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HFV News JANUARY 2021

In this issue…

  • Feeding calves in a cold snap
  • Ketosis - who are your SOFT cows?
  • Lambing Prep
  • Betamox LA withdrawal changes
  • What to do if you have a bulk tank failure
  • HFV are running for England!

Feeding calves in a cold snap

It's been a cold few weeks and we've all been layering up - but should we be doing more to protect our calves?

Newborn calves are not great at maintaining their core temperature and have a thermoneutral zone between 14°C and 25°C - this means outside these temperatures they have to use extra energy to keep warm or stay cool. When it's below 14°C this means calves use energy from their milk which was intended for growth, and divert it to keeping themselves warm. As the calf gets older, the temperature range they can tolerate widens - it decreases by a degree every 48hrs or so, meaning that by 4 weeks old they are able to withstand temperatures down to freezing point.

The traditional way of feeding 2 litres of 20/20 milk replacer twice a day just doesn't suit the nutritional needs of a newborn calf any more, and especially not during the winter months. Using a higher solids milk replacer, or even better, pasteurised whole milk, definitely helps buffer the calf when temperatures drop - and although never a popular suggestion, adding in a third feed can make a huge difference to growth rates and disease levels in a prolonged cold snap.

If calves are fed twice a day at 8am and 5pm then the newborn calf is going 15 hours over night when temperatures fall - what do they use when they're short on calories? They start to use protein in their bodies as an energy source - in particular albumin and globulin from the blood and both of these are needed for their immune response. So not only are these calves nutritionally stressed, but their ability to fight off infections can be affected too.

As always, milk feeding calves is a delicate balance between giving them enough milk to maximise their incredibly efficient early growth rates but without giving too much milk that you discourage early concentrate feeding. Remember that their rumen is useless at birth and takes 6-8 weeks to become functional and able to feed the calf after weaning so they need to be nibbling in that first week.

Most farmers are now using calf coats on calves which definitely help core temperatures stabilise without the calf excessively dipping into the energy in its milk to keep warm - but don't forget the need for a 24/7, deep, dry straw bed which allows them to nest and insulate themselves with warm air too. Any poorly draining areas need to be addressed to stop damp spots forming which drain body heat away from the calf, increase humidity at the calf nose and allow bacteria and viruses to survive. A 15 second knee drop test (without waterproofs!) in the calf pens is a quick way to assess how dry the beds really are!

Please get in touch if you're struggling with calf health or poorer growth rates over winter.

Ketosis - who are your SOFT cows?

Approximately 75% of all disease in dairy cows typically happens in the first month after calving, with around half of dairy cows experiencing some sort of disease during the transition period.

Improving transition management and minimising the effect of immune suppression, milk fever and negative energy balance provides a large opportunity to decrease disease and increase the welfare and productivity of the herd.

As the calf gets to it's birth weight at the end of pregnancy it takes up more and more room in the abdomen of the cow leaving less room for her rumen. All ruminants end up with a bit of a gap between how much energy they need at the end of pregnancy and how much they can physically eat but problems with ketosis start to show when this energy gap becomes excessive. Ketosis is driven by poor intakes because of lameness, sickness, being over conditioned, carrying twins, not enough bunk space etc.

The natural energy gap right at the end of pregnancy means the cow starts to break down their body fat to fill the energy deficit. Ketones are an important and normal energy source for the cow in times of need, but in excess these ketones have negative consequences with respect to fertility, health and production.

When we talk about ketosis, we often think of the sick fresh cow, the pear drop smell, milk drop, poor appetite, poor rumen fill and the risk of an LDA. However, these are indicators of clinical ketosis and are just the tip of the iceberg. There will be many other cows with high ketone levels which show no clinical signs but this will be affecting their performance – this is known as hidden or subclinical ketosis; it's like driving with the handbrake on.

Who are your high risk ketosis cows?

think "SOFT"

  1. Sick - any animals who have been lame or sick in their dry period
  2. Older cows - in lactation 3 and above
  3. Fat animals with Body Condition Score ≥3.5
  4. Carrying twins

As always, preventing these problems should be our top priority but there will always be a need to manage these SOFT cows on an individual basis too.

