Did you know dungbeetles are active all year round?
This video was taken this week!
Activity does reduce in the winter but does continue all year, this makes it important to provide habitat for them all year round, i.e. having some animals outside, even if this is just a couple of bulls!
Tup Testing Reminder 🐑
With 16% of tups tested being subfertile, testing is an important management tool to ensure all tups are fertile and working as they should be.
Testing Tups involves a physical examination focusing on the 5 T's (tone, teeth, toes, testicles and treat) and then semen evaluation looking at gross and progressive motility.
The video shows a 5/5 gross motility, it should look like a pint of guiness settling!
To get your tups booked in for testing please give the practice a call
Rock Salt is an important supplement year round as Northumberland is generally low in salt. It also helps with magnesium uptake so supplementation is required to prevent staggers 🐑🐮
Case of the Week 🐮
It has been a busy few weeks for the bull testing kit, the video attached was taken by Jenny when she was out last week!
Last year 18% of bulls tested by Black sheep failed their examination, can you afford not to test?
Please give us a call go get booked in or have a discussion with one of the vets
Case of the week 🐮
Amongst other jobs, Kaz was out freeze branding earlier this week. Freeze branding is used widely for beef cattle in America and Australasia, as well as for the British dairy herd.
Freeze brands are easily read from a distance, and provide an insurance against tags falling out. Cattle can be freeze branded as adults or when selecting replacement heifers to join the breeding herd.
Cattle with thick coats can still be freeze branded – for best effect the brand can simply be clipped before calving to aid identification. The position of the brand can be tailored to how the cattle are kept. If housed loosely or calved at grass, a brand on the side of the thigh may be best while for cattle kept tighter or frequently run through races, a higher brand may be more appropriate.
Make sure you use the correct applicator for intranasal vaccination to ensure it mists for proper delivery!
Case of the Week 🐮
Jenny was out this week with the turn over crate looking at a lame bull. He was found to have sand cracks that had become infected. Sand cracks are vertical fissures up the front of the horn, they are associated with dry conditions, trauma to the top of the horn or poor foot conformation. Due to the heritability of conformation, it is advisable to avoid keeping heifers for breeding which are from a bull with this condition.
Case of the Week 🐑
Some tup testing this week, an important management tool to ensure all tups are fertile and working as they should be.
The process involves a physical examination focused on the 5 T's (tone, teeth, toes, testicles and treat) and then semen evaluation looking at both gross motility and progressive motility. Gross motility is shown in this video with a 5/5 score, we often refer to this test as the guiness test, it wants to look like a pint settling!
To get your tups booked in for testing please give the practice a call
Case of the Week 🐑
Jenny received this video from a client this week (thank you for permission to post!) of a sheep with CNN.
The flicking of here eyes is called vertical nystagmus, which is a sign of brain disease. This combined with the "star-gazing" and blindness lead to a diagnosis of Cerebral Cortical Necrosis. CCN is a deficiency of thiamine (vitamin B1) caused by a change in diet, generally to a low roughage diet. Signs are generally seen a couple of weeks post diet change. CCN can be diagnosed at post-mortem examination as the brain fluoresces under a UV light!
Treatment of vitamin B1, steroids and anti-inflammatories were given and the sheep was on her feet in 30 minutes, the quick response to treatment is typical of CCN.
Case of the week 🐮
Now that we are in June, the grass is coming up from beneath us and silage making well underway.
Silage does not come without risk. This case presented to Jenny shows a young bullock suffering from congestive heart failure. He presented with fluid build up around the brisket and under the chin and had an enlarged jugular down his neck. This is caused by Hardware disease, which is when a wire from the stomach pierces the sack surrounding the heart leading to infection and reducing heart function.
Preventing this disease is important and is focused at reducing wire content in the silage, generally by avoiding old tyres above the silage pit. Cows can be bolused with a magnet as a preventative measure.
Noisy audience for a Friday morning job!
Great to have Phil Scott here during the week scanning for OPA (Ovine Pulmonary Adenocarcinoma)
OPA, caused by Jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus, is a infectious and fatal lung disease of sheep. There is no treatment or vaccine available.
The virus causes tumours to form in the lungs, resulting in loss of condition, breathing difficulties, clear or frothy nasal discharge, and eventually death.
OPA can only be definitively diagnosed on post mortem, but ultrasound scanning can identify tumours bigger than 2cm. This scanning allows infected animals to be removed from the flock and minimise spread to healthy sheep.
OPA can be introduced with the purchase of new stock. This highlights the importance of good biosecurity and benefits of running a closed flock.
We are an independent, locally owned dedicated farm only veterinary practice serving Northumberland
