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New dental equipment

Our workload in equine dentistry has been increasing each year. To help us provide a more comprehensive service we are looking to replace some of our older equipment. We are hoping to soon have available a new HDE set of motorised dental equipment arriving from Germany. This ergonomically friendly equipment has a more comprehensive float head arrangement which allows for better access in the mouth. It will come with an array of float handle systems for different uses. The motor is housed in a ve...

Autumn and winter parasite management

Parasite control is an important part of your horse’s annual health management. For all parasite control programmes, we have three main aims:Decrease the risk of parasite related diseasesControl shedding of eggsTo maintain the efficacy of the worming drugs that we have and prevent further development of resistance. This third point is one of the main reasons that we recommend drenching horses based on the result of a faecal egg count (FEC) test. It is recommended to drop off a small amount of ...

Beyond the drought

After what seems to have been the summer that never ended, the Equine Vets have been kept busy around the region tending to all things horsey. Like other livestock species in the region, the dry summer has presented many challenges for horses from both a health and a performance point of view. While our spring was fairly typical of a Southland spring (following on from what seemed to be the longest, wettest winter) our breeding season got off to a pretty reliable start. The S...

Is your horse winter ready?

Southland traditionally has a mild, warm wet Autumn that can last well into May (and in recent years into June), and these weather conditions are ideal for the development and survival of parasite larvae, fungal and bacterial infections. In Southland, we traditionally see an increase in colitis (severe acute diarrhoea) in the autumn months. The exact cause is often not determined but may be due to a bacterial colitis (e.g. salmonella) or due to parasitism. This year with...

The Coronary Band – the lifeblood to the horse’s hoof wall

The coronary band is the junction between the hair-producing skin of the horse's lower limb and the hoof wall. The coronary epidermis is a lifelong cellular proliferating zone, producing keratinocytes that subsequently undergo maturation and ultimately cellular death, to form the middle horn of the wall. The constant adding of keratinized epidermis at the coronary segment causes the middle layer to continuously move downward, past the distal phalanx to reach the ground surface. Average hoof grow...

Video Endoscopy: Allowing us all to have a good look

We are able to utilise this fantastic piece of equipment to view the upper and lower respiratory tract of horses with the 1.5m endoscope able to view the bifurcation of the lungs. Imaging the guttural pouches and upper airways is now much more rewarding when everyone can see what is going on. This piece of equipment also allows us to guide treatment in a much more user friendly and accurate manner. The 1.5m scope can also be used to look into the bladder and the uterus and has been use...

Dairy cow nutrition around drying off

At the time of writing of this article, the Southern regions are quite desperate for rain, and if we don’t get any decent moisture soon this article will be less relevant as cows will start to drop in milk production naturally due to a lack of feed availability. For now, let’s stick with the “glass half full'' scenario that we will get rain soon and that the grass will grow and that we therefore will deal with our “normal” southern autumn high protein grass leading to dry-off. The dry ...

Dry off ready?

Winter is coming! Lucky for many of us that means a later alarm clock in the morning and some time off the farm. But until we take those milking aprons off yet, Vet Dan has some handy reminders as we approach winter to ensure your herd are prepared for a successful Dry Off....

The mystery of the coughing cow

Vet Keryn came across an interesting case of a coughing cow on a farm recently and her investigations lead to an interesting diagnosis. I was recently called to a farm to see three sick cows that had suddenly gone off their milk and were frothing at the mouth. However, when someone tried to get them out of the paddock, two of them made a miraculous recovery and refused to play the game, so only one cow was at the shed when I arrived. The cow in the yards was reluctant to walk and had her neck st...

What's up with my 6-week in-calf rate?

Vet Bianca has dived deep into the data from across our farms and is disecting what the data means from the 6 Week In-Calf Rate (ICR). We have collated data from the Fertility Focus Reports of our VetSouth farms to analyse regional in-calf rate trends. There have been some pleasing results this year. The average 6 week in-calf rate across VetSouth this year was 68.4%, which is an increase of 2% compared with last year. This is the biggest jump we have seen in several years and is the first time ...

Why should you use WelFarm?

WelFarm has proven to be a great tool to bring all the information into one place you can work with your vet to understand the bigger picture of what is going on with your herd. Let's see why. How do you know what’s going well and where the opportunities are with your herd health and welfare? Or where you sit compared to other farmers? We know the value of benchmarking financials within a business so it makes sense to look at your herd too. If we gather herd health and welfare information and ...

New shareholder in the east

Many of you recognise Joel and Louise from our veterinary team in the east. Working in Gore for long enough now we can claim them as locals, Joel has recently stepped into a local owner position. Our farmers know his hard work and dedication, even in the early hours of the morning, so we decided to catch up with him to find out more about him and how he feels about his latest venture. Tell us about your background and how you ended up here in the South. I went to Waikato University after high s...

