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Yersiniosis in deer

Yersiniosis, a highly infectious disease, is characterised by a bloody scour in deer fawns which rapidly leads to death if untreated. Early clinical signs of the disease in deer include a green, watery, smelly diarrhoea which soon becomes bloody. What causes Yersiniosis? Yersiniosis is caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pseudotuberculosis which can be carried by wildlife (birds, rodents, rabbits and hares) as well as domestic animals (cattle, sheep, pigs and goats).Carrier animals usually rem...

Lepto on deer farms

Leptospirosis is the disease caused by a bacteria, Leptospira interrogans to be precise, which has different strains with different effects on deer. The most widespread strain is Hardjo-bovis, but also Pomona and occasionally Copenhageni has been reported in farmed deer in New Zealand. Leptospirosis is known in different species, including humans, where it can lead to flu-like symptoms, which can progress to serious sickness if left untreated. The bacteria is, depending on the strain, carried by...

Did you get your winter dental?

The last couple of months we have been running our annual Winter Dental Special, which was again a great success. Before starting our dental exam we often ask if your horse is showing any signs of dental pain; like quidding, head tossing, having trouble eating or being more difficult to ride with a bit on one side. The most important thing we have to realise though is that a lot of horses don’t show signs of dental pain! Being a prey animal, it is essential that you don’t stop eating to be a...

Off label use of medications and supplements

Over the last few years, we have seen sporadic cases of horses reacting to drugs being administered that were intended for use in other species. This has included severe (potentially life) threatening myositis reactions resulting from administration of injectable vitamin and mineral supplementations, (B12 and selenium injection), skin reactions from off label use of cattle pour-ons and abscesses developing on the neck from contaminated medication that had been stored incorrectly in a dairy shed....

Puncture wounds in the foot

You are heading out to check your horse in his paddock on a sunny Sunday afternoon. You notice that he is now severely lame on one limb and is standing with his toe pointed. You lift the leg to assess his foot and see a nail protruding from the sole of his hoof! Solar punctures should always be treated as potential emergencies - we are particularly concerned about penetrating injuries to this area as the foot and lower limb contain many sensitive and vital structures. Damage or infection in thes...

Stomach (gastric) ulcers in horses

Want to know more about gastric ulcers in horses and their negative effects? Many different ailments and conditions of horses are blamed on or linked to stomach ulcers. Here is a run down on common questions asked in relation to gastric ulcers. What are ulcers? Gastric ulcers range from mild areas of inflammation in the horses stomach lining through to erosion of the stomach lining. How are stomach ulcers caused? The stomach is full of acid for digestion. For a number of reasons there is a break...

To insure or to not insure... that is the question

In this day and age and the uncertainties in the current economic climate, the cost of services is increasing (including that of Veterinary Services and treatment). All horse and pony owners have a responsibility to look after their equine friends both when healthy and when ill. However, only a few of us have the necessary financial resources to cover the full cost of any loss that might result from accident, injury, or disease. While equine insurance should be considered for any horse or pony, ...

Keeping bulls on top of their game

As we get through calving, our attention needs to quickly turn to mating and preparing any bulls that may be required for the weeks ahead. For breeding bulls to achieve their full potential, they need to be reaching peak conception rates during the mating period. They are often required to serve large numbers of cows, making it imperative that their semen is of high quality. Any diseases that may cause a fever in a bull may make him temporarily infertile, which may result in lower than acceptabl...

Why Rumenox?

Our dairy industry now has a targeted six week in-calf rate of 78%, which although achievable is currently a long way above the national average herd performance. Although there is no simple recipe to achieving good reproductive performance, one product that is getting wide acceptance as a tool for helping improve fertility is Rumenox. Rumenox is a rumen modifier. When administered to cows they will produce more energy, regardless of the time of year it is used. This extra energy can be used to ...

Lambing kit

With the season soaring by, now is the time to start getting organised for lambing and start thinking about what supplies you might require come lambing time. We all know that prevention is key when it comes to animal health. There are a few products that can be used during lambing that may save you time and money further down the track. However, there will be times that animal health treatments are needed for various diseases. Making sure that plenty of these supplies are readily available when...

Mastitis investigations

Mastitis is such a frustrating and costly disease. When you are already busy the last thing you want to do is treat a whole lot of cows at the end of milking. It can also be frustrating as there are so many causes. It is a costly disease with treatment cost only being a part of the whole cost. Lost production, labour, wasted milk, culling for example are all factors taken into consideration when we say the average cost of a clinical case is $200. When you multiply that by the number of cases you...

Worms in working dogs

A lot of farmers will remember the good old days of compulsory dog dosing to protect our sheep against sheep measles. Lucky for us, this worked brilliantly and because of this we no longer have to endure these days, however monthly worming is still very important. The incidence of sheep measles is low in New Zealand but if it were to increase again it would have a negative impact on our meat export market. Sheep measles are caused by a tapeworm. The life cycle involves both sheep and dogs. In a ...

