The Vet Clinic Wairarapa Production Animal

30/01/2025

We've had some fantastic rain across the region over the past week 🌧 and also an absolute explosion in egg counts!!

Triple drench resistance is rife, so it's crucial to perform those 10-day drench checks to ensure your drenches are effective.

For more details, explore our Wormwise resources here 🔗 https://bit.ly/BLNZ_wormwise

To dive deeper and get your questions answered, don't forget to register for our upcoming Wormwise Workshops 👉

🔹 WAIRARAPA: Tuesday 18th February - Liz & Mike McCreary's, Kahutara 🔗 https://bit.ly/wormwise_wairarapa

🔹TARARUA: Friday 21st February - Ruaroa Hall, Dannevirke
🔗 https://bit.ly/wormise_tararua

27/01/2025

Hamstring injuries aren't airways a death sentence! We are so pleased beautiful Gwen has recovered. Also Rosie the septic tank pony.

21/01/2025

Definitely a good read - share around and let’s help support local🥚🍳🐣

Alex Gibson, his partner Mel, and his sister, Alice Holster, launched Eggventurers Eggs in late 2023 as part of a deliberate strategy to lessen the impact of farming’s economic peaks and troughs on their 550-hectare mixed family farm on Ica Rd and Langdale Rd in Whareama!

A free-range egg “side hustle” in the heart of rural Wairarapa is taking off for one family, helping them ride out the "steep rollercoaster ride" of the farming economy.

15/01/2025

Yay! Kirsten is back from maternity leave! She will be taking over Kate's role in retail. Stop in and have a chat with her about any products you need. She will be in clinic Monday and Thursday and working from home the rest of the week.

14/01/2025

Keep an eye out for flystrike, and give us a ring if you have any questions

07/01/2025

Did you know that campylobacter and toxoplasmosis are the two main causes of sheep abortions in our country? Fortunately, there's good news! Vaccines are available to help prevent these diseases and protect your flock.

🔑 KEY INFORMATION 🔑

💉: The Campylobacter Vaccine can increase lambing percentage by 9% even on farms that don't typically experience abortion issues.

💉: The Toxoplasmosis Vaccine increasing lambing percentage by an average of 3% Additionally, it reduces dry ewes by an average of 13.5%.

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🙌🏻🐑 Plus get your order in, Order more than 500doses of Campy or Toxo and go in the draw to win 1 of 10 cube rolls! 🐑🙌🏻
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Give the clinic a call so we can help determine the best vaccination program for your flock. Let's work together to keep our sheep healthy and thriving!

24/12/2024

Once again, Sara and Brianna were called out to treat Santa's reindeer on Christmas Eve! This guy won't be fit to fly after his anaesthetic, but the others all checked out ok and will be fine to hit the skies tonight.
Wishing all our clients a safe and happy Christmas, and a fun and profitable New Year. We will be closed apart from emergencies on the public holidays, but open all the other days. If you have an emergency over the holidays, ring our usual clinic number 0800VETNOW or 063782662

20/12/2024

I get lots of questions about this, nice clear explanation from Wormwise!

12/12/2024

We are all sad to say goodbye to our amazing head of retail Kate, after 10 years of dedicated hard work, but excited for her as she heads off to a new opportunity in the South Island. Safe travels, and we will all miss you!
Your retail needs are in safe hands with Shannon, Hayley and Kirsten taking up Kate's baton.

04/12/2024

What happens with worms when it turns dry? Watch this video to find out!

29/11/2024

Our adventures on the equine side

26/11/2024

Are you one of the farms that had drench issues last autumn?

12/11/2024

I've been getting this question a lot lately! How important is it to give a tape drench at weaning, or are you wasting your money? Hear it from the worm guru

05/11/2024

05/11/2024

This beautiful pet lamb came in today with a very sore leg after unexpectedly getting run over by a horse. Luckily x-rays showed no fractures! He's had pain relief and his owner has a plan for managing his recovery . Fingers crossed that he feels better soon.

31/10/2024

One for your horsey friends!

Got a promotion for you all in November, it's a great time to get the teeth sorted before the competition season!

