Vetnews | Maart 2026 32 « BACK TO CONTENTS We were young, very enthusiastic and very innocent. For four and a half years, we had memorised facts until our brains were full to bursting. Now that we were in our final year, we could actually get to be vets, albeit very inexperienced ones. We had read all about how to use a stethoscope to listen to heart and lung sounds, how to take temperatures, how to do a full clinical examination and how to use an otoscope to look into ears. At last, we could physically do all those things and more. It was very exciting and somewhat intimidating. One morning, six of us piled into a mobile ambulance and set off on some farm calls. The clinician in charge of us was at the wheel. During the drive, he recapped the finer points of how to do a full clinical examination on a cow. We were primed and rearing to go. When we arrived at the farm, we were greeted by the farmer, who showed us to his sick cow. She was a very large Brahman cow with the typical zebu hump between her shoulders. She was loosely tethered to a stake but was too sick to move much. She had a very mournful look in her eyes, almost begging us to help her. The six of us swarmed around her and began with our clinical examination. One student lifted the tail and inserted the thermometer, another tried to feel her pulse, and two looked in her mouth and eyes. Unbeknownst to us, Herman had gone round to the other side and started to percuss her chest. He started to tap on a flat piece of perspex held against the chest, listening for a change in sound intensity. This could indicate lung consolidation or pneumonia. I decided to use my stethoscope to listen to the cow’s heart. I plugged it into my ears and placed it on my chest over the area where the heart should be and listened. Instead of hearing the typical lub dub heart sounds I expected, all I could hear was a strange clicking sound. I was totally confused and called our clinician. “Hey doc – come listen to this weird heart!” Our clinician calmly strolled over and placed his stethoscope on the cow’s chest. He listened for a long time, and his expression changed from one of initial mild boredom to puzzlement, to total bewilderment. He, too, had never heard a cow’s heart sound like that. He suggested we all have a turn in listening to this strange heart. He looked around to see where we all were and caught sight of a pair of boots on the opposite side of the cow. The penny dropped. He jumped up against the cow and looked over her hump – there was Herman blissfully unaware of his surroundings, happily percussing away on the chest. We were slightly less innocent after listening to the fourletter words that erupted from our clinician’s mouth, as he shouted at Herman to go sit on the bus and not be a total imbecile for just one morning. v Article THE CLICKING HEART Steve Wimberley
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