# Bloat



## Up North (Nov 29, 2005)

It's that time of year when many farmers will look at some 3rd or second crop hayfields and ascertain that there just isn't enough there to pencil out machine harvesting.(Especially given the droughty conditions in many areas).
So they may elect to harvest it using cattle. A sound strategy mind you, but one that is ripe with the possibility of BLOAT. You take cattle who have been grubbing down a pasture and move them into rich, legumous alfalfa or clover, and they tend to gorge themselves and BLOAT.

Firstoff, I want to clearly state that Bloat, like milk fever, MUST be treated as an acute emergency. If you go and post a question about it, then 2-4 hours pass while you receive advice and decide what to do, your cow will be dead.
Even calling a vet in may not be quick enough if you live any distance from one. If you call a vet, and he/she is in the middle of a surgery, or on a farm call working a group of livestock, they will arrive to late to help you.

That said, this post is to help you with preventative strategies, education about it, and possibly a plan to deal with it.
PREVENTION - Best I know is two things: Limit grazing time to 2 hours first day, then 3 hours second day and then remove cattle from rich feed pasture. Observe for symptoms. Secondly, before moving cattle to new pasture, stuff them full of dry hay. Quality is not so important here, just get them to eat enough where they are partially full and can only eat so much rich stuff .

There is a product called BloatBlockers..which I understand is blocks similar to salt blocks that lessen effects of bloat. I have no experience with them.
Anybody use them? Do they work? Experiences?

Symptoms: General swelling up of body cavity, especially noted in the normally sunken triangle area along upper rear side of cow below the shortribs. If this area is taut like a snare drum, you've got bloat.
Advanced cases- If cow is kicking at side of her stomach repeatedly showing discomfort, ,and/or labored breathing, at this stage you must intervene and treat cow. The next stage is where the swelling of gas forming inside body cavity actually crushes lungs and animal suffocates and dies. As this process evolves, animal will drop to it's knees, stagger, or fall down. They might still be saved at that stage with quick, decisive action, if you can release that gas and let respiratory organs resume normal function.
SOME TOOLS: At your local vet office, a vet supply catalogue, or a fleet farm there are different solutions, pastes, gels which can be administered orally at onset of bloat. These products all work to chemically reverse or dissapate chemical reaction which is causing the bloat. 
Readers please post your preferred products and which have worked best for you. I will only say this - if you own cattle- BUY SOME!!! Have these products on farm and where you and anyone there knows where they are and how to administer them.
Failing to have these on hand, or an advanced case where animal is going to die, your LAST RESORT is to make a surgical incision in the middle of the gas bulge. Generally if you span your hand from the haunch bone to the last rib, your index finger will point to the correct spot.
Using a CLEAN knife with a blade from 4-8 inches long, pierce right thru the skin and underlying tissues, then immediately twist knife at right angle to the cut, producing a passage way for gas to escape. You should hear gas escaping, and it will have a sweet rich smell like acetylene welding gas.
You may actually observe cow's body cavity deflate at this time.
Here's the problem now - If you remove knife now, the fermentation of gas may not have completed it's cycle, so you have to insert an airway( like a small diameter piece of garden hose or milker claw hose, and then tape it to cow's side with duct tape, to have a passage for gas to escape. You may have to leave in cow;s side for as much as 24 hours to be completely safe.
Now, clearly, these are crude materials, but they work. A vet would have a special Trocar and Canula for this purpose, but your cow may be dead by the time he gets there with them.

If you have to employ this last procedure, treat cow with antibiotics immediately, as an infection is probable. Have vet follow up, cleanse incision area, stitch it shut again as appropriate. If you can get the gas released from the animal, you will have the luxury of doing this follow up.
I cannot stress enough, treat bloat as an acute emergency and take action.
Employ whatever you have at your disposal to get gas off animal's organs, and monitor to be sure bloat does not continue if chemical reaction proceeds after releasing gas via incision method.

Apologize in advance for such a lengthy post, LOL. Please feel free to discuss strategies and knowledge you folks have so others can avoid loss of stock from bloat. Sincerely, UpNorth :cowboy:


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## john in la (Jul 15, 2005)

Nice info;
Thanks for taking the time to post it.

We do not have a problem with blout as we can not grow the types of fields that cause it. Mostly Bahia grass around here.


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## JeffNY (Dec 13, 2004)

Prevent bloat by not letting them graze legumes. Chop and feed it. What I have done is cut/chop/feed, and you want to see some animals grow? It doesn't hurt them, and they grow like weeds.



