09/16/2026
This was NOT on today’s schedule but Fredericksburg really showed up!
I was picking up my kids from school this afternoon when I ran into Chad D. Druen-Miller, who got my attention and mentioned a loose cow down at Marktplatz.
I told him I could be there in a few minutes to dart her. Loose cows around town aren’t uncommon. I had my work truck, and my dart gun was still warm from a busy day.
What I did NOT know was the rest of the story.
Apparently, she had fallen out of a trailer and was understandably pretty agitated. Not injured, but definitely not impressed with life downtown. Fredericksburg Texas Police Department had roads blocked off, and a whole collection of people had managed to keep her contained in the area.
But the real kicker?
She had been on her way to our friends at Fredericksburg Veterinary Center Neal Eckert, DVM because she was in labor and not progressing.
So, our loose-cow situation very quickly became a dystocia in the middle of Marktplatz!
With an incredible group of people willing to jump in and do exactly what needed to be done, I was able to dart her with sedation. Chad threw the perfect loop on her, and he and Ben Fuller dallied her off to a tree. Ben took some serious rope burn but never let go! Once the guys safely got her down, I could finally get to work figuring out why this baby wasn’t coming.
Dr. Neal was tied up with another case, but his techs from Fredericksburg Veterinary Center had arrived to assist, and suddenly we had ourselves a pretty impressive, completely improvised obstetrical team.
With some skill, some muscle, excellent help following directions, and the marvelous Ralph Rode holding tension on my chains, we got the the calf out pretty fast.
Because Mama had required sedation, baby had received some of it in utero. We reversed him, got him breathing and responding, and welcomed a brand-new little bull calf into the world right there in the middle of downtown Fredericksburg.
Meanwhile, Chad, Ben, Fredericksburg PD, and the rest of this impromptu crew went right back to work getting Mama safely loaded into the trailer while I reversed her sedation.
And then, almost as quickly as this whole thing started, Mama and baby were headed on to Fredericksburg Veterinary Center for continued care.
Last report: both are happy and healthy. ❤️
There are days in veterinary medicine that exhaust you, days that humble you, and then there are days you know you’ll remember for the rest of your life.
What I’ll remember most about this one isn’t that a cow fell out of a trailer, shut down a road, and then had her calf in Marktplatz. Although, admittedly, that is going to be pretty hard to top. 😂
I’ll remember how many people stepped forward.
No time to make much of a plan. Just a veterinarian mom, technicians, cowboys, law enforcement, ranchers, and bystanders looking at one another and saying, in one way or another, “Okay. What do you need me to do?”
And everybody did it.
That kind of collaboration, in the middle of Marktplatz of all places, makes me incredibly proud to practice veterinary medicine here and even prouder to call Fredericksburg home.
Huge thank you to Chad, Ben Fuller, Ralph Rode, the team from Fredericksburg Veterinary Center, the Fredericksburg Police Department, and every single person who jumped in to help today. And thank you to Doug Clark for capturing photos of a memory I definitely want to keep.
If you were there and got pictures or video, PLEASE drop them in the comments! And tag anyone you recognize so we can give all of the members of today’s completely unofficial “Marktplatz Bovine Emergency Response Team” the credit they deserve.
Sometimes it really does take a village.
Apparently, sometimes the village has to deliver a calf. ❤️
-Dr Carroll