Drench capsules

What is the reason for using capsules? To reduce the peri parturient rise (PPR) in ewes. ...The what?The PPR is a rise in egg output seen in ewes before they lamb, as their immune system is put under pressure in late gestation. When does the PPR happen? How long does it last?It can extend from 2-4 weeks pre lamb, to 6-8 weeks post-lamb. Why is the PPR so important?More eggs on the pasture results in lambs picking up more larvae in spring, so if this is reduced, lambs have less of a challenge. ...

WelCalf

WelCalf is an on-farm programme designed to help dairy farmers monitor and improve key animal health markers affecting calves and how they impact on calf well-being, performance and profitability....

Bovine fluid therapy

Using these tools nice and early will get cows up and feeling better faster, which will save you not just time but also money in expensive drugs. Picture this: Your favourite 8 year old dairy cow has been having a bit of trouble calving. You’ve had to jump in and help, and have just managed to pull out a huge but thankfully alive heifer calf. The cow looks much happier with the calf out but seems quite weak and shakyYour worker goes off to get the colostrum herd in one morning after a stressfu...

Sleepy sickness

Sleepy sickness, twin lamb disease, lambing sickness, and pregnancy toxaemia are all names for the same thing: a disease in late pregnancy, often of multiple bearing ewes, occurring as a result of excessive fat breakdown. Historically, widespread outbreaks of sleepy sickness was common, and a large number of ewes died as a result. While sleepy sickness is still common, farmers have a better understanding of the risk factors causing the disease, and can provide better nutrition over winter. The m...

Downer cow prevention

Springer Cow Transition Management - it’s just around the corner. In winter 2018 we hosted the Upper Cow Roadshow - with guest speaker, international expert on the transition science of dairy cows- Peter DeGaris. The ‘Upper Cow’ phrase never caught on but it remains very relevant. The best way to treat downer cows- is to prevent them from happening in the first place - hence ‘upper cows’. There is a brief outline below, detailing what a typical Southland farm did last season (herd of 8...

Tip of the iceberg or an invisible problem….

We all know about milk fever (clinical hypocalcemia) right? And we all know that it can be stressful if we get many of these cases? But how much do we know about the not immediately visible form of this disease, called subclinical hypocalcemia? Some farms encounter issues with wobbly and down cows due to milk fever more than others, but it’s hard to find a farm that does NOT have to treat a single case. World wide (including NZ) the incidence of clinical hypocalcemia over calving is on average...

Calf scours vaccine

At an already stressful time of the year, sick and scouring calves is frustrating and demoralising. Extra time spent having to look after these calves means: less of a break for the calf rearerless time and energy put into healthy calveslower growth rates in calves resulting in future production and fertility lossesless replacements than required due to deaths.Calves require antibodies from their mother as they are born with no immunity. These antibodies are not passed through the placenta; ther...

Bearing prevention

Farming in the current situation, with most farms having a high stocking rate, feed is being carefully managed. It is great to see lots of well conditioned healthy stock in the paddocks. In the studies that have looked at bearings, they have confirmed that a risk factor for bearings is ewe weight gain between mating and scanning. This is good news in current times – maintenance feeding may reduce your chances of bearings. (If at all possible, don’t drop weight though, as we still need the ew...

Retrieving for duck dogs

Most puppies that are destined to be duck shooting dogs are ‘gundogs’ and as such are natural retrievers. It is important to get started with retrieving training early as possible as it will make training later on much easier. We recommend getting a special toy that you ‘reserve’ specifically for your retrieving training. This toy is not for playing tug with and should not be left lying around. You should get it out only for your retrieve training sessions. Good choices are gundog ‘bu...

Covid-19: Level 2

The team has been hard at it, with everything just taking longer, but we love what we do, and we're ready for more. ...

Separation anxiety

As we head into level 2 and we start going back to our daily lives of work, sports, and leaving the house, there may be some confusion for our furry friends who have become accustomed to us being in their bubble for the past 6 weeks. Now that you are gone for long periods during the day there may be some confusion from our cats and dogs. Why are they not sitting next to me, where have they gone, why arent we going for a walk today? Our pets can suffer with anxieties, just like we can. Some pets...

Salmonella in cattle

A silent & costly killer in the South?There are many species of Salmonella bacteria which affect many species of animals including humans. They are bacteria of the gut that are carried and spread by carrier animals, who usually carry infection without any symptoms, but shed enough bacteria to go on and infect other animals. These animals can shed bacteria through infected faeces and aborted material, which in turn can be spread by scavenging animals such as hawks, seagulls, mice and rats. The d...

Colt castration

Castration of colts is generally a routine procedure that can be done from anytime once two testicles have descended into the scrotum. Colts can be castrated from when they are still on their mother right through to older stallions that have served mares. Castration is usually done in the paddock at the owner’s property under a short general anaesthetic. This means the colt needs to be well handled enough to inject drugs into the vein. The procedure involves surgically removing the testicles a...