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Welcome to the Spring edition of the Farm newsletter. Change is in the air during this time of year and there are plenty of new, exciting changes occur-ring at the practice. Look out for our new website later in the year and we welcome two members of staff, Danny, our new veterinary surgeon, and Claire, our new office assistant.
 

VACCINE PRICES (prices at 12/03/09)

All farmers should consider vaccinating against the following diseases before cattle are turned out:
 -  BVD Pregsure (Pfizer) should be given to all breeding stock. Price: (25 doses) £58.34 + VAT
 -  Leptospirosis Spirovac (Pfizer) can be given with the BVD vaccine. Price: (25 doses) £52.18 + VAT
 -  Lungworm Huskvac (Intervet). Price: (per double dose) £9.28 +VAT
 -  RSV Rispoval 4 (Pfizer). Price: (5 doses) £28.05 +VAT

Bluetongue

Latest Vaccination advice

This is the time of year that farmers should be considering vaccinating against bluetongue to protect their herds and flocks. The bluetongue virus is carried by in-fected midges. During spring as temperatures start to rise above 14ºC the midge activity will increase and they will start to look for blood meals on sheep and cattle.

Although there was no circulating virus in 2008, bluetongue infection remains a very real possibility, either from midges that have overwintered in the UK, or from ones blown in from the continent. If bluetongue infects an unvaccinated herd the results can be devastating.

Studies have shown that the bluetongue vaccination does NOT cause abortion. Whilst vaccination is still voluntary, vaccinating your animals not only protects your stock but also the national herd, thus helping to prevent the disease becoming established in the country.

Bovilis BTV8 from Intervet is the vac-cine we recommend. Animals that were vaccinated last year will only require a single booster injection, whereas animals that have not been vaccinated previously will require two doses three weeks apart. This is available for both cattle and sheep. Sheep need one dose, cattle need two.
50 doses £27.52 +VAT
20 doses £13.10 +VAT

FOR ALL DISEASES VACCINATION IS THE MOST COST EFFICIENT INTERVENTION AVAILABLE, SO MAKE SURE YOU PLAN YOUR HEALTH REGIME CAREFULLY! Feel free to call us at any time to discuss your requirements on 01785 712235

Lambing season

As lambing season is now upon us it seems a good time to review the problems associated with lambing that are likely to be encountered. Between 15-25% of the lamb crop is lost around lambing time on some farms and, as lambs sold equals profit made, it is important to start thinking about ways in which mortality rate can be reduced to the more acceptable rate of 5% or less. Below are a few things to consider in the run up to lambing:

Twin Lamb Disease (pregnancy toxaemia)

This is a common, potentially fatal but preventable disease of ewes that normally occurs in the last few weeks of pregnancy when the ewe requires more energy than she is receiving.
Factors that can cause this condition include:

• Ewes carrying multiple lambs
• Cold, wet weather and lack of shelter
• Inadequate trough space
• Sudden change of feed/inadequate quantities of feed
• Stress (unnecessary handling etc.)
• Over-conditioning in late pregnancy which results in a reduced appetite

Several animals are normally affected over a few days. Affected animals will separate from the flock, appear depressed, inappetent and sometimes seek water without drinking. They sometimes turn in cir-cles and some will be twitching, salivating and fitting which will progress, if untreated, to convulsions, re-cumbency and death within two to three days.
Please contact us if you suspect you have a ewe iththis problem.

Cervical Prolapse

A common and important condition in pregnant ewes. Although no one knows the exact cause for this condition, there are many predisposing factors including:

• breed
• bulky feed
• oestrogens in diet (high clover content)
• short tail docking
• over-conditioning
• chronic coughing
• lack of exercise when housed
• calcium deficiency

Treatment involves replacing the prolapsed by inserting plastic retainers or "spoons" to try to prevent recurrence. Many farmers find that giving some calcium under the skin also helps.
Remember that an animal that has prolapsed once is likely to prolapse in subsequent pregnancies and so these animals should be culled, once they have reared their offspring.

VETERINARY ASSISTANCE SHOULD BE SOUGHT IF THE PROLAPSE IS DIFFICULT TO REPLACE, IS DAMAGED IN ANY WAY OR IF IT OCCURS REPEATEDLY.

Watery Mouth

Insufficient colostrum and poor environmental hygiene are the main factors associated with this toxic E.coli gut infection. Affected lambs tend to be 12 to 24 hours old, become recumbent and depressed and develop a swollen belly and a watery mouth. Spectam scour halt can be used as a preventative medicine in all newborn lambs if an outbreak occurs

Navel/Joint Ill

Dipping navels of newborn lambs with iodine based navel dressing highly recommended. Infection can enter via an unhealed navel and cause septicaemia, which may result in swollen joints or even death. This can be treated with penicillin based antibiotics but, as with everything, prevention with good lambing hygiene is better than cure.

THE MOST IMPORTANT PREVENTATIVE MEASURES FOR BOTH THESE CONDTIONS ARE GOOD HYGIENE IN THE LAMBING PENS AND BY ENSURING ADEQUATE COLOSTRUM INTAKE

Hypothermia/Hypoglycaemia in lambs

These two conditions frequently occur together in newborn lambs and are a common cause of mortality in these lambs. Once the status of the patient has been ascertained one of the following three treatment protocols can be instigated:

Never put a soaking wet lamb under a heat lamp as scalding may result!

COLOSTRUM

This is the first milk produced by most ani-mals (but not humans). It is very rich in maternal antibodies and is essential in pro-viding passive immunity to the neonate. An adequate amount of colostrum must be ingested during the first few hours after birth while the intestinal epithelium is still permeable to the large molecules of the immunoglobulins.

Ensuring adequate colostrums intake is the single most important thing you can do to give lambs the best start in life.
Ideally, lambs should receive 200ml colostrum within the first thirty minutes of life and a total of 200ml/kg body-weight within the first 24 hours will help to prevent many illnesses.
Ideally, triplets should be fostered onto singles and the ewe monitored to ensure she does not reject her lambs.
It is a good idea to store any spare colostrum (i.e. from single moth-ers) in the freezer so you always have some in case of an emergency. DO NOT MICROWAVE TO DEFROST COLOSTRUM – WARM IN A SAUCEPAN.

Lungworm

The larvae of D. viviparus invade the inside of these fungi, and wait in the fungal sporan-gium. When the fungus sporulates, the larvae are dispersed as much as 10 feet in a pasture.
Cattle grazing then ingest the larvae. These larvae go through the intestinal system and penetrate the intestinal wall. They use the lymphatic system to reach the mesenteric lymph nodes, where they use the blood supply and the lymphatic system to reach the lungs, where they become adults.
The life cycle is then completed.
 

Lungworm is the most common respiratory disase in adult cattle.

Lungworms are nematode worms. Dictyocaulus viviparus is the most common lungworm of cattle; the infection is also known as “Husk” or more technically as “Parasitic Bronchitis”. Adult D. viviparus worms reside in the bron-chial tree of the animal's lungs. They lay eggs into the airways (bronchi). These eggs are coughed up and subsequently swallowed by the host. The eggs hatch into larvae in the gastrointesti-nal tract of the ruminant host.

These larvae are shed in the faeces. In the faeces, larvae mature through two stages and become infective. Cattle faeces are a great place for the growth of Pilobolus fungi.

The vaccine is an aqueous suspension of Dictyocaulus viviparus larvae which have partially inactivated by ionizing radiation so they cannot complete their life cycle.

Please contact us if you would like more information about lungworm or the vaccine!