Vet Notes – December 2006

The forecast is for a high liver fluke infestation this winter. This is due to the wet period at the end of the summer.

The risk will vary from farm to farm depending on the amount of wet ground that cattle and sheep have been grazing. It’s on this wet ground where the mud snail that carries liver fluke thrives.

If you feel your farm is a high risk then you should dose cattle now with a product containing triclabendazole which will kill both the very early immature and mature forms of the parasite in the liver.

If your farm is less of a risk you may decide to wait until six weeks after housing and dose with a product that contains nitroxynil or closantel which will kill any fluke that are more than six weeks old.

It is useful to consider a dose at the end of winter housing with the cheapest product to limit contamination on the pasture.

Sheep tend to graze wetter, higher risk areas and are more prone to acute fluke disease.

With the current fluke forecast, sheep should be dosed as soon as possible with a triclabendazole product that kills all stages of fluke.

The following treatments for out wintered sheep depend on a risk assessment of the individual farm. It may be necessary to repeat treatment every three to eight weeks depending on the grazing conditions and the drug used.

If in doubt, seek veterinary advice and plan your treatments over the winter.

Now is the time to think about protecting the newborn calf from scour by vaccinating the in-calf cow.

The main causes of infectious scour are rotavirus, coronavirus and E. Coli. bacteria.

Most commercial vaccines available now are a combination of vaccines that protect against all of the causes.

Different vaccines may cover different strains and some need two injections as an initial course while others need only one. Discuss this with your veterinary surgeon and be very careful to read the instructions before use.

All cows should receive a booster dose before calving every year. Plan to finish the course of vaccination three weeks before calving. This makes sure there is time to get antibodies into the colostrum for the calf.

It is very important for the calf to receive colostrum in the first six hours and for bowel infections it is also essential to continue feeding colostrum for at least two weeks.