Just loss my cow named Hershe bar. Helper found her laying down at the hay rack on her left side. He call me and said she was still alive. When I got there ( 5 minutes) she was trying to get up. I called 3 vets and got numbers to call. I called and left messages. This was about 9:00 am. As of yet none have called back. I took a cut off piece of garden hose and went in on the left side to stomach but all I could get was yellow fluid to drain out. I tried to release gas by hose for at least 30 minutes. No luck. I call my sale barn and got Dustin, he said to get water hose and cut end off and get an about 3-1/2 to 4 foot and go in on left side. I did I said, he said get and Ice pick and go in about 3 " in front of hip bone to make hole to let air out, that didn't work either. I went back to hose and more yellow watery fluid came out. Now it's 12 noon and she stills try's to get up and more fluid comes out. She is swollen twice the size of pregnancy. At 1:30pm she is almost gone but still gasping. I do the ice pick and hose again but to no avail. Now she is just stretched out and eyes roll back. I pull hose and do what I have to do. My oldest cow of 8-1/2 years leaves behind a one month old baby. Now I'll have to bottle feed I guess. I don't know why she bloated so much. We had just Wednesday and Thursday morning had experienced over 15 inches of rain and so Friday evening I put in two bales of rolled hay. What caused the bloat, she had nothing but pasture grass (Bermuda) and the hay I put it Friday evening. Some of the rest seem to be bloated a little but still moving around good. I don't know why I couldn't release the gas. Was it because she was laying down on her left side? Maybe that's why I got yellow liquid? It had no smell to it.
Sad day
- Thread starter Tomcolvin
- Start date
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aprille218
Well-known member
Is it possible she bloated enough that her stomach twisted so you couldn't reach all the gas?
wbvs58
Well-known member
Sorry to hear that. If she was on her left side it would have been hard to release gas if you were trying to work from underneath. Mostly if bloat is the cause they won't lie on the left side as it is too uncomfortable. When lying with the left side on the top the gas will rise to the top and fluid to the bottom so I think you must have been working against gravity.
Ken
Ken
TexasJerseyMilker
Well-known member
displaced abomasum?
OP
OP
Tomcolvin
Well-known member
Any thing is possible. She was swollen so her legs stuck straight out. I don't know how long she had been down. I just got home with milk replacer for the baby calf. She will be a month old tomorrow. I'll try to feed her first thing in the morning. I'll have some help to catch her then. Thank God she had her mom for her colostrum. Now just getting her to suck a bottle.
OP
OP
Tomcolvin
Well-known member
Maybe so. I tried to set her up but a 1200 pound cow don't move that easy. If her legs weren't so stiff sticking straight out, I thought maybe if I could get her in cow position laying down. I believe she may have been too far gone when I got there.
OP
OP
Tomcolvin
Well-known member
I am assuming it was bloat. She swell even more while I was working on her. What else could it have been? If poisoning , then some others would show it also right? She had only pasture grass and hay. Could she have eaten too much hay? I am at a loss. Oh, yeah I just got a voice mail from a vet. He left a message that he was returning my call. 7-1/2 hours later. I haven't called him back.
OP
OP
Tomcolvin
Well-known member
Why would she lay on her left side??
TexasJerseyMilker
Well-known member
Sometimes we have to shoot our cows and horses. She was a lost cause. I'm sorry for your' e grief. You tried your hardest. What else can we do but let them go?
bird dog
Well-known member
Was it muddy.? Its not unreasonable to think she slipped down and hurt herself. They bloat pretty quick when they can't get up.
OP
OP
Tomcolvin
Well-known member
We have had a lot of rain, 15" 3-4 days ago. Where she had laid down was not muddy at all, in fact she was 10 feet from the hay ring and I keep them on high ground. I had just put the hay out because grass has been grazed down pretty hard. I had put out hay the week before and they had eaten all of it. When it rain so much I gave them two more bales because it was so wet on the pasture. Some times they will eat for long periods of time. And then they will go lay down for a spell. I don't think hay would cause bloat would it? It had been rained on hard but I pulled off the top 2 inches so they coild get to the good hay. Infact I had been told when you can get the gas off of them by hosing or making the stomach opening, to feed hay only for a day or two.
TexasJerseyMilker
Well-known member
She was a good old cow. I have a pregnant 13 year old, so she has to have a body condition score of 3 when she calves in February. Fat cows don't do well.
When you drag her off to your bone yard maybe you could open her up and find out what the problem was.
You can raise and keep her heifer, she might be as good a cow as her dam.
When you drag her off to your bone yard maybe you could open her up and find out what the problem was.
You can raise and keep her heifer, she might be as good a cow as her dam.