Kexxtone is an oral bolus which is given 3-4 weeks before calving and makes the rumen work much more efficiently by changing the rumen bug population and promoting the growth of the bugs that produce proprionate - a glucose precursor which helps these SOFT cows navigate transition with a reduced risk of ketosis and associated disease.

Make sure you wear gloves when handling the bolus as some people are allergic and remember to record the bolus number alongside the cow ID in your treatment records.

Some milk contracts are monitoring the use of Kexxtone boluses; it goes without saying that these boluses should not be used instead of a good transition, but targeted use on an individual basis based can help to protect the most at-risk cows from experiencing clinical disease during early lactation.

DOGS & KEXXTONE RISK

Some of you who have used Kexxtone boluses before will know a very small proportion will get regurgitated in the first few days - if you've recorded the ID of the bolus and the cow it went into, these boluses can be re-administered to the right cow.

Kexxtone boluses are highly toxic to farm dogs if they find a regurgitated bolus before you do and eat one - so if you see strange neurological signs in any of your farm dogs and you are using Kexxtone boluses then please get them seen ASAP.

Lambing Prep

With lambing time approaching here's a timely reminder to be on the lookout for twin lamb disease and low blood calcium.

Twin lamb disease (low blood glucose) and low blood calcium are common problems in ewe's before lambing and distinguishing between the two can be difficult; ewes suffering from one are likely to be at risk of suffering from the other.

Ewe-Go Drench contains both an energy precursor (glycerol and propylene glycol) and calcium, some which is in the form of calcium chloride which is rapidly absorbed from the gut. It comes as a 1 litre flexi pack so you can attach your normal dosing gun for easy administration - each affected ewe will need 100ml by mouth.

Calcibel

Last year saw the last few bottles of blue Calciject which had been widely used to treat low blood calcium in sheep around lambing.

Calcibel is a licensed alternative for treating low calcium in sheep so get in touch if you need to get stocked up for lambing time.

Betamox LA: changes to milk and meat withdrawals

Betamox LA is a long acting preparation of amoxicillin and is licensed for cattle, pigs and sheep for a wide range of conditions of the gut, lungs, skin and soft tissue, urinary tract and prevention of infections post-operatively.

Some of you may have noticed that the milk and meat withdrawals have recently changed on the online datasheets for Betamox LA - this includes batches already in circulation, in our pharmacy and your medicine cabinets and is with immediate effect. The change is not due to a problem in the product or formulation, but a labelling change to make the license the same in different countries.

REVISED WITHDRAWALS:

  • Cattle Milk: 4.5 days
  • Cattle Meat: 39 days
  • Sheep Meat: 29 days
  • Pig Meat: 42 days

For those of you who would like to continue with a long acting amoxicillin preparation with the shorter milk and meat withdrawal periods that you have been used to, we are now stocking Trymox LA as an alternative - the milk withdrawal on this is 84 hours, and 28 days for meat.

A reminder to encourage you all to download the NOAH app on your phones so you can quickly double check any withdrawals you are not sure of.

What to do if you have a bulk tank failure

A quick reminder about the changes to the updated Dairy Standards from Red Tractor that were introduced in 2019: you need to let us know within a week if you've had a bulk tank failure so we can organise a prompt meds review to prevent recurrences and avoid any penalties for non-conformances.

HFV running for England!

We've signed up to a brilliant challenge for the month of January; Run1000 for #RuralMentalHealth. The 5 nations are battling it out to be the first to collectively run 1000 miles and raise money for charities helping the farming community with mental health along the way.

Both Paula and Tom are running for team England so please support us and join us for a run, or perhaps donate if you'd prefer and we will do the running for you!

To sponsor HFV, team England and our charity - the Farming Community Network, please click on the link below

Thank you!

GET IN TOUCH:

Paula: 07764 747855 paula@haywoodfarmvets.com

Tom: 07837 291097 tom@haywoodfarmvets.com

Enquiries: mail@haywoodfarmvets.com

Website: haywoodfarmvets.com

Open hours: M-F 08:30 - 16:30

Out of Hours: 07398 743095

Created By
Paula Scales
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