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Pesky Parasites

Young cattle are still developing their immune system until they are 18 months old, so are the most vulnerable to worm infection as well as being the main source of pasture contamination. We often see clinical disease in spring-born young stock associated with high parasite burdens in late autumn. The aim of parasite management is to limit the larval intake and reduce pasture contamination. Reducing intake can be achieved by avoiding paddocks grazed by young stock the previous season, avoiding h...

Blood-Sucking Barber's Pole

Barber's Pole worm (Haemonchus controtus) is the vampire of the parasite world. The parasite infects sheep and goats, sucking so much blood it causes severe anaemia. Goats and sheep with large burdens will be lethargic, pale, scour and may develop bottle-jaw, with death not being uncommon. The first time you know you have a problem may be when you see dead animals. Barber's Pole worm replicates very quickly in the hot, humid conditions of summer. It has a 14-day lifecycle and adults lay up to 10...

What's Up Doc - Mar 2021

As I am writing this it is raining - and it is looking quite useful. I know even this rain may be too late for some farmers, who are looking at drying off in early April. Spore counts dropped last week to 30,000 in Morrinsville - but were 120,000 in Piako and 470,000 around Hamilton. Spore counts of 30,000 to 40,000 are dangerous long term, and the spore counts in Hamilton and Piako districts are very dangerous. We recommend that all stock are being protected by zinc at this time, as spore count...

Maintaining Body Condition in Summer

Keeping an eye on body condition year-round is important to maintain good animal health and have them in the best shape for calving and mating next season. Cows at target body condition score (BCS) will have reduced illness, better fertility and optimal milk production.Target BCS at calving are 5.0 for mature cows, and 5.5 for first and second calvers. From calving to mating, BCS should decrease no more than 1.0. No more than 15% of the herd should be below and no more than 15% should be above t...

Sunburnt and Sore

This time of year Facial Eczema is on everyone’s mind. However, you may be seeing signs of photosensitivity (“sunburn” or “scald”) despite the spore counts still being low. At this time of year, brassica summer crops (forage rape, turnip) are also being fed, and these can result in photosensitivity occurring at a similar time to Facial Eczema.A cow suffering from photosensitivity will be agitated and restless in the early stages. She may seek shade. Red and inflamed teats are often not...

What's up Doc - Feb 2021

The dry weather is starting to bite now. and many areas are well into feeding out The rain has been very localised and was a bit too much in Morrinsville, when part of the town flooded. The rain has delayed the dry about 5 weeks later in many areas. it is hard to believe that last year a number of farmers were preparing to dry off at this time.This rain will push up spore counts. Counts had been moderately high a couple of weeks ago but were trending down with the dry weather. However, following...

Facial eczema

Facial Eczema (FE) is a disease caused by a fungus that grows on the grass. The fungus produces spores in warm and humid conditions (ie January to May), which release a toxin that causes liver damage when eaten by cows. The liver is then unable to metabolise chlorophyll in grass properly - these un-processed particles then react with sunlight to cause skin inflammation and overt disease.However, these clinical cases of swollen and sloughing skin only represent 5% of affected animals - if only on...

Staggers and Stumbles

Already we have seen a lot of chaos from calves and cows with “staggers”. Ryegrass staggers is a nervous disease caused by grazing endophyte infected ryegrass. It is not to be confused with “grass staggers”, which is caused by magnesium deficiency. Endophyte is a fungus which protects the plant from attack from pests (giving them a production advantage), however, the fungus also produces a toxin, which when ingested, causes cows to lose their balance.Controlling the disease can be frustr...

What's Up Doc - Dec 2020

Thank you to everyone who made it to our Xmas barbeque. It was a very enjoyable night.We are seeing plenty of ryegrass staggers in calves and cows. Several cows have had injuries from falling onto electric fences, so keep high risk stock in safe spots. We have an effective product to prevent called Fusion Dyad, which binds up the toxins.The regular rain has caused large numbers of lame cows and bulls. This has caused a flurry of track maintenance work, but mats placed at the shed entrance w...

Early Pregnancy Scanning

By now the bulls are out on many farms and people are able to relax a little bit more- apart from cutting more silage! This is a good time to look ahead and book in herd pregnancy testing.Performing an early PD at 12-14 weeks after the start of mating (with a follow up 6 weeks after the end of mating) has several advantages:Able to age pregnancies and determine more accurate calving datesYou know which mating a cow held toAble to calculate a 6 week in calf rateYou can confirm they are in calf to...

What's Up Doc - Nov 2020

Things are looking pretty good at the moment with recent rain. Soil temperatures are 3 degrees higher than this time last year and there are predictions of a wet and warm summer.If these predictions are true we could also have the first serious season for facial eczema in quite a while. In most seasons, it is sufficient to start zinc treatment in the water at the end of the first week of January. We generally recommend that boluses are given at the start of February. This is because they work qu...

BVD - don't ignore the calves!

Most farms are on board now with regular (3 times a year) monitoring of herd BVD antibody levels and checking for PIs (persistently infected BVD carrier) in the herd between calving and mating via the bulk milk. If you aren't doing this then discuss with one of our vets next time you see one.BUT what about the youngstock? When heifers enter the milking herd as 2 year olds we get an opportunity to use bulk milk to check that none are PIs..... if there is a PI, a...

