no particular reasoning.
He was right-on for the county average rainfall - maybe a little late on his timing, but nobody is complaining. Wednesday night cooled off after thunderstorms rumbled through and gave the drought-stricken fields a good dousing throughout much of the county.
And with temperatures in the high 80s and low 90s and cooler nights in the 60s and 70s forecast for the rest of the fair, life for the vets suddenly feels a lot fairer.
Maybe it doesn't matter who in surgical gloves is touching you, because when they are looking for warts and ringworm and pinkeye - anything infectious or contagious - it must feel a bit like an insult. After all, Grace and Wyatt came to win at the fair.
Doctors Phil Frost and Edward Demianiuk cleared Grace and Wyatt and wrapped green paper bands around their little cow tails. They were free to go to the barns, with a kick of their heels, if they wanted.
Frost, from Brodhead Veterinary Medical Center, and Demianiuk, from Monroe Veterinary Service, are this year's Green County Fair veterinarians-on-call, volunteering their time and services through the Rock Valley Veterinary Medical Association. Rock Valley VMA includes veterinarians from Rock, Green, Walworth and Jefferson counties, and rotates its members to provide vet services at county fairs and other area events.
With about 25 years of veterinarian experience each, and walking around in surgical gloves, Frost and Demianiuk understand when somebody politely declines to shake their hand.
Checking most of the 279 county fair cattle entries, from nose to tail, Frost and Dr. Ed (as Demianiuk is more commonly called) worked in tandem from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, July 18, the opening day of the fair. Ethan Andre, entering the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine this fall, fair supervisors and volunteers Nathan Hartwig, Kathy Watson and Dewey Meier joined them.
Some entries were expected to drop out because of near-100 degree temperatures.
"The worst part of the fair - the days are hot, but it's when the nights don't cool down," Demianiuk said. "If the nights don't get below 70 degrees, the animals can't cool off."
"Cattle are what we worry about the most," Frost said. But the vets will also walk through the other animal barns - sheep and goats, rabbits and chickens - checking for distressed animals.
Pigs, which do not sweat or perspire, are automatically misted with water right in their pens, and Frost said the 4-H and FFA entrants are "being pretty diligent" about keeping the cool air moving in the barns.
This is the third year the fair has checked cattle for infections and contagions before entering the barns. Previously, cattle were bedded down in the barns first, and the vets walked through to do their checks. But that process created a risk of transferring infections.
The new process is much more "proactive," Frost pointed out.
It also takes a lot longer, Frost said, but trying to get all the animals through in a half day meant loaded trailers were backed up as far as the gate and sitting in the sun.
The cattle must be unloaded, but the vet check usually takes less than 30 seconds for each animal. Healthy cattle are given permission to proceed, and any questionable animal, a rarity, is turned aside before entering the barns.
The day-long process also gives the doctors brief moments to confer and to joke a bit between small waves of check-ins.
"We should have rain Thursday or Friday," Demianiuk predicted Wednesday, walking around with his hands in surgical gloves in the 99 degree noon-day heat, "because, if I recollect, we always get rain on Thursday or Friday of Fair Week."
Maybe more hopeful than convinced by the Dr. Ed's prediction, the rest of the team nodded, laughed and then started telling stories about past fair rains.
Demianiuk predicted a specific 1.87 inches for Green County - with no particular reasoning.
He was right-on for the county average rainfall - maybe a little late on his timing, but nobody is complaining. Wednesday night cooled off after thunderstorms rumbled through and gave the drought-stricken fields a good dousing throughout much of the county.
And with temperatures in the high 80s and low 90s and cooler nights in the 60s and 70s forecast for the rest of the fair, life for the vets suddenly feels a lot fairer.