ConcernedSheep
Overrun with beasties
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2024
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Hello all! We have a Katahdin ewe who is approximately 6-7ish years old (we adopted her a little over a year ago and was told that was her approximate age). Today at 2 PM PST, we found her lying on her side, panting heavily, champing/gasping/chewing at the air, with a rectal prolapse and a pile of diarrhea by her butt. She also appeared to have some froth/foam around her mouth.
I’m unsure if this was truly frothy bloat or simply excess saliva due to the panting/champing motions, but we treated her for bloat just in case by giving her some Durvet bloat treatment. My husband and I were able to stand her up and (slowly) walk her over to some shade. Her stomach felt quite hard to me, but the stomachs of all my sheep usually feel pretty firm/hard to me, so I’m not experienced enough to tell exactly how hard is too hard… Regardless, I massaged the left side of her stomach as much as she would tolerate.
She seemed really thirsty so we gave her some water and tried to keep her standing (or at least keep her head elevated). We discovered she would follow the water bucket, so we started slowly moving it across the pasture in an effort to get her moving around more. Eventually her breathing seemed less labored, and she stopped trying to lie down as much. She walked (very slowly and clumsily) about 300 feet to the other side of the pasture and her prolapse went back in for a bit (though after some time it came partially back out). My priority was whatever crisis she was having and I would deal with the prolapse after she was more stable. She also seems to have a swelling on her stomach, it looked/felt like hives, it didn’t appear exactly like an abscess but I didn’t try to lance it with everything that was going on.
We eventually got her standing in a shady spot with water nearby, offered some orchard hay (she didn’t eat), and decided she was stable enough to leave overnight. At that point it had been about 3 hours since we gave the bloat treatment. I’ll probably go out and check on her a couple times overnight tonight, since we also have a cat having urinary issues at the moment who requires a lot of care/supervision as well (it’s been a really crappy week). She was fine yesterday, so symptoms started sometime between last night and 2 PM today. Her famacha was about 2-3 (I’m still not super experienced at that yet, I’m still learning). Her last fecal was in January and was clear. Our other 6 sheep are fine. They are on pasture, and there is clover in it, but the majority is foxtail/rye grass and they have been on this pasture for over a year now without any issues. They’ve been off hay since early February (the rain was delayed this year). They don’t eat anything else. I didn’t think to take her temperature so I don’t have that info. I guess what I want to ask is… Anything else you think I should do/try? Does this sound like bloat to you?
ETA: We are in Northern California, since I know many parasites are regional. I was shocked her famacha was so low, since the January fecal was clear, but I also didn’t know if maybe she was pale because of whatever crisis she was in...
I’m unsure if this was truly frothy bloat or simply excess saliva due to the panting/champing motions, but we treated her for bloat just in case by giving her some Durvet bloat treatment. My husband and I were able to stand her up and (slowly) walk her over to some shade. Her stomach felt quite hard to me, but the stomachs of all my sheep usually feel pretty firm/hard to me, so I’m not experienced enough to tell exactly how hard is too hard… Regardless, I massaged the left side of her stomach as much as she would tolerate.
She seemed really thirsty so we gave her some water and tried to keep her standing (or at least keep her head elevated). We discovered she would follow the water bucket, so we started slowly moving it across the pasture in an effort to get her moving around more. Eventually her breathing seemed less labored, and she stopped trying to lie down as much. She walked (very slowly and clumsily) about 300 feet to the other side of the pasture and her prolapse went back in for a bit (though after some time it came partially back out). My priority was whatever crisis she was having and I would deal with the prolapse after she was more stable. She also seems to have a swelling on her stomach, it looked/felt like hives, it didn’t appear exactly like an abscess but I didn’t try to lance it with everything that was going on.
We eventually got her standing in a shady spot with water nearby, offered some orchard hay (she didn’t eat), and decided she was stable enough to leave overnight. At that point it had been about 3 hours since we gave the bloat treatment. I’ll probably go out and check on her a couple times overnight tonight, since we also have a cat having urinary issues at the moment who requires a lot of care/supervision as well (it’s been a really crappy week). She was fine yesterday, so symptoms started sometime between last night and 2 PM today. Her famacha was about 2-3 (I’m still not super experienced at that yet, I’m still learning). Her last fecal was in January and was clear. Our other 6 sheep are fine. They are on pasture, and there is clover in it, but the majority is foxtail/rye grass and they have been on this pasture for over a year now without any issues. They’ve been off hay since early February (the rain was delayed this year). They don’t eat anything else. I didn’t think to take her temperature so I don’t have that info. I guess what I want to ask is… Anything else you think I should do/try? Does this sound like bloat to you?
ETA: We are in Northern California, since I know many parasites are regional. I was shocked her famacha was so low, since the January fecal was clear, but I also didn’t know if maybe she was pale because of whatever crisis she was in...
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ugh
My husband has been moving the 5-gallon bucket of water around the pasture to keep it near her, and taking her baking soda in a mineral pan to snack on. She’s been eating quite a lot of it, so I am thinking we were right to give her the bloat treatment on Thursday. We’re also going to start leaving a pan of baking soda out there next to their minerals, as I’ve seen many folks do, so they can perhaps self-treat some upset stomach problems before they become so severe. He said she’s been audibly burping a lot, so she seems to be working it out.
