I've been wrestling with bloat in my 4-month old Angus weanling. He was weaned off the Jersey over a month ago; he'd been eating cake very happily for some weeks before that, so adapted to a no milk diet without any problems.
However, about a week ago, he suddenly blew up to an alarming extent - completely rotund. He and his two pen-mates had been on three scoops of cake a day between the three of them, split into two meals, plus ad lib hay. Fresh straw for bedding, water trough for water. No access to grass yet until Katy (Jersey calf, weaned two weeks later than her 'brother') had completely adapted to being weaned.
The other two were absolutely fine.
BH said it was a vet job; vet came, put tube down throat and boy did some gas come out! I half expected Toffee to go shooting round the pen backwards!
Vet gave rumen-stimulant jag, told us to give a paraffin drench, put him on his own on clean straw (so we could see if he was pooing) and give him hay and water only for a day or two. He also said that they often blew up again in cases like this (no obvious cause in an older calf not at grass), in which case it would be a canula in the side, which would need to stay in place for some time and was of course a source of potential infection, which was why he tried the tube approach in the first instance.
Toffee seemed okay for a day or two, pooing normally, though still a little bit round, so I began to give him a handful of cake night and morning.
Monday night, at bedtime checks, he was alarmingly distended again. BH and I did the tube release ourselves, having seen it done once, and not wanting a night-time vet callout if we could give Toffs relief until the morning. More paraffin, and we left him till morning.
He was swollen up again, but not lifethreateningly so. I told BH I wanted to try some of the bloat remedies I'd seen on here, so went off to buy yoghurt, sunflower oil and bicarb of soda. (We had of course run out of all three; I already had ginger in stock.)
First drench of yoghurt, sunflower oil and ginger, diluted to make a pouring drench, went down very well. After the first mouthful he was slurping it from the drench tube himself. Much burping, pooing and peeing ensued, the distension reduced, he began to eat some hay and I left him for a while.
Two hours later he was distended again, but not so badly, so he had another drench of yoghurt, sunflower oil and ginger. I thought he would knock me over, he was so keen to get to it! I stayed with him, massaging his stomach and watching what happened, for half an hour or so. Much the same as before, burping, pooing and peeing, then off to eat some hay. I offered soaked shredded sugar beet (BH was very concerned that I was withholding cake from a bovine with an upset stomach), but he wasn't interested in it.
I was disappointed but not very surprised when, yesterday evening, he was very distended again. I decided to add bicarb of soda to the yoghurt and sunflower oil, and if that didn't work, use the tube again for overnight relief and get the vet in the morning.
The bicarb certainly had an effect - he wasn't so keen on the drench with that in it, but there was a lot more immediate burping. As the distension reduced, I could see his rumen starting to work - the muscle wave was clearly visible on his left flank. Each time this seemed to reduce, I gave him a drench of fresh water to reinvigorate the bicarb. I did this three times in all, and then finally the rumen contractions continued, every 30 seconds, just as they should be, and he began again to eat hay.
I expected to find him very round and uncomfortable again this morning, and to be calling the vet. But...
, he is
completely normal!
So a very big thank you
to all my TAS friends who have over the years contributed these remedies for bloat, albeit on the sheep and goat boards hitherto!
Topic: Bloat in 4-month weanling (Read 7567 times)
