Potential animal health issues, tasks to consider and reminders for this month include…
If you’re after DCT and/or internal teat sealant ITS you will need to contact your primary veterinarian for a DCT consult as these products are restricted veterinary medicines (RVM’s) that have short authorisation periods not carried over from the last Springs RVM period. This will save any headaches of trying to access product at the front counter of your respective clinics without a current RVM authorisation. The latest SmartSAMM recommendations (Technote 14) is to give every cow something – a DCT product and/or an ITS to treat any infections and to reduce the risk of any new infections over the dry period. Check out ‘Dry cow therapy for the autumn dry off’ for more information.
Teat sealing – looking to minimise calving mastitis in your heifers? January to February are months we can give you a hand with teat sealing them. Contact your local clinic for organising. Check out ‘Teatseal’ on the Totally Vets website for more information.
Separate out any small or light heifers. Start feeding nutrient-dense feed on the feed pad or in troughs. Avoid too much bulky feeds like grass silage and avoid high levels of starch (need muscle and skeletal growth not fat gain). An ad lib 80% palm kernel and 20% soyabean mix with grass can provide a good amount of protein, energy and fibre. Can feed them milking cow feeds with minerals if required all the way up to calving.
Multimin injection 3 – 4 weeks prior to calving (heifers and cows) to help minimise calving mastitis and to reduce subclinical mastitis.
Did you have many down cows, calving mastitis issues, sick calves during autumn calving last season? Your veterinarian can help you make a plan to minimise these issues.
Looking to minimise calf scours? Time to vaccinate autumn calving cows with Rotavec Corona vaccine or with Scourguard completing the vaccination protocol 3 – 4 weeks before the planned start of calving. To fully utilise this vaccine make sure all keeper calves are fed enough good quality colostrum within the first 12 – 24 hours from birth.
This can be a time of year herds may go down to OAD milking (due to: slowing grass growth and feed shortages; summer lifestyle; afternoon heat stress walking to the milking shed and while in the yards during milking; building up body condition; extending lactation out; reducing lameness risk).
For herds going to OAD think about the bulk milk somatic cell count (BMSCC). BMSCC’s can double in the 1st 48 hours after going to OAD. This can stabilise over 7 – 10 days but there is a risk of grading if the BMSCC is already high prior to OAD milking.
If the BMSCC is over 150,000 think about doing a herd test or a rapid mastitis test to identify high somatic cell count (SCC) cows. These cows can be continued to be milked twice a day or they can be removed from the herd – dried off or culled before the transition.
Before going to OAD manage risk factors – stress and poor immune function. Make sure mineral levels are optimum (Ca, P, Se), aim to OAD before the cows are producing less than 1 kg milk solids/cow/day, milk in the morning to minimise afternoon heat stress, initially keep close to the shed to minimise walking distances, make sure there is good water access for all cows and keep feeding the cows enough of a well-balanced diet. Don’t forget about facial eczema. Rising spore counts can lead to stress, inflammation and a rising BMSCC.
For herds with a rising BMSCC check out ‘Preventing BMSCC grading in late lactation’ on the Totally Vets website for more information.
Pregnancy testing the milking cows and some of the heifers will be underway. If your heifer pregnancy testing hasn’t been booked in yet, talk to your primary veterinarian. We can travel out of district to pregnancy test heifers out grazing.
Don’t forget about these girls. Are they getting fed enough, are you happy with their growth rates? Summer can be a period of poor growth in our heifers – is there a plan to get extra feed to them or to move them elsewhere if the grazing is below requirements?
Have all your weaner calves had their booster clostridial and leptospiral vaccinations yet? Check out ‘Calf vaccination and mineral treatments’ on the Totally Vets website for more information.
Keep up the oral drenching with a combination drench product like Alleva’s Turbo Advance for as long as possible. Can check 10 faecal samples for parasite eggs 1 month after the last drench to determine the requirement for a follow up drench. It also pays to periodically check 10 faecal samples 10 days after a drench event to check how well the drench is working.
