Tenbury Veterinary Services

10/08/2022

🐑 Pre-tupping prep 🐑

Tupping season is just around the corner and we need our ewes and lambs in tip top condition to achieve a good conception rate and lambing %.

Getting ewes in the right body condition and making sure the rams are fit enough for the season is key, so looking closely at the diet is vital.

Depending on grass availability (or unavailability!) you may need to feed rams throughout tupping. A daily feed of 0.5kg of a specialist ram compound (18% crude protein with the correct mineral balance) will help to maintain condition and allow for raddle changes. You are aiming for body condition score of 3.5-4.0 at the start of tupping for males. Overfed rams are lazy and fat and tend to have reduced libido and fertility.

Likewise with ewes – the all important factor in pre-tupping nutrition is body condition score. Sort ewes carefully and divide by condition so you achieve 90% of the flock in the ideal condition score when the rams go in. This would be condition score 3.5 for most lowland ewes, 3.0 for upland ewes and 2.5 for hill ewes. Thinner ewes should be given priority grazing to gain condition and fat ewes held on barer fields to shift a bit of body fat (taking them down half a condition score).

All ewes should be brought together for flushing three weeks before mating, but remember for prolific breeds (such as Aberdales and Lleyns) it is best to hold condition at about 3.0 and not to flush or you will get too many triplets and quads.

Replacement ewes should be on farm at least a month before mating to allow time for biosecurity treatments, pre-tupping vaccinations for abortion, a good four week quarantine period and for them to settle into their new environment and diet.

⚠️Does your farm have specific trace element deficiencies?⚠️

This is easy to check by taking a blood sample from stock and/or forage samples from the farm. This allows you to ensure new and resident sheep are supplemented if needed to prevent deficiencies from impacting fertility.

10/08/2022

☀️ Travelling livestock in extreme weather ☀️

Exposure to high temperatures and humidity is a major threat to animal welfare during transport and failing to take account of high temperatures can cause suffering to animals and, in the worst-case scenario, death.

One of the several mechanisms that animals use to cool themselves in hot weather is the loss of water vapour by sweating or panting. However, in high humidity, the loss of water vapour is reduced. In conditions of both high temperature and high humidity, animals may be subject to further heat stress.

If you do not have a temperature-controlled vehicle, you should:

🐑 Not transport animals in temperatures over 30°C
🐮 Travel early in the morning or overnight where possible
🐷 Check the ‘feels like’ temperature for the intended route if humidity is high
🐎 Park in the shade whenever possible, ideally with the vehicle positioned perpendicular to any prevailing wind if open sided
🐑 In extreme heat, it is recommended that stocking density should be reduced by at least 30% to maximise airflow
🐮 Increase headroom above animals to maximise ventilation and air movement in the vehicle
🐷 Avoid penning animals in the hotter parts of the vehicle, these are located at the front end and higher levels of the vehicle
🐎 Inspect animals more frequently for signs of heat stress and know what emergency action to take if necessary
🐑 Provide water or electrolyte solutions more frequently
🐮 Minimise the time spent on the trailer

More information can be found on the APHA website.

21/06/2022

🪰LATEST BLOWFLY ALERT🪰 Settled, relatively warm daytime conditions have allowed populations to increase and have raised the strike risk throughout most of the UK. Shearing will have greatly reduced the risk to ewes. Where rain occurs, this will further increase the ability of flies lay eggs and increase the hatch and survival rates of early-stage maggots, particularly on lambs. At this time, strike prevention should now be in place, and vigilance becomes increasingly important in lambs as pasture worms start to become an issue.

⚠️ Report any cases you see on https://bit.ly/3DXuTfw and for more info check out https://bit.ly/3m8XQ27

18/02/2022

Young calves are very susceptible to low temperatures. They are on highly digestible feed and are not yet ruminating so less heat is generated by d...

17/02/2022

Check out our new website!

https://www.tenburyveterinaryservices.com/

Tenbury Veterinary Services is a mixed animal practice in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire.

17/02/2022

As lambing season is well underway, we must remember the importance of proper colostrum management.

A strong, healthy lamb, up and sucking within 15 minutes of birth has a 90–95% chance of still being alive 90 days later.

Colostrum is Gold: not only does it contain maternal antibodies, which are a lamb’s major protection against disease for the first few weeks of life, but it is high in energy, vitamins and minerals. Lambs are born with no viable immune system so without the influx of antibodies from the colostrum they are open to every infection.

The three Q’s of colostrum should be followed at all times: Quantity, Quantity, Quickly.

Quality:
There are many ewe factors which affect this, age, breed, mastitis, nutrition and body condition. Thin ewes produce less colostrum, reasons for thin ewes are nutrition, chronic fluke, chronic lameness, insufficient feedspace, so if you have a high proportion this should be investigated. A well fed ewe produces better quality colostrum. You can measure the quality of colostrum using a refractometer. You also need a good collection technique, as dirty colostrum will have bacteria in it which reduces the quality. If a ewe has mastitis or is painful post lambing she won’t allow her lambs to suck, anti-infammatories can be very useful if you have had a difficult lambing.

Quantity & Quickly:
Make sure lambs receive 50 ml/kg of colostrum as soon as possible after birth and within 4–6 hours. In 24 hours, a newborn lamb must receive the equivalent of 200 ml/kg body weight in colostrum.

Example: a 5 kg lamb needs 1 litre of colostrum in the first day of life.

After six hours, the lamb’s ability to absorb the immunoglobulins into its bloodstream has reduced, which is why it is important to get colostrum in quickly.

The primary immunoglobulin in colostrum is immunoglobulin G (IgG). Its concentration in milk decreases rapidly after parturition, at approximately 3.3 mg/ml per hour, diminishing to zero by about 23 hours post-lambing.

Storing Colostrum:
If you have a ewe with a single lamb it is a good idea to milk her to keep some of her colostrum for any triplets or lambs from ewes with little/no udder development. Colostrum can be stored in a clean container in the fridge for 7 days, or it can be frozen - however it is worth checking the quality first as there is no point storing poor quality colostrum.

When defrosting colostrum use hot water (not boiling) rather than a microwave as you don’t want to damage the immunoglobulin proteins which are sensitive to high temperatures.

Consider buying a BRIX refractometer with a 0-32% scale so you can make more informed decisions about whether to feed, store or discard colostrum.

If you are having large numbers of scouring lambs, or lamb deaths it is possible to measure how successful the colostrum management is. This can be done by blood sampling lambs under a week old to check their passive transfer of IgG antibodies.

Read more about colostrum management below or feel free to contact the practice with any questions you may have.

Https://ahdb.org.uk/knowledge-library/colostrum-management-for-lambs

17/02/2022

As we get into 2022 Bird flu sadly continues to be a problem throughout the UK.

Maintaining effective biosecurity is more important than ever, so please make sure your birds are inside to minimise contact with wild birds.

Find out what more you can do to keep your birds free of disease by registering for one of the 'stop the spread' DEFRA webinars.

Visit https://bit.ly/3ywHFjQ to register.

16/02/2022

16/02/2022

29/01/2022