# Baby and sloshy tummy?



## Our7Wonders (Mar 11, 2011)

What is meant by sloshy tummy?  As soon as my new bottle baby guzzles down his bottle I can hear the liquid moving about in his tummy - but it's not there later.  I know if I have only liquid in my tummy I can sometimes hear sloshing too.  Is the sloshing that I need to be concerned about if the milk is NOT getting digested?  By that I mean, if the sloshing can be heard a while after the bottle was given?

I'm so paranoid with this little guy - as soon as I heard his little belly I got all worried.


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## neener92 (Mar 11, 2011)

I've had bottle baby lambs for a couple years, I hear their little sloshy tummies too. It never caused any problems for my babies, I don't see why a lamb would be much different from a kid.


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## chicks & ducks (Mar 11, 2011)

I hear the same thing in my 2 week old boys. Didn't think much of it as the same thing happens to me occasionally!


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## cmjust0 (Mar 11, 2011)

Our7Wonders said:
			
		

> What is meant by sloshy tummy?  As soon as my new bottle baby guzzles down his bottle I can hear the liquid moving about in his tummy - but it's not there later.  I know if I have only liquid in my tummy I can sometimes hear sloshing too.  Is the sloshing that I need to be concerned about if the milk is NOT getting digested?  By that I mean, if the sloshing can be heard a while after the bottle was given?
> 
> I'm so paranoid with this little guy - as soon as I heard his little belly I got all worried.


Something that I've always wondered about when it comes to slosh/acidosis/floppy kid is whether it's all prompted by a failure of the esophageal groove..

The EG is *supposed* to close when the kid nurses, directing milk away from the rumen and straight into the... Reticulum?.. Omasum?.. Abomasum?.. Can't remember, but it's one of the three because there are only four and it's *not* the rumen. 

ANYWAY...the point is to *not* get milk in the rumen.  The rumen's warm and full of bacteria -- not a great place to store milk!  And what I've read before seems to indicate that necropsied FKS kids commonly had milk in their rumens (hence the slosh?) that had basically soured...  Not _curdled_ -- soured, as in, _went bad._

(Milk *should* curdle in the stomach (not rumen - _stomach_) but it shouldn't sour..  Afteral, stomachs are about 100 degrees and lined with rennet -- they're cheese pots, effectively, making solid food out of liquid food for little things that can't really chew.  Amazing, isn't it?  )

Ok, so when you consider that the milk in the rumen almost certainly soured on lactobacilli (milk-loving bacteria), and that lactobacilli are also called 'lactic acid' bacteria, and that systemic acidosis is often _lactic_ acidosis.......it kinda starts seeming like less and less of a coincidence that:

1) There's a 'K' in FKS, meaning "kid," indicating a milk component.
2) FKS kids are known to slosh where 'normal' kids don't, indicating rumen half-full of *something*..
3) Emerging research indicates FKS to be systemic acidosis..

So, for your sloshy kid...maybe his esophageal groove isn't closing right?  It's an involuntary response prompted by certain triggers, the action of nursing certainly being one..  HOWEVER, it's known that kids' grooves will sometimes close when they *see* a bottle and know it's time to eat...like Pavlov's dog drooling at the dinner bell, or me flinching when a goat tries to kick me in the face.  

Having said that, the first question I'd have to ask is...are you getting that bottle near-vertical when you feed him?  Are you making him really crane his neck?  

FWIW, when I bottle feed, I like to put the nipple low and near-vertical, which forces the kid to drop to its front knees and put its head almost straight up, as that very nearly replicates real-world nursing..

Worth a shot if you're not doing that already..?


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## aggieterpkatie (Mar 11, 2011)

cmjust0 said:
			
		

> The EG is *supposed* to close when the kid nurses, directing milk away from the rumen and straight into the... Reticulum?.. Omasum?.. *Abomasum*?.. Can't remember, but it's one of the three because there are only four and it's *not* the rumen.


The "true stomach".  


O7W, sounds to me like he's just got a belly full of milk. If he's eating find and acting fine, I wouldn't worry.


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## helmstead (Mar 11, 2011)

The sloshy you worry about is when you go to feed them and they _still_ are sloshy, when they should be sunken in and starving for their next meal.

So, if you go to feed the bottle, and they're not hungry when they should be...shake them gently.  If they're sloshy, then treat for FKS.  If they're not sloshy, but still not hungry, treat for constipation.  If you're not sure, LOL, treat for both!


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## 20kidsonhill (Mar 11, 2011)

I was thinking  you probably need to hold the bottle more verticle and much lower so the kid has to squat down to the nipple. Helps the milk go in the correct stomach.  

They should be on their front knees, cranning up to the verticle nipple.  if not on their knees they should be looking like they are squating down  with their front legs and reaching up to the nipple with their neck.


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## Emmetts Dairy (Mar 11, 2011)

helmstead said:
			
		

> The sloshy you worry about is when you go to feed them and they _still_ are sloshy, when they should be sunken in and starving for their next meal.
> 
> So, if you go to feed the bottle, and they're not hungry when they should be...shake them gently.  If they're sloshy, then treat for FKS.  If they're not sloshy, but still not hungry, treat for constipation.  If you're not sure, LOL, treat for both!


I second that!!  And the abomasum is the true stomach!!


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## helmstead (Mar 11, 2011)

20kidsonhill said:
			
		

> I was thinking  you probably need to hold the bottle more verticle and much lower so the kid has to squat down to the nipple. Helps the milk go in the correct stomach.
> 
> They should be on their front knees, cranning up to the verticle nipple.  if not on their knees they should be looking like they are squating down  with their front legs and reaching up to the nipple with their neck.


I have never worried about how they're standing when they take a bottle...most of mine stand normally while taking the bottle.  I don't think think this is necessary.


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## Ariel301 (Mar 11, 2011)

helmstead said:
			
		

> 20kidsonhill said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Same here. Mine typically stand in the "show pose" to drink, with their front end stretched up, head up, and hind end stretched out behind. (Bottle feeding time is when I teach them to be posed for future shows, it seems to come the most naturally that way for some reason) I've never had a problem with floppy kids syndrome.


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## cmjust0 (Mar 11, 2011)

helmstead said:
			
		

> The sloshy you worry about is when you go to feed them and they still are sloshy, when they should be sunken in and starving for their next meal.





			
				helmstead said:
			
		

> I have never worried about how they're standing when they take a bottle...most of mine stand normally while taking the bottle.  I don't think think this is necessary.


Well, um....  Assuming that first quote is based on real-world experience, all I can say is that I don't think I've ever had one slosh after a bottle.  I've had them get tight as drums and be all lethargic and keel over for naps  , and I've had them overeat and have milk scours occasionally...but I've never had one _slosh._

And I *do* consider it necessary to hold the bottle low and vertical and to make them crane their necks..

Not saying there's a cause/effect relationship involved here, because I can't *prove* it, but I gotta tell ya...makes me even more suspicious that there's something to bottle positioning with respect to the esophageal groove functioning properly.


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## Roll farms (Mar 11, 2011)

I never read to keep bottles low until I joined here... 

(Sorta like I never read NOT to give muscle shots and that goats CAN'T have corn...  )

Having said that, once I read it, I tried the 'down low' method for a kid who literally sucked her bottle down in 60 seconds flat, and it did slow her down / keep her from sucking some down her windpipe.

I do believe it's a good way to slow down the hoggy ones.

But I haven't changed my usual method for the rest...It's worked so far.


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