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Keeping your pets safe and calm during fireworks

Fireworks can be a beautiful sight, but they can also be stressful for our pets. Here are some simple, practical tips to help keep your animals safe, comfortable, and calm as possible during firework displays.    ...

Understanding ear infections in dogs 

The most frequent type of ear infection canines experience is called otitis externa, which simply means inflammation of the outer ear canal. While dogs with floppy or hairy ears (think cocker spaniels and poodles) are more likely to be affected, it can happen to any dog.  ...

Should I vaccinate my horse against tetanus?

We recommend that all horses are vaccinated against tetanus, as every horse is at risk of being exposed to the tetanus bacteria in their environment. Horses initially require two doses of the tetanus toxoid, given 4-6 weeks apart, to be considered vaccinated. Booster vaccinations then range from annually to every five years, depending on your horse's individual situation. A vaccination programme provides your horse with the best protection against contracting tetanus.  ...

Why is my pet so itchy?

Itching, also called pruritus, is a sensation that makes your dog or cat want to scratch, rub, lick, or chew their skin. While occasional scratching can be normal, persistent or severe itching often signals an underlying issue that needs attention.  ...

Protecting against strangles

Strangles is a nasty and highly contagious respiratory disease in horses. The good news is that vaccination can help protect your horse and reduce the impact if the infection strikes. The intramuscular vaccine Equivac-S (available as a stand-alone or in Equivac 2-in-1 with tetanus) helps reduce the severity of a strangles infection. While vaccination doesn’t guarantee full immunity, studies show it can reduce disease severity in up to 50% of horses.  Vaccination is esp...

Vitamin B12 testing

Earlier this year, our vets in the Clutha area tested liver vitamin B12 levels in lambs, prompted by farmers’ concerns about poor growth rates. On all farms tested, at least some lambs had liver B12 levels in the deficiency range. On a couple of farms, all lambs tested were low. To dig deeper, we requested results from the lab for the whole of the Southland and the Clutha regions. They reported 103 sets of tests (likely to be from 103 different farms) and 52% of these test sets sho...

Larval cultures give more insight 

Most of our farmers are familiar with bringing in 10 individual faecal samples for a FEC (faecal egg count). Many are now discovering even more by having a larval culture done.   A FEC identifies the number of eggs present from a specific group of parasites (Strongyles). But a larval culture goes further by showing the proportion of these additional species present:  Ostertagia (Teladorsagia)   Trichostrongylus (Trichs)  Cooperia Haemonchus And mor...

Dirty business – strategies for calf scours

When you notice a calf with scours, alongside their diarrhoea you may also see other signs of sickness, such as: Not drinking/feeding wellIsolating themselves from the groupLethargy, including not getting up from lying downSunken or dull eyesDrooping earsGunky nose or eyesSkin tent (dehydrated)A high temperature.There are lots of different causes of scours – and you can’t tell which one you are dealing with from the appearance of the poo! The types include:Nutritional (caused by colostr...

Tech talk: Disbudding

For us vet techs it’s when our calendars are packed with lots of disbudding work, which is a favourite of ours. Days disbudding are filled with calves, banter, great teammates, and amazing farmers.Disbudding involves sedating and locally anesthetising calves, before carefully and safely burning out their horn buds. We’ll often vaccinate sedated calves at the same time.Removing the buds while they’re between 2-6 weeks old means they won’t grow sharp horns as an adult, helping prevent inju...

Vetting in spring

Spring is here... finally the dark days of winter, mountains of paperwork, and endless cups of tea during consults have come to an end.   It’s time for us vets to don our capes (or overalls), set cruise control in our trucks, and head to battle it out in the field – rain, hail or shine – calving cows and trying to fix whatever problems spring throws at us.As someone who generally doesn’t do well with chaos, springtime is the exception for me. It’s a thrilling time when our sk...

Parasites around lambing time

With a very wormy Autumn this year, we expect there are a lot of parasites on our farms at the moment. We rely on the immunity of adult stock to mop these up and reduce the larval challenge.When immunity is strong, stock will eat larvae, but these won’t progress into mature parasites. Or if they do, they produce fewer eggs and these eggs are less likely to survive once they are passed. That’s why we say these high-immunity animals are net consumers  of parasites.   Howeve...

Clostridial disease defence

Clostridial vaccination for your sheep is a crucial preventative measure against a range of lethal bacteria in the environment, including diseases such as tetanus, pulpy kidney, and blackleg. Clostridial diseases cause high rates of sudden death, as lethal toxins accumulate quickly to a dangerous level before treatment is possible.  Therefore, vaccines are key for clostridial management and starting vaccination at a young age is best to help prevent deaths. ...

Turn it over

In the past, drenching has been the only way to manage this – but in all species, we are seeing parasites become resistant to drenches. So, we need to consider other ways to manage parasites.   Be it a paddock where lambs have grazed, calves have fed, or fawns have lived, there will be parasites there from previous grazing. Removing these parasites will help the next lot of animals grazing. We can ‘remove’ them by burying them. Turning the ground over with a plough, discs, o...

