Help needed ASAP for sick Dexter

[Jcran]

My dexter, Rosie, is off her feed today; ate fine last night, alfalfa hay and some day-old bread (about 4 loaves). Vet doesn't want to come out, suggested therabloat. Her temp is 102.4 She is quiet and a little boogery. Coughed once. If its not bloat, and IS something like pneumonia, can I give her antibiotics? She's bred as of September 17th. I think LA200 is abortive?

[Sher]

Sometimes cows are a little snotty. If her temp is normal..I would say feeding her 4 loaves of bread has bloated her or given her intestinal problems. I would start treating her for bloat and give her only hay and water. No more bread.

[Teacupliz]

give her baking soda- I give my cows nutri-drench and vit B also as back up. Human form is vitimins is okay- but the baking soda acs as a antacid-like rolaid.

Let us know how she is doing>?

Liz in NY
teacup Farm

[Jcran]

She is still not feeling good; light green scours now, and the vet said to get her walking. She has one back leg that gets kind of trembly and lifts it; seems to indicate pain? Her heart rate is between 60-70 beats per minute (avg. 64) and her breaths are about 16-20 per minute. How much baking soda should I give her. I'll give some probiotics too.

[genebo]

4 loaves is a lot of bread. I usually only feed mine about 6 slices.

I had a calf get pneumonia. It had the trembling back leg and staggered when it walked. The vet gave him a powerful shot that had him back playing in an hour. By next morning, he was bad again. The vet gave him a second shot and it cured him.

The shot was very powerful and very expensive. It is dangerous to humans. I can't remember the name of it.

Genebo
Paradise Farm

[Teacupliz]

what do you have on head? I have pepto pills for cows with t etummy ache? Probotics are good- she can eat as much baking soda as she wants- if she will not eat it dip her lips in it-Liz

[DJ in WA]

I would agree the bread is probably the problem. Cows are not designed to eat much carbohydrate, especially if it is refined as in bread. It is converted by microbes to lactic acid and can cause inflammation of the rumen and they go off feed. Bad cases can even die from too much acid.

If you want to feed much carbohydrate or grain, you must slowly build them up to it so the microbes adjust. But there is a limit. A Dexter isn't very big to be eating 4 loaves of bread that is refined grain. I wouldn't feed more than one at a time.

Baking soda is alkaline so can neutralize the acid, but if it's been very long, it might be a bit late. I made my cow a bit sick a few weeks ago when feeding apples, pumpkin, grain - didn't add up how much, and gave too much. She was off feed for a day, had the runs, and was then fine. Just depends on how much candy they got.

Here's a reference if you can handle the lingo:

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/in...tic%2cacidosis

[Jcran]

Merck says Milk of Magnesia which I'm heading out to try...wish me luck.

[Teacupliz]

I alos will add that you can give LA200 when I first got goats I used LA200 to prevent abortions- In goats but I would not think cows would be any different-Liz

[topside1]

Joan, if the dexter has no fever why bother with antibiotics. I'd take her temp again and see if there are any noticable changes to the reading.

[topside1]

Joan, if the dexter has no fever why bother with antibiotics. I'd take her temp again and see if there are any noticable changes to the reading. I'd also cut back on the bread, store bought bread is nothing but a blob of goo.

[Jcran]

Yeah, killem with kindness...free bread was GREAT for the pig; not so hot for the cow, though they'd been eating it all along...I think since she's the boss, she simply got the lion's share and it was croissant kharma. She is eating this morning, lipping a little at her hay. I got all the Milk of Magnesia in her last night, and that seemed to really help. I then got about 16 oz. of plain yogurt in her and about 500 ml (little I know but has beneficial micro organisms included) of electrolyte solution. Her scouring seems to be back to cream of wheat status this morning, from last night's worst of cream of spinach soup consistency. I am going to yogurt her twice more today. The only reason I worried about antibiotics at first was in case she was presenting signs of pneumonia; the cough and boogery nose. I am now wondering if cows don't have a giant booger/saliva response to being handled/drenched. And no it was not going down her pipes wrong...she just really can fling snot when she is unhappy! Her temp is still normal, breath sounds at about 16-18 per minute. Didn't do heart rate this morning.

[Teacupliz]

good news-
liz

[topside1]

Ditto

[Jcran]

Tonight she's trying to avoid getting catched so I think she's getting better; not drinking a whole lot thogh.... I gave her 18 cc of probiotic pls tonight and a new hay tub....yippee I got the uu to work on the keyboard!

[genebo]

The cellulose in grass is very hard to digest. A cow has a complex system for breaking it down that turns her into little more than a skin bag that harbors a colony of mcrobes (bugs) for digesting cellulose.

Any new food has to come with it's own bugs or be added so slowly that she has time to develop the bugs to digest the new food. Active yogurt is good, because it has some bugs in it. Pro-biotics usually have a mixture of bugs that are known to be good for a cow's digestive system. But they still may not have the specific bugs that are needed.

When the right bugs aren't present, the chewed up food simply passes through without being digested. That's the scours. The color can reflect the undigested food. Bread could give white scours like too much clover gives green scours. The effect is to starve the cow. She'll be weak and maybe depressed.

Feed her the food that she was getting before the problem. She should still have the right microbes to digest that. If her scours flushed out all her old bugs, she could be in trouble.

Genebo
Paradise Farm

[Jcran]

Today she is a lot perkier. South beach diet, aka, no processed carbs for us; back to good old hay and water. She had been eating bread for nnonths but overdosed I guess. Lesson learned. She is still no back to speed on water consunntion bt I will watch her careflly.