Symptoms and forms of tympanic scar in cattle, treatment at home
Tympania is a serious disease of the gastrointestinal tract of cows, which occurs due to the increased accumulation of gases in the stomach or a violation of their discharge. Gas in the stomach is uncomfortable for animals and can even lead to death. Consider the causes, symptoms and stages of rumen tympania in cows, how the disease can be diagnosed, methods of therapy and prevention at home.
Tympania reasons
Rumen swelling in ruminants occurs if they eat a lot of easily fermented feed. It can be clover, legumes, cereals, corn leaves, beet tops, cabbage. Grasses wet from rain or dew are especially dangerous.
If the cow is hungry, she can overeat any feed, and from this it will also bloat. Breaks in feeding, prolonged eating of the same feed, lack of roughage in the diet are dangerous. Cows are blowing and because they do not move much, rarely or for a short time go for walks, do not graze in the pasture.
Chronic tympania in cattle develops as a complication that arises after blockage of the esophagus or booklet with foreign objects, with hypotension of the proventriculus, food poisoning and poisoning with substances, traumatic reticuloperitonitis.
Symptoms and types
Tympania is acute and chronic, symptoms are characteristic for each stage. In an acute course, a cow or calf needs immediate help.
Sharp
At this stage of tympania, swelling develops quickly, 1 hour may be enough. If a cow is blown out, her belly swells, this becomes noticeable, as it becomes round and increases in size. The animal behaves restlessly, excitedly, gets up and lies down alternately, wags its tail, hums and moans. These are signs that he has a stomach ache.
With inflammation, the cow stops chewing, there is no appetite, and salivation increases. Eructation is noted first, then it disappears.
A characteristic sign of acute tympania is that the animal's left side is swollen, if you put your hand on your stomach, you can feel that its walls are tense, when you tap, a characteristic sound is heard. Body temperature is initially normal, then rises to subfebrile. If the cow is not helped, the bloating will continue, and symptoms such as heart failure, shortness of breath, and cyanosis of the mucous membranes may develop within 2-3 hours. This condition often ends with the death of the animal.
Chronic
Periodic tympania begins due to feeding disturbances.Symptoms of chronic bloating are the same, but less pronounced. Animals do not refuse food, but their chewing gum is weakened, peristalsis is sluggish, feces are dry, dense, and constipation is noted. If a cow is swollen, it loses weight, temporarily loses its productivity, its breeding and economic value decreases.
Bloating in the calf is noted in weak individuals during the transition from milk to plant food. Often in those who have suffered a serious illness before or who eat low-quality hay, food, poor in minerals and vitamins. With severe swelling, the animal does not stand up, does not eat.
Diagnostics
Tympania is diagnosed by considering what the animal ate before the bloating began (usually food that can ferment easily) and the characteristic signs. Symptoms with foamy tympanic, which develops after excessive eating of raw grass, form more slowly than with gas.
Therefore, when moving from stall to pasture, when distributing fresh, not dried grass, you need to carefully monitor the condition of the animals.
Treatment methods
Depend on the rate of development of gas formation, the duration of the process and the state of the animal. In some cases, tympania can be dispensed with with medication, in others, surgery is required (much less often).
Ambulance
In case of acute tympania in a cow, it is necessary to carry out treatment without delay, if you delay, the animal's condition will deteriorate sharply. Then the therapy will be longer, the cattle will recover longer. You can stop the formation of gases using special drugs, for example, "Tympanol". They need to be given as soon as possible, they act quickly. Plant and synthetic components prevent the further formation of gases, destroy already formed bubbles and remove them from the body. The drugs have a ruminatory and antiseptic effect, increase secretion in the digestive tract and peristalsis, relax the sphincters of the proventriculus. For dairy calves, the volume of milk is halved; instead of water, a 0.9% solution of edible salt is used.
To stimulate the scar, massage the abdomen, pour cold water over it, put a rope dipped in turpentine over the mouth to induce belching. Until the cow is cured, they do not feed the cow, after which she is given hay and water. It is necessary to completely exclude those products from which the animal suffered.
Sounding
To release gases from the rumen, cows are probed. A large-diameter probe is inserted into the esophagus, then the scar is massaged. The gases come out through the probe (for this, the front of the animal must be raised higher than the rear).
In case of foamy tympania in animals, gases may not come out, therefore, it is necessary to pour in an antifoam agent through a probe - alcohol solutions based on menthol or thymol (2 g per 0.4-0.5 l of alcohol). Or special drugs with a similar effect. When a bull or heifer is swollen, you can use the following means: creolin, ichthyol or iodine (15-20 g per 1 liter of water), turpentine (10-15 ml per 0.3-0.4 liters of alcohol). After the release of gases, the rumen is washed with water - 5-10 liters of water are introduced through the probe, gradually, in small portions.
Surgical intervention
When other methods do not help, the cow still swells, the only thing that remains is to resort to surgery. You need to treat it like this: fix the sick animal in a standing position. To puncture the scar, a trocar instrument is used. They are punctured in a special place - on the left side, in the center of the hungry fossa. During the development of the disease, when the abdomen is swollen, it is difficult to determine the exact location, so a hole is made on a line that runs from the lower edge of the crotch to the last rib. In the middle there will be a hungry hole.
Before piercing, the wool is cut off at the selected place, treated with alcohol.The tool is attached to the skin, the end should be directed to the elbow joint of the opposite leg. With a sharp movement, the peritoneum and scar are pierced. The stylet is removed, the sleeve remains in the hole, gases escape through it. From time to time, the hole needs to be closed and then reopened.
Through the trocar, you can enter drugs "Tympanol", lactic acid and other means aimed at restoring the work of the scar. After that, the trocar is removed, the wound is treated with iodine and a bandage is applied.
Folk ways
At home, if there are no drugs, you can help the cow by giving her 0.4 liters of vodka diluted in the same volume with water (an additional 100 ml of turpentine). Give hellebore tincture (20 ml). Extracts of valerian, cumin, dill, chamomile, ammonia solution have a mild effect. You can pour cold water on the cow and be sure to make her walk so that the stomach massage takes place in this way.
Prevention of tympania
Cattle should not be grazed on wet or frost-bitten grass, water should not be given immediately after eating green food, especially one that can easily ferment. You can not overfeed animals, any, even dry, food. So that they do not eat it greedily, you need to feed them in accordance with the regimen, give a sufficient amount of food.
Do not use rotten roots, moldy grains, old hay and straw for feeding. Walk the cows every day so that they can move, thus stimulating normal digestive processes.
Tympania of the rumen is a serious disorder of cattle digestion. Often occurs due to errors in feeding livestock. A common cause is eating damp or wet grass. Due to fermentation, gases accumulate in the rumen, which must be eliminated using drugs or special methods. Without treatment, the animal will experience severe torment and may die.
