West Ridge Farm Vets

17/06/2024

MilkSure Part 1: Safeguarding Residue Free Milk Training Day

Please call us on 01884 860236 by 5th July to book your place!

13/06/2024

Our Summer 2024 newsletter 🐄🐑

This time we're talking flies 🪰, cobalt deficient lambs 🐑, teaser rams 🐏 and pelvic measuring maiden heifers 🐄

Plus an introduction to all the services our fantastic vet tech Jamie offers! And not forgetting the 3rd edition of our Crypto Crossword!

28/05/2024

A video update of the bank holiday caesarean cow!

She is on her feet, happy, eating and drinking!

We'll be keeping a close eye on her during her recovery but things are looking positive so far! 💪

28/05/2024

An eventful Bank Holiday Monday! 🐄

This cow needed a caesarean due to a 720° clockwise uterine torsion - they are almost always anti-clockwise and not usually this tightly twisted!

Unfortunately, after delivering the calf and untwisting the uterus, the cow collapsed and went into shock 🚨 While Leea stitched up the cow, Nicci set to work giving her IV fluid therapy followed by post-calving recovery oral fluids (water, electrolytes and molasses).

The cow made an amazing recovery and she was up on her feet by the end of the visit!

28/05/2024

🐱

Clients & Non Clients welcome - please note this is at our Witheridge Branch only, Winkleigh dates coming soon 🐱Sorry slight mistake, they have to be microchipped by 20 weeks old not 8

26/05/2024

Good Morning World!
An early morning call for Claire and her friendly farmers to help this huge chap into the world by caesarean. Open and closed in less than an hour which is hugely important for infection control when operating on farm. Mum and baby doing well!
Happy Sunday everyone!

24/05/2024

We are heading into the bank holiday weekend....our opening hours are:

Saturday - Witheridge 8am - 12pm
Saturday - Winkleigh 9am - 6pm (meds collection)
Sunday - Closed 🚨 Emergencies Only 🚨
Monday - Closed 🚨 Emergencies Only 🚨

There will be a farm vet on duty all weekend so if any of your stock need veterinary attention, please call us on 01884 860236 🐄🐑🐐🐖🦙

23/05/2024

A real team effort tonight! 💪

We got the call to say the cow looked like she wanted to calve but wasn't progressing....she was just "messing around". This rang immediate alarm bells 🚨 and Tom went and swiftly diagnosed a uterine torsion which couldn't be corrected so it was a case of straight to caesarean!

We always want to see a case through from start to finish, but Tom had plans this evening that he couldn't miss, so he prepped the cow while waiting for duty vet Nicci to arrive to take over and perform the surgery. And Leea arrived to join the party just in time to stitch up the cow!

The cow was the perfect patient, her surgery was complete in just over 1 hour and we delivered a lovely live replacement dairy heifer 🐄

21/05/2024

Leea and Nicci would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who came to the Smallholder's Club launch this evening! 🐑🐐🦙🐖🐂

What a great evening with a fantastic group of people with a clear passion for the health and welfare of their stock. Sheep 🐑 goats 🐐 alpacas 🦙 cattle 🐂 and pigs 🐖 were all represented this evening! We can't wait to start working with you all!

For anyone who couldn't make the meeting but would like to join the club, please let us know by calling 01884 860236 or emailing [email protected]

We had such a good evening that we completely forgot about taking a photo 🤦‍♀️ so here's a photo of Nicci's Blue Texel ram, Hugo, instead!

17/05/2024

Our Smallholder's Club Meet & Greet is fast approaching! 🦙🐐🐑

There has been lots of interest in the club and we are nearly at venue capacity but if you'd like a last minute place please let us know and we'll try to squeeze you in!

Call 01884 860236 or email [email protected]

We are excited to have Ceva sponsoring our meeting and Norbrook have kindly donated towards the meet & greet goody bags!

10/05/2024

Confirmed BSE case in Ayrshire, Scotland 🐄

It has been announced today that there has been a case of classical Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) confirmed on a farm in Ayrshire, Scotland.

This was identified through routine surveillance to ensure the safety of the food chain. There have been restrictions placed on the holding of origin and any dangerous animal contacts. Restrictions have also been placed on animals that have been exposed to the same feed as the confirmed case.

Investigations into the source of the outbreak are currently ongoing. Further updates can be found at

www.gov.scot/news/bse-1/

10/05/2024

🦙🐐🐑 Smallholder's Club Official Launch 🐑🐐🦙

Come along to meet us and find out all about the smallholder's club!

Please RSVP by Friday 17th May by calling 01884 860236 or emailing [email protected]

We look forward to seeing you there!

09/05/2024

Fast and Stress Free Knockdown Disbudding 🐄

How do we do it?

The calves are sedated, nerve blocked (local anaesthetic) and given an anti-inflammatory injection (Metacam) for long term pain relief. Once the calves have led down and fallen asleep, the horn buds are removed with a hot iron. We then use a non-antibiotic spray (Aluspray) to help prevent any infection post-disbud.

