Otautau Vets Ltd

10/01/2025

09/01/2025

The up and down temperature, recent rain and changing pasture quality mean that we could start seeing a few seasonal issues in calves.
Lungworm and Pasteurella and Polio should all be on your radar at the moment as well as the usual gastrointestinal worms and coccidia.
Providing supplementary hay when changing from rougher to lusher grass can help keep the rumen stable which seems to help protect against polio and pasteurella.
If you are concerned about your calves or would like to discuss a health plan for them please give your vet a call!

23/12/2024

Merry Christmas everyone! 🎄

We are closed from 3pm this afternoon and back on deck on Friday. As always if you have an emergency over this period call the usual number 03 225 8134 to be put through to the after-hours staff.

Very best wishes, the team at OVL ☺️

14/11/2024

An iPad was found outside the clinic yesterday afternoon. If you know who it might belong to, please pop in or give us a call 😊

29/10/2024

Phones are down at OVL. If you have a small animal emergency, please call Waikiwi 03 215 9237. For Farm Animal emergencies, please call 027 382 3105

Hopefully power will be restored soon!

07/10/2024

Louise's approach to managing the weather has been to take unflattering selfies of herself having a tantrum.
A more constructive approach would be to control the things you can, and delegate some jobs to buy yourself some hours in the day to feed out, get off the farm for an hour, sit down and do a feed budget or phone a friend.
Everyone will have more lame cows than they would like as a result of the extreme conditions and probably not enough time to deal with them.
Prompt attention to them will speed up their recovery and stop them developing irreversible changes to their feet. Cow blocks and pain killers (no milk with holding ones are available - talk to your vet) will dramatically shorten the amount of time they need to spend in the lame mob on OAD.
Large numbers of lame cows are also overwhelming and can really get you down.
There are several hoof care providers working in the area who can get through large numbers of lame cows in a short period of time. If they can't get to you quickly and you have severely lame cows you need a hand with give us a call and we will help too.

03/10/2024

We have a skeleton staff at the clinic thanks to taxi driver Bri, and can cover most areas with vets working from home.
We will do our absolute best to get to you if you need us and we can get to you safely.
It's hard out there, phone us if we can help or if you want to chat through some options.
Stay safe! OVL

24/09/2024

Male pup found on Liemen Street. Please contact the clinic on 03 225 8134 if he is yours. Please do not contact us via Facebook.

24/09/2024

Friendly female long coated border collie has been found on Liemen Street. Please phone the clinic on 03 225 8134 if she belongs to you. Please do not contact us via facebook!

17/09/2024

Thinking of all our farmers battling the weather and power outages today, it's very challenging out there.

Unfortunately we have a couple of dairy herds with Salmonellosis adding to their battles. Further North there are some very big outbreaks.

Salmonella is very much a disease of stress, but sometimes we just can't remove the stressors. There is a vaccine available which covers some of the strains we are seeing. Vaccination can reduce the impact of an outbreak, but has it's own challenges so it isn't a one size fits all solution.

If you are worried and would like to discuss things further please give us or your own vet a call.

03/09/2024

Left Displaced Abomasum (LDA) is a condition quite commonly seen in dairy cows about 2 weeks after they calve. The first thing you see is often a drop in milk production, maybe significant weight loss if they have had it a while. We have seen a lot this year, probably because of the grotty weather.
The picture below shows rumination data for a cow that had milk fever when she calved and never really came right then went off her milk then sent a distress alert (the lying down cow image on the graph). She was examined, an LDA found and had surgery that day. You can see the resulting recovery - her rumination rate has come right back up and she has come back into milk.
Even cows that have been off their milk for a while usually come back into milk after surgery.
You don't need cow wearable technology to pick these cows up - sudden milk drop is still the major trigger to have a look.
If you would like to know more about this very treatable condition, please give us a ring at the clinic

16/08/2024

Very friendly neutered male tabby and white cat found in a shed on Harbison Street. Please call the clinic on 03 225 8134 if he is yours or you know who he belongs to. Please do not contact us via facebook.

14/08/2024

**LOST** Lovely ginger boy (castrated) found on King Street, Otautau. No microchip. Please call the clinic if you know where he belongs 🙏🏼

26/07/2024

This young male pup was found in the bush on Papatotara Coast Road. He is being looked after at the clinic. If he's yours or you know who he belongs to please call the clinic on 03 225 8134. Do not message on FB as the page is not continuously monitored. There is a vet on call over the weekend to answer the phone.

07/07/2024

**LOST** Male (neutered) mature Tabby found on Eton Street, Otautau. Please contact the clinic if you know where he belongs

11/04/2024

We have seen a number of down cows recently on farm due to poor weather and low magnesium/high potassium grass. We are seeing lower than optimal Magnesium levels on routine blood testing too.

If you currently rely on the water to get Magnesium to your herd you may wish to consider dusting pasture or silage with Magnesium oxide or adding it to your in-shed minerals.

Also consider any cattle that are being transported as they are high risk for metabolic disease at this time of year too.

Although they need to be stood off green feed before trucking to make transport more comfortable for them, they should have access to hay/silage/bailage and water while they are on restricted pasture. It is a very good idea to put some Magnesium and lime on their feed before they go.

Should you require further advice on this topic please contact your vet.

05/04/2024

email address for RSVP for the Sustainable Parasite Management seminar is [email protected] or just phone the clinic on 03 225 8134.