With our small herd of cows we have been extremely lucky so far and never experienced any of them bloat. That being said, I have yet to "see" bloat and am naive in recognizing it --until now, that is. I have read enough, though, that I thought I would be able to at least suspect it.
A couple days ago one of our pregnant heifers looked bigger to me. This happened over a couple days and she is very pregnant -due any time. I debated that day what was going on and bloat did cross my mind, but she was acting fine so I thought I was just overreacting. When I checked on her since then she looked the same and still acted normal.
Tonight, I had my son and husband take a look at her and, yep, sure enough they diagnosed bloat. She had a slight hump to her mid-back and her left side was much larger than the right. This happened to her once before when she unknowingly stole another cows alfalfa hay at the county fair. I wasn't there, so I didn't see it. The boys said it was much worse last time with her belly hard as a rock. Tonight the top of her belly was slightly firm and tight, but not rock hard.
She is such a great tempered tame cow that she allowed my son to put in an orogastric tube while haltered and tied in the barn. She definitely did not like it, but tolerated it. Some of the gas did escape through the tube before she expelled the tube. She also got a dose of mineral oil, which she found less than tasty. She is now stalled in the barn and feed is on hold until her belly goes down a little more. She is belching some nasty smelling gas which makes us very happy! Hopefully she will be feeling better soon and have a beautiful calf for us in the next few days.
My lesson is learned -if I suspect something isn't right, I should follow my instincts. Now I also know what to look for to recognize bloat. We will be keeping her on less lush pasture from now on. I am so thankful we didn't lose her due to my lack of knowledge!
