Bloat?

[NHGoater]

Good Morning all. We have three weathered boys. Fred(alpine 2) Coconut (boer/Nubian 8 mo) and Birch (saenen 6 mo) they are all on pasture and hay combo. We hike them on the weekends usually 2 miles. Our youngest Birch looks like an ottoman when he comes in at night. All of them appear to have bigger bellies now than in the summer especially in the evening. They all chew their cud and drink, pee, and urinate well. They don't appear to be in distress. They hike well. When they are on pasture Birch sucks up oak leave like a vacuum. He loves the brown stuff while the other two tend to be more picky.

Is the ottoman appearance bloat or am I being paranoid? maybe it just looks big cause he is still kind of short. He has grown so much since we picked him up.

Thanks for the help
Dennis

[Taffy]

It's not bloat if he is acting fine and everything is functioning properly. The first thing I would do is take a fecal sample of all your goats to the vet. They can check for coccidiosis and parasites. Both can cause a goat to not thrive.

[Dave-Trinity-Farms]

Just sounds like good rumin activity to me. If you can push in on their sides 3-4 inches then they are just nice full goats. You can sometimes feel one side that is hard and wont push in much at all. That is most likely just a stomach packed full and isnt a worry. Bloat (and there are different levels of it) fills their body cavity so much that both sides become very hard. At its worse they will start to suffocate and or puke. With it being fall, Id say the fall growth and the falling leaves are just making an all day long tasty meal

[Charlie Horse]

I have one goat thats a real bloaty fatso, and another goat that's normally pretty slim and trim. They're just individual that way. Neither has ever had a real actual bloat episode.

[NHGoater]

Thank you for the posts. I've relaxed a bit. All of them can get their sides pushed in. They are just stuffing themselves on oak leaves. Fat, dumb (somewhat), and happy!