Post by Shalali on Dec 15, 2010 14:51:55 GMT -5
This past Saturday, a shareholder called to see if he could bring me some freshly picked tangelos (from his in-laws in Arizona) and bring his daughter down because they didn't get to see the animals on their regular day as it was dark when they got here. I was thinking, "You want to give me fresh organic fruit, and you want to bring it to me, SCORE!"
We milk at 8:30 am (ish) and 4:30 pm (ish), so we were all done milking when they got here and wouldn't have gone back out until 4:30 more than likely. I took them into the pasture and barnyard so his daughter (18 months) could get up close and personal with the "aminals" as she called them. I noticed that Sally was really showing her pregnancy, and commented that the baby must be growing fast, but was really preoccupied with this gorgeous little 18 month old girl who was saying "oter one" (another one) to see more of the cows, and "Annie" after I introduced her to Annie, and "Piggie Daddy" after she met our boar Orwell and "Night Night" after seeing Penelope (sow) and piglets sleeping in the sun and "dirty" about our compost bin. Then Sally came up to us with a lot of foamy slobber and kind of grunting. Still paying more attention to the little girl, I just patted her and kept showing off the goats and pigs and chickens and cows. Finally I really looked at Sally as we were leaving, and I noticed that she was even bigger than when we first went out. Crap! I thought she might be bloating. I went inside to get my husband and Dante (my farm boy) to get their opinion. Remember, she was gradually getting bigger in front of my eyes, so....I was doubting myself.
Yes! they agreed she was quite bloated. I called AnnB, because although I "knew" what to do, I just wanted to make sure. Dante started walking her while I went in to get oil to drench her with. What oil did I have? $50/gal olive old, solid coconut oil, solid palm oil, butter, and lard. I happily opened that gallon of olive oil and poured it into a quart beer bottle and trotted out. We got her in the stanchion and got about a pint into her. She started belching and we kept walking. After about 20 minutes of walking, she totally deflated. Whew! Then I almost vomited and had to sit down because my knees wouldn't hold me up anymore.
We put out some grass hay for her, and she started munching. After about 4 hours we gave her some probiotics, and she has been good ever since. I kept watch on her every 2 hours until bed time, then I got up in the middle of the night and checked her once. She is still good now!
This is my first ever experience with bloat. I keep a bloat trocar and cannula on hand, but am SO glad I didn't have to use it. So while I'm not happy she bloated, I am happy that it was caught early and had a good ending.
No idea what caused it. I'm guessing her rumen bacteria must have been going off and finally got to the critical point. None of the other cows bloated on the same feed.
We milk at 8:30 am (ish) and 4:30 pm (ish), so we were all done milking when they got here and wouldn't have gone back out until 4:30 more than likely. I took them into the pasture and barnyard so his daughter (18 months) could get up close and personal with the "aminals" as she called them. I noticed that Sally was really showing her pregnancy, and commented that the baby must be growing fast, but was really preoccupied with this gorgeous little 18 month old girl who was saying "oter one" (another one) to see more of the cows, and "Annie" after I introduced her to Annie, and "Piggie Daddy" after she met our boar Orwell and "Night Night" after seeing Penelope (sow) and piglets sleeping in the sun and "dirty" about our compost bin. Then Sally came up to us with a lot of foamy slobber and kind of grunting. Still paying more attention to the little girl, I just patted her and kept showing off the goats and pigs and chickens and cows. Finally I really looked at Sally as we were leaving, and I noticed that she was even bigger than when we first went out. Crap! I thought she might be bloating. I went inside to get my husband and Dante (my farm boy) to get their opinion. Remember, she was gradually getting bigger in front of my eyes, so....I was doubting myself.
Yes! they agreed she was quite bloated. I called AnnB, because although I "knew" what to do, I just wanted to make sure. Dante started walking her while I went in to get oil to drench her with. What oil did I have? $50/gal olive old, solid coconut oil, solid palm oil, butter, and lard. I happily opened that gallon of olive oil and poured it into a quart beer bottle and trotted out. We got her in the stanchion and got about a pint into her. She started belching and we kept walking. After about 20 minutes of walking, she totally deflated. Whew! Then I almost vomited and had to sit down because my knees wouldn't hold me up anymore.
We put out some grass hay for her, and she started munching. After about 4 hours we gave her some probiotics, and she has been good ever since. I kept watch on her every 2 hours until bed time, then I got up in the middle of the night and checked her once. She is still good now!
This is my first ever experience with bloat. I keep a bloat trocar and cannula on hand, but am SO glad I didn't have to use it. So while I'm not happy she bloated, I am happy that it was caught early and had a good ending.
No idea what caused it. I'm guessing her rumen bacteria must have been going off and finally got to the critical point. None of the other cows bloated on the same feed.