Bloat (Discussion)

[elevan]

As I'm working on an index I find it is incredibly difficult to find a good thread for bloat, so I'm going to start a discussion here on it.

Please share your experiences, pictures and recipes for dealing with bloat.

Thank you!


Here is what we use / keep on hand at Honaker farm:

Baking Soda - used for bloat and upset tummies

Baking Soda (BS)Balls:

2Tbsp Baking soda and enough water to form a "dough" roll into balls and shove into the back of the goats tongue.

Baking Soda Drench:

2Tbsp Baking Soda

enough water to liquify

Suck it up into a syringe (no needle) or a drenching syringe and squirt into the back of the goat's mouth

Sodium Bicarbonate 10 gr Tablets:

(available for under $20 for 1,000 tablets at your human pharmacy - I have these because I have a dog with Fanconi Syndrome)

Bolus the goat with 9 tablets

 

[20kidsonhill]

We Keep Mineral oil on hand, and baking soda.

For a goat with true bloat from getting into feed, we would drench with mineral oil, or tube feed the mineral oil if the animal was bad enough. Hard to say exactly how much, but for an adult boer goat over 100 lbs we would tube feed 2 or 3 cups of mineral oil. IN the mineral oil I would add several cc's of Penn G and a couple teaspoons of baking soda depending on how big the goat is. Penn G is to prevent a bloom of bacteria leading to overeating disease.

I would repeat in 2 or 3 hours.

Exericise is important, forced exercise if possible.

Then only offer the animal grass hay and fresh water, no additional feeds for a couple days until they are feeling better.

Scouring is okay and in fact a good thing for a day or so, but if the animal continues to scour for 2 or 3 days, then a bacterial bloom has set in and the animal needs to be treated for bacterial scours with oral neomycin or oral spectam Scour Guard for pigs, twice a day. discontinue treatment 24 hours after symptoms subside.


If The cause of bloat is unknown, you also need to consider other causes of the bloat, such as a parasite problem causing an upset stomach, especially coccidiosis in a young kid. In this case the parasite needs to be addressed in order for the bloat to subside. Often times in these kids the bloat will come on gradual and come and go over a course of a few days.

Bloat in young kids and especially bottle babies can also be from a disease called Overeating Disease. Your vaccination schedule needs to be evaluate since CD & T vaccine is the prevention for Overeating Disease and Tetnus. If you suspect Overeating disease in a kid, that is bloating on and off and scouring, not eating well and in general not feeling well, the best treatment is C& D antitoxin, (this is not the vaccine). Once the treatment is administered over a course of a couple days and the animal recovers the animal then needs to be revaccinated With the CD & T vaccine.

 

[Chris]

If bloat shows up we use Activated Charcoal Past at the rate of 3c.c. per 2lbs. and repeat every 2 hours or as needed, we also make them walk a lot.

Chris

 

[elevan]

This is a great post in the cattle section under the same topic that would apply to goats as well:

Information on Bloat:

There are two types of bloat: free gas and foamy bloat.

Free-gas bloat is caused by either a blockage of the esophagus, irregular diet, or nerve damage or vagal indigestion (where the vagus nerves connect the rumen to the central nervous system can be inhibited) of the reticulo-rumen, often caused either by injury (i.e., hardware disease), or severe respiratory disease.

Foamy-bloat occurs both on pasture and in the feedlot. Pasture bloat is often caused by alfalfa and clover, and also, but less commonly, high-protein or high-quality grasses (particularly those that are in the vegetative stage). Pasture bloat quite often comes up without warning and symptoms come on very quickly. Feedlot bloat is quite often caused by high-concentrate diet like grain, and especially a concern if an animal has over-done it on the grain, or has been suddenly switched to a high-concentrate diet from a roughage diet, or is on a roughage diet but ate too much high-concentrate feed. Grain silage is not attributed to causing bloat. This type of bloat is caused by tiny grain particles or alfalfa/clover chloroplasts that form a slime that trap these tiny particles and form small gas bubbles. Both grain and bloat-inducing legumes are often digested very quickly, providing for bacterial blooms which produce large quantities of gas and slime.


Symptoms that an animal is bloating are:

1. Distended upper left side (moderate to severe is when the skin over the upper left flank cannot be grasped and lifted)
2. Kicking at the belly
3. Little interest in eating
4. Restlessness
5. Mouth-breathing (panting)
6. Tongue distention
7. Staggering

(Note: the last three symptoms are for severe cases, first four are average ones to look for from mild to moderate or worse case)



Treatment varies depending on the severity of the bloat. If an animal has a mild case of bloat, often just getting it up and moving around will help move the contents in the rumen and free the gas that has built up. However, this may not help either. Mild to moderate cases require tubing with mineral oil or some other anti-foaming agent. Such solutions may not be necessary if the animal has free-gas bloat. Simply putting the tube down into the rumen would be enough to help release the gas that has built up. However, with frothy bloat, the froth will quickly build up in the tube and need to be blown out at the other end by the person handling the tubing operation (sounds gross I know). Thus, an anti-foaming agent is a good method of this.

If bloat is severe or such that tubing is not an option, rumenotomy is necessary to quickly release the contents. A trocar with a canula attached is the best instrument to have for this sort of emergency, since it's much less traumatic for the animal. Make an incision into the skin through the abdominal muscles with a sharp knife about 1 cm (~1/2 inch), then place the trocar into the incision so that it punctures the rumen wall. Remove the trocal and leave the canula in place to allow the gas and froth to escape. A piece of wire may be needed to stir the the froth and allow further release

If no trocar and cannula can be had, then a sharp knife will be needed to release the gas in the rumen. A quick incision into the skin 6 to 12 cm (4 to 6 inches) over the midpoint of the left flank needs to be made, continuing through the abdominal wall to the rumen. Expect an explosive release of gas when this happens. The vet will have to be brought out right away to clean up the wound and sew it up properly to prevent peritonitis.



Prevention:

Most common bloat is on pasture. To prevent pasture bloat, you can do several things:

1. Do not put the animals out on it when they're hungry.
2. Do not allow access to the pasture when alfalfa is in an immature stage
3. Do not allow access to the pasture during early mornings or right after a rain
4. Allow full access to hay when they're out on pasture. Moderate to poor quality hay or straw is great for this.
5. Have them have access to a bloat-prevention block
6. Implement a grass mix in with the alfalfa and clover

With grain, it's best to introduce the ration slowly.



For more information, please see this website:

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex6769

 

[Daisygoat]

We have three female Boer goats and they all looked bloated! They are active and eat hay, sweet feed and mostly forage in our woods. They have a big water tank with fresh water available. They don't act sick at all but their bellies are as wide as can be. Should we be concerned?

 

[Latestarter]

Ummmm with that bowling ball sticking out the right side (more on one than the other)... any chance they are pregnant? That looks like a soon to be kidding situation...

 

[OneFineAcre]

We have three female Boer goats and they all looked bloated! They are active and eat hay, sweet feed and mostly forage in our woods. They have a big water tank with fresh water available. They don't act sick at all but their bellies are as wide as can be. Should we be concerned?
View attachment 18987

No
You should not be concerned
If they are active , eating hay, eating feed and foraging then they are not bloated

If.a goat is bloated you can go on that left side and thump it and you can tell by the sound if it has air in it
A normal rumen you can take your fingers and press on the left side and it's like play dough

 

[Daisygoat]

Well, glad they aren't sick then, but it just seems so odd that they are all so big bellied!! Esp. since they didn't used to be that way. Just 'hay belly' eh? Hehehe.