July News Letter

Farm First July 2010 Newsletter



Summer Mastitis
Summer mastitis is a disease of dry cows and heifers that has changed little over the years. It is an acute clinical disease of the non-lactating mammary gland caused mainly by the bacterium Actinomyces pyogenes. It usually occurs on the same farm year after year.
An affected animal will often be separated from the others, dull, off its food, lame and will have a high temperature.). The whole udder will become swollen, hard and the affected quarter will produce a foul-smelling, thick, yellow discharge. Flies may be attracted to it, which can then spread the infection from quarter to quarter, or from cow to cow. Without treatment the animal can abort or even die.
Treatment is aimed at saving the animal, affected quarters rarely recover. Treatment consists of antibiotics (straight penicillin e.g Norocillin is fine) to fight the infection and anti-inflammatories to reduce the swelling and the temperature. Affected quarters should be stripped frequently. Sometimes vets will slit the teat or remove the teat to try and drain the quarter and remove as much infection as possible.
For summer mastitis prevention is much better than cure. Prevention measures involve the use of dry cow antibiotics, teat sealants e.g Orbeseal, fly control treatments (especially during July, August and September) and avoiding areas with large fly populations. Avoid low- lying wooded areas for susceptible animals, put your pregnant animals on higher ground exposed to more wind (which flies dislike). Teat lesions will also attract flies so should be minimised.


Ewe management for lamb production
The profitability of sheep farms mainly depends on the number of sheep on the farm and the lambing percentage. The management of the ewes after weaning through to one month after tupping determines next year’s lamb crop to a great extent. The scanning/lambing percentage you achieve is largely determined by the number of eggs produced when the ewe comes into heat, the proportion of eggs that are fertilised and the number of embryos produced that survive. Important factors in improving lambing percentage include:

Body condition score of the ewes around tupping.

The ewes need to be in the right body condition score (BCS) pre-tupping in order to maximise the number of eggs produced. The BCS scale runs from 1 (emaciated) to 5 (obese). The ideal condition score 2 weeks pre-tupping is 3–3.5 for lowland ewes and 2.5 for hill ewes. Manage the ewes after weaning based on their BCS at weaning; fat ewes on bare grazing with high stocking rate and thin ewes on good grazing at a low stocking rate (possibly with supplementary feeding eg mineralised sugar beet pulp). It takes about 6 weeks to change half a BCS so plan in plenty of time which pastures will be used for which ewes.

Feed intake over the tupping period. (Flushing)

High feed intake (flushing) over the tupping period will increase the number of eggs developing and therefore the number of eggs produced. Note however a high feed intake after mating can reduce embryo survival, so a compact flushing period with a high energy intake is desirable followed by a period of maintenance feeding only.

Other considerations
Rams need to be fit and fertile. Avoid prolonged contact between ewes and rams before mating this will help to ensure a compact lambing period.
Stress can reduce the embryo survival rate so avoid management tasks like foot-paring during tupping. Also provide shelter/ supplementary feed when bad weather occurs.




Ordering of drugs

Please give the practice ample notice (ideally two days) when you would like to place a big order of drugs, so that we have enough time to order the drugs from our wholesaler if needed. Even if you are just picking up a bottle of antibiotic or two, the girls in the office would appreciate a phone call so they can get it ready for you. This is even more important if you don’t know exactly what you want; they can then speak to a vet to sort which treatment you need or the vet can ring you. If you would like to pay at the time to obtain your 10% discount please tell the staff when you order the drugs.

Anti- inflammatory drugs in Treatment of Mastitis
Currently, one of the drug companies is strongly promoting Metacam usage with antibiotics in all cases of mastitis. This is following on from a trial in New Zealand which showed reduced cell counts and culling rates after using this regime. However, the trial did not directly compare Metacam with other similar drugs, such as Flunixin; and the cell counts were only measured for 3 weeks after a case of mastitis. Several veterinary practices in this country are advocating this approach, and we will await feedback from them with interest. In the meantime we would advise that all cases of mastitis where the cow is off colour, has a temperature, or where there is swelling in the udder, should receive an anti-inflammatory injection alongside antibiotics. This will help to reduce high temperatures, swelling and tissue damage in the udder and the pain associated with these. Anti-inflammatory treatment should help to maintain the feed intake of the cow and result in a more rapid improvement in the clinical signs. The two products that we use most commonly are Flunixin: cost per dose £11.12+ vat for 700kg cow, and Metacam: cost per dose £17.50 for 700 kg cow. Metacam is usually given as a single dose under the skin, whereas Flunixin should be given intravenously and can be repeated every 24 hours.

Booking TB Tests
A plea from the girls in the office. Please give us as much notice as you can when booking TB tests in. We are starting to get very busy again and are having difficulty fitting even small numbers in at short notice. At present we are working on about 2 weeks notice for small numbers of animals and about a month for a large whole herd test.