Reborn in 1977

Waving goodbye and stepping out of the restaurant, a blast of cold air rushed down Chen Fan's neck, causing him to shiver and huddle deeper into his coat.

He looked up at the sky, where goose feather-sized snowflakes were falling heavily. He quickly donned his bamboo hat and raincoat before stepping out into the wind and snow.

However, he wasn't heading back; instead, he went to the veterinary station.

Since he was at the commune, he might as well stop by and see if he could gain some experience points, at least enough to make up for what he'd lost yesterday.

He had really lost out yesterday because he didn't personally treat the little foal, which meant he couldn't activate his veterinary skill.

Upon entering the veterinary station, he could still hear the mournful cries of livestock coming from the back, suggesting that the large animals here were constantly suffering.

Walking to the backyard, he saw Station Chief Zhou and others in the livestock shed, gathered around a water buffalo, looking helpless.

Hearing footsteps, Station Chief Zhou and the others turned around, and upon seeing him, they were overjoyed. They immediately called out, "Master Chen, you've come at the right time! Take a look at this buffalo and see what the problem is."

Chen Fan was taken aback. Was it really that coincidental? Every time he came, there were patients?

And they called him over to take a look as soon as he arrived. Was there something strange about that?

At that moment, he seemed to understand why the leaders of the production team valued veterinarians so much. When livestock fell ill and there was no veterinarian to treat them, they could only be brought to the commune's veterinary station. The long and difficult journey was a minor issue; delaying treatment and allowing a small illness to become a large one, or a large illness to become a critical one, was a truly helpless situation.

Chen Fan didn't delay and walked over to look at the listless water buffalo lying on the ground.

Water buffaloes were the main work animals of the production team, holding the highest priority. Normally, they wouldn't necessarily be particularly robust, but they definitely wouldn't be allowed to become emaciated.

However, this water buffalo not only had sunken eyes and appeared weak, but its ribs were also clearly visible, which was highly unusual.

Chen Fan squatted down in front of the buffalo and gently called out a few times, but it didn't respond at all. He frowned and carefully observed its condition.

Station Chief Zhou stood beside him, bending down and quietly asking, "How is it? Do you have any ideas?"

The others also looked at him expectantly, their faces filled with anxiety.

Chen Fan turned to look at him, frowned, and said, "I need to check some books, but I've taken them all home."

Station Chief Zhou immediately said, "We have them here too! The ones we gave you are all multiple copies. The veterinary station's reference room has retained copies, and there are also single-issue journals."

Chen Fan stood up and asked, "Where are they?"

Station Chief Zhou immediately led him inside, while saying with a wry smile, "There are plenty of books in the reference room, but none of us can understand them. The most educated among us is Doctor Wang, but he only has a junior high school education. Without a teacher to guide him, he only has a superficial understanding of many things. He can't even understand the words, so how would he dare to prescribe medicine based on them?!"

Chen Fan pursed his lips, unsure of what to say.

A doctor in his twenties, the one he had met yesterday who treated the mule, introduced himself eagerly, "Hello, Master Chen. I'm Wang Shiping. I hope you can give me a lot of guidance in the future."

Chen Fan's lips twitched slightly, and he quickly said, "No, no, I'm just an amateur. I should be asking you for guidance."

Wang Shiping sighed and said with a wry smile, "We only have some local methods and old experience. We're not as educated as you. I'm afraid what we know isn't enough for you to learn in two months. When you come and attend the training course and get your rural veterinarian certificate, it will be our turn to ask you for guidance!"

Chen Fan gave an awkward laugh, speechless.

Now he understood that the standards for rural doctors were low, and the standards for rural veterinarians were even lower. As long as you dared to deal with livestock and memorized some responses to symptoms, you could pass the assessment and become a veterinarian.

As for the so-called experience, it was just about increasing or decreasing dosages or combining several prescriptions to achieve better results.

Why the previous production team trainees couldn't pass the exam with such simple things, Chen Fan could only express his incomprehension.

Soon, they arrived at the reference room. Chen Fan skipped over the books he had already read and quickly searched for content related to cattle.

However, after searching for a long time, he didn't see any cases similar to this cow's.

At this moment, Station Chief Zhou suddenly said, "This is the third cow this year. The last time it snowed heavily, two cows had the same symptoms. We tried many methods, but we still couldn't save them."

Hearing this, Chen Fan was stunned. The third cow?

That was a high incidence rate.

Moreover, it had snowed heavily last time, and it was snowing heavily this time. Could there be a connection between the two?

He pondered for two seconds, put the book back in its place, and walked to the veterinary journal shelf, saying, "Station Chief Zhou, please take down all the latest journals and turn to the table of contents."

The books contained established diseases, while the journals contained recent research findings. Since it wasn't in the books, he could only try his luck in the journals.

Station Chief Zhou and the other doctors immediately started, moving all the journals to the ground and opening them to the table of contents.

Actually, there weren't many. There was only one type of journal, which was the "Jiangnan Agricultural Science" (purely fictional). This was an agricultural magazine sponsored by the Jiangnan Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences and two universities, founded in 1955 and published monthly, targeting all agricultural-related institutions in the province.

Similar magazines existed in almost every province, but the content varied.

Chen Fan scanned quickly, starting with the most recent issue. He immediately saw a title called "Hypothermia in Water Buffaloes."

He quickly picked up the magazine and opened it. After a moment, he looked at Station Chief Zhou and asked, "Are the cow's symptoms slow reaction and low body temperature?"

Station Chief Zhou's eyes lit up with surprise, and he nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, that's exactly it. Have you found it?"

Chen Fan handed him the book and said solemnly, "It says here that this disease is called hypothermia in water buffaloes. It can occur throughout the year, but it's mainly concentrated between December and April of the following year, with February to April being the most concentrated.

The main causes of the disease are four: consuming moldy fodder leading to wasting diseases, parasitic infections, natural decline of the body after reaching a certain age, and finally, excessive labor and poor feed. Draft cattle fail to get adequate rest after heavy labor, and are only fed coarse straw after winter sets in…"

Station Chief Zhou was over 50 years old, and the other three veterinarians were all around 30 years old, but at this moment, they were all standing beside him like elementary school students, listening attentively.

Chen Fan read for a while, and finally said, "Now we can only say that the symptoms are very similar to hypothermia in water buffaloes. Whether it is or not will only be known after using the medicine."

Then he began to recite the recommended prescription written in the journal.

He was completely ignorant of medicine, and he was simply reciting from the book.

However, Station Chief Zhou and the others were experienced doctors and knew all kinds of common herbs and Western medicines well. Every time Chen Fan recited a medicine name, they would take one out, and soon a pile of medicine was piled up on the table.

There were not only Western medicines for injection, but also herbs for decocting traditional Chinese medicine.

Chen Fan didn't know how to inject, so he could only watch from the side.

When the decoction was brought up and Station Chief Zhou and the others were about to feed the water buffalo, Chen Fan quickly said, "Why don't I try?"

Although he didn't understand why, Station Chief Zhou would definitely not refuse this small matter and carefully guided him from the side.

Chen Fan carefully inserted the iron tube for feeding medicine into the water buffalo's mouth, and said to it, "Be good and open your mouth to take the medicine. You'll get better after taking the medicine."

The water buffalo finally "mooed" and opened its mouth.

Before the medicine could be fed, Chen Fan received a prompt that his experience points had skyrocketed, and the experience points for his veterinary skill jumped to 10. As long as he treated one or two more livestock, he could level up to level 2.