The girls had a couple very sick bovine. (Bovinae)

[baymule]

No kidding. To be such big strong animals, horses sure can die easily and leave you scratching your head wondering what the devil happened.

 

[canesisters]

Bloat & Colic are very different, though very serious.
@valley ranch, I'd like to see a picture of the product that yall used.

 

[ducks4you]

I hope they are better. I don't know how to deal with cattle, just horses--3 colics/31 years of horsekeeping (35 horses). They are easier because you keep a horse's diet very low protein, almost all fiber, NO water or grain within an hour before and after hard work, and keep them low stress with the ability to eat normally, 8 small meals/day. So, it's a formula that works. Horses will not touch some of the hay that people will feed to cattle, unless they are literally skin and bones. The large round bales left out the field don't go to horses because the outsides have rot, and cattle Can consume them safely. There is also the possibility that your cattle ate something poisonous, and horses will do the same thing. We have to think ahead and practice "defensive animal-keeping," like I don't keep any trees with toxic leaves on my property, and I just pulled the nail that the fence builders put to hook the chain on one of my small fences (4'). As soon as I get my drill back from my DD's, I have an eye screw and a spring hook to use there, instead. It was HORSE EYE LEVEL and bugged me for a long time.
I agree with feeding them hay before turning them out if you have a pasture with lush growth. I sold a horse to a "friend", and she and her DH rented a house with 10 acres in the Fall. Next spring her horses gorged on it and both foundered. We had had a falling out, they said that they sold them, but MY DH saw them both in the same pen at auction, going for meat. This happens more often than you think. Once we trailered a horse for this girl. Her horse had colicked before, but she feed 2 pounds of grain/every OTHER day. wtfudge?!?!? I couldn't understand why it wasn't 1 pound/day? Anyway, the rock yard side and extreme pain that I had always heard about was full force in this animal, and she didn't own a trailer. Fortunately the horse pulled through. Vet's tell you that a horse can survive with 95% of the intestines cut out, but I cannot imagine how athletic he/she is. Cutting out the dead intestine is the remedy.
My experiences were with 3 horses. I horse was rented out to a "know everthing" college student. She rode him like a race car and brought him back to me panting and soaked. She assured me that she had walked him, but after 10 minutes he started tying up. I walked him for 2 hours and he had a full recovery. The other two got out and they and another person's horse raided a grain bin. The other horse had been on a reducing diet, and he ended up dying 3 days later. My two had mild colic and fully recovered, one to live until 35yo and the other until her was 27yo.

 

[valley ranch]

@valley ranch, I'd like to see a picture of the product that yall used.


Here is is.