Farm Animal Vet Update - Feb/March

Veterinary Update - February and March

In February most of our time was spent pregnancy testing. Most of the early pregnancy testing was already done in December and January for the dairy herds. Beef herds tend to be done slightly later and have kept us busy. Traditionally beef herds record a pregnant or not-pregnant result, however, if farmers are after a foetal date, 7-17 weeks gestation is the ideal time to get your cattle pregnancy tested. We are doing more and more foetal sexing in cattle. This does take slightly longer to do and 10-15 weeks of gestation is the ideal time to do it.

We often get the question about how pregnancy rates have been across the district. Every year, the results are variable. Some farmers have had the best results they have ever had this year, others the worst results they have had. In the farms that we have done a deep dive into the reasons for the good vs bad results, some of the reasons for poor pregnancy rates have been vibrio, pestivirus, bull breakdowns, an ageing herd or a reduced joining period.

The autumn calvings have started and even though it feels like we have been doing heaps, the numbers are similar to other years. We’ve seen quite a few really big beef calves that have needed to be cut up in the cow (a foetotomy) or to come out via a caesarean. We have seen a lot more uterine prolapses after calving this year compared to other years. Most prolapses occur as a result of milk fever or pushing out a big calf. For those of you lucky enough not to have seen one, the entire uterus hangs out the back of the cow. As you can imagine, this is an emergency and very risky for the cow.

This year we have treated fewer lame cows in February/ March but have looked at a lot more eye cancers than previous years. As per the previous report we are still seeing pneumonia outbreaks in young calves. In some of these cases traditional bovine respiratory disease bugs have been identified (IBR, Mannheimia, Pasteurella etc). In other cases, Salmonella dublin has been isolated. We are continuing to see increases in cases of Salmonella pneumonia in calves of all ages. This is mainly in dairy operations but we have also seen a major outbreak in a beef herd. We are now offering a calf lung ultrasound assessment of your calves to try to fix the problems before you are losing calves.

Looking back over the last couple of months we have fixed a number of fractured legs in calves. We have a number of techniques available to us to repair broken legs. The mainstay of fracture repair in calves is placing a cast. In bigger calves, or calves with an open fracture (bone poking through the skin), we can use bone pins to create an external fixation. Not every fracture repair is successful, especially if the calf can’t be confined and the leg regularly checked, however, we’ve had enough of wins over the years to recommend having a go.

We have had a couple of outbreaks of sudden death in steers and beef cows associated with pneumonia over the last couple of months. Another outbreak of sudden deaths in a significant number of steers was investigated by one of our recent graduates and turned out to be lead poisoning. The cattle had been grazing a paddock full of scrap metal (including old vehicles). Leaded paint and lead/acid batteries are two of the main sources of lead in cattle poisonings. Acute cases usually present with neurological signs, sudden death or gastrointestinal issues. Treatment can be attempted in high value animals but is often unsuccessful. Lead is also toxic to people and animals that survive might carry lead levels too high for human consumption for prolonged periods of time.

We are attempting to do more annual farm visits to ensure compliance with prescribing regulations and to offer advice on any veterinary topic you would like to discuss. We know farmers are time-poor, but please make the time to fit this visit in.