Need help with cow with bloat

crobin · #1 04/27/14, 07:24 PM

We have a 4 year old brown swiss cow that has bloat. She came in last night for milking very distended. Called the vet, he said to tube her and administer laundry detergent with a quart and a half of water. Did that, seemed to help. Checked her this morning and she was bloated again, tried the stick tied to her halter, it seemed to help. Checked about two hours ago, here we go again. Vet can't get here until tomorrow am. Tried tubing her again, getting lots of gunk (digested feed, hay, etc), no gas. Any suggestions? What are we doing wrong? This is our first dairy cow, have had beef cows, but she is different. Any help would be appreciated.

may1802 · #2 04/27/14, 08:13 PM

I haven't dealt with this personally, but I was just reading this thread. They had several good tips. Hope this helps!
http://familycow.proboards.com/thread/71275/help-bloat

Awnry Abe · #3 04/27/14, 10:51 PM

I've dealt with this fairly often in goats, because they tend to escape and get into things they shouldn't, but not cows. So take the following with a grain of salt. It relates to goats, but maybe not cows.

I drench with 1/2 cup of veggie oil and force them to walk off the gas, which usually takes about 30 minutes. I suspect this would need to be scaled up a bit for a cow. Then it's all about the rumen. They are only given hay until "all clear". Because their digestive track gets slowed to a crawl, I also give C&D anti-toxin. But I don't know if those two flavors of bug are an issue with cows. I suspect they are.

genebo · #4 04/28/14, 09:15 AM

A product called Therabloat works really well. It's like Gas-X for cows and goats.

You can order it on-line or a good feed store should stock it.

You mix it with water in a long necked beer or Pepsi bottle, tilt the cow's head back and tip the bottle into her mouth.

It works quickly.

This time of year, I put out Sweetlix bloat blocks for the cows and goats. It has a similar ingredient that helps prevent bloat.

mrs whodunit · #5 04/28/14, 09:37 AM

Our vet just has us feed Tide. It worked well

willow_girl · #6 04/28/14, 09:43 AM

I had this problem with my Christine 7 years ago, a couple weeks after she calved. It was in the springtime, too, and I guess the little bit of pasture she had access to set her off.

I drenched her daily with a mixture of vegetable oil, water and a squirt of dish soap. (Shake it up and use a long-necked wine bottle.) She was so good and patient with me that after a couple rounds, she'd just stand there and let me tip her head back and shove the bottle in her mouth!

I think this went on for about a week. In the end, I started to mix in good yogurt with live active cultures, and she finally came around.

Had the vet out, too, and he put a magnet down her just in case of hardware. He said if it were hardware, she'd lose weight and I'd lose her. Apparently it wasn't, as anyone knows if they've seen the recent pic I posted of Christine ...

crobin · #7 04/28/14, 11:16 AM

Thank to everyone for your help, the vet is on his way so that makes me feel better. I have already ordered some of the Therabloat to keep on hand and am planning on gettin a bloat block asap. Really don't want to go through this too many times or take a chance on losing her. Thanks again.

genebo · #8 04/28/14, 11:28 AM

The bloat blocks work well.

I had a goat that had to have a series of penicillin. That killed a lot of the microbes she needs for digestion and she developed bloat.

Therabloat knocked her bloat down, but it came back the next day. I put a bloat block in the goat house and her bloat went down and stayed down.