# help please, bottle fed lamb with bloat.



## Shannonmcmom (Jul 18, 2005)

I have a 6 week old bottle fed lamb with severe bloat. Daughter went out this morning and found him.

We ran him around and he did poop once and farted. Both sides are pretty big. He is the one that we had issues with earlier on so his immune system has pretty much always been compromised. 

I gave him the 1/2 tsp of ginger in water. He didn't like that.

If I take a bigger gauge needle on a syringe without the plunger, can I use that to help relieve some of the pressure?

What are the side effects of doing that? Will it cause issues of stomach contents leaking into the abdominal cavity or is the point regardless because if something isn't done he will die anyways.

Should I use a tube and try and see if I can relieve pressure that way? I think I have some castor oil on hand, I also have mineral oil.... which is better?


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## Shannonmcmom (Jul 18, 2005)

I do have a call in to the vet and I am just waiting for her to phone back. I gave him some mineral oil but I don't know how much of it he swallowed.

I am trying to tube him but so far am sucking horribly at it.... sigh.. and now I have mineral oil all over my laptop.


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## LibertyWool (Oct 23, 2008)

I had this happen last year. I used cooking oil, baking soda and water. I tubed the lamb with it and he was better several hours later. It was not normal bloat, but bloat of the Abomasum. Usually fatal. If it had been normal bloat, tubing would have relieved some pressure. 

I saved him that time, but he bloated again a few days later once he was put back with the flock. He was a bottle baby about the same age as yours. He was fine all day, but I think he learned to nurse off all the ewes in the dark. Dead by the next morning.


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## Shannonmcmom (Jul 18, 2005)

Well I talked to a vet and I ended up using a 14 gauge needle. My daughter held him and it was like the air leaking out of a balloon. I took it out after the air stopped coming out. 

He is just standing there. At least no food came gushing out and hit my daughter....

I have never done that before and really hope I don't have to again.

I am going to keep an eye on him to make sure that he is okay. My husband fed him last night so I think he might have drank too fast or well.... who knows.

This always happens when hubby is at work.... sigh


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## LibertyWool (Oct 23, 2008)

One thing I've learned on tubing it to make sure the head is at a 90 degree angle. Check to make sure it doesn't go into the lungs. Also mark with tape the correct length, I measure from the head to just in front of the rear legs where they meet the belly.


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## LibertyWool (Oct 23, 2008)

I'm glad you got to him in time... I hope he doesn't do it again...


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## Shannonmcmom (Jul 18, 2005)

Well he is still just standing there and he did try to lay down.... So I am not sure if that is a good thing. I just looked and he is laying down now. At least lots of the pressure is off of his lungs and heart. So hopefully we can treat the other issue now.


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## ErbcroftFarms (Jul 8, 2009)

Pepto Bismil, 1ml per kg of weight. This should help with some of the bellie ach now that you have relieved some of the air in there.


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## Shannonmcmom (Jul 18, 2005)

He actually looks worse now that I relieved the gas in there. I talked to my regular vet, she is a mobile farm vet and was at a calving so couldn't get back to me until now.

She said that I should treat him with abx for 5 to 7 days as something is causing him to be unable to pass gas, either through burping or farting. His poop is a funny color too.... so just gave him some penicillin, and I will get hubby to pick up some more from the farm store.

See... even though I do most things in a holistic manner we will offer other things if they are needed....lol I just wish they weren't needed and he would have been okay.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

Plain vegetable oil works better than mineral oil for bloat.


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## LibertyWool (Oct 23, 2008)

Shannonmcmom said:


> His poop is a funny color too.... so just gave him some penicillin, and I will get hubby to pick up some more from the farm store.


By funny color what do you mean? I would be on the lookout for Coccida, stress in lambs seems to be a big cause for me, and I think this must count as stressful (for you and the lamb).


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## Goatsandsheep (Jun 7, 2006)

> His poop is a funny color too.... so just gave him some penicillin, and I will get hubby to pick up some more from the farm store.


I agree with libertywool what color. Dark and smelly is cocci. Light color yellow or white is e-coli.


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

Yeah veggie oil here too and PenG isn't very useful for ecoli or cocci. Have you got a B complex injectable? it's probably teh most useful vitamin for digestive problem stricken sheep. The odd colored poop could just be the mineral oil flushing the intestines a bit....which could cause trouble. Give the lamb 6-19 cc's of pepto bismol to size


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## Shannonmcmom (Jul 18, 2005)

I think I have a b-complex. I have to check. His poop is more whitish/yellow.

He is drinking water now and is walking around in the pen. I had one of my first timers give birth when I was taking him out to the pen. So between watching her and dealing with him and watching the 4 other ewes that might go.... lol!!!!! It has been a busy day so far.

Should I try to give him some more formula or what? 

I don't even know if he had pooped much, my daughter had seen him poop but i never did. The residue left on his butt reminded me a bit of butter.... (sorry for the visual)... just the color not so much the texture.

He obviously has something else going on but hopefully he can pull through it. All my other antibiotics in the fridge froze from my 3 yo cranking the temp up in the fridge to the coldest setting. So I am a little bit leery about using it. The pen-g was the only one that didn't say do not freeze.... so who knows.

I will get hubby to pick up something else. I will also give him so probiotics to see if that helps with his gut flora.

I only got about 10 ccs of the mineral oil in.

I will use the veggie oil next time. I searched so many sites and one place says this and another says that... so I tried one.


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## Goatsandsheep (Jun 7, 2006)

Is he drooling? Is his mouth cool/cold?


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## LibertyWool (Oct 23, 2008)

If he was mine, I would be giving good electrolytes instead of water, and good hay, but no grain. How much milk replacer is he getting? You may want to cut back on the milk replacer and every other feeding use electrolytes instead (don't do electrolytes and MR, as it can curdle the MR). I wean mine at 50 days, so that is 7 weeks, so he should be developing his rumen. I think the pepto would also be good and the b-complex. 

I would keep an eye on his poop. By his age, it should be pelted, so I would think he's got something going on.


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## Shannonmcmom (Jul 18, 2005)

His poop is normally pelleted. I learned when I first had a bottle lamb 9 years ago what not to do....lol!!! That is why I wonder if it comes from whatever is going on right now.

He is still drinking lots of water, licking the salt block and eating the loose minerals. He also is starting to eat some hay. I did give him a bit of an enema because when I went out to check him, his butt looked like it did this morning so I don't know if he had pooped at all since. So he did end up pooping some of the water out, then some pale colored hard turds, pellets, and then he actually pooped more. Then he pooped some more, now it was more brownish liquid, but considering he hasn't eaten all day except for the ginger/water and the mineral oil, I would expect his poop to be off. After he pooped that all out is when he started to drink more water, eat the salt/minerals and the hay. So maybe it was a combo of things. He is also perking up and not looking so lethargic. He had an interest in the rooster that was in the sheep pen. He also rammed heads with a younger ram. So.... 

They have been getting 500ml of MR 3 times a day. I will start cutting back the amount they are getting, so I can wean them off of it. I know they all eat hay and the other 2 have normal looking poops.


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## Goatsandsheep (Jun 7, 2006)

Good to hear he's doing better. Wonder if this all started with him being constipated? Shelly


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## Shannonmcmom (Jul 18, 2005)

Hubby is out giving the formula and he said Gimpy is running around with the others looking for the food. So he is only giving him 1 cupful. I did find out that last night when he was fed my son gave him the whole 2 cups in one go. Usually we try to make them come off and take a couple of minutes break. So if he got the full amount without adjusting and maybe ate too much because his gut didn't get the all full signal and then went to lay down for the night....

I will see how he is in the morning.


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