The Moovet - Summerhill Vet Clinic

21/10/2023

⚠️This post discusses euthanasia.

😔Vets make sick animals well again - that’s our job and that’s what we are trained do. But what happens when we’ve tried our best and it hasn’t worked?🥺
We had a very sad week in our house. Our dog of 17 years, Cosco, passed away. He was my co-pilot for years as I drove around the backroads of north-Tipp. Always happy, never judging, he kept me away on long nights on call and knows more about me than most people.
He has been on medication for arthritis for the past number of years, but we knew that, despite the best care possible, the condition was worsening. We made the difficult decision to put him to sleep last weekend.💔😢
As vets, it is a really honourable part of our job to be able to ease any animal’s suffering. Even in large animal practice, we must make every effort to ensure that animals don’t suffer unduly.
If you have tried treatment options and they aren’t successful, don’t let any animal suffer in pain. Sometimes, particularly in cattle practice, economics comes into play where certain treatment options are unviable. Euthanasia, although a last resort, should be used in a timely fashion in order to avoid suffering. It is not a decision to be taken lightly and it is a very tough decision to make, both for you and your vet. Animals don’t display signs of pain like humans do and they can’t talk to us to tell@us how they feel. Euthanasia is an emotive topic, but I think it should be discussed so that we can objectively consider it to ease an animals suffering when all viable avenues have been exhausted.

19/09/2023

🚨Veterinary Council of Ireland Elections 2023🚨

I am very proud to tell everyone that Niamh Hogan, one of “our” vets in Summerhill Vets, Nenagh, Co Tipperary, has put her name forward for election to the Vet Council.
Niamh is the most conscientious, hard working, and dedicated vets I know. She is the driving force behind all that is good and progressive in our practice. She would make a great representative on the council for practicing vets, young and old.

Every vet practicing in Ireland received their ballot papers to vote for 4 vets to be elected to the Vet Council.
Please mark an “X” on the box next to Niamh Hogan’s name. I think the profession will be the better for her voice on the Council 😊

22/08/2023

“The man that made time made lots of it and the man that made twine made balls of it”. It’s a phrase I heard lately and it fitted perfectly the scene that I drove toward last week.

22/07/2023

All-Ireland final weekend and everyone is talking about the hurling 🇳🇬•A beef heifer with “a sore jaw”. I presumed it was a tooth abscess or something similar until I opened her mouth.
A sliothar stuck nicely at the back of her teeth. 😂
You just never know what you’re going to find as a vet 😊

25/04/2023

The saying ‘beauty is only skin-deep’ didn’t hold up on my farm recently. My mighty pedigree Angus herd of seven cows had been ticking over nicely.

08/03/2023

I’ve been asked the same question by a lot of farmers when I’m in their yard: “How’s the spring going so far?” They are interested to know what the common ailments are and also, that they aren’t the only ones that vet has to call to.

14/02/2023

Love is in the air, everywhere I look around. I’m sure that the majority of you have flowers, chocolates and a card already sorted for your better halves.

27/01/2023

In 2015, Michael Murphy was crowned Ireland’s beef farmer of the year, having established a reputation for doing the simple things right on his calf to beef rearing enterprise.

25/10/2022

Drying off cows - our vet Michael talks about the Animal Health Dry off consult.

13/09/2022

Summerhill Veterinary Clinic - Nenagh, County Tipperary , work-life balance comes first. One of their large animal vets is going part-time and rather than load the extra work onto their existing team they want to take on another vet.

They are a mixed practice with 5 vets dedicated to large animals (majority dairy) and 2 vets to companion animals. We have a staff of 3 office/admin and 2 registered veterinary nurses.

The role is a full-time one, but they are flexible for the right candidate. It is a large animal role, but an interest in companion animals is a bonus. Mentorship will be in ample supply - 3 vets have completed a cert in Dairy Herd Health and 2 vets are currently undertaking the same. They have regular clinical club and in house CPD.

Standard holidays apply and they take a "If it's not busy and you're not on call, you don't really need to be here" attitude. They have a young dynamic team with a positive & helpful working environment.

CPD is funded and encouraged. VDS is paid and they have a company pension plan.

Salary is negotiable based on qualities that can be brought to the role.

Interested? Apply below
👉 https://bit.ly/3xjHmtg 👈

22/08/2022

It’s that time of year again - salmonella

07/06/2022

The Irish Farmers Journal veterinary team outlines everything you need to know to keep your dog healthy and in prime working condition.

