CARRICKVETS.ie
SPRING 2013
NEWSLETTER
the vaccine is given in two shots. The
vaccine should be given before breeding.
It will be a bit late for spring bred cattle
but should be in time before tipping ewes.
Carrick Veterinary Centre,
Unit 11, Steadfast Industrial estate,
Carrickmacross,
Co. Monaghan.
Tel. 042 9663152/9661384.
OUR WEBSITE. Carrickvets.ie
Carrick veterinary centre has a web page
up and running now. To access the website
google carrickvets.ie. We have links to
other interesting sites as well such as
NADIS cattle health notes and calf-notes.
The website is updated monthly giving up
to date advice on preventative medicine
and good management practices based on
the time of the year, calving patterns, age
profiles of cattle etc.
The website allows us to put more
information in our newsletter and get
feedback from our customers.
SchMALLENBERG VIRUS.
Schmallenberg virus has been located in
veterinary labs. Once the disease has
reached Ireland it is only a matter of time
before it spreads. The disease is spread by
biting midges. Once the weather improves
and these midges are more active the
disease will probably spread. The disease
causes abortions in cattle and sheep and
genetic defects in calves and lambs. I have
spoken to many of my colleagues and they
are seeing a lot of schmallenberg. It has
been reported in Wicklow and recently
found in Meath. Midges can spread the
disease up to 5 km per day. There is a
vaccine being developed and it is hoped
that it will be available in May. I believe
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HERD HEALTH PLUS
FERTILITY PROGRAMS FOR 2013.
This year we will continue helping
farmers improve their fertility on their
farms. Last year we scooped a lot of cows
on farms to identify dirty cows. Scooping
all the cows will identify 20% more dirty
cows than based on histories alone. I have
learned a lot from last year and would
advise farmers to present cows one month
before breeding with a history of retained
afterbirths, hard or assisted calvings,
caesarians, twins, low milk proteins and
cows they spotted dirty. This is more
practical than scooping all the cows in the
herd. We can recheck these dirty cows at
the second visit one month later and then
tackle cows that are cystic, anoestrous and
CL present but not cycling. I will contact
dairy farmers to check out if you are
interested.
I plan to talk to many of my dairy
farmers and plan fertility programs in
advance of the breeding season.
There has been a new
development in dairy herds in recent years
notably the coughing cow. Many dairy
cows start coughing and milk yields can
drop considerably. If you are one of these
farmers contact our office and we will
phone you back with advice.
Tel:042 9661384
POOR SILAGE WHAT CAN I DO?
Reported silage analysis results
are grim reading. Digestibility values
are as low as 45. This is no better than
straw. Many silage results are coming
back in the mid 50’s. This silage will
not maintain a dry cow. The only
option is to feed meal. It is advisable to
body condition score your cows and
split the dry cows up into different
groups based on how thin they are. Dry
cows that are thin should receive beef
nuts. The level of meal feeding will
vary depending on how thin the dry
cows are and the quality of the silage.
A good quality beef cow nut or good
quality weanling nut is fine for dry
cows. Do not give a dairy ration to
cows before calving. Dairy rations are
high in calcium and contain buffers
such as bread soda or acid buff which
can increase the incidence of milkfever
Give 1-2 kg of meal every day
until calving. A good idea if you have
space is to pen cows 3 weeks before
calving. Give them plenty of space to
feed and lie down. The calf is getting
much bigger towards the end and
reduces the space for the rumen.
Normal healthy cows eat less in the
last 3 weeks before calving especially
in the last week. A feed higher in
cereals will adapt the cow’s rumen to
the more intensive feeds after calving.
Do not put cows on the point of
calving into the milking herd. There is
a social hierarchy and these cows can
be bullied and pushed back from the
feeding barrier.
A good idea is to study cows on
the point of calving. If the cow has a
history of milk-fever or is older with
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good udder development it may be
prudent to give her a calcium bolus on
the point of calving and shortly after
calving. Cows concentrate up to 40%
of their calcium reserves in colostrums
at calving. Giving calcium boluses to
cows greater than 4 lactations is
common practice in America and
Holland. No matter what provisions
you make in reducing milk-fever older
cows release less calcium than younger
cows from their bones to off-set the
drain in calcium around calving.
Bovikalc or calcitrace boluses will
reduce the extent of subclinical milkfever which can be present in 20-60%
of dairy cows at calving and lasting up
to 10 days after calving. The calcium
level is measured in cows at the point
of calving.
Mineral supplementation to dry
cows is crucial. Dairy cows require a
daily dressing of a good quality
mineral. Give 120g of minerals daily
and check it’s content of selenium and
vitamin D. Selenium levels generally
decide the price of minerals. 4,0006,000 units of selenium are best. Trace
elements can be measured in cows 5
weeks before calving and the minerals
changed if levels are beneath the lower
range for each mineral. We can do a
profile for calcium, magnesium,
phosphorus, copper, selenium, cobalt
and iodine for around 30 euro a
sample.
It is advisable to work in close
contact with your nutritionist and keep
your vet informed.
Suckler cows are not prone to
milk-fever and trace element
deficiencies are more important. This
is why suckler farmers use bucket licks
or boluses instead of bagged minerals.
We are stocking all sure boluses which
supply copper, cobalt, selenium and
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iodine to cows for 6 months. Dairy
farmers who are not using bagged
minerals could use all sure boluses in
the dry period and in addition give 2
ounces of cal-mag per day during the
dry period.
Mineral deficiencies in the dry
period particularly selenium, negative
energy before calving and subclinical
milk-fever have a negative effect on
the immune system of the cow in the
early post partum period. Correcting
this is not an easy task particularly in
high yielding Holstein cows. Having
this right sets the cow up in the early
post partum then you can drive the cow
on during the early lactation on good
nutrition which will improve fertility.
