Calf bloat

farmnewbie · #1 07/14/14, 11:37 PM

Hi there. I was hoping you all could help me out. We just got our first bottle calf 3 weeks ago. She is from a friend who raises beef cows and this one the mama cow was hurt and not able to nurse baby anymore so he asked us if we wanted the calf. He told us the calf was about 3-4 weeks old. When we got her she took to the bottle pretty quickly. Then she ended up with scours but we took care of that. Then about a week ago we started giving her her milk replacer in a bucket instead of a bottle cause we were noticing she wasn't drinking water at all so my husband wanted to bucket break her and hopefully she would start drinking water. She is not interested in grain at all either. She was born on pasture and has been eating grass, so we put her on a little patch of grass from day 1 when we got her and she has been eating grass. Now this evening after I have her her milk replacer I noticed she was really bloated. She is also breathing heavily. Any suggestions would be great on what to do. Also any ideas as to what could have caused the bloat?
Thanks in advance!

Awnry Abe · #2 07/15/14, 12:20 AM

I'd act pretty quick....

If she is still on her feet, drench with about a cup of veggie oil and walk her around. If she is down, get her tubed. She will go from walking around to dead in very short order. Don't go to sleep on this thinking you will be able to take care of it in the morning.

With animals that have established rumen, I follow up with C&D antitoxin, because enterotoxemia usually follows right behind bloat. I'm not sure about doing so on one this young.

farmnewbie · #3 07/15/14, 12:33 AM

Problem is I have nothing to drench her with.

Ronney · #4 07/15/14, 06:10 AM

I can't advise about the tubing because it isn't something I've ever had to do, quite possibly because I never, ever bucket feed. Get her off the bucket and back on to the bottle or calfateria as quickly as possible. There is a very good reason for cows having teats and calves having to suck - do as DoubleR suggests and search the internet which will explain it better than I will be able to.

Calves are individuals and some won't touch water for weeks, some will investigate at a couple of days old. The same goes for grain and I've had more than one spurn grain in favour of grass.

Good luck with her,
Cheers,
Ronnie

topside1 · #5 07/15/14, 06:15 AM

Use a cooking basting tube, garden hose, tubing flexible of course. Anything just to get oil swallowed. The tube or whatever does not need to reach the stomach...Limited time, got to go...Topside

farmnewbie · #6 07/15/14, 09:14 AM

Thanks to everybody. We ended up using a tube from one of my kids bubbles wands lol. That was all we had on hand and it worked and we got a cup of vegetable oil down her. Then we went to bed and this morning she was better but still a little bloated. We noticed her poop is dryer then it should be. I feel like all this started after we put her milk in the bucket. I thought we shouldn't be giving her the milk in the bucket from the beginning cause she would have it gone in like 2 mins. That's way too fast in my opinion. She gets a 2qt bottle 2x a day. Milk based replacer. As of this morning she will be back on the bottle until she is weaned. She drank the bottle just fine this morning.

tab · #7 07/20/14, 10:38 AM

How is your calf doing?
I found this intersting as I was just talking tp a local guy who lost calves to a bloat at 6-7 weeks old. Dead within 24 hours. He's been doing this for years and he is not completely sure why.

farmnewbie · #8 07/20/14, 08:06 PM

Hey. She is doing just fine now. The bloat went down and she is seemingly just fine now. She is back on the bottle so I'm not sure if that's what caused it, but honestly that's the only thing I can think of that was changed when she bloated.