12/05/2022

Great video explaining fly strike

22/03/2022

St Patrick’s Day is often a turning point in our clinic. We feel like we have rounded the corner, and the end of the busy spring is approaching.

02/03/2022

06/02/2022

Stomach tubing calves - some handy tips 🐮

31/01/2022

🐮Calf Health Investigations :
•Treat individual sick calves.
•Find the source of the problem.
•Put a plan in place to get all animals healthy and prevent the problem from happening again.

17/01/2022

Spring is coming ❄️🐮🐑
Are you ready ? 🙈😜

05/01/2022

In the blink of an eye, we are back at the beginning again. The turkey is well digested and the waist of my favourite trousers feels a bit tighter than it did a month ago.

28/09/2021

Mastitis Vaccination:
•First things first - this is not a quick fix / cure all / stand alone.
•Before any herd with a mastitis and or SCC problem reaches the decision to vaccinate, a process has to be undertaken.
•Firstly, both the farmer and the vet need to commit to the long road. This won’t get fixed overnight.
•Next, we culture milk from affected cows and affected quarters. On this particular farm, we kept seeing strep uberis, over and over.
•Next, we use the Udder Things programme - a template for a full and detailed farm investigation covering everything from housing to milking machine and everything in between. Patented by .
•Only when we are satisfied that all areas are addressed and improvements made where needed will we consider vaccination.
•If the basics aren’t addresses first, then, like any vaccine, it will not be effective. So, if you are from the “this tube is no good/I used X bolus and Y no milk withholding tube instead/Teat dip is too dear/good liners are too expensive” school, this vaccine is not for you.
•After an initial 3 shot starter programme, the vaccine is boostered twice yearly.
•Vaccination is already used extensively in countries such as Spain and will no doubt play a greater role in many herds in the coming years as antibiotic usage tightens up.
•We are facing a huge change in the way we tackle mastitis and SCC in this country. One thing is for sure, quick fixes are not a long term solution. Engagement between farmer and vet needs to start now to form farm specific plans that vaccination will definitely form a part of.
•Hopefully this was interesting for some 🙈 Ill keep you posted on the progress in this and other herds👍🏽

18/09/2021

Did you know September is a key month for vaccinating spring-calving dairy herds for Salmonella?💉

This will ensure the cows have maximum immunity before the onset of the main risk in October and November 🐄🐄

Have you vaccinated your herd with Bovilis Bovivac S yet?👀

16/08/2021

New veterinary medicines legislation that will restrict antibiotic usage will be a 'big culture shock to the farming community'

28/07/2021

I was starting to TB test a herd of suckler cattle last week in the sweltering heat. The cattle were quite “lively” but the facilities were top class and there was lots of help drafted in for the occasion. After the first one or two crushfuls however, I started to notice that one of the “helpe...

07/07/2021

A silver bullet is defined as a simple, seemingly magical solution to a difficult problem. We’d all love a silver bullet to fix the most complicated, time-consuming and costly issues on the farm — in particular, mastitis and SCC.

16/06/2021

I took a little break last week. Now I know what you’re thinking: what does this lad need a break for, sure he’s hardly working that hard?

03/05/2021

Super video on just how important airflow, light and humidity are for cow welfare, and just how much it can cost if it’s not right 🙈

https://youtu.be/gD_86gWAlJs

In today's video we had Stuart from Eternit come round and look at the air flow and humidity of our current sheds. Me and Stuart have been talking for well ...

07/04/2021

You can’t beat a bit of sunshine to get farmers moving. On almost every by-road this week, I had to pull in from some 100+-horsepower machine with a plough/fertiliser spreader/slurry tank attached.

08/03/2021

07/02/2021

Cold weather = sick calves. But this doesn’t have to be the case.
Temperatures across Ireland are to drop below 0 degrees celsius for most of this week. Calves will burn energy to keep warm. Stress increases and with it, the incidence of scour and pneumonia.
All we have to do this week is keep calves warm, dry and well fed.
Red lamps in calf pens, lots & lots of straw and calf jackets are excellent.
Try to eliminate draughts at calf level - stock-board on gates and canopies in pens can help.
Feed a little extra milk/milk replacer. More milk = more energy.
We aren’t used to any extreme temperatures here so if we don’t make adjustments, calf health will suffer.
Make sure your vaccinations , particularly against RSV and IBR, are given to eligible calves.
Also, wrap urself up well too 👍🏽👍🏽

06/02/2021

Keeping calves on milk throughout an outbreak of scour is hugely benificial in the long run

An intestine that is not functioning properly causes the calf to lose salts and water in the form of diarrhoea.