Lost a Goat to Bloat...

[babsbag]

Not a good day. In the 9 years that I have owned goats I have had one goat bloat...until last week. Last Thursday I got done milking and took one look at Taffy and went whoa...she was foaming at the mouth and slinging green cud everywhere. She was definitely bloated too. I got some Thera Bloat down her and within minutes she was fine. Weird. Fast forward to today...I am milking late by hours and hours as we had no water. I go to get the last two goats for milking that didn't come into the barn and they are both foaming and frothing green cud out their mouths and noses. This looks very familiar. I run to the store to get more Thera Bloat and treat Misty first. She is fighting me and slinging cud everywhere. She starts to struggle with breathing and I run to the house to get DH to help me and grab a tube for a stomach tube and get back to the barn and she is dead. Mocha looks a lot better and is chewing cud and actually eating some hay. I pulled Mocha off the feed and locked her in a stall for the night and put Thera Bloat in her water.

I have not changed feed, alfalfa hay and grain on the stand. There is no green pastures within miles of me and they have been on the same dry lot since March. No weird trees, no plants like azaleas or anything else poisonous. No green anything other than the hay. There are a few acorns falling but that is normal food for this crew, and with 40 goats there is not enough acorns to do any damage since they all fight over them. So why the bloat and why after eating a handful of pellets?

So this is where it gets interesting. Both times it has been after milking, these does weren't milked but they do come in to the holding corral and get alfalfa pellets. There is usually a mad dash by the goats to get to the feeders of pellets. When Taffy bloated last week and I drenched her at one point it was just like a switch was flipped and she stopped foaming and spitting out green stuff and I wondered at the time if she had been choking and my drenching cleared whatever she had in her throat. She also got "unbloated" very quickly, she burped. The more I think about this the more I think that they choked on the pellets and caused mechanical bloating by not being able to expel air. Now I have to figure out how to feed the pellets and slow them down, this is their enticement to come in and get milked.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Wow- such a strange turn of events. Hope you find the answer quickly!

So sorry for your loss.

 

[Goat Whisperer]

I am so sorry you lost a doe

How big are the pellets? I was also wondering if they could be choking. Poor girls. How long have they been on the pellets? Some of our girls were crazy about feed but can be worked up to free-choice feed. Others would still eat themselves to death.

Could you soak the pellets?

Get a 14G 4inch needle and keep it in the barn. If you come across a severally bloated goat you don't have time. Using the needle is instant relief, not the most preferred method but when you don't have time to tube or use meds- the needle is worth it.

 

[babsbag]

Get a 14G 4inch needle and keep it in the barn. If you come across a severally bloated goat you don't have time. Using the needle is instant relief, not the most preferred method but when you don't have time to tube or use meds- the needle is worth it.

I was told that it won't work on frothy bloat, that it would just release the content of the rumen into the abdominal cavity and they would die from infection. The tube would have been the best choice, I just ran out of time.

The pellets are about 3/4" or smaller. I have been feeding them for about two months but only at milking time. I think that they know that the first goats to the trough get the most pellets and they just eat too fast. I feed about 25lbs to 40 goats and if they would all walk in and take a place at the trough they would be fine but they rush and push and act like obnoxious goats. I guess no more pellets before milking. I will add them to the grain on the stand and see if they still come to get milked. I have had a few goats come in to get milked with cud/crud on them, obviously from a herd mate, but I just figured a herd mate coughed or sneezed; never gave it much thought and never thought that one would die from choking on pellets.

The choking theory fits the quick onset and quick relief.

 

[goatgurl]

so sorry for your loss babs. I've had goats strangle on food before and they do puff up, sling slobber and act in total distress. guess i'd be in distress too if I was choking to death. because I just have a few does and I bring them in to milk one at a time I have put a fist sized round rock in their feed trough so they have to work around it to get to their feed. it slows them down a lot. since you feed them all in the pen i'm not sure how you could keep them from trying to hog it all down in one big bite. like GW said maybe you could wet it down. hope you can figure something out.

 

[babsbag]

I won't be feeding there anymore. They will just have to stand there bored until they get their turn on the stand. I will add some pellets to their grain on the stand as my goats look a lot better since getting pellets added to their diet, it has help add some weight to some pretty thin goats. I also get an awesome price on them, about $5 for a 50 lb bag but that isn't worth a dead goat. This was really an eye opener for me. Usually my goats are on hay and only hay and they don't choke on hay. I really think that it is because they are fighting for a small amount of pellets so they are in a big rush to get as much as they can as fast as they can. Hard lesson to learn.

 

[BlessedWithGoats]

I'm so sorry Babs

We had a goat that was eating grain years ago and started choking, I think she was eating too fast, and she did this a couple times. I didn't know what to do, and I felt so helpless... Can't really slap em on the back like you would a human. What DO you do when your goats start choking?

 

[babsbag]

What I have learned since yesterday...if they are in distress and bloating like mine you stick a tube down their throat and push the blockage through to their rumen. It will also release the trapped air causing the bloat. If they are just coughing and sputtering you give them time to try and work it out. It if it something large, like a piece of apple you can sometimes feel it in their throat and manual work it forward back into their mouth. One site said to the Heimlich maneuver on them, but my goats are too big to get my arms around.

I have a friend whose goat was choking on some feed and she was turning blue. She stuck a garden hose down her and turned it on. She said she was going to die from choking so nothing lost by trying. In her case it worked and the feed was washed back into the mouth and she said the wad of feed was about the size of her fist.

I'm almost afraid to feed them anything other than hay.

 

[CntryBoy777]

I have faced this with our older doe....she has jaw tooth problems and can't always chew things as well as she should. I have tried a bunch of things to aid her in relief of the slinging froth with whatever is eaten out with it. A couple of times I have done an adjusted Heimlich manuever on her....she is a pygmy, it has helped on occassion, but the best and fastest relief that I have come across is wetting 3 fingers in water and dipping them in baking soda and rubbing her tongue and gums with one swipe. I feed pellets too, and they are 2 different sized pellets...the alfalfa being the largest of the 2. I agree that the eagerness for the pellets is a contributing factor and have started making her portion with the bits and pcs....and dust....left in the bottom of the bags so she has to lick without chewing. If she is breathing heavy I rub on her to calm her down some before she starts eating. I am really saddened that ya lost one to this, and each time I face it with Star I wonder if it will happen to her. So far, the baking soda has really worked and it will usually subside it for quite awhile before it is faced again.

 

[goatgurl]

I think a big factor is the competition thing and them thinking they have to gobble as much as they can as fast as they can. in your situation i'm not sure what the answer would be to prevent it.