• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Savin one always makes you feel Pumped

PPRM

Well-known member
So, I am out checking the calves we are feeding when I notice one staggering and way blown up like a balloon..He is nice black calf that wieghs about 800 pounds..A severe Bloat. I walk him back to the watering pen and he is struggling. I shut a gate with a poor chain latch setup and go to set the gates to the alley. The rest of the calves bump the gate open while I am setting gates and come into the pen....

I go back and start sorting them out and by this time, the calf is really struggling. I realize he is about done and I really don't want him in an alley in this condition. He could go down and the confining of the alley will just stress him more. Suddenly, he starts staggering backwards with his head up....Dang, he goes down with the wrong side up. ...

I rush in and roll him over. I grab my leathermans and pick a spot on his side to puncture. and let the air out. The ppressure against his Diaphram is preventing his lungs from working. I stab him and the blade enters the rumen.Immediately the air starts coming out. I look at the eyes and they are glazed over. I worry it is too late. I let the air out and then start jumping on the rib cage, trying to get some response...After a few jumps, there is kinda a kick and a gasp, then nothing.

I start jumping again and after a bit, another kick and gulp...I jump on the ribs again, and this time with the gasp, there is a blink, though the eyes are still glazed over. I put my foot on the chest and he starts kicking, further entangling his feet into the Blackberry bushes he is laying against. He kinda starts to breath and then stops. I put my foot on his ribs and he starts kicking more...Finally he is struggling, but breathing.

I walk away and set the gate to turn him into a pen where another heifer is. She had a broken leg, but is on the mend. It is better to put him in there than back out. I come back and he is startled. He gets up and runs into a barbed wire fence. He does not have his wits about him yet, but he is breathing well now. I let him set there until he decides to get up. He walks to the gate and won't drive back to the pen.

It is always a little hairy with calves that don't quite have all thier senses about them. I have seen them suddenly go into a defense mode where they run you over with no warning....

I go get the hiefer to try to give him a calf to follow. I want him to not feel alone and threatened. I get her there and he pairs up with her. Yet, at the gate to the pen he stops and just looks at me. I realize he doesn't have enough sense to respect me. I need to get him in the pen as this is the best place for him....A three foot long 3 inch diameter limb lies beside me. I toss it at his head and it startles him out of a dazed state. He follows the heifer and I shut the gate.....

I go open the main gate so the other calves can water. I put some salt out and come back and check on him. At this point, he is just a normal calf, with no gratitude...No real idea that i just saved his life...Yet I feel pretty pumped. He was basically dead and I brought him back......Always a good feeling,

PPRM
 

the_jersey_lilly_2000

Well-known member
PPRM all he remembers is this guy jumpin up n down on him....and he don't know why, he's afraid if he gets close to you again, ya might decide he needs more of it. :D LOL

Glad to hear he's back up and motivatin.....wishin the best with a full recovery.
 

Canadian_Cowgirl

Well-known member
That is an aweosme storry!! I was really into it, you jumped on his ribs? and didnt break em? holy those things must be strong! thanks for the story i really enjoyed it!! :D :D

Katy
 

PPRM

Well-known member
The calves ribs are pretty strong and I was pretty wary....And a live calf with broken ribs beats a dead one with good ribs....

One note of caution if you ever have to do this. The rumen is on the left side. Be careful not to puncture too high as you can hit a kidney which will kill the calf.

A couple of times the rumen sealed and I had to rotate the knife to get the air to resume its escape.

Working in a feedlot for a few years exposed me to quite a few situations. I am fortunate in that I react rather than have to think things through...

I will be taking him to the sale. In the past, I would give a calf one more chance, but I am not around to babysit and it seems like they would eventually bloat agian,

PPRM
 

Jassy

Well-known member
Glad everything worked out...another exciting cowboy moment...that should of been caught on film...oh well...lol
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
Good story! I enjoyed it. Glad the calf survived.

One point I would like to make here, when you get a bloater,
give them Probiotic. When something bloats, there
is a rumen upset and the Probiotic will get that rumen working
again. Probiotic comes in a tube and you give it orally, of course.

One fall here we had reports of more bloating than usual happening usual in the calves. All the ones that were treated with Probiotic
survived, the rest died. There were several herds involved.
I thought that was rather interesting,
and way too much of a coincidence. We had a calf that got
sick right before shipping. We treated him and then he bloated.
We kept him and he bloated again. We kept treating him with
the Probiotic and by golly, he quit bloating. He wound up being
none the worse for wear.

Hope this helps!
 

High Plains

Well-known member
Nothing like a feedlot when it comes to training a bovine paramedic :!: I've seen a few really good feedlot cowboys/animal health experts do some pretty amazing things to save a critter. None of them could walk on water, but a few could sure dance on manure when conditions and motivation were right. :wink:

Back to your victory, PPRM, that's a darned good effort on your behalf. I'll bet you were walking a little taller all day long. All in a day's work, right?

HP
 

PPRM

Well-known member
High Plains said:
Nothing like a feedlot when it comes to training a bovine paramedic :!: I've seen a few really good feedlot cowboys/animal health experts do some pretty amazing things to save a critter. None of them could walk on water, but a few could sure dance on manure when conditions and motivation were right. :wink:

Back to your victory, PPRM, that's a darned good effort on your behalf. I'll bet you were walking a little taller all day long. All in a day's work, right?

HP

Well, as usual, no time to walk taller, LOL...I was running late and had to load a big Square bale on the back of the pickup to get to some cows that were hungry before they went through a fence....

Yep, feedlot gets you exposure to a ton of things,

PPRM
 

Cal

Well-known member
Did you give him some antibiotics after that? I've seen some nasty infections caused after the gas and fluids escape out of the hole in their side.
 

Jerry H

Well-known member
pprm
glad you saved him
we get alot of bloaters this time of year as the wheat is growing real fast and all the snow put extra nitrogen in the ground
i carry a tube around my horses neck and heel the calves and try the tube first
if that doesn't work i then use a new 14 gauge needle in the rumen
i try to avoid my knife as a non sterile knife will sometimes cause peritinits (sp)
a fella told me the other day to inject about 10 cc's of no foam into the rumen and they will go down very quik
i have not tried it yet but i will soon i'm shure
what was the calf eating?
i had trouble with bloat on alfalfa feilds in the spring when it started greening
and also one year i had bloat caused from the 2nd cutting of alfalfa that was put up alittle damp
until later
jerry
 

PPRM

Well-known member
It was a moment where I used what I had.I was just coming of the road, so I didn't have anything with me. As long as it took to get the air out, I am afraid he'd of been a goner past bringing back if I had anything smaller than what I used....Antibiotics are the course of followup....


The calf is on a silage ration with 10% feeder alfalfa...He has been on it for a few month now. THe change is grass is starting to come, but there is not a lot of it.....

I am selling him today. He is doing well and looks great. I have given second chances, but the problem is we aren't there to babysit and if the probiotic doesn't work, we can easily lose one...

PPRM
 
Top