A Curious Calf Case

ast season, Richard and Beth tackled a curious case of a calf with a strange growth in its mouth. It was noticed soon after birth when the calf struggled to suckle. Removal was challenging as the growth had a massive blood supply - a small nick resulted in copious bleeding! The growth also wrapped around several teeth and was pushing them out of alignment.We tied ligatures to restrict the blood supply and shrink the growth (similar to using a rubber b...

Pet Services

Pets are an important part of our family, bringing joy and companionship to our lives. They promote mental and physical health, and looking after their’s is just as important.This is where we come in - our devoted vets care just as much about your furry friend as you do. Our clinic offers day to day primary care such as health checks, vaccinations, desexing, microchipping, nail clipping and monitoring of chronic diseases such as osteoarthritis. We are equipped to offer services such as radiogr...

Mineral Monitoring

In early January this year a local dairy farm discovered through routine bloods and liver biopsies that the copper and selenium levels in the herd were getting quite high. This farm is a high producing, high input herd.The minerals are given daily in the feed and the mineral is a high quality chelated formulation (much more readily absorbed than the sulphate or selenate forms). The herd had not shown any symptoms of selenium or copper toxicity but it was decided to stop the mineral supplementati...

Acorn Toxicity

We have seen a few cases of acorn toxicity in the last month. At this time of year there are very large numbers of acorns on the ground. Cattle can graze quite happily year after year in a paddock with oak trees without problems, but every now and then an animal develops a taste for acorns, or feed availability is scarce and they will start to eat them. It is a good idea to fence off areas that acorns can be eaten.Unripe acorns are thought to be the most toxic, but ripe acorns and oak leaves can...

Goat Bedding

Between Nov 2017 and April 2018, a pilot study was carried out on a dairy goat farm in Taranaki, to compare how different management strategies affected the quality of wood shaving bedding and the impact on animal health. The study was performed in one barn, containing 388 milking goats (increasing to 460 by end of the study). The goats were split into two herds, kept on either side of a barn with a central feed alley. The right side of the barn was managed as the farmer usually would: initially...

Diarrhoea in kids

Two major causes of diarrhoea in kids are Cryptosporidium and Coccidia however it’s very difficult to diagnose the cause in goats. The management of the diseases are similar. There are three key points:1. Identify and isolate any kids with diarrhoea.  Work with infected kids last and keep your hands and boots washed with a strong disinfectant such as “Virkon” or “Trigene”.  Both Crypto and Coccidia are resistant to most disinfectants so your boots need to be free of any dirt ...

Mastitis Management

Drying off cows on a seasonal dairying farm often comes with a sigh of relief. After a long season all staff are looking forward to a well earned break. The cows too seem to relish the change of pace where they don’t have to trudge to the shed night and morning. One thing’s for sure, they get really grumpy when you try to get them back to the shed a week later!There are some special things happening at drying off. The udder begins to involute (shut down) and many protective and restorative m...

Farm Animal Wellbeing

As a community of people responsible for dairy animal welfare we have a moral obligation to minimise pain. Codes of welfare have been written to more precisely define requirements for welfare, and these include a commitment to minimise pain and distress.Thinking about the sources of pain for our dairy cattle, there are only about four – Accident/injury, disease, normal physical trauma (eg calving labour) or a routine procedure (eg castration) – defined as a painful procedure in the code of w...

Farm Management Services

On most dairy farms calving is one of the most intensive times of year. It requires a team effort to go smoothly and achieve ideal outcomes. Given the likelihood of staff turnover, the need for annual refreshing and the appearance of new information, precalving training is essential. There is a lot going on at one time, and a great deal to consider if you don’t want to miss anything and want the whole team on the same page.The key goals of calving time are to:Ensure most cows deliver their cal...

Lameness Management and Services

Is she lame? Are they lame?Identifying lameness is a bit like identifying mastitis – sometimes it’s very obvious, sometimes it’s not. The most obvious type of lameness is when a cow can’t place her foot/feet on the ground and you can’t move her... She’s in a great deal of pain and it’s a welfare obligation to help her. Less obvious are the subtle signs of non weight bearing cows can show as they move along in a mob.The arching back and lifting of the head may not be as clear; they ...

Reproductive management & services

Pregnancy testing is one of the routine procedures our vet practice offers to dairy farms, and one of the most valued. Using manual skills and ultrasound technology we can determine pregnancy status with a high level of accuracy, particularly if the test is done between 6 and 14 weeks post service.Pregnancy testing is useful for a range of purposes, such as:Determining whether a cow thought to be in calf is still that wayPredicting calving date, therefore influencing drying off and feeding decis...

Clostridial disease

Clostridial diseases are caused by a family of bacteria recognised for rapid growth and overwhelming blood poisoning. They can cause some very nasty tissue swelling and death is a common outcome. Species other than cattle can be affected, and some diseases (eg Tetanus) are caused by the same bacteria in many species, including man. If cases are treated early they may respond to high doses of penicllin, but usually it is too late by the time they are noticed. The most fortunate thing about them i...

Kidding problems

Does carrying multiple fetuses may stop eating in the last 4-6 weeks before kidding if feed intake doesn’t match the needs of the dam and fetuses. Sleepy sickness is when does metabolise fat which produces ketones (a toxic by-product) because their feed intake doesn’t match feed demand.Maintaining does in a medium body condition rather than overly fat condition early in pregnancy will help keep down the disease. Multiple fetuses will tend to crowd the animal’s digestive system therefore li...