UbiCaritas
Member
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
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