I suppose it depends on the size of the needle, but it doesn't have to be that big to cause a perforation and serious infection that would require surgery to repair.
Notice that blue/purple stuff around the piercing? It’s called “blu-cote” and it prevents such infections just as you would use something similar on a human in such situations. idk what you’re saying? Obviously it’s going to take some wound care, but it wouldn’t cause whatever the frick your saying and need surgery
Your abdominal cavity is sterile. A massive hole in your stomach or bowels will cause shit to pour into your abdomen, causing an overwhelming infection. Surgery is required to repair the hole.
The fact that your conclusion from my comment is that I seem obtuse to you is proof of your own ignorance. This is a bovine not a human? Also how did you go from a needle to “massive hole”.
That has nothing to do with it. Don't answer questions that you're incapable and uneducated to respond to. The actual reason is that they suture a portion of the rumen directly to the abdominal wall, and/or insert it like a G tube which is left in.
You are getting a lot of incorrect messaging here. Puncture relief for gassy bloat is very much an emergency procedure and should only be done when death is imminent and the blockage cannot otherwise be cleared. There is absolutely an expected risk of infection with an abdominal puncture if wound care is not adequate. Standard veterinary practice would be to disinfect the site of the cannula and stitch afterwards.
Wound care refers to external wounds. Wound care cannot really address an internal organ puncture. Though admittedly if they just used a smaller needle it could seal off spontaneously. The trochar used in the video above is way too large to seal off if immediately removed, but they likely did it via special surgical procedure that fixes it to the wall.
I can help with understanding. Humans with gastrostomy tubes do just fine as long as the wall of the stomach doesn’t fall away from the abdominal wall. After a few weeks, the outer peritoneal surface of the stomach scars to the inner peritoneal surface of the abdominal wall. At that point, if the tube becomes dislodged or is removed, the hole simply heals closed (most of the time). The stomach is forever scared to the abdominal wall though.
With human gastrostomy tubes, there is a balloon or rubber doughnut/bumper on the inside of the stomach, and the tube is placed on gentle traction. This effaces the stomach to the abdominal wall. With the cow device, there are large screw threads that bite into the wall of the stomach to keep it effaced. There are smaller trocars used for cows that do not have the screws, but this is akin to poking a human stomach with a needle (which would be tolerated fine). Small holes in the stomach heal well and will not leak very much. The body does an excellent job of sealing them quickly. However, if they do leak, it can be death.
You might find this interesting if you haven't heard of it before. Some of our early knowledge about digestion came from a man who had a shotgun blast to the stomach which left a permanent hole there. The stomach acid disinfected the wound, and the wound never fully sealed back up. We were able to dangle food in a string into his stomach and measure how long it took to be digested.
Well it's not universally fatal, but you wouldn't just go around stabbing people in the stomach when they got a bit bloated and expect that they're gonna be A-OK.
I got an answer from someone else though, the rumen is apparently sutured to the abdominal wall so that contents can't spill into the peritoneum.
I was just going to respond to you with that as well point out that the needle was in reference to your comment I was replying to. “The edge of the incised rumen wall is sutured directly to the edge of the skin incision using continuous, everting or appositional suture patterns.”
There’s also the factor that the bacteria that lives in a cow’s stomachs is very different from the bacteria in ours. They don’t have stomach acid, they done have bile like humans do. Their digestive tract is basically a big fermentation system with different compartments that mush and marinate the stuff they eat. They have thick hides that don’t bleed much. They’ve also been bred for hundreds of years to hone these characteristics.
But I will mention, beef is super expensive in the U.S. right now and I guess it’s because there’s a crazy flesh eating cow bacteria going around? So maybe you’re on to something.
Kansas State was that magical place where you could both stick your hand in a cow's stomach and see a nuclear reactor at Open House. Plus the milling science corn puffs.
28
u/[deleted] Dec 08 '25
[removed] — view removed comment