Common health problems in working dogs

Looking after your workers is easier when you know what to look for and what to avoid. In a survey of New Zealand working dogs the most common health problems were related to musculoskeletal trauma and injuries. The limb injuries included ligament injuries of the stifle joint, injuries of the Achilles tendon, the tarsus region of the hind foot, the carpus joint in the front leg and hip dislocation. The obvious risk factors for traumatic injury include fences, gates, stock work, vehicles and poor...

Ewe body condition score and efficiency

In a perfect world, the year-round maintenance of a ewe would be a well-oiled machine, maintaining her body condition at an optimal 3, consistently rearing twins to a killable weight at weaning, and requiring minimal health intervention or disease treatment – not too much to ask really is it? However, as we all know, the metabolic demands of pregnancy, lactation, and a push for maximum production; combined with the adverse weather events of winter storms and summer droughts that affect feed ac...

Knockout drench: Give parasites an autumn thrashing

At this time of the season, most of us have been drenching on a 28-day system to prevent a massive autumn parasite issue. This is still regarded as best practice on most farms. The majority of drench used, to this point in the season, will have been triple or double combinations of the three ‘traditional’ drench families. Now it's time to substitute one routine drench and give a Knock Out blow to any parasites that have made it through the previous drenching. Substituting one drench in the a...

Lungworm in lambs

There are three species of lung worm that affect our NZ ruminants. They live in the airways of the lungs. If in large numbers they are easily seen as white, long (several cm) and thin worms. They will have quite a lot of froth around them. Lungworm causes irritation and inflammation which then induces coughing by the affected animal. If the infection is really bad they can have difficulty breathing and may have mucus coming from the nose. You will not get an indication of the presence of lung wo...

Pre-Rut Weaning

Research has shown that management decisions around the time of weaning can have a huge effect on the profitability of your farm. In the wild, fawns won’t wean themselves until they are at least 7 months old. This is not feasible within a farming system. Post-rut weaning is better suited for extensive hill country properties that have relatively low input. It is a great choice for maintaining fawn growth at the cost of reducing the conception rate in the hinds. Pre-rut weaning will reduce feed...

Sheep IQ – data from our part of the world

With enough hounding of the farmer and one of the founders, we now have our very own flock of VetSouth trial sheep! These girls are currently split into two mobs and will be separated further again shortly after being selected by our resident vets and epidemiologists. We have 200 two tooths, half of which will become a testing group and half a control group. There are also 300 hoggets that will be randomised and separated into different groups eventually. We're excited to have FarmIQ on board, a...

Working dogs: Poisons on farm

Dogs' sense of smell is noted to be 10000 times stronger than their human counterparts. While we are not sure if they differentiate between what smells “good” or just “interesting”, we do know they have a habit of sticking their nose in something that might cause them some harm. While your team of working dogs are around things that some other dogs would be around, it is worth noting that there are some dangers to your team on the farm. So what to look out for? While we have to keep our ...

Heifer health requirements: Grazing and feed

Vet Claire dives into your FAQs around feed to ensure the health of your herd....

Heifer health requirements: Parasite management, vaccinations and trace elements

Vet Claire dives into your FAQs around parasite management, trace elements and vaccinations for your youngstock. Motivational quotes from studies published 2019-2020: "Early calving heifers become early calving cows" "Heifers that were a greater proportion of their 21-month LWT at 12 months of age produced more first lactation and cumulative 3-year milk yields than heifers that were a lesser proportion of their 21-month LWT at 12 months of age. These results indicate that increased growth in the...

Meet our East Practice Manager: Hannah

One of our newest members over in the East is the wonderful Hannah! Hannah has taken on the position of Practice Manager for the East, which includes everything from Gore to Tapanui to Clydevale and Balclutha! As she is settling into her busy role, we took five minutes to catch up with her....

New calf-specific drenches available!

Vet Dan discusses the new options on the market for our youngstock. Giving your calves their first drench should have either happened already or be imminent now! There are some exciting new drenches that are relatively new to the market that have added benefits....

Preparation for scanning

Vet Claire and Tech Steph share their top tips for an easy scan. There’s a lot going on when heifers and cows are getting scanned. Numbers are getting thrown around all over the show: tag numbers, mating dates, days pregnant, the time the alarm went off to get on-farm and so on. Here’s a list of things worth quickly thinking about before it’s your turn to scan. Anything that can help the scanning job go as smoothly as possible on the day, will help reduce the risk of scanning or recording ...

Regular weighing of youngstock

Think it's extra work? We can do it when you have the animals in the yards for other health treatments. And with mobile scales, we can come to you. Data. Love it or hate it, it’s vital for knowing how your farm operates, how your animals are and areas you can improve. Regular weighing of your youngstock allows you to understand your animals at a crucial stage of their development. Calves are the future of every herd, achieving live weight gains and maintaining monthly targets are essential. Fo...