Bloated cow, pneumonia, antibiotics and questions! UPDATE! ! She died ð
Jan 5, 2023 11:42:16 GMT -5
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Post by twistedtimbershomest on Jan 5, 2023 11:42:16 GMT -5
Good morning!
Here's a long story about our latest cow experience with a couple questions at the very end. Skip to there if you don't want the full tale. 🤣
Yesterday when we went out to milk Maggie she was standing in a weird place looking hugely round (more on the left side than right), seemed to be having difficulty breathing normally and was kicking at her abdomen. I have zero cow experience, other than with her, and she's never looked like that before, but I have heard of bloat. So I immediately searched online what to do and while there were things we could have done, had we been prepared, most things suggested calling the vet because it could be life threatening. So I did that. Based on my description he said it sounded like frothy bloat asked if I had bloateze or something like that. I didn't. He said I could come into the office and get some OR he could come out to give it to her. Since I'm half an hour from the vet I figured it would be faster for him to come than me to go there and back... Though it ended up taking him almost an hour to get here anyway. But I'm so glad he came because he tubed her to release some gas/frothy stuff and pumped mineral oil and two bottles of the gas/bloat eze stuff into her. Which she hated and I don't know if my hubby and I would have been as successful as he was on our first attempt.
After releasing some of the bloating he checked her out and said she had a low fever and some respiratory sounds that could be the beginning of pneumonia, her back end was also shivering/shaking weirdly and had been most of the morning. So he gave us a couple options but basically said starting a 4 day course of antibiotics to hopefully nip it in the bud would probably be the best option. He said we could wait and see, but if she got really bad in a couple days she would need stronger antibiotica given longer and with a much longer withdrawal period for her milk. So we went with his advice and he showed us how to give the antibiotics intramuscularly. Ouch!! And she does not like that. I swear she's going to break the stanchion in the next two days... That or refuse to go into it.
So a few questions:
Is there a way to give shots in the muscle without the cow losing it, hating us, flipping out and almost destroying the stanchion?? (it's a 30 ml syringe and needs to be given in 3 spots with about 10ml each. So it gets stuck in and pulled out all while she's flailing about) The vet showed us how to do it in the neck, said we could also try the rump, which we did. And both seem equally awful and dangerous for all involved. 😬 Also, is it normal for the spot where the shot was given to bleed? I don't think it did where the vet gave it yesterday, but did in the rump and I'm worried my hubby gave it in the wrong spot or something...
Will she hate us and the stanchion forever after this?? How can we make it better??
Since we can't drink the milk, should we keep milking her? The calf can keep up, but I don't want her production to drop... But it feels silly milking her and dumping it. Is there anything else I can do with the milk if we take it? Is it ok for dogs, cats, chickens? The withdrawal period is 96 hours, I'm assuming that means from the last dose?
Is there a way to prevent her from getting pneumonia again? The bloating I think happened because she ate too much alfalfa hay at once, but the vet said if a cow is sick it can also slow out disrupt their digestion and so she may have also bloated because of the pneumonia. Either way, I'm glad we got the vet out and I'm hoping this all clears up and Maggie is feeling back to normal soon. And this doesn't cause more problems! She definitely didn't have much appetite after all the poking, prodding and tubing yesterday and her rumen looked really empty this morning. But she's out eating hay now so I'm just hoping nothing else happens to this poor cow!! 🙏🙏
Here's a long story about our latest cow experience with a couple questions at the very end. Skip to there if you don't want the full tale. 🤣
Yesterday when we went out to milk Maggie she was standing in a weird place looking hugely round (more on the left side than right), seemed to be having difficulty breathing normally and was kicking at her abdomen. I have zero cow experience, other than with her, and she's never looked like that before, but I have heard of bloat. So I immediately searched online what to do and while there were things we could have done, had we been prepared, most things suggested calling the vet because it could be life threatening. So I did that. Based on my description he said it sounded like frothy bloat asked if I had bloateze or something like that. I didn't. He said I could come into the office and get some OR he could come out to give it to her. Since I'm half an hour from the vet I figured it would be faster for him to come than me to go there and back... Though it ended up taking him almost an hour to get here anyway. But I'm so glad he came because he tubed her to release some gas/frothy stuff and pumped mineral oil and two bottles of the gas/bloat eze stuff into her. Which she hated and I don't know if my hubby and I would have been as successful as he was on our first attempt.
After releasing some of the bloating he checked her out and said she had a low fever and some respiratory sounds that could be the beginning of pneumonia, her back end was also shivering/shaking weirdly and had been most of the morning. So he gave us a couple options but basically said starting a 4 day course of antibiotics to hopefully nip it in the bud would probably be the best option. He said we could wait and see, but if she got really bad in a couple days she would need stronger antibiotica given longer and with a much longer withdrawal period for her milk. So we went with his advice and he showed us how to give the antibiotics intramuscularly. Ouch!! And she does not like that. I swear she's going to break the stanchion in the next two days... That or refuse to go into it.
So a few questions:
Is there a way to give shots in the muscle without the cow losing it, hating us, flipping out and almost destroying the stanchion?? (it's a 30 ml syringe and needs to be given in 3 spots with about 10ml each. So it gets stuck in and pulled out all while she's flailing about) The vet showed us how to do it in the neck, said we could also try the rump, which we did. And both seem equally awful and dangerous for all involved. 😬 Also, is it normal for the spot where the shot was given to bleed? I don't think it did where the vet gave it yesterday, but did in the rump and I'm worried my hubby gave it in the wrong spot or something...
Will she hate us and the stanchion forever after this?? How can we make it better??
Since we can't drink the milk, should we keep milking her? The calf can keep up, but I don't want her production to drop... But it feels silly milking her and dumping it. Is there anything else I can do with the milk if we take it? Is it ok for dogs, cats, chickens? The withdrawal period is 96 hours, I'm assuming that means from the last dose?
Is there a way to prevent her from getting pneumonia again? The bloating I think happened because she ate too much alfalfa hay at once, but the vet said if a cow is sick it can also slow out disrupt their digestion and so she may have also bloated because of the pneumonia. Either way, I'm glad we got the vet out and I'm hoping this all clears up and Maggie is feeling back to normal soon. And this doesn't cause more problems! She definitely didn't have much appetite after all the poking, prodding and tubing yesterday and her rumen looked really empty this morning. But she's out eating hay now so I'm just hoping nothing else happens to this poor cow!! 🙏🙏