Calk with Trocar still bloating

[coletacowboy]

We have a 7 month old holstein calf that bloated for the second time on Saturday. We had a Trocar put in - but as it plugs the calf continues to bloat. Up until the first bloat a month ago this calf was extremely healthy. He has always had a pot bellied look to him but always ate and gained weight well. Since the Trocar has been put in we have not seen him chew his cud, but he still eats, poops and drinks fine. The trocar has food coming out of it and that is why it is plugging - there is no foam coming out and he is not struggling to breathe. Vet gave him Rumen Eze and penecillin when he put the trocar in.

Any advice on next steps here? He is one of 5 calves that we have - these are not the first calves we have ever owned. There has been no change in feed other than we are getting to the bottom of our gravity wagon of corn. Vet wondered if he was eating too much of the corn dust- so we have been trying to sift the corn before feeding the calves. They are on grass pasture with access to a round bale (grass hay)

Hate to have him die or try to replace him at the weight he is at. Seems he may be a chronic bloater.

 

[Koffi Babone]

Has your calf had any recent infection?
There is a product called antigaz emulsion, that may help some.

Milkmaid posted a bunch of photos for different medical conditions (for newbies). Does your calf look like the one for vagal indigestion? If it does, here is some more info:

http://www.merckmanuals.com/vet/digesti ... nants.html

 

[Hook]

Next time you see another cow or calf chewing it's cud, grab a was out of it's mouth and shove it down the throat of the bloating one. I'll bet the rumen bugs arent working right

 

[polledbull]

he may be a chronic bloater , and never get over it

 

[coletacowboy]

We had to unblock the Trocar twice yesterday. The second time he was very mildly bloated- we got him tied up and gave him a squirt of pro biotics and some rumen-eze into the trocar. This morning he was not bloated but food is oozing out of the trocar - it is fibrous and not foamy so I know it is food. We had very heavy rains the last two days (over 5 inches) so the calves were in the shed. I gave 1 very small flake of alfalfa in the feeder so they would all stand so I could get closer to the bloaty calf and he looked great and was eating well. Went out an hour later and he was laying down chewing his cud- once the trocar is out I think he is going down the road. We just can't put more money into him to have him die as a 1000 lb steer- bad enough we have fed him for almost 7 months and this is starting now.

To answer some of the questions - he has not been sick nor had any injuries before the bloat started- the calves are fed ground corn with protein mixed by our local elevator and have free choice round bale of grass hay - they also now have a pasture. Just not sure where the bloat is coming from