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In the Brief
Now that the dry spell seems to have broken for the time being, hopefully some much needed warmth with the rain will bring the grass on in leaps and bounds.
Unsurprisingly, lambings have been a dominant feature in this last month, coming in the usual many and varied presentations. With sheep and lamb prices still being quite good, we find that these cases are presented in a much healthier state and a common outcome of live lambs and a healthy ewe is a lot more achievable. Usage of anti-inflammatory/pain-relief medicine in the dam also greatly improves the chance of a well mothered and raised lamb. Please speak to the vets about this if it’s considered a possible treatment choice as the use of these medicines in sheep is ‘off-label’ and under a strict cascade of choices.
With the use of indoor lambing pens over several weeks the infection pressure, for various diseases, in particular watery mouth, increases often exponentially. This is especially true over a peak lambing period. These are the times where, even though the workload is high, more attention needs to be paid to keeping everything as clean as possible (and dry- though this can be a massive challenge in foul weather!), and assuring that lambs get a timely dose of good quality colostrum. We now, as a profession, have a limited range of treatment options available to us. Prevention is always going to be better. Samples of scour from affected lambs, and post-mortem examinations in those lambs that don’t make it, can be incredibly informative in seeing what’s going on and growing pathogenic bacteria to determine which antibiotics they are sensitive to. We are seeing resistance to oxytetracycline commonly, and are now starting to see resistance to trimethoprim-sulpha antibiotics. This is especially concerning as this treatment is commonly used in E. coli mastitis cases in dairy cows where we are also beginning to see resistance increasingly too.
Have a safe and Happy Easter.
Richard Knight
One of the many sadnesses of lock down has been having to suspend the WVG Flock Health Club. Since getting involved with my own flock I spend a lot of my spare time obsessed with all things sheep so it has been good to share that interest and information with our clients. I am now joined in running the club by our new(ish) vet Becca Howard who ran the Flock Health club at Dalehead at Settle who will brings her own ideas and a fresh perspective.
Our FHC has been running since May 2017 and the meetings have always been great fun with lots of lively discussion. The members have become quite a close group happy to share their ups and downs with each other. Not forgetting that Jaquie’s complimentary food is great!
We have looked at every stage of the sheep farming year in great detail hoping to ensure members farms are as successful and profitable as possible.
Amongst other things, we have covered:-
· ram and ewe selection
· preparing ewes and rams for tupping,
· maximising lamb survival,
· making sure lambs grow
· worm control
· ewe nutrition
· ewe losses and iceberg diseases
· how to market lambs successfully which included an abattoir visit.
We have also arranged a flock visit every year (which every WVG client is welcome to join) to some really inspiring farms in the north of England and south of Scotland. This year, covid willing we are hoping to get our usual summer visit in. These visits have given the participants much food for thought and many have adapted their farming systems using ideas they have seen in practice during the visits.
We are now going to relaunch flock health club starting with an initial zoom meeting on April 15th at 7.30pm. We will be hoping to start in person meetings as soon as possible.
The cost will be £15/month which includes 4 meetings a year and will now include an annual red tractor compliant flock health plan and performance review.
For more information or to register please contact either surgery
Judith Lee
Spring Vaccines
Despite the recent wet weather, spring is approaching rapidly and hopefully turnout will appear on the horizon shortly! Please place your orders for your spring vaccines (BVD, Lepto, IBR, and Huskvac ASAP to ensure that you are ready to turnout when the weather allows. See below for details of our super spring offer!
Cows with sore eyes
Recently I have had several conversations and farm visits in relation to cows with bad eyes. There are a few eye conditions cows can contract however the two main diseases we see most commonly are detailed more below.
New Forest Eye/Pink Eye/ Infectious Bovine Keratoconjunctivitis—New forest eye is highly contagious and usually seen more in young stock than adult cattle in the summer months. It is caused by the bacteria Moraxella bovis resulting in an infection of the surface of the eye and the surrounding conjunctiva. Transmission occurs by direct contact between infected cows and flies can also spread it.
Clinical signs- runny eyes and tear staining on the face, cows closing the infected eye, cloudsurface of the eye, redness, pus around the eye and if left untreated ulceration of the eyes which can cause permanent damage.
Treatment- Please speak to one of the farm team and we would be happy to chat to you individually or visit your farm to discuss appropriate treatment options. Often treatment requires a topical antibiotic but depending on the case a systemic antibiotic or one injected under the eyelid may be required as well as an anti-inflammatory. It is also advised that you isolate those infected to minimise spread throughout your herd.
Prevention- Isolating new bought in stock to prevent them introducing it to your herd, fly control and minimising close contact between cattle (e.g ensuring there is enough trough space for each animal).
Silage Eye/ Bovine Iritis - Silage eye is an infection caused by the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes, which can be found in unfermented silage. The infection causes inflammation of the iris and is most often seen in winter/spring and coincides with feeding a new batch of silage. Usually many animals in the herd will be affected including both adult and young stock.
Clinical signs- runny eyes and tear staining on the face, cows closing the infected eye, cloudy discoloration of the eye surface, blindness.
Treatment- Catching these cases early is very important to avoid permanent eye damage. As previously stated please give the practice a call and one of the farm team would be happy to help. Usually a systemic antibiotic is required.
Prevention- Giving plenty of feed space to avoid fighting which may damage the eye and make the cow more susceptible to picking up infection. Big bale silage is more likely to contain Listeria than clamp silage and so if available switching to clamp silage would reduce the chance of listeria infection on farm.
Liz Aubery
Keeping lambs alive: colostrum colostrum colostrum!
A lambs chances’ of survival are massively affected by how much colostrum it manages to drink; strong healthy lambs that are up and sucking within 15 minutes of lambing have a 95% chance of being alive 3 months later. This drastically reduces if lambs are slow or fail to suck as they rely on the passive transfer of antibodies in their mother’s colostrum to them for protection against many commonly encountered bugs.
Good colostrum starts with the ewe – she should be at target body condition for lambing (2 for hill, 2.5 for upland and 3.0 for lowland) and be on an appropriate level of nutrition for how many lambs she is bearing. Inadequate levels of protein and energy will prevent her from producing lots of good quality colostrum as well as reducing her mothering ability and increasing your risk of other problems like twin lamb disease. Poor ewe nutrition also delays the onset of lactation and increases the thickness of colostrum making it harder for lambs to suck it from the ewe, all of which will work together to leave lambs vulnerable.
If a ewe doesn’t have enough colostrum it is best to supplement the lambs with colostrum from another ewe as it will provide farm-specific immunity. Ewe colostrum can be stored in the fridge for up to seven days or in the freezer for six months. Frozen colostrum should never be defrosted in a microwave or in boiling water as it will break up the antibodies and reduce the quality. Cows’ colostrum can be used as a substitute but it can contain antibodies that attack the red blood cells of sheep so you should always pool it from at least three different cows to reduce this risk. Artificial colostrum is another alternative but it is designed as a supplement rather than a replacement and brands vary significantly in quality.
Lambs need to get at least 50ml/kg of bodyweight of colostrum within 4-6hours of birth whilst colostrum concentration is at its best and the lambs are best able to absorb the antibodies. Within the next 18hours they need a further 150ml/kg BW.
Example: a 5kg lamb needs 250ml within 4-6 hours and another 750ml over the next 18 hours.
Bethany Collins
