Movie identification: sheep balloons?

April 26, 2015 5:38 PM

What movie did I see in school in the late 80's that featured sheep being punctured with a huge needle-ish poker thing to save the sheep by releasing internal gas resulting from grazing on the wrong kind of grass? And does all that really happen?
posted by NortonDC to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

Could it have been All Creatures Great and Small? I can't find an episode where he might have punctured a sheep's rumen, but it seems like there should be...

And yes, it really does happen. Especially if your sheep are hungry and just wolf down a bunch of legumes or clover. It's called pasture bloat, and fortunately doesn't usually end up with a punctured sheep.
posted by Specklet at 5:48 PM on April 26, 2015 [4 favorites]

Really happens, I've done it to cows. The tool's a sharp stabby bit with a wooden handle, over which slips a metal tube with a flared end. Stab goes the tool, pull it out, leave the tube behind.

Depending on the cow it may never trust you again.
posted by Sternmeyer at 5:53 PM on April 26, 2015 [4 favorites]

The procedure is called a rumenotomy. Read all about it here.
posted by Mitheral at 5:54 PM on April 26, 2015 [3 favorites]

Best answer: "Far from the Madding Crowd."
posted by buxtonbluecat at 6:23 PM on April 26, 2015 [2 favorites]

More specifically, the 1967 version starring Alan Bates and Julie Christie.
posted by buxtonbluecat at 6:26 PM on April 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I think you're right, buxtonbluecat. I was researching that angle, too, once learning the terminology.
posted by NortonDC at 6:28 PM on April 26, 2015

Response by poster: Boom.
posted by NortonDC at 6:34 PM on April 26, 2015 [1 favorite]