Eltham Vet
Eltham Vet Services is a 10-vet practice that has served the farms and family pets of Central and South Taranaki with distinction since 1937. For your pet’s healthcare & your peace of mind contact or visit us.
Those keen-eyed ones amongst you will notice its slightly different than previous
newsletters, we thought it was time after probably 2 decades that we update our newsletter
layout, and we all think Alex has done a fantastic job of this!
I’m going to keep my intro short and sharp this month; we had an excellent turn out for our
winter seminar and it was great to see farmers engaging with the topics discussed, these are
great nights to catch up with farmers and pass on a little of our knowledge but if all you get
from it is a steak Sammie and a beer its still worth coming along!
We have welcomed Johanna into the vet team for spring, she’s only been here a week but
already feels like she’s part of the furniture which is a great sign she’s going to fit right in!
Coming from Southland she’s used to big herds and rotten calvings, we have promised her
all our client’s cows have names and a few live calvings in the mix as well so let’s not
disappoint!
As always, we appreciate your patience through springtime as we can get a little snowed
under at times. We will always try our best to get to you in a timely manner, however we do
prioritise more urgent calls so please bear with us if we have to move your call around. You
guys can rest easy that you’re not going to get a stern look from Al this year if the hotwater
cylinder is empty and you call us out for a calving, however warm water and a towel is
always a lovely luxury after a late-night calving in the sideways rain!
Cheers Leon
This year we are moving to the new Lepto 4-way vaccine which includes protection from a new and emerging strain of lepto known as “Pacifica”. This strain doesn’t appear to cause significant disease in cattle, but they can shed it into the environment, and it is becoming one of the most common forms of lepto found in human cases in NZ. For your cattle to be protected against this new strain they all need 2 doses 4-6 weeks apart, this includes all heifers and MA cows which have been vaccinated in the past. To help encourage farmers to do this, we are offering a second booster shot for MA cows and heifers at half price. We will let you know more about this around Christmas time before we start herd vaccinations.
As you all know by now, we no longer hand out lepto vax over the counter for calf or herd vaccinations; To try and help farmers do the vaccination at the appropriate time still without it adding more of a financial strain on them we will be initiating calf vaccination runs this spring. This will be for Clostridial and lepto vaccination and will begin in our early calving areas from the start of October.
If you book in during the time window, we provide you will receive a discounted visit fee of only $10 (usually $60). If you normally
vaccinate your calves with us, you should expect a call sometime in the next month to let you know when we will be in your area.
I’m Johanna and I’ll be locuming as a farm animal vet for Eltham vets over Spring. Originally a Yorkshire lass, I graduated from The University of Edinburgh in 2016 and I worked in the north of Scotland for a few years before spreading my wings across the world where I’ve spent the last 4 years learning to be a kiwi dairy vet down in sunny Southland! I’ve come to see if the grass is greener (or not!) on the North Island so say hello if you see me out on farm with my trusty sidekick, Nessie.
Calves are born with no immunity; they get all their immunity from colostrum drunk in the first 24 hours of life. The key to a good immune system is colostrum; enough quantity, enough quality and quick enough.
Quantity is 10% of body weight eg 2 feeds of 2L for a 40kg calf
Quick enough is before 24 hours old and better still, before 12 hours old.
Quality is Brix reading of 22 or above. A Brix refractometer measures the concentration of aqueous solutions. The higher the reading, the more concentrated the solution. With colostrum you are measuring the concentration of antibodies to disease. Brix 22 or above is best. They are simple to use, robust and available at the clinic for $59. Cows produce colostrum before calving and then milk after calving which quickly dilutes the colostrum. The earlier you milk cows past calving the more concentrated the colostrum should be.
Less than half of all first milking ‘gold’ colostrum has a Brix reading of 22 or above. The variation between cows is astonishing. Using a refractometer to find the best colostrum to give your keepers the best start in life is one of the best investments you can make in your calf rearing.
Every transition period of the cow (3 weeks prior to calving and 3 weeks after) is the most critical time of the lactating cow’s annual cycle. How she transitions affects her production, reproduction, health and survival outcome. Rumenox® is a rumensin product which can be given through the water or feed, starting in the transition period, to shift fermentation towards the glucose pathway. This reduces the depth or degree of negative energy balance that every cow faces during her transition period, hence leading to the positive associations of using Rumenox®. If you already feed rumensin in-shed via your stock feed supplier after calving, you will gain the most benefit from supplying rumenox via the water prior to calving (doseatron or peta dispenser). Benefits include higher in-calf rates, production responses and reduction of clinical and subclinical ketosis. We stand behind this supplement product; for 50 days of water treatment it will cost $4.95 per cow incl. gst at Eltham Vets, contact John, Daniel or any of the vets on 06 764 8196 for more information.
The popular green bags, or Calpromag has unfortunately been discontinued due to the B12 component in it having a short shelf life. So what to use instead? We are recommending to use either Glucalmag 500ml - each litre contains borogluconate, magnesium chloride hexahydrate or Glucalphos 500ml - each litre contains borogluconate, dextrose and magnesium chloride hexahydrate - Should only be given IV. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to have a chat to John and daniel or one of the vets.
We have seen cases of sudden death and scours in a few mobs of calves this autumn/winter. We normally assume scours in weaners at this time of year are caused by Yersinia, Salmonella, BVD, or parasitism. These diseases seldom cause sudden death and animals tested negative to tested diseases in the mobs we have seen. Causes of sudden death are toxicities, nitrate poisoning, Clostridial diseases (eg blackleg). These were ruled out and the calves blood tested positive for Bovine adenovirus.
