Founder

[renegade]

I just found out why my steers belly was so big - our trimmer thinks he's foundered .  What happend was we were gone and somehow all of our calves got out (we never use this gate but it was off its hinges and untied - we think foul play by some one we know but no proof) well we are surrounded by alfalfa fields and he never bloated just a little bigger belly like normal but last night he did bloat bad.  The trimmer is a good friend of ours and is gonna give us some stuff you put in there feed. He says if I start now he might be ok and if not we just have to eat him. Does anyone know of anything else to do?  I am at my wits end, this steer is a good calf but he has had a lot of problems. Lice, warts, bloat, ect. and now this and I have too much money in him not to show and sell him

Oh ya i forgot to say the reason we asked the trimmer was cause the steer was super lame on the front end last night like his feet were really tender or his back was messed up - and this steer likes to haunch his back a lot so I thought  - i guess kinda hoped that was it cause thats easy to fix with a trip to the chiropractor

 

[simtal]

It's unlikely that your steer would get founder (laminitis) from alfalfa. Bloat yes, but founder is something different.  Founder is most likely caused by the steer consuming too much grain in creating a low ph in the rumen.  The low ph would create an ulcer and allow bacteria to be released into the blood stream causing capillary rupture (founder).  The other thing that could have happened is that the increased lactic acid in the rumen would pull fluids out of the blood into the GI tract which would cause the blood to concentrate which again causes capillary rupture.

 

[renegade]

He had been eating his grain then got out into a field of alfalfa