We were called out to perform a postmortem on a cow that had died suddenly despite showing no symptoms prior to this. This was the second cow this had happened to, and the farmer was concerned about a serious underlying problem in the herd.

Following a thorough, systematic approach we checked the cow from nose to tail trying to find the underlying cause. We started to get concerned as everything appeared completely normal… that was, until we cut into the heart and a large spurt of pus glazed my wet weathers! This cow had a large abscess INSIDE her heart muscle!

An intramyocardial abscess. These are extremely rare and occur when bacteria make it into the blood and establish themselves inside the heart muscle. It is likely that the cow had a minor underlying infection somewhere previously, allowing the bacteria to enter the bloodstream. In this case, the abscess likely just got so large that it disrupted the electrical conduction in the heart, ultimately resulting in a heart attack. This was likely an isolated event, and we found no evidence that this presented a threat to the herd.