Jeff


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## Tango (Aug 19, 2002)

Thank you for the information


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## Up North (Nov 29, 2005)

JeffNY said:


> Prevent bloat by not letting them graze legumes. Chop and feed it. What I have done is cut/chop/feed, and you want to see some animals grow? It doesn't hurt them, and they grow like weeds.
> 
> 
> 
> Jeff


Unfortunately, Bloat is caused when plants contain just the right chemicals(naturally occurring) to create chemical reaction leading to gas production hence Bloat. If the Legume contains the chemicals, feeding them after machine harvesting them does not eliminate possibility of Bloat.
Lost a prize registered Guernsey heifer named "Sweetie" from Bloat after feeding her machine harvested Legume hay. She's the one who taught me that when you have serious Bloat, do NOT consult - TAKE ACTION.


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## JulieLou42 (Mar 28, 2005)

I have to be really careful with my Ginger the first day or two of turning her out on new spring GRASS as she tends to swell up on that! It hasn't put her down, and I just take her off of it, make her walk a lot in circles for half an hour, and listen for gas and/or poops passage.

Next year I'll be sure she has some hay on her belly before turning her out, and not let her be on there more than two hours on day one.


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## JSIA (Nov 5, 2005)

Great advice! Keep your distance when the tail comes up when and hope they don't cough at the same time. We green chop most of the summer, never bloated anything yet (knock on wood) but do watch for tail raising!


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## dcross (Aug 12, 2005)

<<Unfortunately, Bloat is caused when plants contain just the right chemicals(naturally occurring) to create chemical reaction leading to gas production hence Bloat.>>

Ruminants produce gas. Constantly, and lots of it. Bloat is caused by those gases creating thick foam in the rumen that can't be burped out fast enough.

Cutting the cow is a last resort. If she's up and walking, get her off the pasture/feed that caused it and keep her moving. Feed dry hay if she'll eat. I've heard of using cooking oil to cut the foam, but never tried it.

We would never cut a cow ourselves, but do have the luxury of 24/7 vets in an emergency.


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## SpringCreek (Apr 27, 2005)

I've used a drench product called Therabloat. It's basically a surfactant that breaks up the foam. I keep a couple bottles on hand at all times. For extreme emergencies when the Therabloat doesn't work *and* the vet can't come quickly, I keep a trocar and cannula for venting the rumen. I figure if I'm taking this extreme measure, it's best to have the right tools. Both the Therabloat and the trocar/cannula are fairly inexpensive from Valley Vet.


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## Jena (Aug 13, 2003)

This is a debloating method a friend sent me:

De bloating... things to buy.....a metal mouth-throat tube ( You can get that from your vet) a long plastic hose about 6 feet by 1/2 inch( buy at any hardware or farm supply store) a stomach pump ( from vet or farm supply store)

all this stuff will pay for itself after you treat two animals compared to having the vet come.

If you have never done this before its best to watch your vet do it first or have her instruct you.
Get the animal in the squeeze and stand beside the animals head facing the way he is looking. Grab his upper lip with your left hand and pull up his nose. Then with your right hand shove the tube into his mouth all the way to the end and keep fiddling with it until he " swallows it" The tube should be just sticking out of his mouth and then you know the other end is well into the eosophagus. then holding the the tube with your left hand and cradling his head with your left hip take the hose in your right hand and shove it through the tube and ease it all the way to his rumen. gently move it back and forth and if you find an air pocket it will come rushing out of the calf and he will deflate before your eyes. Have somene hold the other end of the tube by his ear to listen for that.... The gas is strong and is ignitable....so no smoking LOL Sometimes you cannot get the air pocket and this is true for frothy bloat but you have this wonderful stomach pump to get medicine to the rumen. Have ready an ice cream bucket with about 2 inches of mineral oil, a cup or so of dishwashing liquid and enough warm water to make just over half a bucket full. You can also add a cup or so of commercial debloating stuff but this recipe works fine without. Then attach the free end of the hose to the pump and just pump away until its in the animal. It takes only seconds. The soap and the oil reduce the surface tension in the rumen and usually within an hour or two he is completely burped out. Even if I can release the gas pocket I always pump the stuff in as a protection for the next while. 

It always works.... I have never lost one and some have been absolutley huge...but they have also still all been standing too. I don't thhink it would help one already laying down dying. ??

It doesn't work By the way, trying to pump the bloat out.... the pump should only be used to pump medicine IN.


Jena


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## Up North (Nov 29, 2005)

Thank You Jena - Very Good Info. Looks like a "Clip&Save" Post to me, LOL.