24/10/2024

Good advice from Wormwise about pre wean drenching!
Will dropping out that drench save you money and effort, and reduce the pressure on worms to develop resistance, or will it potentially affect lamb weaning weights and getting lambs sold early?? Read this article to find out, or talk to one of our vets about managing worms on your farm!

Pre-weaning worm management hack for lambs from this week's Beef + Lamb New Zealand E Diaries:

Grazing management:

After tailing, the amount of energy and protein a lamb requires from pasture goes up every day as mum’s milk production declines and its own requirements increase.

Offering easily harvested pasture, where lambs are not in competition with their mums (especially for the good stuff, ewes will always find this first!) is important for both growth and worm management.

Plenty of green leaf and clover will drive better lamb growth if milk production is dropping off in light ewes but will also maintain high milk production in ewes that have lambed in good condition. Lambs on these better ewes get a double whammy of continued good milk supply, and lots of good green feed. All of these factors mean they take in less worm larvae as well.

Starting a rotation or shuffle-graze system is a great way of ensuring lambs get access to fresh green feed, with the ability to drop paddocks out to maintain control when growth really takes off. Lambs also learn about being moved and are easier to manage after weaning. It’s also a great time to get poo samples when encouraging the last of a mob into the next paddock!

Worm monitoring:

The cost-benefit of a pre-weaning drench can be a hotly debated topic. Where ewes have lambed in good condition and been well fed throughout early lactation, it’s likely they will have created less pasture contamination, and the lambs themselves will have lower worm burdens from grazing better covers and having a higher milk intake. A pre-weaning drench in this situation may do little to improve lamb growth.

In areas that have come out of drought, or been hit by weeks of wet, a pre-weaning drench of lambs may help shore things up until lambs can be weaned and the ‘re-set’ process begun.

Faecal egg counting of lambs pre-weaning can be a useful tool. Where everything is going well and lambs have low FECs, this data can reassure that a pre-lamb drench is not needed. In Southland, faecal egg counts can help determine the challenge from Nematodirus. In the upper half of the country, larval cultures on pre-weaning faecal samples can also give you a steer of early levels of Barber’s Pole worm, so you don’t get caught out later. Very high FECs at this time are also a warning sign that Barber’s Pole is about early in the season.

Drench use:

Drenches given in late spring have the potential to set up the first ‘wave’ of drench resistant worms for the season. They’re given at a time when worm egg-hatching and larval development are optimal from high numbers of young animals (who are the biggest worm contaminators on the farm). For three weeks after a drench, the only worms laying eggs and contributing larvae to pasture are those that have survived that drench. It makes no sense to use a partially effective drench at this time, both from a financial and efficacy point of view.

Ideally, choose a product that, in the last 12 months, has been shown to be highly effective on the worms on your farm. If this information is not available, seek advice from someone who knows their stuff in this space, and be sure to do a 10-day drench check on treated lambs to assess the efficacy of this first drench.

Planning ahead:

Now is a good time to make a worm management plan for the summer. Look for ways to avoid having a monoculture of lambs going around and around on the same area for many months – can cattle and ewes be integrated into their grazing area?

Short-term crops are an easy way to ‘break’ the worm cycle on a small area. Longer term crops provide better nutrition than perennial pasture but require more careful drench management to avoid building up a population of ‘drench survivor’ worms. Areas that have grazed another species over the lambing period can also provide ‘cleaner’ feed for lambs so lambs may be able to go longer between drenches.

Some farms are able to grow lambs well on perennial pasture with extended drench intervals – presumably via very good nutrition, high grazing residuals and with close observation.

In all cases, never assume – make sure regular monitoring of worm levels in lambs is part of the plan. This includes post-drench FEC checks on a regular basis.

One good result in January may not suffice, as the predominant worm species, and balance of resistant and non-resistant worms in stock, changes through the season.

12/10/2024

Found a home - thank you Facebook community!

This beautiful Suffolk x Romney lamb's mum doesn't want him - can't imagine why not!
3 days old, healthy, has had colostrum.
Please ring or message us if you can give him a good home.