bloating

We turned our cows out to pasture 3 weeks ago, and every year one of our cows gets very bloated. It normally goes away after a few days but this year it is lasting loner then usual. Should I be worried and is there anything we can do for her?

An old time remedy is if the cow is gentle enough get to to stand with her front end elevated.  We have used this and it works, and doesn't cost anything but some time.  If the cow happens to be halter broke, get her to stand with her front feet on a square bale of hay.

you can feed baking soda and it helps them i just throw a little in there feed

The easiest way to deal will bloat is to shove a piece a garden hose into there stomach to relive the gas, it takes about 1 minute and its like deflating a balloon. I had to do it a couple times this spring already on a steer calf and its worked quickly and easily.

Inserting the hose through a short piece of hard plastic or steel pipe for the section that's in the mouth is sometimes needed so the animal can't bite down on the hose and block the air for escaping.

We had an issue with a 4-H calf this weekend. My son noticed the bloat late Friday morning. By the time I got home late afternoon, the 1200 lb. calf was really starting to labor on the breathing. We tried tubing the calf, but it kept chewing through the hose with his back teeth. We went through 4 chunks of hose trying to relieve the pressure.

A friend had some bloat treatment that they had gotten through Sullivans. While I traveled to pick up the bloat treatment, I had my son lead the calf around to keep him up. When I returned, we started to tie him up to give him the treatment and down went the calf. He was gone almost immediately. We tried tubing him, elevating him, but nothing worked.

I've learned a couple of things since then, but it was a hard lesson to learn. First, when tubing, it helps to have a piece of metal pipe or conduit that you should insert in the mouth to prevent the calf from chewing through the hose. Second, a last resort is to pierce the hide on the cow's left side where the bloat appears. The vet that came shortly after the calf went down had the tool, but the calf was already dead by then. A knife would have worked, but it can be difficult to work with and can be dangerous.

The steer belonged to a friend of ours, and we had been feeding it with ours since they always do better when not fed alone. It likely developed the bloat from wet grain or some moldy hay at the bottom of the hay feeder. We've been feeding limited amounts of grass hay, but the hay bunk will build up fines. The feed bunk is elevated and they generally clean it out very well after feeding. However, we have had significant rains lately and there have been a few times where they have been fed in the rain. It took less than 12 hours from the time that the bloat was noticed to the time the calf was gone. Sad day and a very expensive lesson to learn. 

It is frustrating to deal with bloating, the pipe to prevent chewing the hose (frick speculum) can be purchased from most vet supply companies, they are stainless and the ends are rounded to prevent scratching the throat.  You can also purchase large needles for piercing the left side, they make one designed for that application, needs to be long enough because the stomache is actually moving around and you will loose your hole if the needle is too short.  For cattle being turned out in the spring on pasture, usually legumes that cause the bloat, there is a product that you mix with feed that will remedy this type of bloat, i'll have to look for product name.  Another solution is to make sure that when you turn them out they are full so they don't overconsume the legumes, and continue feeding grain until they have adjusted.  In South Texas we usually only have a clover that will cause the bloating.