Colostrum key to calf rearing

I’m sure you know that colostrum is the first milk a cow produces after calving, which is essential for building a calf’s immune system – but what about gold colostrum? It’s the very first colostrum that the cow creates and is rich in energy, proteins, and vital antibodies. This is the best type of colostrum to get into your newborn calves. The more antibodies a calf receives, the stronger and healthier it will be....

What’s best for housing calves?

A shed that’s sheltered from the wind and rain so it’s warm, with good ventilation and natural light – remember to disinfect it regularly.  Pens for healthy calves with solid partitions separating them (stopping pen-to-pen contact limits the spread of disease).  An isolated pen for sick calves.  Enough space for every calf – 1.5-2.5m2 per calf is recommended.  Clean, dry bedding that’s a comfortable depth.  Hay and meal troughs (these a...

Have you herd the news?

This brings our family of clinics to nine across Southland and South Otago, expanding our reach in the South and making it even easier for local farmers to access trusted veterinary care.  The Milton bricks and mortar might be new on the map, but we’ve got years of gumboots-on-the-ground experience. Whether it’s an on-farm call out or a quick dash in for production animal supplies, practical advice for improving herd health, or a friendly yarn that brightens your day – we’re he...

Plan to prevent milk fever

Milk fever: it’s something everyone’s familiar with, but something everyone could really do without. Thankfully, most cases can be prevented with good planning. So, what can you do now, to reduce the risk of milk fever at calving time?  First, it helps to realise what a huge change cows undergo at calving. To start producing colostrum and milk, a cow needs a lot of calcium, fast. On the day of calving, she can’t absorb calcium quickly enough from her food, so she needs to mobilise her...

Sheep vaccination: Maximising results

With the amount spent on vaccines, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on how we use them, to get more ‘bang for our buck’. Avoiding easy mistakes can go a long way in getting the best results from your vaccination programme. ...

Scanning time for deer

Scanning hinds is a useful way to gather information to help you make decisions to improve overall productivity on your deer farm.  It provides insight into R2, MA and stag performance, with pregnancy targets of >90% for R2 hinds and >94% for MA hinds.   Venison prices are strong right now, so dry hinds could be sent to the works to free up feed. A trace element test on these animals can help identify if the wider mob needs copper supplementation ahead of fawning...

Working dogs in winter

It’s very important to maintain high-quality nutrition through the winter because there are higher energy requirements in cold weather to maintain body temperature and still meet the demands for work performance. High-protein diets also reduce the risk of musculoskeletal injury in dogs working in cold, slippery conditions. Provide warm, draught-free winter housing to enable more efficient use of the dog’s food. They will waste less energy trying to keep warm (shivering requires muscle a...

You've got cow collars, now what?

It’s been a few years now since wearable technology really took off – and plenty of you have taken the plunge. But once the collars are on and the alerts start pinging, a new question crops up: What exactly are you meant to do with all this information? You’re not alone if you’ve ever opened your app and thought, “Cool... now what?”. Here’s the truth: the tech works. But without a way to connect the dots, it’s easy to feel like you’re drowning in data and still missin...

Rounding up repro results

Thanks to over 250 of our dairy farmers who came out to celebrate the end of the season at our recent Repro Round Up events in Winton, Gore and Balclutha (a new location this year).It was awesome to have a night off-farm and enjoy a meal together. During each evening, Line Ferriman spoke about the innovative CowSmart data analysis service, and Jess Wallace shared her riveting life story that led her to run Surfing for Farmers in Southland. We provided farmers who’d scanned with us an info...

Investigating the mystery of phantom cows

It’s a cow that has been mated and didn’t return to heat, but did not conceive to that mating. Phantom cows cost dairy farming systems as they either become pregnant much later in the mating period or end up empty. The prevalence of these cows has been estimated as high as 9% in some herds. ...

Urea toxicity in cattle

We recently saw a rare case of urea toxicity on one of our farms. Thankfully only a few animals were affected, and due to the actions of the farmer there were no deaths.Urea toxicity is uncommon in Southland. Knowing why it happens, what to do if you spot signs, and how to avoid it, can reduce risk further. Typically, toxicity in cattle occurs following incorrect feed storage, contamination of feed troughs, or turning stock out onto pasture recently covered with urea. A toxic dose is only 2...

Our antibiotic use

If you recall, there was a lot of noise around the risks of AMR, which could lead to antibiotics potentially not working for routine diseases, as the bugs would become increasingly resistant to the drugs. Things we take for granted – such as routine surgery to replace hips or knees, fix hernias or remove appendices – could become far more dangerous if bugs become resistant. This impacted our vet and farming world because around 80% of all antibiotics used globally are used in animals. A...