Bloat, help...

**mygoat** · #1 04/10/06, 04:32 PM

I think i've got two cases of bloat going on at the same time! Boston, a pregger pygmy ,2 mon. along, has blown up sides and is grunting. No pain. The other is a 9 mon pyg kid and didn't want any grai. I'm putting a cup of veggie oil into each of them, and a couple teaspons of baking soda..... I had been letting all the girl goats out to graze in our yard because their pen has NO grazing right n0ow theselast two weeks, nothing wrong with them! why now?

gotta go walk em around, by

fricknfarm · #2 04/10/06, 04:45 PM

Could be as simple as eating too much green grass. Goats need to start on things slowly. Don't forget they may be so young this is their first spring. Are you sure the pygmy is only 2 mos along? Is there any chance she could be more pregnant than you think? Also, do you have any shrubs that might be toxic to them? Rhododendron family? How about spring bulbs like daffodils? I suspect that I lost a goat last spring to the toadstools we had springing up all over. All it would take was a small sampling.

**mygoat** · #3 04/10/06, 05:16 PM

yes, they seem to have sampled dafodils but I think taht was yesterday b/c I noticed that they were nibbled on before I let them out. No way was she bred earlier. I've had a few good belches from her, called the vet, they said to do what I've been doing but to give her a half a cup of dish soap other than dawn? What good is that going to do, other than give her the runs?

**mygoat** · #4 04/10/06, 06:11 PM

She's doing "better" I gave her the 1/2 cup soap and the 1/2 cup baking soda/veggie oil.... she's been burping up a storm but I'm getting physically tired from massaging her and squeezing her with my legs to force the gass out. I've got her hooked to the fence with a flake of hay to munch on for a while. I think the gas was restricting her air intake, and it didn't help much that I was sqeezing and massaggeing her and then asked her to walk around.... I'm gonna sit back and watch her for awhile, walk her around, and hope...
Will a shot of fortefied vita B do any harm?
What else can I be doing?

**mygoat** · #5 04/10/06, 06:59 PM

She's not burping as much, grunting more, IDK. I'm stressed out and tired. Every time it seems like I get her side smaller or not as tense, it gets bigger again. Does this happen? can I be doing anything to be moving this along quicker?
Somebody, please answer my post! I need to hear that I'm doin something right!

mamahen · #6 04/10/06, 08:05 PM

Ok, I've never ever heard of giving soap. Wouldn't that make more bubbles/gas? Try more oil. Please be careful not to force anything liquid, you don't want her to aspirate. Keep walking & walking. Call a friend, when you're tired, have her take over. Try putting her front legs on a log or something higher. I did that with mine, you do it with cows w/bloat... Keep her walking. No grain, only hay & she doesn't even need that while walking.

I hope you get your goats on the right track!

**mygoat** · #7 04/10/06, 08:11 PM

Well, called a friend to get ahold of our vet while I was working on her. I stopped every so often and put her in the stand with a cinderblock for her to stand on while i rubbed her. Then my friend called back and they volunteered to take me and her to the vet... When we got there she was OK, he didn't even have to do anything. I think on the car ride home that she puffed back up again, she looks bigger again.

I think my vet thinks I'm crazy. She was huge! grunting and not able to breathe, and made a funny noise when you tapped her sides. Kept trying to lay down, too. Scared and uncomforable.

mamahen · #8 04/10/06, 08:16 PM

Try goat911, they always give fast reply's & some people give #'s that you can call.

I know it's frustrating. Take a deep breath, you're doing a good job.

fricknfarm · #9 04/10/06, 09:02 PM

try this website
http://www.goatwisdom.com/ch8disease...ive/bloat.html

fricknfarm · #10 04/10/06, 09:09 PM

check the list of plants to see if they've consumed any poisonous ones
http://www.goatwisdom.com/ch6poisons...us_plants.html

**mygoat** · #11 04/10/06, 09:35 PM

They nibbled daffodils sometime BEFORE yesterday. The vet said she's fine now. I'm off to check her...

wardarden · #12 04/11/06, 11:44 AM

Two weeks ago when my 4 y.o. doe bloated I gave her the oil and also slipped her a GasX pill from Walgreens. Just plain old gasx that humans take too for gas and bloating. It is simethicone (?) and I read somewhere that it worked for goats too. She was feeling better the next morn. Good Luck!

**mygoat** · #13 04/11/06, 01:53 PM

She's fine now, thanks everybody. She's gonna be on hay alone for today and tomorrow, then she's back to her normal diet.

dbarjacres · #14 04/11/06, 05:33 PM

Glad your goaties are okay! I had bloat last week in a doe that pigged out in her short time on new pasture (whatever you can call a pasture now already in Wisconsin anyways!)

I was told by a dairy farmer when we had 2 does bloat last year (turned out they were bloated as they had pasturella pneumonia and that was a symptom and they died after baking soda, tubing, oil, banamine AND IV fluids) that dish soap is the best thing to give for bloat. I imagine it foaming too, I guess I'd rather try the oil as that's one thing they do right away for horses that colic (intestines stop working, could be a blockage or gas usually) and I've seen oil suggested for goats too.

**mygoat** · #15 04/11/06, 05:47 PM

I don't understand how dish soap helped, but i really believed it did! Seemed to me like it would foam and bubble with all that jostling of her stomach that I did, lol. Will she get the runs from the dish soap?