Baking soda versus castor oil for bloat

Discussion in 'Breeding, Raising, Feeding and Caring for Animals' started by No idea, Dec 28, 2012.

  1. No idea

    No idea Junior Member

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    I have a couple of rams that got into the horse feed, they ended up with bloat. After a quick Internet search I ended up dosing them with baking soda mixed with vegetable oil, this seems to have fixed the problem. My neighbour suggested dosing them with castor oil as this was better and went down easier than the baking soda mix. Has anyone used these remedies before and if so which one works the best?

    Cheers
     
  2. Curramore1

    Curramore1 Junior Member

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    Hello there. There is a commercially available bloat oil called I think Teric bloat oil, largely a detergent type action to get rid of the froth. The bicarb just neutralises the acid produced by the fermentation of grain or other high energy feed to prevent the ongoing effects of acidosis. Bloat caused by clover or lucerne gorging can be simply released by stabbing the rumen through the skin with a trocar and leaving the canular in until the bloat is gone, but you have to know where to put it and a knife won't do the job as effectively or humanely, and more than a bit bizarre for the average bear and you have to have a trocar and canular set as well. As a kid we got into real strife if we left the cows in the fresh clover for more than 30 minutes. After an hour we would be popping groaning cows all over the place and dreading the parental wrath aftermath. The oil will also work to settle the rumen froth and allow them to belch out the gas, liquid paraffin oil is the cheapest and most effective for this.
    Antibiotics are sometimes prescribed as part of the recovery from acidosis in ruminants. In extreme cases the contents of the rumen are evacuated surgically to remove the offending causitive agent. You can also buy bloat preventing capsules to put down their throats, also it can be administered as a drench or just added to the daily water supply. In some big commercial operations it is added automatically to the water troughs by a dosatron system.

    Cutting to the chase if there was little or no grain, just dose with oil, paraffin is best ( 500 mL for a 100 kg ram), then other vege oils. You can use a drenching gun to administer but that is 15 or more squirts in a 30 mL gun. Castor oil will have an antifrothing effect followed later by a laxitive effect as well. If lots of grain, then drench with bicarb soda as well, but in a 100 kg ram a couple of packets to make a saturated solution is required to have an effect, not just a tablespoon full. If the animal has a good dose of acidosis from grain poisoning, lets say a 100 kg all grass fed ram eating 10 kg of wheat, it will be very sore in the feet and legs after 12 hours or so, and in bad cases will get laminitus. The feet will get really hot and the animal may be down for weeks if it survives and may have permanent lameness and liver damage. This is only in ruminants ( animals which chew their cud) of course, in horses it is a whole different ball game and none of the above applies.
     
  3. No idea

    No idea Junior Member

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    Thanks for the info. They where a little bit stiff and short in there action and I suspected some acidosis so I just walked them around for a bit and they came good. I had been told about the stabbing solution as well, but was not at all keen to try that. I'll stock up on paraffin oil just in case, and put a better door on the feed shed.
     

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