Kerry Vale Vets

26/09/2024

Tup sales - don't buy in someone else's problems.
Many farmers will be buying stock into their flocks. Unfortunately with purchasing comes the risk of buying in drug resistant worms, fluke and scab.
The SCOPS website have fantastic resources on quarantine protocols
https://www.scops.org.uk/internal-parasites/quarantine-advice-for-internal-and-external-parasites/
https://www.scops.org.uk/workspace/pdfs/effective-quarantine-and-treatments_1_1.pdf
Wormer dispensing: If you let us know the number of purchased stock animals with accurate weights we can dispense the required dose of Zolvix and Startect to provide the gold standard quarantine wormer.
01686 510 015

08/09/2024

Welsh BVD Eradication Scheme
I am getting a lot of enquiries about the BVD Eradication Scheme. Please see the slides below.
Broadly:
1. All farms must have an annual antibody screen blood test (ideally) during the Herd TB test before July 2025.
2. If the test is NEGATIVE you will not be impacted but it would be prudent to protect your negative status - biosecurity.
3. If you test antibody POSITIVE your herd becomes " NON NEGATIVE" - after July 2025 you will be under movement restrictions and cattle will need a negative, pre-movement BVD test to be able to move onto another farm, practically this blood test will likely be carried out at the same time as the pre movement TB test.
4. The legislation aims to prevent BVD carrier animals (PI's) from moving from herd to herd in Wales. After July 2025, PI cattle must be isolated and slaughtered on farm or moved directly to a slaughterhouse from the farm of origin. Until now there has been no legislation that specifically prevents a farmer from knowingly or unknowingly selling a PI BVD carrier animal to another farmer, therefore we welcome the changes, as always, the changes will take a little while to get used to.

30/06/2024

Mineral testing breeding animals.

We have had a few farmers getting in touch regarding blood testing breeding animals.

Now is the best time to pre emptively detect issues in both ewes and suckler cows, albeit an inconvenient time due to harvesting. Animals will have been grazing, usually without supplementation for at least 6 weeks.

The grazing period becomes the period of highest risk of mineral deficiency, as supplementary feeding is withdrawn, this coincides with the time that suckler cows need to be at their most fertile and when breeding ewes need to recover after weaning to gear up for being fertile in Autumn.

Even if bolusing or regular drenching for supplementation is being used, it is still important to monitor if sufficient supplementation is present. We have had a number of cases of deficiency in both bolused cattle and sheep. Targeted injectable regimes can usually be implemented in these cases.

With current lamb prices, small increases in scanning percentages from correcting deficiencies can quickly pay for an investigation.

Up to 70% funding is also available through Farming Connect for qualifying farms.

Contact the office on 01686 510015 to book a visit.

05/05/2024

We would like to thank everyone for their enquiries and messages of support.

Since starting up two years ago, we have been on the look out for a suitable base to be able to provide comprehensive veterinary care to everyone within our community.

We hope to be opening a dedicated companion animal clinic for cats and dogs in the (hopefully) near future, which will also act as a base for us to be able to take on staff and clients, allowing our small family business to grow.

We plan on continuing to operate our large animal practice as normal from Moat Farm.

Thank you
Jon

Kerry Vale Vets has applied to Powys County Council to move to new premises in Newtown.

07/04/2024

🐄CALF SCOUR 🐮

We are seeing a higher number of scour cases in young newborn calves. A common feature is tight housing, often due the challenges in turning out sheep and lambs due to the weather. With wet, humid air blowing into crowded housing systems the risk of disease build up increases.

Things to consider
🐂 Investigate - knowing which bugs are present can inform targeted treatments. Tests can be run on farm to quickly and easily identify the presence of E.coli, Coronavirus, Rotavirus and Cryptosporidia.
🐂 Prioritise calving pen hygiene - With disease risk growing, working hard to seperate cows to ensure that calves are born in clean dry environments is extremely valuable.
🐂 Vaccinate cows to boost colostrum - if time allows, vaccinating cows with a scour vaccine can boost the quality of the colostrum against Rotavirus, Coronavirus and E.coli. The vaccine should be given 3 - 12 weeks before calving.
🐂 Locatim - If time doesn't allow for vaccination, Locatim can be given to newborn calves at birth. Locatim is a highly concentrated form of immunoglobulin against E.coli K99 and acts as a colostrum boost targeted specifically against E.coli toxaemia. (some farms have used this product in sheep off license to protect against E.coli too)
🐂 Supplement colostrum - Topping up colostrum with a supplement may be helpful especially in high risk animals such as calves born to heifers. A BRIX refractometer can be used to asses the colostrum quality of cows, as well as in sheep. (Aim for a Brix % of at least 22%)

Please get in touch if you are experiencing scour problems.

Call now to connect with business.

03/04/2024

🐴 SWEET ITCH PREVENTION

We have had a few enquiries about sweet itch prevention in horses.

There are many managment changes that can be implemented, such as dietary supplements, rugging, ventilation, prescription strength repellents, and medical managment all of which can help the situation, often what will work for one horse may not always work for others.

There is now also an off license vaccine protocol which may offer further help in these cases.

Please get in touch if you would like to discuss sweet itch prevention further.

04/02/2024

Checking colostrum quality in the lambing shed.

A brix refractometer is a simple tool that can be used to assess the quality of colostrum from ewes and cows in a matter of seconds, allowing farmers to make risk assessed decisions on which neonates to supplement colostrum with and which ones can be left.

At a cost of £25 the refractometer can used to inform on the quality of colostrum and can help guide farmers on choosing animals with surplus, quality, colostrum that can be frozen for future use. Ewes with lots of milk may be lacking quality, meaning that their surplus milk may be best left alone. Many shepherds comment that the ewes with smaller udders often rear better lambs than ewes with more milk!

Colostrum should be at least 22% on the brix scale.
Where colostrum is between 18% and 22% the lambs should be supplemented.
If the colostrum is below 18% the ewes colostrum should be discarded and a colostrum replacement should be used.

Powdered colostrum products (like ewes colostrum) can vary widely in their quality, with some products suitable only for use as a top up (if that), and others are better suited as a full replacement. Please get in touch to discuss which products are best and most cost effective in each scenario.

Lambs need 3g of IgG in their colostrum, in a recent study the vast majority of powdered lamb colostrum products fell short of this recommended amount per dose.

We have refractometers in stock and are happy to advise on supplemental and replacement powdered colostrum products.

18/01/2024

We would like to thank all who attended our farmers talk last night, each one of you helped make it a very successful and enjoyable
evening.

07/01/2024

We are hosting a farm client evening at the Kerry Lamb on the 17th of January on the "Responsible Use of Medicines" kindly supported by Norbrook. Please contact Anwen to book your place, as places are filling up fast. Certificates will be issued at the end of the evening for those requiring them for scheme conformance.