Extended Stomach

[Anonymous]

I have a 12 week old calf that is showing signs of possibly near bloat or perhaps some internal problem. For 4 days now his stomach has extended, more so on the left side. Some days it goes down a little and is right back up today. He also suffers from some permanent lung damage due to viral pneumonia he had, and on his "swollen" days he has problem sucking as I guess there is pressure on his chest. Can someone please offer some insight into this before I head off to the vet - again. Thank you very much.

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[Anonymous]

Recurrent bloat can occur if there is damage to the recurrent pharyngeal nerve which runs past those damaged lungs, and can also be damaged by hardware. If I have a bloater, I will generally do a rumen fistula, but a trochar and permanent plastic rumen plug can work as well. Hopefully your vet can fix the problem. My general rule with a bloated calf is I'll treat twice then do the surgery on the third time because it's become chronic. Some will put in the plug on the first bloat, but there is a risk of peritonitis that I don't want to take on the first bloating, but will take on recurrent bloaters.

good luck v