Cows with holes in their stomachs

I’ve been posting a lot of photos of cows lately, so naturally I wanted to find an interesting video of a cow to post. Somehow, I ended up over at Damn Interesting reading about some cows that have man-made fistulas in their stomach areas.

These holes or “windows” give veterinarians and curious folk a close look at the digestive systems of cows. Food and medicine can be taken from and placed into this hole without having to go through the cow’s mouth.

Here’s an interesting little tidbit: Cook College (part of Rutgers University in NJ) has an “Experimental Animal Barn” that houses at least one of these “windowed cows”.