Disbudding under sedation has many benefits

- Quick
- Stress free for the calf (and for us!)
- Hugely improved welfare - the calf is completely unaware of what is happening and returns to normal behaviour (drinking, playing) much more quickly than a calf disbudded without sedation
- A vet plus vet-tech can carry out the work without any additional help leaving you and your farm staff free to carry on with other work

Nicci and vet-tech Jamie disbudded 51 replacement dairy heifer calves using this method this morning! Here are some of them waking up nicely from their sedation 🙂

25/04/2024

🚨 SAVE THE DATE 🚨

Smallholder's club official launch meeting 🐑 🐐🦙

Tuesday 21st May 2024

Come along to meet Leea & Nicci and find out what the club is all about.

Time and location to be confirmed so keep an eye 👀 on your inboxes for further details.

Please call us on 01884 860236 to register your interest. We can't wait to meet you all!

22/04/2024

We are launching a smallholder's club! 🐑

Find all the details in the poster below. Our official launch meeting will be held in May, date and location TBC.

Please call Witheridge on 01884 860236 to sign up!

26/03/2024

If you need a vet over the Easter weekend, please call 01884 860236 and our duty vet will be able to help you 🙂 🐑🐄

Our Easter Opening Hours 🐣✨

15/03/2024

Final year vet student Olivia has spent the last 2 weeks with us getting stuck into all things farm 🐄🐑

Her final case of the placement was a lambing and it was a real team effort. Tom triaged the ewe, called caeser and prepped for surgery. Nicci then stepped in to do the operation while Tom went to see a sick bullock. Student Olivia tended to the lambs and got some suturing practice by closing the ewe 🐑

We love teaching the next generation of farm vets and let our students get as much hands on experience as possible as it's the best way to learn!

15/03/2024

COMPETITION DEADLINE EXTENDED! 🎉

Our competition deadline has been extended until the end of March so keep your entries coming in!

🎉🎉COMPETITION TIME 🎉🎉

🐄🐄🐑🐑🐄🐄🐑🐑

Enter our Spring competition to be in with a chance to win a calving or lambing bundle!

11/03/2024

SPRING 2024 NEWSLETTER! 🐑🐄☀️🌼

Lungworm in cattle, when to help your lambing ewe, gold standard care of the neonatal lamb and the second edition of our Crypto Crossword!

11/03/2024

SPRING LAMBING OFFER 2024! 🐑

We are running our annual lambing offer at our Witheridge branch between 9am and 5pm during March and April.

Ewe lambing £45 + VAT
(including a dose of appropriate antibiotics and pain relief)

Ewe caesarean £75 + VAT
(including the local anaesthetic, the 1st dose of antibiotics and pain relief)

Ewe prolapse pre/post lambing £50 + VAT
(including the 1st dose of antibiotics, pain relief and the epidural)

Sick lamb or ewe £20 + VAT
(all drugs and consumables at extra cost)

Please call us at Witheridge on 01884 860236 to let us know you are coming so we can have a vet ready for you!

09/03/2024

A RARE CASE FOR A SATURDAY! 🐑

Claire went to a lambing this morning and was presented with something she has only seen twice in 16 years!

Owner Diana had noticed the ewe was getting ready to lamb but when the ewe failed to make any progress she knew something was wrong and called for Claire's help.

Claire popped a hand in to find the ewe's cervix hadn't dilated at all so they decided to do a caesarean.

Once inside, Claire discovered that the ewe had a uterine torsion (twisted womb) and so would never have been able to give birth naturally.

The surgery was a success - this beautiful little ewe lamb came out alive and happy! 🐑 Claire stitched up the ewe and left her loving her new baby. 🥰 A happy end to the story!

08/03/2024

CASE OF THE WEEK!!!! 🐄

Niamh the Dexter pr*****ed before calving so we made the decision to induce her and perform an elective caesarean.

Leea, our new graduate vet, was given the opportunity to do her first start to finish caesarean, under the watchful eye of vet Nicci, and she did a fantastic job!

Niamh was the perfect patient and the surgery was a success - Bernadette, a lovely live heifer calf was born! I'll think you'll agree she is super cute 🥰 and will be a fabulous addition to the breeding herd in the future 🐄

08/03/2024

🎉🎉COMPETITION TIME 🎉🎉

🐄🐄🐑🐑🐄🐄🐑🐑

Enter our Spring competition to be in with a chance to win a calving or lambing bundle!

08/03/2024

📣 Important Notice regarding DEFRA Approved Disinfectants.

DEFRA have updated the approved disinfectants list. Some products such as FAM 30™ are no longer approved for TB disinfection.

Follow the link to the DEFRA approved disinfectants list to seek alternatives. http://disinfectants.defra.gov.uk/Disinfe.../Default.aspx...

Note: dilution rates will vary. For example TB approved Virophor 2.8% has a dilution rate for TB of 1:14.

This change is of particular relevance to farms that are in or are coming out of TB breakdowns.

📞 If you have any questions phone the farm team on 01884 860236.

08/03/2024

Welcome to our brand new dedicated West Ridge Farm Vets page!