There is not much known about Bovine Adenovirus (BAdV), It is a viral disease that is mainly seen in 6-12 month old calves. Outbreaks are typically seen during autumn, winter and spring months. It is primarily an acute gastro-intestinal disease causing sudden deaths and scours, but calves may also have respiratory signs. Outbreaks tend to be short in duration and although a large number of calves within a mob can be affected mortality rates tend to be low (ie. maybe 1-2 deaths). Sick calves may have a scour, or be coughing and breathing fast, be off food and have a fever. Weight gain in sick calves will be affected but calves should recover with some TLC.
We think that adenovirus is under diagnosed. Bovine Adenoviruses are widespread in the environment and given the relatively low levels of disease we see it is likely that stress plays a role in disease development. Cold weather conditions, feed shortages, recent transport, other disease, and parasitism all have the potential to cause stress and predispose to adenovirus infections. While there is no cure as this is a viral disease, to limit clinical signs and prevent deaths lowering potential stressors is the key. Give required vaccinations, drench regularly and monitor feed levels and quality. If you have sudden deaths +/- sick calves get in touch with us.
Multimin is an injectable mineral supplement with copper, selenium, zinc and manganese proven to work in NZ production systems. This is a mineral supplement that can be used at crucial times to give different advantages. In trial work done in NZ Multimin has proven to reduce rates of clinical disease and death in calves by over 50%. Diseases such as scours, navel ill, and other causes of sick calves have been shown to halve in number when given a shot of Multimin within 24 hours of birth, even if the number of sick calves was low to begin with. It is recommended to give 1mL/50kg, so for a 35-40kg calf give a 0.75mL shot. This costs roughly 75c per calf, and we consider it a no brainer for such a big head start for a young calf.
A Multimin shot 4 weeks pre-calving has been shown to reduce rates of sub-clinical and clinical mastitis.
Premating is the other recommended time of giving a mineral supplement shot, having significant reproduction benefits, with research showing a 3.3% higher in calf rate, an average of of 3.4 days earlier in calf, and an estimated 4:1 return on investment from a 4 week pre-mating shot.
Multimin is not the only trace mineral supplementation we offer at Eltham Vets, however it is the only trace mineral supplementation shot that has specific research to back it up. Other options include Marks-Min, Prolaject B12 (one with and one without selenium), Multiboost B12, and VetTrace (oral daily supplement, one with and without copper).
Coming up to calving people may be thinking about whether to get some nil milk withhold pour-on to do the cows before, at, or soon after calving. When we think about drenching adult dairy cattle, it makes sense to ask a) is it necessary, i.e. is it going to benefit my farm and b) is it likely to cause drench resistance.\
In the past many dairy farmers drenched all their cows at dry off every season. Based on some NZ trial work done in 2001 we started to suggest that if you were going to drench your adult dairy cows you should do it with a nil milk with-hold eprinomectin based pour-on pre-calving instead. This was because that trial work showed you would get a good milk production increase doing it this way, and so it had the best return on investment. But is this advice still sound? Has any extra info come to light?
Drench resistance in sheep, in the north island at least, is currently a huge issue. Luckily for cow cockies drench resistance in cattle has not been much of an issue so far. We are however starting to see mobs of calves around the place that we either know, or strongly suspect, are being affected by some drench resistance. We know that every time we drench an animal there is the potential to increase resistance but giving a once-a-year drench to adult stock is probably relatively low risk.
Forgetting resistance for a second, will you make more milk if you drench all your cows pre-calving? Since that 2001 trial NZ researchers have tried replicate the results or look at drenching lactating cows in different ways. Trial work in 2012 and 2017 also using eprinomectin pour-on drench, by either giving multiple drenches through the season or a single mid-lactation drench could not show as reliable a return-on-investment milk production response.
Putting it all together, I don’t think we can confidently say that drenching all your cows at calving will make your money back in milk production. A sensible approach instead would be to target drench your young stock and any skinny cows. These cows are the most likely to being affected by parasites and if anything is going to show a production increase to a drench they will. This approach balances reducing the development of resistance with getting the most bang for buck on the drench you buy.
Both Johnes disease and BVD are important diseases that can affect your reproduction and milk production negatively. With Johnes disease, one clinical case a year can indicate that there are anywhere from 16-23 animals sub-clinically infected in your herd. In the case of BVD, a PI (persistently infected) animal with BVD on your farm can have severe and ongoing reproductive losses, including a high return to service rate, high empty rates, abortions throughout pregnancy, further PI’s born on farm, and birth defects.
LIC offers testing for both Johnes and BVD. Johnes can be tested during herd testing and can pick out your positive and high-positive cows in milk samples, and also offers blood testing for individual animals. Talk to a vet to see which option would be best for you. LIC offer a status pack, a bulk milk monitor pack, and PI hunt tool for BVD testing. The monitor pack involves multiple bulk milk tests over a six month period to identify if there is a PI in the milking herd, and if there is an increase in BVD antibodies due to exposure to the virus. This is something that we recommend is done by every dairy farm, every year. The status pack involves bulk milk testing multiple times a few weeks apart, and a herd test milk sample to give individual cows a BVD lifetime status of either PI or not PI. Talk to a vet about which test pack would be best for you, or to discuss what the results from your farm may indicate.
For those of you who use plenty of Ketomax during the season the supplier has bought out a 250ml bottle size. Conveniently packaged in a Cow Care Pack which contains 4 x 250ml bottles, a Bottle protector, Ketomax Injector Gun & Shed Apron.
Available now at the clinic or talk to your Veterinarian to see this would be suitable for your farm.
Eltham Vet Services is a 10-vet practice that has served the farms and family pets of Central and South Taranaki with distinction since 1937. For your pet’s healthcare & your peace of mind contact or visit us.
