bloat? prolapse? old age?

[K2011]

My grandpa has a cow...a rather old cow. My father has been watching her and said that her left side was big, I know that this probably means bloat but I couldn't see her to put in another opinion...although I've never seen a live bloated cow I might get to "help" make the descision if she was bloated or not...well turns out today she was lying in the tank and couldn't get up...we assumed that her back hooves where sucked into the clay - which after examination we found that they where to an extent but we felt that it wasn't as rendering as what she was "putting off" so we tied some ropes around her and rocked our brains tryign to come up with and idea as to what to do to get her just out of the water but then of course she had to be on the steepest side of the whole tank and was weak from being in there all day we suppose...but we rocked and rocked our brains some more trying to come up with another plan b/c none of the other ones where working and to top it all off we only had maybe 30mins left of light.......we finally got her pulled up and out of the water and I still cannot think of what method we used to get her out b/c we tried so many. After letting us and her rest for a short while (min or two) we wanted to get her on top of the tank dam so that way if she could/or tired to stand she wouldn't tumble back down into the water and drown...well after some more pulling we got her to the top and after an examination to make sure she was "ok" or as ok as she could be I saw that it looked like she was prolapsing a bit -- now nothing really was protruding out but you could see that it looked like it -- so I have no earthly idea what 2morrow will bring hopefully she will be dead or we will have to shoot her....sorry if I didn't make any sense I was telling the story as I remembered it...

(in some of the pics it looked like we had been pulling her by her neck/head but that was to keep her head looking forward and not lying in the water like she was wanting to do)

 

[kenny thomas]

The prolaps look may be from her struggle trying to get out of the tank. Good luck with her.

 

[kenny thomas]

Also if it was bloat it would be high on the side not low like a big stomach.

 

[K2011]

What...that is if she makes it tell 2morrow...should we give her if she is standing and looks like she has bloat which I'm pretty sure she has...

 

[dun]

Just being gassy isn;t bloat. Bloat is the inability to vent gas as fast as it's formed. If you look at the area just in front of the hip bone you will see a triangle sort of that is soft. If that area is getting distneded then you have the beginnings of bloat. If you have to stick a bloated cow, that is where you stick them.

 

[kenny thomas]

Never had one in a cow, only in a few calves and it was caused by feed. Has she been down before getting in the tank? Lack of movement could cause bloat. Might also ask about a calcium suppliment or something to give her strength.

 

[K2011]

Never had one in a cow, only in a few calves and it was caused by feed. Has she been down before getting in the tank? Lack of movement could cause bloat. Might also ask about a calcium suppliment or something to give her strength.

I'm not really sure how often she has/was down...b/c I don't live there full time and haven't seen her in a week so I really have no idea -- this may be kinda a silly question but do animals with bloat want to be around water? or is it just a coinsidence that she is lying in the water?

 

[kenny thomas]

Possibly she was just weak enough that when she got in the tank she could not get out. The struggle just made her weaker. Good time to check her teeth and see how old she is.
She does look like she is old enough to sleep by herself.

 

[angie1]

Nevermind. I thought this was a thread about me......

 

[Keren]

interesting ... this must be one of those language things cos we would call that a dam ... never have heard a dam get called a tank ... this is a tank:

Learn something new every day.

Hope your cow goes alright. We usually hitch em up to the tractor to drag em out when they get like that. Although for a really innovative way to get a cow out of a dam, read John Marsden's "The Ellie Chronicles", I cant remember if it was book one, two or three though.

 

[dun]

interesting ... this must be one of those language things cos we would call that a dam ... never have heard a dam get called a tank ... this is a tank:

A dam holds back water. Depending on the location, a tank, pond, dugout are all the same thing

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Must be a "southern" word. I never heard it called a tank, even when we lived in Kansas. They were always a pond, water hole - but never a tank. Dun, do they use that term in Mo.?

 

[K2011]

interesting ... this must be one of those language things cos we would call that a dam ... never have heard a dam get called a tank ... this is a tank:

Learn something new every day.

