Learn: What happens if cow eats plastic bags?

Ingestion of plastic materials by animals and it's signs:

Ingestion of plastic materials may not result in immediate death, but there are several difficult symptoms seen in the victim animals.

These plastics are indigestible and therefore pile up in their stomachs (rumen for cattle) with time and get entangled with different materials, forming a hard cement-like ball.

cow

After some time, the animal shows signs of being weak and tired then goes off feed and at times experiences bloat due to stomach blockage. The animal may also start drinking a lot of water.

What follows high amount of water intake may be diarrhoea because of blockage except in liquids. This animal’s condition gets poorer every day to an extent of showing extreme discomfort, and if no action is taken, the animal dies.

Treatment

There is no vaccination that will help keep your animal safe from ingesting plastic bags. Your animal will also not pass large plastic material through the waste.

Some are lucky though, to pass them out when consumed in smaller pieces. There are no drugs for destroying plastic bags while in the animals’ stomach.

Luckily, some people have successfully used laxatives like high quantities of mineral oils, given to the animal to help breakdown solid materials and smoothen plastic to increase chances of slippery passage. This on the other hand, could complicate diarrhea.

As such, a sure way to try and save the animal from death is surgery to remove the plastics plus other waste items from the stomach by the help of a veterinary surgeon.

Surgery, again, will cost you much money, just imagine doctors’ fees and the loss of the animal whether most valued in the farm or not. It can be this painful, just because of the plastics we ignore around the animal.

As prevention is better than cure, keep the animal surrounding free of plastics, be selective on where to gather your animals to forage and ensure mineral supplements are availed to the animals.