Bull bloated

[blue]

We have a bull that we seen yesterday evening that was bloated...he would not pass any gas or manure. Today he is passing manure but is still really bloated..he is on native pasture not alfalfa or access to any grain..what should we do with him?

 

[BroncoFan]

Get him up and get him moving! If you have therobloat or mineral oil then get that in him.

 

[blue]

How long before the mineral oil and bloat stuff work?

 

[BroncoFan]

That can depend on how quickly it was caught. The big thing is get him up and moving. It will help his digestive system. If you can get baking soda in him then that will help dispel the gas. Also get some probiotics in him too.

 

[blue]

We talked to a vet. So we gave him mineral oil and bloat ease yesterday...this morning he is still bloated. Making him walk around helps take the bloat down..and he passes liquidy manure as long as he is moving. What else or is there anything we can do for him? Thanks

 

[BroncoFan]

Is it chronic?  What kind of feed do you have him on? Are you supplementing him? Just keep him moving.

 

[blue]

This is the first time he has bloated. He is on straight native pasture no supplements at all.

 

[CAB]

Can you get us a picture of the bull from behind and kinda try to get a shot of his top line being parallel with his back? It almost sounds to me like he's just full. He shouldn't bloat on native grass pasture. How long has he been out in the pasture? Does he chew his cud?

 

[blue]

We were at the vet today and got some more bloat ease...they said try a magnet so we put that down him too. He hasn't been chewing his cud. I will try to get a picture tomorrow. 

 

[GoWyo]

How old is this bull?  Is the underside or sides of his neck swollen?  If he is getting hit in the side or underneath of his neck by another bull or by unreceptive cows that he is trying to mount, he can swell up around his throat and then cannot burp up his cud.  This has happened with a young bull I had several years ago and was suspected as the cause recently with a poster on another cattle site.  If this is the case, you will need to get the swelling down.

 

[idalee]

It is totally amazing to me that if you are this concerned about this bull,  that  you have not had a veterinarian examine him.    Get some professional help for this animal now!

 

[blue]

Your exactly right idalee. We phoned the vet the first day we seen him..he told us not to bring him in it will stress him way more..he said all he would do in this case is give him mineral oil and bloat ease..and he said we can do that. So we did. Then yesterday we went in to the vet to talk to him and see what else could be done...or can we bring him in...he said in a case like this we are doing everything we can..he said to try a magnet. So last night we did. Today the bloating went way down. You can now see his hip bones at least...he still moves a little slow but I think the magnet moved whatever may have been blocking it. He is eating really well today...before he had a little bit of an appetite but not a lot. His manure today has some roughage in it at least instead of pure water. I will keep everyone updated with his progress. Thanks to everyone that helped out. Definitely keeping him up and moving helped a lot.

 

[Charguy]

Sometimes after an animal bloats, it takes awhile to get their system back on track. I have had a few over the years and I give them one of rumensin boluses.

https://www.elanco.co.nz/pdfs/Rumensin-Capsules/Rumensin_Capsule_label.pdf

It is awful big and requires a special gun, but it slowly releases rumensin into the system and seems to quickly stop the animal from bloating. It is not expensive. I had a cow have twins this year and for whatever reason she bloated after calving. I could not get her to go down and ended up having to punch her. I gave her one of these and she healed up, and has been fine ever since. Worth a try for sure. Good luck.