# Help, sheep foaming at the mouth.



## tammy from wv

We are relatively inexperienced sheep farmers. DH went out to the barn to find one of the older ewes (about 2 1/2 years old) foaming at the mouth and not wanting to eat, which is extremely rare for this sheep. Help! What could possibly be wrong with her? This is our first experience with something like this.


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## seymojo536

Any other symptoms, i.e. breathing rate, staggering? What are they eating?
Check in mouth, any foreign object


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## Patty0315

Sounds like bloat . Is her stomach tight ? If so you dont have alot of time. Does her with blaot treatment if you have it . If not get some oil down her , tube her if you have to and make her walk walk and walk. Baking soda will also help.


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## tammy from wv

No other syptoms evident other than the drooling and foaming at the mouth. They have been eating hay and grass from the field and a small amount of corn in the morning and evening. This particular ewe got into one of my daughters show lambs pens and ate some show pellets last night, but not too many. Would eating cherry leaves have done this possibly? If some fell they wouldn't have been wilted yet, I wouldn't have thought. Thanks for your thoughts. Greatly appreciated.


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## kesoaps

Hopefully you've called the vet by now. Foaming at the mouth, in my limited experience, is not a good thing. How do her gums look? 

Here's a thread from last year on an experience I had with a foaming mouth if it's any help. http://homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=93502


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## Patty0315

Its bloat dose her with veggie or mineral oil if no bloat treatment. Call the Vet or a local feedstore and send someone out to get some bloat treatment. If her stomach is really hard and bloated you may want to call the vet out or take her in. Do you have any friends who know sheep you can call ?


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## Somerhill

She may also be choking on something. Sheep choking on grain will create an amazing amount of foam. So like someone already mention, see if she has something caught in her mouth.

Lisa at Somerhill


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## eieiomom

tammy from wv said:


> Would eating cherry leaves have done this possibly? If some fell they wouldn't have been wilted yet, (QUOTE]
> 
> Tammy,
> 
> Yes, absolutely they can have a toxic reaction from just eating the young shoots.
> 
> It could be bloat or chocking from food if just after eating, but if she got into grain and not being used to it, acidosis is a stong possibility.
> 
> Hopefully, you have been in touch with your vet or a University vet nearby.
> We have had incredible results from a bloat treatment called DSS, available from a vet.
> 
> For frothy bloat this is a good recipe:
> 1/2 cup water
> 1/2 cup mineral oil
> 2 tbsp baking soda.
> Plus pepto bismol.
> Mix well and drench or ideally it would be best to tube feed, in addition to helping putting the tube down and move it around .
> 
> Hope she is doing better !
> 
> Deb


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## MaineFarmMom

Gas X is excellent for bloat. It will break up the bubbles quickly.


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## tammy from wv

We checked her mouth and couldn't see anything stuck in there. We gave her some oil. Hopefully that will do the trick. Thanks for all the wonderful advice. The girls are going to walk her around the field today to keep her up and moving. Hopefully she will be okay. She is not getting any worse at this point. She was even eating hay a little while ago.


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## Patty0315

Keep her with hay and only hay for a few days. Water too. I would still give her the above recipe or go and get the bloat treatment. This can really go down hill fast even if she looks like she is getting better.


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## eieiomom

I would add the baking soda and the pepto too.
Vitamin B shot would also be a good idea.


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## HilltopDaisy

So what happened?


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## tammy from wv

Actually, the sheep is back to normal. We gave her some oil and she recovered nicely. She was back to her normal, nosey, get into stuff self the next day. Thanks for all your wonderful advice. I need to print out all the good advice to save for the next time she gets into something she isn't use to eating.


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## Somerhill

I like your attitude, Tammy  
I notice you say "for the next time she gets into something she should not". 
Its good to know that despite our best efforts, sheep will do the darndest things.  

Lisa at Somerhill
www.somerhillfarm.com


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## eieiomom

Yep....and it always seems to be the same ones who get in the same trouble :nono:


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## tammy from wv

That is the truth. This is the one you can always count on getting into something. She is the one that gets the gate open to get into the barn where the feed is. She is the one that knows how to open the gate that is locked accidently. She is the one who is always nibbling on your boots or buttons or anything else she can get. She is such a pesky sheep, we do love her in spite of it all.


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## The_Shepherdess

I'm glad she recovered. My ram has a tendency to choke on food, especially grain. The first time it happened, Doug performed a variation on the Heimlich maneuver: straddle the sheep and dig your knees into his sides. He usually coughs up the obstruction in short order. Of course, this probably wouldn't be much good for bloat-- simply wanted to share it.


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## Bearfootfarm

Foamng from choking is pretty common. They will usually shake their heads and rear up trying to clear the blockage. Running a tube down their throat will break the blockage loose. Ive never seen any of mine do it unless they were eating grain at the time. Keep a tube handy because if they go down before clearing it on their own they will die


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