Vet viewpoint: A regional round-up of key livestock issues

A regional monthly round-up of key veterinary issues from members of the XL Vets group.

Katie Brodie, Drove Vets, Wiltshire

As the weather improves, it’s good to take a fresh look at the cows on our farms – their feet in particular.

Poor feet can have a huge impact on cow comfort, production, fertility and longevity.

During a recent routine visit, three-quarters of the cows were not pregnant or showing oestrus, with a mobility score 3. Is there any wonder they are not bulling or in-calf?

On another visit I saw the mobility score sheet for the past month: 25 cows with score 2, yet none had been picked up and investigated.

Lame cows with score 3 need immediate attention to improve welfare and productivity. As important are score-2 cows, which without proactive treatment, will become lame or continue to underperform.

Carolyn Baguley, Scarsdale Vets, Derby

The out-of-hours duties often go a little quieter in summer – a welcome relief after the exhaustion of lambing-time. However, instead of enjoying my usual Friday night pizza, I spent a drizzly evening dealing with sick cows, prolapses and scouring calves, topped off with two calvings.

The sick cow proved quite interesting. Middle-aged, two-months calved and milking well, she’d suddenly become shaky, staggery, slightly bloated and a vaginal examination revealed a bulling string. Two calcium bottles later and a blood sample to confirm my diagnosis of milk fever, and she was right as rain.

It’s a little-known fact that bulling cows can get milk fever – the oestrogens released into the blood during oestrus counteract the finely-tuned calcium-balancing mechanisms. Never rule out milk fever just because a cow isn’t freshly-calved.

Simon Allen, Allen and Partners, Carmarthenshire

Grazing systems often decrease the cows exposure to pathogens in the cows’ environment compared with fully housed systems.

This is because turf-covered soil in grazing paddocks typically has minimal contamination with environmental mastitis pathogens, compared with organic bedding in cubicles or loose housing.

However, bacterial exposure increases as forage is closely grazed and stocking rates rise. About four weeks is needed between paddock rotations to allow the forage to grow over soil and, as importantly, to allow manure load to disperse.

Certain areas with barren soil, due to overgrazing and trampling, can harbour elevated pathogen populations. Areas around feed troughs, exercise paddocks, gateways, and tracks often expose cows to bacterial concentrations comparable to that in organic bedded cubicles. Pay particular attention to hygiene scores in dry cows and in-calf heifers to avoid mastitis in early lactation as part of your mastitis control plan.

Alastair Couper, Capontree Vets, Cumbria

Now that the spring rush is coming to an end with calving tailing off and lambing a fond memory, we are turning our minds to summer problems.

With the development of resistance, worming lambs has become quite complex. This is not helped by many products with different names actually being the same wormer, so always check the active ingredient.

Most people know to dose to the heaviest sheep in the group, rather than guessing an average weight. Check that the dosing gun is working correctly and delivering the required dose by measuring what comes out into a syringe.

Always ensure to drench over the back of the tongue or inject by the correct route and in the right place. You should also check how effective the wormer is by doing faecal worm egg counts following treatment. We encourage our farmers to plan their worming requirements with us in advance.