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## Rockin'B (Jan 20, 2006)

Some years back when I was fattening steers for my families consumption, and was very much a rookie, (still am) I got too carried away with the grain and bloated my steer. The vet called it grain intoxication.
He tubed the steer and pumped the mineral spirits or glycerin (I forget which) into the steer but I'd guess he used a good half gallon or more.
That was followed up with a B12 shot and the steer was fine.

The vet also mentioned that you have to be really sure that you don't run the hose into the lungs. How can one tell? Is there a certain feel to it when running the hose down?

Proving my rookiness, what is "drench" and how is it applied. What does this term mean?

Up North,
Thanks for posting this info. It's very helpful.


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## ericakc (Jun 29, 2006)

Rockin'B said:


> The vet also mentioned that you have to be really sure that you don't run the hose into the lungs. How can one tell? Is there a certain feel to it when running the hose down?


I've treated a couple of horses for colic with a hose and mineral oil; not sure if you can draw any parallels to cattle.

1. I try to get the horse to swallow the tube instead of just cramming it down their throat. 

2. I blow a short breath into the tube and smell the return air. You will get the smell of food if you are in the stomach.

3. I put just a bit of water down the tube initially. You should get coughing if you are in the lungs. Water is easier on the lungs than oil.


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## Up North (Nov 29, 2005)

RockinB- The term "drench" used in this context means a medicine, liquid solution, paste, or gel, which is administered orally, with some reasonable caution to let cow swallow as you are pouring it down throat from a dispenser at the back of their tongue with head held up in air.

Erica- Find your milk cow yet?


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## Rockin'B (Jan 20, 2006)

Thanks!!!


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## ericakc (Jun 29, 2006)

Up North said:


> Erica- Find your milk cow yet?


Thanks for asking but not yet, darn it. The few Brown Swiss that the dairy culled had teats that were too short to handmilk easily. The Missouri State Fair is in a couple of weeks; I'll ask around at the Swiss shows if nothing turns up betwixt now and then.


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## Hammer4 (Oct 13, 2005)

Odd that they call that stuff a drench, in my book a drench is something you pour on the animal, as in drench ( soak ) them with it.

Ahh, but I am wrong on that, interesting:

Main Entry: drench
Pronunciation: 'drench
Function: noun
: a poisonous or medicinal drink; specifically : a large dose of medicine mixed with liquid and put down the throat of an animal

Whoops, had to edit:

Looks like it can also mean to pour on:

drench

v 1: drench or submerge or be drenched or submerged; "The tsunami swamped every boat in the harbor" [syn: swamp] 2: force to drink 3: permeate or impregnate; "The war drenched the country in blood" [syn: imbrue] 4: cover with liquid; pour liquid onto; "souse water on his hot face" [syn: douse, dowse, soak, sop, souse]


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## Hammer4 (Oct 13, 2005)

Ken, can you add this to the consolidated list of sticky threads?


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## Up North (Nov 29, 2005)

Hammer4 Drench is used to describe many things, I should have been more all-inclusive, LOL. It could include oral as described above, could include tubing it directly into stomach as described by Jena and Erica, could also include your usage, pour it on their backs, as they do in New Zealand to control bugs. :cow: :cow: :cow: :cow: :cow:  .cheers.


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## willow_girl (Dec 7, 2002)

Here is a remedy an old-time local vet gave me: Put 3 tablespoons of liquid dish soap and 3 tablespoons of turpentine into a long-necked wine bottle, fill with warm water, shake, and drench cow by tipping head back and inserting wine bottle into mouth. 

I didn't have the courage to administer turpentine, LOL, so I drenched my cow with plain vegetable oil ... just pried her mouth open and stuck the bottle in. It was messy (I think I got as much of the oil on me as I did into the cow, LOL) but it did the trick!

Of course, my cows are pretty tame, so she let me do this ... your mileage might vary!


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## Guest (May 12, 2007)

We graze alfalfa. There are several products you can use that will help prevent bloat. There are a couple that you add to the water they are drinking. "Redwater" and "Alfasure" are the names of those I believe. The problem with those is the animals MUST have only 1 water source. 
There are also various "bloat blocks" which are similar to mineral blocks. Any mineral with rumensin in it. And there are also boluses that you can put in them before you graze rich pasture. But, what we use is the ORIGINAL "Tide" laundry soap mixed with loose salt. Wouldn't suggest using "Tide with Bleach" or "Tide Ultra". Our vet suggested this, and he uses it on his cattle.


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