Lungworm is killing weaners at the moment and can do so within 28 days of the last drench. Don’t ignore coughing calves. If in doubt, get us some faecal samples to check for lungworm. Check out ‘Lungworm‘ for more information.
Keep an eye out for ill-thrifty, scouring calves or calves struggling to breathe and an ear out for coughing calves:
Don’t leave them be. It pays to investigate – a vet visit or bringing in some faecal samples to check for parasitism or Yersinia for example. Lost production now through a dry spell can take a long time to recover from, if at all, and can lead to poorly grown heifers at calving, which is common.
We are starting to get conditions favourable to FE spore development – dead pasture matter, rain and warmth.
Start testing your pasture for FE spores or keep a close eye on your regional spore counts as posted on the Totally Vets website. Check out our Facial Eczema Bulletin, Facial eczema – all you need to know and Facial eczema risk for more information.
There is no ‘cure’ for FE – only supportive treatments. Start your preventative zinc supplementation program prior to animals consuming spores or as soon as regional spore counts start rising. If zinc sulphate is supplemented through the water start with a loading ½ strength dose and build up to a full dose over a few weeks. Add a flavourant. Zinc can be also offered daily in the feed or as a capsule down the throat.
Check blood samples 2 – 3 weeks later to check if animals are getting supplemented with enough zinc.
Don’t forget your rams. Check their teeth, body condition structural soundness and make sure they’ve been vaccinated to prevent clostridial disease as well. Book in your ram palpations and any vasectomy surgeries to prep rams for teasering.
All can be a problem this month. We already have a suspected case of barbers pole – lethargic ewe, pale, egg count > 3000. Watch for and prevent fly. With sporadic rain and warm weather fly, barbers pole and facial eczema risk all climb. Check out Barber’s Pole Worm for more information.
It could be lungworm. Check out Lungworm for more information.
Starting to occur. Weaning is both stressful for hinds and fawns. Ideally spread stressful events out so not all occurring on the same day i.e. tagging and clostridial vaccination prior to weaning (gets fawns used to the yards as well prior to weaning), booster clostridial vaccination and Yersiniavax at weaning (some weaners will be transported the same day as well) and Multimin and Yersiniavax booster injections 3 – 4 weeks later. Ideally no copper injection and transportation on the same day. Use quiet dogs and muster and yard during the cool parts of the day if hot and avoid weaning in bad weather.
It is a legal requirement that fawns being transported to another property must be transported within 6 hours of weaning or wait until at least 10 days post-weaning (preferable).
Put as much space as possible between the hinds and weaners post- weaning.
Try and introduce any post-weaning feed to fawns before they are weaned (i.e. grain and baleage) for better transitioning onto those feeds after weaning.
Hinds – a good time to body condition hinds and to check teeth. Keeper hinds can be administered minerals (i.e. Multimin). Light hinds can be drafted, drenched and preferentially feed.
Treatment & prevention products – fawns/weaners – Yersiniavax (fawns should be > 12 weeks old) + Clostridial & Leptospiral vaccine (i.e. Ultravac 7 in 1), plus drench (Cervidae Oral) plus minerals (Copacap bolus or Multimin injection)
We are starting to get conditions favourable to FE spore development – dead pasture matter, rain and warmth.
Start testing your pasture for FE spores or keep a close eye on your regional spore counts. Check out our Facial Eczema Bulletin, Facial eczema – all you need to know and Facial eczema risk for more information.
There is no ‘cure’ for FE – only supportive treatments. Start your preventative zinc supplementation program prior to animals consuming spores or as soon as regional spore counts start rising. If zinc sulphate is supplemented through the water start with a loading ½ strength dose and build up to a full dose over a few weeks. Add a flavourant. Zinc can be also offered daily in the feed or as a capsule down the throat.
Check blood samples 2 – 3 weeks later to check if animals are getting supplemented with enough zinc.
