Baking Soda & Goats

Retired old girl Mara wants to remind everyone that goats do not need baking soda made available to them. Goats create their own bicarbonate, and adding in baking soda can slow their own production. Additionally, it being "useful in case of bloat, they'll eat it if they need it" is actually just... wrong, getting more and more wrong with every single sentence?

(I had no intention of making this into a long post but here we go 😆)

BAKING SODA DOES NOT TREAT BLOAT.

Bloat, actual bloat, is not that common. I see tons of people post pictures of their perfectly healthy looking goat, wondering what to do for bloat. Goats are ruminants. The short form is they eat hay or forage, store it in a compartment to ferment, regurgitate it to chew further down, and swallow again to a different compartment. Its a bit more complicated than that, but thats the easy way of explaining it. A goat that looks "bloated" is often just one with a fat hay belly, who just ate a very healthy amount and needs to settle in, relax, and chew cud. A truly bloated goat is one in extreme pain. I will tell you by experience - if you see a bloated goat, you KNOW. If you have any doubts, its not bloated. They cannot poop. They very very rarely will ever touch food (99.999% of the time they will not, but I have seen one still try to weakly eat, so 🤷‍♀️), however assuming that a bloated goat would actively seek out baking soda AND eat it under those conditions? Nonsense, unfortunately. They will be grinding their teeth, pressing their head against a wall, lethargic, and WIDE. Not hay belly wide.

When dealing with bloat, remember that baking soda does nothing. That is for an entirely different ailment called acidosis, which is an imbalance of the rumen pH, and i suspect that the confusion came from them both being issues with the rumen, I guess? Either way, very different issues. What you need for bloat is a tube and mineral oil (though vegetable oil works as well). My favorite way to deal with it is to tube the goat into the rumen, which is always much, much easier on adults than it is babies for those that feel intimidated by it. I confirm that I'm in the rumen by smell through the tube (😫), or, if I'm lucky enough, some hot fermented rumen juice will shoot through it. Yay. Once in, I'll keep a finger over the opening of the tube, and occassionally move it. Oftentimes, gas will pass through. I will also push some mineral oil down in there via syringe to help get things moving again. Rinse and repeat, as many times as needed. I've never not had this work for bloat (so far, please please no more surprises 2026, please I am begging you I am done with 'firsts' 😭).

One bloat case I had was with my OG lil Apple, while he was still fighting through his polio journey. We had just finally beat a bad pneumonia case, and suddenly he was bloated after he started eating solid food again for the first time in a month. I had gotten him in the truck to load up for the vet, because at this point if Apple even blinked weird I took him in since he was severely autoimmune compromised, and by the time we made it, he pooped and deflated. It was mild enough that the bumps and shakes of good ole Michigan roads in my pickup with bad suspension were enough to get everything going again. I definitely dont suggest relying on something similar, but its worth a shot in milder cases. Walking and exercise sometimes can help too, but keep in mind the goat's stress and pain levels for attempts like that.

So, baking soda is not for bloat.

There is no need to keep baking soda out for goats.

Baking soda does not even treat bloat, it treats acidosis.

Know the symptoms and signs of bloat, and keep a tube and mineral oil on hand if it ever does happen in your herd.