3 month old bottle calf wirh bloat, need advice

Triple B Ranch · #1 01/12/14, 12:37 AM

. I have a 3 month old Angus Holstein cross, last weight taped at 266 lbs. Weaned at 10 weeks, eating 2.5 lbs of grain 2 x daily and grass/alfalfa hay. calf presented with extreme bloat at 10 am this morning. We put the halter in his mouth and administered baking soda and water, walked him for 2 hours, no progress. Unfortunately, we had to leave to pick up my other daughters calf project for 4H, so we turned him out with the other calves. He was laying in the same spot 2 hours later. Got him up and tubed him at 5 pm. We gave mineral oil by mouth and rectum. Still no bowel movement. He has urinated at least 5 times today and is drinking water. I have taken him off of feed, only left a small amount of hay in his stall. Our 4H advisor thinks that he could be impacted. Ive been out every hour to check on him and he is already bloating again. No fever, no runny nose, I have heard him cough a couple of times. The temps have been in the mid 20's at night and mid 60's during the day. I know this is long but this calf belongs to my 5 year old son. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Valmai · #2 01/12/14, 02:11 AM

Have you stabbed him to release the methane? A long syringe needle should do the trick nicely.

myheaven · #3 01/12/14, 12:21 PM

If he is impacted you need a vet. Other then a vet there is no hope.

NeHomesteader · #4 01/12/14, 08:38 PM

I raise alot of bottle calves and up until this year had never dealt with bloat. I had 2 of them this fall. We messed with them for a good couple of months. First off,take them completely off of the alfalfa. I would take them off of the grain also and put them back on a bottle . That is finally what we had to do. It is a pain but we had no choice. Also,give them probiotics everyday for a week. Give them a pinch of biomoss in their milk a day. Mineral oil was no help to us. We even took them to the vet because he thought he could put a button in them but he said they were too little that he'd try the oil and it just made it worse. We did have to tube them off and on but we ended up losing 1 and saving 1 and it is doing great. It was worth it to me to mess with them.

cfuhrer · #5 01/12/14, 10:32 PM

We've always had good luck with Therabloat, provided it was caught early and they weren't impacted. We went thru a bad summer with my sisters sheep once and got to where we administered in prophylactically rather than wait too late.

A few cc's in a quart of water via drench.

haypoint · #6 01/13/14, 07:29 AM

Update? What did the Vet say?

Triple B Ranch · #7 01/13/14, 03:35 PM

I would like to thank everyone for your advice. We had a rough couple of days, had to tube the calf 3 times and have had him off of feed. We changed him to Bermuda hay because we have alfalfa grass. I'm happy to report that this morning he was up and moving and I could feel his ribs. I don't think I've ever been so happy! I think we are past the bloat, but I'm not sure how long to keep him off of grain. Do calves that bloat continue to have problems? He is eating hay and drinking plenty of water, so I think that we.are on the mend.

NeHomesteader · #8 01/13/14, 04:09 PM

I hope that things do go well. Ours would be fine for a day or 2 and then they would bloat up again. The vet. told us to keep them off of grain for 10 days and give them hay and probiotics. As soon as we put them back on grain (only 1 cup for 2 calves)they bloated. That is why we put them back on a bottle with biomoss to get their rumens to work properly. Best of luck!

haypoint · #9 01/13/14, 05:30 PM

He is back to pooping again? Impaction is serious.

Allen W · #10 01/13/14, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Triple B Ranch

I would like to thank everyone for your advice. We had a rough couple of days, had to tube the calf 3 times and have had him off of feed. We changed him to Bermuda hay because we have alfalfa grass. I'm happy to report that this morning he was up and moving and I could feel his ribs. I don't think I've ever been so happy! I think we are past the bloat, but I'm not sure how long to keep him off of grain. Do calves that bloat continue to have problems? He is eating hay and drinking plenty of water, so I think that we.are on the mend.

Yes they can be chronic bloaters, you'll just have to play it by ear and see.

Triple B Ranch · #11 01/13/14, 09:32 PM

He is pooping again. I tried to give him a bottle but he isn't interested in it anymore. He is eating hay and drinking water. I have him in a stall with fresh straw so we can monitor his out put. I guess I will keep him off of grain for now, but everything I've read says that bottle calves need a grain ration their entire lives. We had planned on selling him soon, now I guess I will hold on to him for awhile to see if he will be a chronic bloater. I just don't want that attached to our name. Our first steers that we raised will be ready in February.

cfuhrer · #12 01/14/14, 10:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Triple B Ranch

He is pooping again. I tried to give him a bottle but he isn't interested in it anymore. He is eating hay and drinking water. I have him in a stall with fresh straw so we can monitor his out put. I guess I will keep him off of grain for now, but everything I've read says that bottle calves need a grain ration their entire lives. We had planned on selling him soon, now I guess I will hold on to him for awhile to see if he will be a chronic bloater. I just don't want that attached to our name. Our first steers that we raised will be ready in February.

Our bottle calves were always on a grain ration but they were also butcher calves and we wanted the ADG. Someone else may have more info but I don't know why a bottle calf would need grain for the rest of its days versus a nursed a calf. I'm pretty sure quite a few butcher steers that run on the mountain each summer were bottle calves at some point.

I agree that you don't want to gain a reputation as someone selling chronic bloaters but telling potential buyers that the calf is prone to bloat and letting them decide to go forward or back out should protect your reputation.

Triple B Ranch · #13 01/19/14, 08:07 PM

Well, here we go again. Calf was bloated again this afternoon when I checked on him at feeding time. Now what? I gave him probiotic paste and about 35 ml of mineral oil. To top it off his cough has continued to get worse. This one may just not make it. I gave him draxxin for the cough. Now we will just wait and see. I will probably have to tube him by morning.

G. Seddon · #14 01/19/14, 08:41 PM

Has this calf been examined by your vet?

Triple B Ranch · #15 01/20/14, 09:57 AM

We don't have a cattle vet in our area, the closest cattle vet is 3 hours away and I've asked around and she only comes up this way on Thursday.

ufo_chris · #16 01/20/14, 05:50 PM

I would make an appointment with her for th. If possible.it will also establish a relationship with her where u can hopefully call her for advice on other cases !