calf bloat - animal died in the night after treatment

[UbiCaritas]

Hi Everyone,
I treated my first case of bloat yesterday evening. My grandfather called me at 6:00 and said he had a sick calf and needed help holding her to give her penicillin. When I arrived 20 minutes later I was completely alarmed by her condition. Her breathing was labored (to understate it) and she was bloated, but not hugely so. I started off with the only suitable tube I had to relieve the bloat, but it wasn't long enough so I didn't get very far. While I had my grandpa off finding a longer piece of hose, the calf's abdomen was growing almost visibly. After a few minutes she was just as tight as could be, and then she threw herself on the ground and rolled her eyes up and stopped moving. At this point I remembered that I had a needle in my pocket, so I stuck it in her side and got a little hiss of air coming out. Grandpa arrived with a hose he uses to siphon gasoline (!) and that did the trick; she deflated instantly. We got her on her belly instead of her side, gave her a cup of pepto bismol, and covered her up. Her breathing continued to be very labored, and at 10:00 pm I couldn't think of anything more to do for her, so I went home, and she died in the night.

I would like to have some idea what happened. The rest of the heard (about 45 cows and 30 calves) are all fine. They were on new pasture yesterday in the orchard, so she could have eaten something new (she was a month old, so was grazing at little), but no one else seems to have eaten anything bad. And we've pastured cattle there every year.

Oh, one more thing about this calf in particular; she was very tiny (maybe 35 pounds) when she was born, but needed no intervention and had grown like a weed since.

I understand how bloat causes death, but I wish I knew what caused the bloat! Any ideas? And any advice on anything to do differently next time?

Thanks,
Emily

 

[ALACOWMAN]

what kind of grass or weeds were in the pasture

 

[UbiCaritas]

All I can tell you about what's growing in that pasture is that whatever it is has been growing there for years, and has never made anyone sick. It's mostly grass. In case something new and noxious has blown in, I plan to take my camera and take a picture of every weed I see there, for identification. But as I said, none of the other 75 animals in the pasture are sick.

 

[Howdyjabo]

Crosses my mind since you mentioned it was small-- how fast it progressed-- did it on grass-- and you haven't had problems before- and the size of the calf--- and that it ended up dead.

There are cases of mechanical bloat--where there is either damage,blockage or deformity that blocks things--

 

[farm princess]

I just went through a few cases of bloat where one bloated and died and the other bloated several times but hasn't died. We called the vet and a few things you can give them is tums (pretty much a whole bottle) --throw some powder laundry soap in their mouth ( approx. 1/4 cup ) or baking soda (not sure how much) and you can also buy stuff called bloat release but we tried that and it didn't seem to help that much. I normally go with the tums and it seems to start their burping almost instantly. I feed my calves grain mostly (beef cows) and we learned that the feed was ground to fine for this calve and switched to whole and that has solved the problem.
If you stuck the cow and got air--you can move it around to keep getting the air out.
I don't know if I helped any or confused you but I try!!!!
;-)

 

[Texas PaPaw]

Sorry for your loss. Have found 60-120cc of liquid detergent squirted into the back of their mouth works great for relieving bloat. Just use syringe without needle to squirt it in.

Good luck & happy trails.

Brock

 

[milkmaid]

I'd be inclined to think, like Karen, that it was a blockage and not the standard bloat (like cattle get on legume pasture). Calves are known for eating all kinds of things - hay bale twine, plastic bags, metal odds and ends, etc. Lot of things that could cause a blockage. Or of course it could have been related to the fact the calf wasn't *normal* from the start - any undersized (runt) calf, dog, cat, etc has a chance of having internal problems. There's usually a good reason they're smaller than usual.

Secondary problem may have been death due to shock - calf was about dead, you stuck him with a needle and punctured the rumen (the only option under those circumstances) -- don't think he isn't under a lot of stress and likely to go into shock. Dexamethasone might have helped the calf, but of course if the cause of bloat was a blockage, you still would have lost her.

 

[dun]

Bloat reduced to it's simplist term is the inability of adequate eructation to take place (they can't burp or burp fast enough). Gas builds up and puts pressure on the internal organs. Too small of bubbles of gas can cause it, I think that's what's called frothy bloat, just too much gas that they can;t expell fast enough or an obstruction (I call it mechanical bloat) that prevents the gas from being expelled. Other then eructation all of the other stuff is my terms, I just like the term eructation, has a certain ring to it.

dun