A story about poisonous plants and Milo McColl; a 4 week old lamb who was bottle fed and kept in back garden……
The case…
A recent case I saw illustrates the problems and dangers of unknown plant ingestion by young ruminants. I picked up an early morning call from a worried owner. Her 4 week old pet lamb was “frothing at the mouth and falling over”. It had me rushing in to our Te Puna clinic
Spring is the New Year for worms. As the weather warms and spring rain continues, parasites at the larvae stage that have been slumbering in your pasture come to life and resume their life cycle. They multiply furiously through spring and summer. If not managed successfully, they can reach very high, potentially fatal numbers for your livestock later in the autumn.
Management Plans
The challenge is to minimise the impact that worms have on production, while
There are many infectious diseases that can affect cattle & sheep in New Zealand. The great news is that there are excellent vaccines to prevent many of these diseases. Vaccination is an important part of your preventative medicine program for both animal & human health eg. leptospirosis, which can make people very ill.
Some of the most common conditions we recommend vaccination for:
Clostridial disease eg. Tetanus, pulpy kidney. These are environmental organisms can cause both
Parasites, like Ostertagia (brown stomach worm) pose a significant problem for all ruminant (cattle, sheep, deer) livestock grazing New Zealand pastures. Infestations of this parasite are harmful to productivity and can ultimately lead to death. It is noticeable from autumn, well into spring. Drenching allows for enhanced production as well as protecting the welfare of stock.
The disease (known as Ostertagiasis) occurs in two forms, Type I and Type II disease. The type I form occurs
Who knew we had our own disease? Luckily it is a disease that we do not see too often anymore but the cause of it is still here and has the potential to affect livestock in our region.
What is ‘Tauranga Disease’? Well it is also know as ‘Bush Sickness’. Historically this was a wasting illness that affected sheep and cattle in the central North Island. Such was its severity that in the late 19th
The “tick disease “ Theileria has again this spring continued its insidious spread through dairy cattle herds of the upper North Island including the Bay of Plenty, as well as further down the country. Nationwide cases have been reported since September 2012 with the rate of new farms being infected each week showing that in due course virtually every cattle farm (both dairy and beef) will become infected at some point in the short
Winter and Spring is the time of year for mud fever. This is a skin infection caused by an organism called Dermatophilus congolensis which lives in the soil. In winter, the skin is softened by rain and mud. Continual wetting and drying causes the skin to chap and allows the bacteria to enter. Muddy conditions are not always necessary; wounds or grazes can also allow the bacteria to penetrate.
Symptoms
Mud fever is recognized by scabs,
It has been widely reported that the reproductive performance of the NZ dairy cow was declining in the early part of the new millennium. The major challenge in the NZ system is the non-cycling cow. Emphasis on Body Condition Score (BCS), and selection of fertility in the Breeding Value (BV) have improved some of these fertility measures. The reduced payout in recent years has reduced the level of supplementary feeding in response and another
Leptospirosis remains a serious threat to the health and livelihood of farmers. While control of lepto in New Zealand dairy cattle has improved markedly thanks to widespread vaccination, evidence remains that there is still room for improvement. Every year almost 100 cases of leptospirosis are reported in humans, and it is estimated that the numbers of unreported or undiagnosed cases are even higher. Farmers or farm workers have a 4 to 7 % chance
Tauranga Vets is pleased to be able to support local Ag Days by providing FREE vaccinations for pet lambs and calves.
Bring your ‘Ag Day’ pet lamb or calf into one of our four clinics for their FREE Ag Day consultation:
First Ultravac 5 in 1 Vaccination*
Free Clinic health check*
Tail ringing for lambs*
Castration ringing for lambs and calves*
A dispensed 2nd vaccination of Ultravac 5 in 1 also free of charge
Give us a call to book your consultation:
Tauranga:
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