Bloat Troubles

With our weather bouncing back and forth, and not settling around around 5-10 degrees, I'm having problems with one bull bloating pretty severly. Last night when I went out he was showing heavy bloat on the left side and also presenting on his right side. I ran him in and hit him with 25cc's of C&D Antitoxin and then left him in the alley way all night so he was off food and water all night. Came out this morning and his right side had gone down quite a bit and his left was still looking pretty full. I just got a call from the wife saying he's looking pretty big again. No feed or anythign this morning, so he much be bloating from the hay and water. There are 4 other bulls in the pen with him that are fine...

Recommendations of what I should hit him with, or what I can do to get him to go down? Help!

My daughter's heifer did that last year.    Have you tubed him?  is it air?    We backed off the grain, put in more oats/less corn, set out bloat guard blocks & then started putting baking soda on her feed.  Free Choice Hay is pretty important too. 

kanshow said:

My daughter's heifer did that last year.    Have you tubed him?   is it air?    We backed off the grain, put in more oats/less corn, set out bloat guard blocks & then started putting baking soda on her feed.   Free Choice Hay is pretty important too.   

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He has free choice hay right now. He's been on feed since Sept 1 with the other bulls in there. I haven't tubed him yet. I've never done that so I'm a bit apprehensive in case I end up cutting something while I'm doing it. I kept him out of the pen this morning when I fed so the other guys cleaned it up...so she shouldn't have had any grain this morning. I might grab one of those bloat guard blocks and put it in with him tonight. How much baking soda would you put in with it?

If I do tube him tonight, what's the proper way of doing that, and what am I trying to do?

You might call your vet to see if they can do the tube & possibly run some mineral oil down at the same time.   A lot depends on what kind of bloat it is..  Frothy or air.   

Baking soda..  a couple tablespoons..

Is there an easy way to tell if it's frothy or air?

klintdog said:

Is there an easy way to tell if it's frothy or air?

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If you tube them, and the bloat goes down, then it was air.  If nothing happens, and when you pull the tube out, and there's like a green, rumen-smelling gunk in/on the tube, then you got a frothy bloat. 

OFS is correct!

Sometimes with the air, they seem 'drummy' if you tap the bloated area  but other times.. no it is not easy to tell what kind of bloat.

Give him some alfalfa hay for a few days.

We'll see what he's looking like when I get home from work tonight. Hopefully the wife is just exaggerating and he's not that bad. Not sure if the C&D Antitoxin was the right path or not, but that's what my dad always recommended for a bad bloat. If it looks like he's back up I'll get the vet out tonight and go from there.

IMO..  alfalfa hay would be the one of the worst things you could give him

kanshow said:

IMO..  alfalfa hay would be the one of the worst things you could give him

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That's what vet told us to use and it worked.

kanshow said:

OFS is correct!

Sometimes with the air, they seem 'drummy' if you tap the bloated area  but other times.. no it is not easy to tell what kind of bloat.

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Puttin that Big 10 education to work  

Bloats can be one of the trickiest things to diagnose.  If you're comfortable or experienced with tubing, tube him, and see what happens.  

btw, we never give alfalfa hay to show calves, or calves that have bloated.  Long stemmed hay is best if you can get it, it keeps stuff spread out and prevents air bubbles from forming.

Right now he's on some mixed brome grass hay. Alfalfa isn't allowed to enter the show pens.

  Long stemmed grass hay or something like wheat straw. Long stemmed ROUGHage to scrape the insides of his rumen clean and get him to be able to rumenate. As far as tubing the calf goes, I assume that you have a chute or headgate to catch and secure him well. Don't want anyone hurt.  I like to stand facing the same direction as the calf along the right side of his face. Take my left arm and grab the Left side of his mouth which will cause him to lift his head hopefully while opening his mouth. I have a piece of pipe that is slightly rounded on each end,( I'm sure that it came out of a plumbers shop). It is approx. 1 Ft. long and is big enough that I can pass a hose easily through it. The hose that I like to use is a5/8s in Nh3 hose. The outer hose wall is thick enough not to collapse and rigid enough to be able to push on down his throat. We put the pipe in his mouth from right side of the mouth angled towards the left side of his throat,(Left side =throat, ride side=windpipe) We use the pipe so that the calf cannot chew to hose and ruin it. The hose needs to be approx 6-7ft long. slowly ease the hose on down his throat being as gentle as you can , but also you have to have some pressure on it, but give the calf sometime so that he can swallow. Listen to the end of the hose that is out and you'll hear when it hits a pocket of gas. You may have to wiggle it or pull back and forth in the area when you are close. The right side of the calf doesn't really have anything to do with the bloat other than it will be distended B/C of the pressure from the left or high side. I would not recommend waiting around too much to see what happens. After you get him down I would also recommend putting 20 oz. of veg oil down him. If you can't get him down with the hose, put the veg oil down him. Chances are that if you can't get him to go down with the hose it is a frothy bloat and the oil will take him down. The reason that he is bloating is that his bugs in his rumen are outta wack and he may need help getting his rumen up and functioning. You should put some bugs back down him at sometime. Hope this lengthy babble helps you. Don't be scared of hurting or cutting something. You'll be fine. Good Luck, Brent

we mix antacid and mineral oil half/half this will break down the acid and loosen the stool.
If you can put him in a head gate to restrain him and pour it down from a bottle you will
wear part of it but do not wait on him to go down on his own or it might not be a good out come.
This is my biggest night mare  worrying about witch one and when it is going to happen
because I have had it happen.