http://www.vetsouth.co.nz/blog/ The latest Blog feeds from www.vetsouth.co.nz en-us Mon, 20 Apr 2026 18:17:08 +1200 Rocketspark http://www.vetsouth.co.nz/blog/post/162518/new-crypto-vaccine-for-the-toolbox/ Calf scours are one of the most frustrating problems on-farm to manage. Not only do they result in reduced growth rates and more calf deaths, they also increase the workload of calf rearers and can be disheartening.There are many infectious causes of scours in calves.  The most common one down here in the South, which most farmers will have experienced, is Rotavirus. Another nasty one that can crop up is Cryptosporidium parvum (Crypto), a gastrointestinal paras... Wed, 25 Mar 2026 15:15:50 +1300 http://www.vetsouth.co.nz/blog/#post162518 http://www.vetsouth.co.nz/blog/post/162517/baleage-wrap-a-cautionary-tale-of-two-cows/ Please note, this article contains medical photographs taken during post-mortem examination.A short while ago, I was asked to carry out a post-mortem exam on a cow that had bloated and died earlier in the day.This was a cow that I had seen before for a severe pinkeye infection, and she was quite blind in both eyes. However, she was not expected to die from that! She had been pregnancy scanned the day before, so I also had to consider the possibility of a perforated rectum.When I opened the abdom... Wed, 25 Mar 2026 14:55:25 +1300 http://www.vetsouth.co.nz/blog/#post162517 http://www.vetsouth.co.nz/blog/post/162503/the-team-behind-the-team/ Part of this wider team is Farm Services, whose role is to make life easier for both farmers and vets by doing the groundwork that allows the vets to focus on practical animal health work as much as possible.They manage all vet and vet tech calendars, booking routine visits, organising appointments for core services such as pregnancy scanning, and coordinating the likes of the recent Ram Run.Collectively, they handled over 11,230 phone calls in the past year. That’s more than 322 hours on the ... Wed, 25 Mar 2026 11:43:49 +1300 http://www.vetsouth.co.nz/blog/#post162503 http://www.vetsouth.co.nz/blog/post/162497/watch-out-for-hairy-shaker-disease/ HSD, or Border disease, is a form of pestivirus in sheep, very similar to Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) in cattle. It is often the cause of poor scanning rates, barren ewes, abortions, stillbirths, and the birth of weak lambs.This highly contagious disease can be spread from ewe to lamb via the placenta or milk, from ram to ewe during mating, and between ewes via nose-to-nose contact.Ewes that are infected will not show any clinical signs. The effect of HSD depends on when they are infected:Healt... Wed, 25 Mar 2026 11:07:31 +1300 http://www.vetsouth.co.nz/blog/#post162497 http://www.vetsouth.co.nz/blog/post/162484/ewe-focus-trace-elements/ Two key elements to consider prior to mating and before winter are selenium and iodine. Selenium plays a vital role in immune function, fertility, and lamb viability. Southland, as we know, has very deficient soils, meaning pasture alone usually does not meet requirements. You can check your stock’s selenium status with a blood test measuring glutathione peroxidase (GPx). This reflects selenium intake over the previous few months. GPx levels <4 - indicate deficiency and ewes should receiv... Wed, 25 Mar 2026 09:13:39 +1300 http://www.vetsouth.co.nz/blog/#post162484 http://www.vetsouth.co.nz/blog/post/160832/do-you-need-to-do-larval-cultures/ An LC is when faecal samples are cultured at the lab to see what type of worms are present. They hatch the eggs and count the different types of larvae (e.g. Ostertagia, Trichostrongylus, Haemonchus) and then let us know what percentage each one represents in the sample.   These parasites lay eggs that are practically the same, so they can’t be differentiated in just a FEC, which simply counts the number of eggs present. Why woul... Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +1300 http://www.vetsouth.co.nz/blog/#post160832 http://www.vetsouth.co.nz/blog/post/160830/condition-counts-score-now-for-scanning-success/ Light ewes at mating will have worse lambing performance come spring. Ewes should be at body condition score (BCS) 3-3.5 for tupping.  What does BCS 3-3.5 look like? Well, if there is more than 6 weeks’ wool on the sheep, you will have to FEEL to get the full picture. To do this:  Place your hand with the thumb on top of the spine and fingers along the short ribs (flank area).  With your thumb, you should be able to feel the spine, but not particularly e... Thu, 26 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +1300 http://www.vetsouth.co.nz/blog/#post160830 http://www.vetsouth.co.nz/blog/post/160828/the-autumn-parasite-flush/ Over the previous 6-7 months, we have had lots of parasite factories (lambs and calves) grazing our pastures. These young animals do not yet have an immunity to parasites and provide high levels of contamination onto the pastures.  Autumn weather also provides an excellent environment for parasite eggs to hatch and for larval development.    One thing we hear from farmers is that they want to “challenge their replacement stock” so that they develop a g... Tue, 24 Feb 2026 09:38:41 +1300 http://www.vetsouth.co.nz/blog/#post160828 http://www.vetsouth.co.nz/blog/post/102640/dairy-cow-nutrition-at-dry-off/ There are a lot of changes that occur in a dairy cow around the time of drying off in order to transition her from a lactating cow into a dry cow, including:Milk production needs to slow down to, ideally, 5-10 L/day in the 1-2 days leading up to dry-off (not always achievable in high producing cows), before completely stopping in the 1-2 weeks after the final milking.The rumen needs to adapt to a dry cow diet, which is often very different in both nutritional quality and quantity.The cow’s req... Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +1300 http://www.vetsouth.co.nz/blog/#post102640 http://www.vetsouth.co.nz/blog/post/160890/celebrating-three-vet-erans/ During Southern Field Days 2026, we raised a glass for an awesome large animal vet trio, who have collectively stacked up 65 years of service with us.Fleur Barker freed her diary from fondling rams to recognise her 30th anniversary (she started in January 1996), Bianca Mackintosh stepped back from scanning cows to celebrate 20 years with us (she started in January 2006), and Lisa Roberts made it off-farm to mark 15 years working here (she started in January 2011). That’s a pretty amazing innin... Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +1300 http://www.vetsouth.co.nz/blog/#post160890