Fat?

[wstevenl]

I've got a cow that was looking like she might be bloating on Sunday... she didn't look too bad so I let her be. Her belly was really big but her hips were still sunk in, etc so, she wasn't bulging everywhere.

The weirdest thing was that the bottom 6 or 8 inches of her brisket was REALLY thick. It was like if you filled up the bottom of the brisket with air or water. I have heard that a brisket will be thin or thick because of fat, but assumed it would be even throughout. Any idea what this is? She won't let me touch her, but I touched that thick part of the brisket with a stick and it seemed pretty firm, like it was fat but not tight like if it was full of gas or air.

She's acting normal and her belly isn't very big anymore, but the brisket is. Any ideas? I'm confused.

[Honeycreek Dexters]

[glow=red,2,300]URGENT[/glow] keep in mind we cant see this cow but this could be a sign of bloat this can be deadly to a cow. have you recently changed feed? when you upset the microbial action in the rumen you can do some real harm. change feed slowly over a week or more. do not change from poor quality hay to straight alfalfa for instance. or do not turn your animals onto fresh clover pastures. watch her closely. be prepared to call the vet, or it could just be a sign of a heavy worm load in which case you need to worm her and all your cattle.

[wstevenl]

I looked at her yesterday again and she doesn't seem as big in the belly as she was at one point. I wasn't able to get a good look at her brisket (the flap of skin that hangs down and goes between her legs) this is the part that was "extra fat".

They haven't had their feed changed very quickly, they've been on alfalfa/orchard/foxtail/clover/weeds pasture for about a month straight but they are slowly making their way to the end of the pasture that is producing alot more forage. I figured that they had been on it long enough that their rumens were adapted.

Worms- we recently wormed a bull because he wasn't gaining and his coat looked bad, her coat is slick and she's not scouring. Could she have alot of worms even though she's not scouring and has a slick coat?

Thanks

[wstevenl]

Is that flap of skin called something else? It seems to me that the whole chest is the brisket.

[marion]

Was she still eating, cudding and pooing OR was she breathing hard, not eating and looking in pain at any point? Has the brisket/dewlap been swollen, or did it just become noticeable? Perhaps it could be edema (water logged due to another health issue). They can get very fat in the brisket if they havent calved in a long while, but that would not be a sudden thing..marion

[Honeycreek Dexters]

hey guy hows that cow lookin? gota hand it to ya, if you have cows that will stay in one part of the pasture untill they have it eaten down and then move to another part I'd sure like to have a couple of those heifer calves price wont matter. best of luck.