You will have more clean cows and
cycling cows at the start of the
breeding season. I noticed herd
variations when I was scooping and
scanning last year and that is my
conclusions.
IBR VACCINES WHICH ONE TO
USE?
I make no apologies. I have
always preferred the live IBR vaccine
given every 6 months. If a farmer has a
spring calving herd he may elect to use
the dead vaccine now. Rispoval IBR
inactivated works 12 months. In my
opinion if a farmer has a split calving
herd he should keep giving the live
vaccine every 6 months. There may be
some prudence in sitting on the fence
this year and waiting for the results of
using the inactivated vaccine around
the country. I have made enquiries
from the 2 main drug distributors in
Ireland and they have told me that 80%
of the IBR vaccine sold in December
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and so far in January is the live IBR
vaccine.
I was recently called out to an
outbreak of IBR pneumonia. There
were 6 pens of cattle in the shed. Three
pens were on one side and three pens
on another. There were approximately
10 cattle in each pen. 5 of the pens
were vaccinated with Rispoval IBR
live. The middle pen on one side was
not vaccinated. All 10 cattle in the non
–vaccinated pen were sick with
temperatures of 104f to 107f. All of the
other cattle in all 5 pens were fine.
CALF SCOUR.
Rotavec corona has been
impossible to source this year. The
vaccine is given 3-12 weeks prior to
calving once off in the muscle and
protects calves against e coli, rotavirus
and corona virus.
It is important to check calf
scours for the cause.
We can check scour samples in our
office. We can distinguish between e
coli, rotavirus, corona virus and
cryptosporidium scours. Prevention of
cryptosporidiosis requires the use of
halocur orally to a new-born calf for
the first 7 days of its life. Dairy heifer
calves should be removed from clean
calving pens shortly after birth and
moved to clean individual pens. This
minimises the risk of scour agents
getting access to the lips of new born
calves and becoming infected in
several days. Removing dairy heifer
calves reduces the risk of becoming
infected with IBR virus also.
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BVD ERADICATION SCHEME.
Ear notching calves for BVD is
compulsory this year in Southern
Ireland and voluntary in Northern
Ireland. The ear notch is produced as a
result of normal tagging procedure.
The calf should be ear notched and
tagged as early as possible after
calving. If a positive BVD result
comes back you must isolate the calf
from all other cattle and recheck the
calf one month later. If the calf is virus
positive a second time it is persistently
infected (PI).
These calves should be
destroyed immediately. A PI animal
can cost up to 5000 euro worth of
damage if it is mixed in close
proximity to 100 head of cattle.
The incidence of BVD is
somewhere between 0.5-1.0% in
Ireland. This animal will
immunosuppress it’s comrade cattle
leading to increased incidence of
pneumonia and other diseases.
The PI’s dam must be checked
to see if it is a PI.
Identification and removal of
PIs is an important pillar of BVD
eradication. Vaccination and biosecurity are equally important pillars.
If all PIs are removed from a herd there
could still be a concurrent transient
infection in the herd for up to 18
months. If you do not vaccinate before
breeding additional PI calves can be
born to healthy cows by the transient
route. The scheme runs the risk of
having great success in the first 1-2
years followed by further breakdowns
in 3-4 years if transient infections are
not prevented by vaccination.
Last year approximately 1 in
200 calves tested under the voluntary
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scheme were classified as PIs. When
the dams of these calves were checked
90% of these dams were not PIs
themselves. Therefore 90% of the PI
calves were infected as a result of a
transient infection. Vaccination of
these dams prior to breeding would
have prevented these infections.
Vaccination is advised if you
check out animal health Ireland official
web-site. A similar eradication scheme
was carried out on the Orkney Islands.
Vaccination was neglected and they
are having problems.
Another problem I have with
the scheme is that many labs are using
an elisa test to check for virus instead
of the more reliable PCR test. The elisa
test will miss some PIs in the calves
particularly if calves are ear notched as
advised in the first week of life. It is
advisable to ear notch the calf
immediately after birth before it gets
colostrums. Farmers are advised to use
a laboratory that are using the PCR test
for BVD.
Vets are not directly involved
with this scheme but it is important
that we are informed by you of the
presence of PIs on the farm as there are
diverse and potentially severe herd
health issues.
BVD and lepto vaccines can be
given at the same time.
Synulox LC are not available for 6
months. We have tetra delta, ubro
yellow, cobactam LC, terrexine and
mastiplan in stock.
Lice in cattle can be difficult to
treat. Yellow pack spot on and taktic
are the best products available. If lice
infestations are heavy you should retreat after 2 weeks.
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Available treatments for
ringworm are poor. We are
advising using imaverol for
ringworm.
HOW DO I GET THE
BEST VALUE FROM MY
VETERINARY PRACTICE.
We charge different prices for
drugs based on whether you pay on the
day, book it down or are in a buying
group. The best deals are available to
all our customers. They are the pay on
the day prices. Alternatively the pay on
the day prices can be achieved if you
sign up to a monthly standing order.
The amount of the monthly standing
order is based on your average annual
veterinary bill and divided by 12.
Buying groups get intermediate
value between cash and credit prices.
They have strict credit terms that must
be adhered to. Buying group members
can get the best deals if they pay on the
day or sign up to a monthly standing
order.
It is important to us that all our
customers that are not in buying
groups can get the best value in our
practice if they pay on the day or have
a monthly standing order.
To avail of these offers it is essential
that your account is not overdue.
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Tel:042 9661384