help - show heifer bloating daily

We have a really nice ali heifer that we are showing, but she keeps bloating so it is hard to keep her on a regular feeding schedule.  We just had a show this past weekend and she looked terrible because everytime we tried to feed her she started to bloat.  When she was in the ring she was all sucked up and looked terrible compared to normal.  She still placed second but could have done much better if she could have ate before the show.  Others have told us to give her probios or appetite express on a regular basis.  I was wondering what everyone on steer planet thought we should try, or what has worked for you.

i feel your pain

We had a bloater last year...

Give her free choice hay.. as much as she wants.    Put a bloat guard block in.  You might consider cutting her grain back a little bit too.    Then put a handful of baking soda in her feed daily..  that's what worked for us.

This is a tough one to have to deal with!!  Are you adding any supplements or additives to the feed?  Are you feeding a prebagged feed or mixing your own?

we have the feed mill mix our own ration and it does have a mineral and soybean meal in it.

a runmen block works good free choice. Or mineral oil at the show for a quick fix.

There is a feed additive called Paloxolene that wi prevent bloating. I had a bull that would bloat daily when we were feeding him up for shows, started adding a spoon full to his ration and took care of the problem. Went on to be national intermediate champion bull. RW

Keep her on free choice hay start her on Penicillin for 3 days then on the 4th probias her and start her back slowly on grain. The baking soda in her feed wont hurt either. Frosty

If your feed ration is a small (very fine) particle mix, change it. The very fine mixtures do not process as well and add insult to injury.  I agree w/ free choice hay as well.  d.t.

I appreciate everyones input. 

The heifer has been on free choice hay since November and is a very, very picky eater so it scares me to add new things to her feed, but if that is the best thing to do we will have to try it.

Thanks again, if anyone else has any other options that have worked for them let me know.

If you haven't already put a magnet down her. If she has any type of hardware in her it can cause bloating, by putting a magnet down her should eliminate that being a possible problem.

  Use the search option here on the Planet. You will get a bunch more good advice. Penicillin/ magnet are good advice. Particle size can and will effect compaction of the rumen also. The calf's "bugs" are out of balance. You need to back her off feed for a period of time during which she needs the best roughage source that you can give her, & by that, I don't mean the best legumes you can find, but rather long stemmed very coarse products like straw or beet pulp to scratch her rumen wall to clean it up so that it can work properly. If you can get to a locker/packing plant and get some rumen content, that will be the quickest way to get her "bug" balanced again. If you are going to give the pen. do it a significant time earlier than putting the rumen contents back down her. The reason being, the antibiotics have a chance of killing the good bugs as well as the bad ones. We've all been where you are at, and have had losses due to bloat. If you are pumping the heifer, I wouldn't do that for awhile until she is feeling well. Also, it is easy to over do remedies. Pick a strategy and try to stay the coarse. This will take some time to fix her "bugs". Don't delay picking a plan. Good Luck. Brent

I use the SweetPro FreshStart top-dress for all my show calves and haven't had any bloat since they've been on it. It works really well to help stimulate their appetite as well as having the ProBioTein in there to help that rumen keep working. I know of several big ranches around here (Wyoming) that feed it to all their cattle whether they are on a diet of hay or a highly concentrated show feed. Haven't heard a single bad thing about it other than it is a pain in the BUTT to break out of those chunks, but the same ingredients that make it rock solid chunky are the ones that help in the rumen and keep bloat down. Another good thing about it is that it only takes about 8oz per head/per day in order to work to the fullest extent (I hope the 8oz figure is correct anyway lol).

also, if any of mine do bloat, ProBios is the first thing they get and they are usually down within an hour or less.

just my 2 cents,

Sara

By the way...here is the link for FreshStart

http://www.sweetpro.com/freshstartbags.html

good luck!

Good selection of choices for you.  The baking soda is good, if they will eat it.  Adding a cup of mineral oil to the feed has worked well for me most of the time.  Good Luck.