One of my older ewes is bloated....standing off by herself, left side definetly more prominent. I gave her Therabloat, a vet medicine I had, walked her a lot, put a stick across her mouth to make her chew....a little belching and mucous and sides looked better, but now it looks the same again as before. She is standing and drinks a little water. I gave her baking soda in water, some cooking oil, and some corrective mixture(looks like peptobismal) What else can I do?

-- Kate Henderson (sheeplady@catskill.net), June 23, 2000

Answers

Kate, I can't answer this one, but I will post it to the new answers board where hopefully more people will see it.

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), June 23, 2000.

First question should be what is making her bloat. Is she on lush pasture, particularly early in the morning when dew is still on the grasses, etc.? Was she suddenly put on full feed or got into feed she shouldn't have? Second question is if she is worth fooling with in the form of a vet bill. You have already pretty well done the things recommended in Keeping Livestock Healthy: A Veterinary Guide. They also recommend a couple of spoonfulls of household detergent given orally or up to a pint of vegetable or mineral oil. Vet would likely put a tube into the stomach to relieve the gasses or use a trocar, which is a hollow tube inserted directly into the rumen. This obviously isn't life threatening at the moment, so you might put her in a pen with ample water and a bit of feed. If she keeps bloating, a trip to market sounds like the most practical solution.

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), June 23, 2000.

I agree with Ken, it really sounds like you are doing the right thing. I generally give mine antacid and try to walk them a bit, seems to help with the belching. Once you have her stable I would give real yogurt (with live culture) she will need to repopulate her gut with the acidophilus. I usually put mine in a big syringe and squirt it into their mouths (they are lousy with spoons!).

HOpe this helps Kate. Most important is finding out what caused the bloat! My sheep can get nasty runs when the spring grass comes in but I've never had one bloat from it, only from getting too much grain. It is serious and scary when it happens. Keep us posted. Kim

-- kim (fleece@eritter.net), June 23, 2000.

I don't know much about sheep, but could she have gotten into any feed. I read that sheep will bloat because of feed overload and I know that cows and horses will. Just a thought...

-- Abigail F. (treeoflife@sws.nb.ca), June 23, 2000.

I don't know much about sheep, but could she have gotten into any feed? I read that sheep will bloat because of feed overload and I know that cows and horses will. Just a thought...

-- Abigail F. (treeoflife@sws.nb.ca), June 23, 2000.

I had a friend whos' goat did the same thing. She laid the goat on it's back (not easy to do with a goat) and rolled it from side to side and walked it alot. Seemed to help out quite a bit!

-- Pat (pmikul@pcpros.net), June 23, 2000.

Kate, you've done just about everything for the poor thing. Death from bloat is considered to be by suffocation, not a nice way to go, so keep an eye on her. At this point, I'd bring in the vet, or at least a very experienced sheep raiser. There are a few things that can be done including tubing her, tubing oil in, and even puncturing her rumen. But this stuff is tricky, I wouldn't do it myself, but then I have a great vet who does his best to get to emergencies as quickly as possible. I wish you two well. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), June 23, 2000.

If you have fixed all the causes as to why she could have bloat, more hay less grain, given her Thera Bloat (which works well for us) baking soda etc. Then lets look to something else. Enterotoxemia. has she been vaccinated for this? Its the C D in the CD&T. Though you should vaccinate your herd for this, you would also want to give the antitoxin and antibiotic to get her over this. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), June 23, 2000.

last year some one in our 4h group lost twosheep at fair, the animal rights people said they couldnt use muzzels and the sheep ate there straw beding[ small pen, new typ of bedding, and new place with noise and people dont mix]. If you have a muzzle maybe she should wear it for a couple days to keep her from eating to much and give her tummy a rest.

-- kathy h (saddlebronc@msn.com), June 23, 2000.

Thank you all for answering. I had the vet here on Friday and we put a tube down and administered Thera Bloat. Also she gave her Calcium subcutaneous to stimulate the vagus nerve.There were no sounds of rumen activity. I also gave her Therabloat after, cooking oil, baking soda and nutridrench.Was not eating, but drank lots of water and was peeing lots. I walked her and kept masssaging her sides.Even tried mineral oil to help loosen up a possible blockage. Then she got really short of breath and we lost her early this morning. As she was not acting lot she had a lot of pain, as in a blockage or twisted bowel, the vet thought she might have had a tumor. I am very sad and discouraged as we lost the 2 lambs from complications of castrating (see earlier post) last week. Hopefully things will get better. Thanks a million for taking time to answer me.It means a lot. Kate

-- Kate Henderson (sheeplady@catskill.net), June 25, 2000.

Kate, you really have had a tough time of it. My heart really goes out to you. I thank you for sharing with us as you have no doubt educated a lot of us. I hope things get much better immediately!

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), June 25, 2000.

Kate, I am very sorry to hear that the animal died, perhaps there was a condition called coloform diease, sometimes affecting the rumen or the mammary system. Animals usually go off feed, drink water , grind teeth and bloat. If you are using antibiotics any teryammicin product will do administered IV. this helps to balance the bad bacteria in the rumen. Have you considered that she may have a DA. A displaced abmolsom.I always perfer to use natural methods and sometimes there is nothing that you can do.Good luck

-- Diane Brown (trckrlty@atcnet.net), June 29, 2000.