A farmer saved a bloated young cow's life by puncturing its side and deflating it - like a balloon. <br /><br />Adam Todd, 40, discovered that a calf at his farm was suffering from "bloat" and had to save it by performing a ruminal puncture. <br /><br />The calf had filled up with trapped gas - and was inflated like a beach ball - in a case so severe that the animal was 15 minutes from death, according to Adam. <br /><br />A video shows Adam puncturing the animal to let the gas out and relieve pressure on its lungs allowing it to breathe again. <br /><br />Adam, who lives in Tama, Iowa, USA, said: "He would have been dead in 15 minutes. The gas had built up so fast and was putting pressure on his lungs. <br /><br />"It has to happen very fast and the results can happen just as fast as well. You can see in the video that he starts to move."<br /><br />Adam has been performing the procedure on cattle since he was 16 years old and while he doesn't do it all the time, he is no stranger to it.<br /><br />Bloat occurs when gas builds up in cattle and it can lead to death for a multitude of reasons. <br /><br />It normally happens when cattle are fed substandard feed and the change in diet affects the cow's gut microflora.<br /><br />In this case, the calf had laid down in a way that caused its food to block its stomach and it had woken up too big to move. <br /><br />Adam explained: "People were astounded when they saw my video. It's just a shocking thing to see but it isn't too rare.<br /><br />"You use anything you can, this time I had a three-by-sixteen bore needle that we had leftover from a while ago.<br /><br />"It was a needle that we use to put implants in cows to control their heat or promote growth. <br /><br />"We don't do that anymore, but it was perfect for this."
