bloat info

Cows are almost never x-rayed for hardware. Portable x-ray machines are not powerful enough to penetrate to the first stomach, where the nail/wire is usually located. A cow would need to be transported to a large animal x-ray faclity and partly sedated. Since hardware is diagnosed by signs and metal detectors, xrays don't even come into it.

The nail/wire is usually in the first stomach, and if it travels out, it can puncture the heart. It would have to go through all the other stomachs and assorted organs to get back to the intestines.

She only eats about 1/8 cup as it is. All the hay she wants all day long and without some grain I will loose her and babies.

AnnieS, I thought it was her teeth at first. I will try the cooked cereal. Good idea.

I'm going to disagree with most of the above posters

Normally, we would not want to overfeed grain and would try to meet most nutritional needs with good hay. This guideline assumes healthy animals with normal functioning digestive systems.

However, this doe is an exception to the rule. The vet says she is having rumen issues and is not absorbing all the nutrients. She is not meeting her body maintenance needs with the hay nutrients (which most dry does should be able to do) and is loosing body condition because of it. Steff has said this doe has no fleshing at all.

I would feed what concentrate she would eat, Calf Manna or rabbit food or whatever, of course *gradually* increasing it. She is going to kid no matter what, and will have to have some energy reserves just to get the kid out.