Rumen Accidocis

Celtic Herritag · #1 08/23/05, 06:40 PM

My show lamb would be named Mrs. Incredible (the incredible that can stretch if you haven't seen the movie) if he was a ewe not a wether. Well he stretched his neck out just enough to reach and tip the grain bucket over and get himself some a nice case of rumen accidosis. He's off feed, not moving around alot, havn't taken his temperature yet, but his breathing and pulse are relativly normal, not soaring. What can I do to treat his accidosis? I don't know how much grain he got but it was at least double his normal grain ration. I'm going to give him some milk of magnesia, grass hay and let him out of his pen for a bit to see if he'll eat some grain. Can I do anything else for this guy or do I just wait to see if it'll pass?

Celtic Herritag · #2 08/24/05, 08:56 PM

He's got the runs and he had a mild prolapse but he sucked it back in, his poop has started to solidify it's not as much of a liquid as it was yesterday, but he seems worse today, as far as depresion. He's always standing with his head down and is moving less, and not eating near as much grass as he was yesterday. I did see him chew his cud today which he wasn't doing yesterday. Will his pain increase before it disapates. Or is this a sign that he is falling deeper towards death, none of my advisors will tell mebecause they think I will stop trying, but I'll try my best to pull out a miracle. It just hurts so much more when you thought he was going to pull through and he just gets worse and worse until he falls. I also put him on banamine would this account for his detatched appearance?

eieiomom · #3 08/24/05, 09:51 PM

Keep your head up and hopefully he will too...

Chewing his cud is good, is he bloating ?
Get him up and walking him around....
Do you have a vet you can get some kind of bloat guard from, if he is bloating -another thing you can do, if you have experience in tube feeding an animal, is to put a tube down his throat and move it around to break up the gas and rub his belly, a vet would be help in this department. Did you get the Banamine from the vet ?
Do you have someone who can help you out with this nearby ??

I would keep up with the pepto and the baking soda and the vitamin B.
Give him some yogurt(the kind with live acidophylis), and keep him hydrated.
Keep his mouth moving, eating hay...
If you can get some probiotic add that too.
Time is the biggest factor and he may look worse before getting better, don't give up on him.
Perhaps can you let him in an area he might liven up a bit, i.e. in the yard where he can get some fresh grass.
Does he have some company ?

Been wondering all day how he has been doing...Don't give up it IS possible to pull sheep through this, and if he doesn't you will know you have done the best you could.

Celtic Herritag · #4 08/24/05, 10:31 PM

He doesn't have any bloat at all so I'm not worried about that. I got the banamine from our vet, they are nice human vets not the "I am god" type, I couldn't get to thier office in time so they left it out for me. I tie him on a picket line out in a secluded paddock whenever I'm home. He decided to get into the grain on the second day of a very intense school year. He's keeping hydrated nicley capilary refil is good and skin is still taught. He is just so depressed not very interested in anything, always hanging his head, I feel so sorry for him because tha banamine can only do so much. My ewe flock is across the fence from him, he's on a different diet and has always been separated from them. He'll get up and walk around a bit when he's on the picket line but he stops often and splays his legs to relieve the pain. His stomach is still pretty acidic so i'm not bothering with the yogurt or pro bio, if he'll eat hay tomarrow I'll give him some probio. Thanks for your help, Trying everythin to pull him through, he's my only source of income for this year, I was banking on the premiums from his sale at the fair, not very wise but my only option as my only other lamb that I could sell died of phnumonia.

**Ross** · #5 08/25/05, 06:45 AM

Have you taken his temerpature? You may be fighting acidosis when he has something like pnuemonia too! I'd call the vet for a profesional opinion. He may need tetracycline, or a stronger antibiotic.

Celtic Herritag · #6 08/25/05, 06:56 PM

His prolapse is preventing me from getting a core temp reading but the flesh under the armpit isn't abnormaly hot, he's not having breathing problems, no wheezing or rattling lungs, so i don't know if it's just the precursor of phnumonia, a very light case or if he's just producing extra mucos everywhere to protect his digestice tract. I give nuFlor which is a pretty high dose of tetracycline, but you can't give it unless they have a fever or else it's terrible on thier system.