Hope your cow goes alright. We usually hitch em up to the tractor to drag em out when they get like that. Although for a really innovative way to get a cow out of a dam, read John Marsden's "The Ellie Chronicles", I cant remember if it was book one, two or three though.

How do you position the rope on them?

 

[KNERSIE]

interesting ... this must be one of those language things cos we would call that a dam ... never have heard a dam get called a tank ... this is a tank:

Learn something new every day.

Pretty much how we call them as well. The UK also use the terms like we and the Aussies do.

 

[TexasBred]

Look, listen and learn. There are a lot of terms used in different regions for the same thing. Most here refer to them as tanks or ponds. The dam is what is built to hold the water back usually on the lowest part of the "tank or pond". Of course everything here is also a "coke" regardless of actual brand name of your "sodie water or pop".

 

[dun]

Must be a "southern" word. I never heard it called a tank, even when we lived in Kansas. They were always a pond, water hole - but never a tank. Dun, do they use that term in Mo.?

The only ones I've heard call them tanks are texans and the only ones I've heard them call thme dugouts were Canadian.
We call them pond, or if the cows have been using them for very long a "bog hole"

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Or if they are frozen over in Kansas - we called them "death traps"!

 

[Keren]

K2011 - rope positioning kinda depends on how the cow is stuck, how badly and in what position. Normally I try to dig down and get it around the chest - let me tell you that can be a whole lot of fun. With tension on the head to keep it forward. Some of them I've done with just the rope round the neck - no exactly ideal but with a bit of care not to kill the thing, it can be done. Seems to give em a bit of incentive to help out. Sometimes I've put a halter on the head and used that, helluiva lot better than just the rope round the neck, but sometimes I havent had a halter handy or I needed to get that cow out quick. Other times a rope round the butt has also been used.

As bad as it sounds, I use a thin rope in these cases, because 95% of the time once the cow feels the rope cutting into her a bit, she struggles and almost gets herself out. I know it sounds bad but it works.

 

[K2011]

K2011 - rope positioning kinda depends on how the cow is stuck, how badly and in what position. Normally I try to dig down and get it around the chest - let me tell you that can be a whole lot of fun. With tension on the head to keep it forward. Some of them I've done with just the rope round the neck - no exactly ideal but with a bit of care not to kill the thing, it can be done. Seems to give em a bit of incentive to help out. Sometimes I've put a halter on the head and used that, helluiva lot better than just the rope round the neck, but sometimes I havent had a halter handy or I needed to get that cow out quick. Other times a rope round the butt has also been used.

As bad as it sounds, I use a thin rope in these cases, because 95% of the time once the cow feels the rope cutting into her a bit, she struggles and almost gets herself out. I know it sounds bad but it works.

Ok thanks, that is exactly what we did and tried to do...execpt for the pulling from the head part...my dad pulled her with the rope around her chest and I pulled her forward so that way for one she kept her head outa the water and second so she knew which way to go.....

UPDATE: cow was back down in the water dead...not sure how long she had been there or how she died but she was nice and stiff when we got there....

 

[DavisBeefmasters]

What...that is if she makes it tell 2morrow...should we give her if she is standing and looks like she has bloat which I'm pretty sure she has...

Safest and least expensive would be to get her into a headgate, take a 3/8" diameter tube and put it down into the stomach to alleviate the gas. After all the gas is out (you will know when) administer some mineral oil through the tube directly into the stomach to keep her from frothing up again. [Puncturing the rumen through her hide is only an emergency situation, if she can walk there is no need to be putting holes through the hide into the rumen and allowing the chance for infection]

Recommendations:
1. Put an 18" piece of PVC pipe in her mouth to put the tube through to keep her from biting through it

2. Do NOT be at the receiving end of the tube because when you hit the hot spot it will burp through the tube big time

3. Do NOT administer the mineral oil into the mouth, only through the tube into the stomach... be sure you're in the stomach, oil in the throat or lungs or mouth will be inhaled into the lungs -- then the lungs collect all sorts of stuff and she'll get pneumonia... mineral oil only through the tube, only directly into the stomach

Good luck, be safe - keep us posted.