The Carisbrooke Vets Farm

The Carisbrooke Vets Farm The Carisbrooke Vets Farm is everything farm going on within our Mixed Veterinary Practice on the Isle of Wight.

Here you will find the latest events, advice and interesting farming information for our local farmers.

Big News!We are having a party -a chance for clients old and new, big and small to catch up with old friends and make ne...
19/08/2025

Big News!
We are having a party -a chance for clients old and new, big and small to catch up with old friends and make new ones!

Where: The Travelling Tavern (Beer Bus), Freshwater Bay
When: Wednesday 3rd September 5pm-8pm
What: We will put some $$ behind the bar for drinks -
Live music!
Fat Shauns will be at The Bay cooking burgers if you'd like to eat too. (Both the bus and the burger van take card payments)
There's outdoor seating - or you can bring a picnic rug/ outside chairs.
Swimmers welcome! *But of course not obligatory!
This is a chance to celebrate and strengthen our wonderful farming community so please feel free to bring your family/ anyone who works with you on the farm.
If the weather doesn't play ball (this is bound to make it rain), we have an alternative date the week after and will keep you posted
No need to RSVP - will be great to see you there.

Please spread the word

Parasite ForecastThe Haemonchus risk in sheep, goats and alpacas remains moderate to high - lots of the worm egg counts ...
18/08/2025

Parasite Forecast

The Haemonchus risk in sheep, goats and alpacas remains moderate to high - lots of the worm egg counts we are processing have a low underlying haemonchus infection so this is definately still around especially in goats and weaned lambs - watch out for slow ewes and lambs, bottle jaws etc. Diagnosis is best by checking the colour of the inside of the eyes.

The other strongyles risk remains low for most farms - we have seen some goats with severe parasitism - goats don't develop much resillience to worms, so if you're grazing ground that has had goats on previously and especially if the grass is short, goats may be at risk

Flystrike risk remains high

Fluke Risk remains low

Any queries please let us know - we can supply wormers in small volumes if needed and can recommend the right treatment for the right animals at the right time!

The photo is the inside of a sheep stomach (abomasum), with haemonchus worms - these look like thin threads of cotton

09/08/2025

Flock Keepers Course

Are you fairly new to keeping sheep or thinking about starting your own flock and want to prepare? At college and looking to up your sheep skills? Want to be a vet and need more farm experience?

Join us for a morning of practical sheep husbandry on Saturday 11th October at 9am - 12.30

Expect to cover:
Preventative healthcare
Worms
Condition scoring
Lameness and foot care
Infectious disease
Where and what to buy
Grazing management
Breeding
Handling
Mastitis and much mroe!

You'll come away with a pack of up to date advice on how to do sheep well, avoid common pitfalls and your own basic health plan tailored to your sheep and your farm.

We are very grateful to Hayley, Ralph, Anna and Nev who are hosting this event at Idlecombe Farm, Bowcombe Road Carisbrooke Newport Isle Of Wight PO30 3JB and supplying sheep for the practical sessions.

Please either reply to this post of phone the practice on 01983 522822 to reserve a space - spaces are limited

$20 per farm, to include cake and coffee/ tea! (pounds not dollars!)

Parasite ForecastHaving talked to lots of clients about worms in the last few weeks and with hundreds of samples coming ...
07/08/2025

Parasite Forecast
Having talked to lots of clients about worms in the last few weeks and with hundreds of samples coming through our lab, we thought it might help to provide regular updates of what we are finding worms wise during the high risk period.

Please remember that every farm is different, so if you're concerned about your animals feel free to reach out for advice from one of the team

Friday August 8th

The haemonchus risk on the IOW remains high for sheep, goats and camelids - these animals may not show signs of diarrhoea, but may instead be anaemic and show weight loss, lethargy, hanging back in the mob and sometimes bottle jaw. In small flocks of sheep, vaccination is an option so please speak to us if you're interested in this.

The risk of other strongyles is low to moderate - we expect counts to start rising once the dry spell passes - normally affected animals will show scour (diarrhoea)

Liver Fluke - low risk on most farms

Fly strike - risk remains high

This is a good time of year to do a worm egg count on your cattle youngstock to help predict the need to treat either now, or later in the year.

Super excited to let you know that our wonderful Ovacyte machine, which uses AI to generate worm egg counts, now has an ...
07/08/2025

Super excited to let you know that our wonderful Ovacyte machine, which uses AI to generate worm egg counts, now has an additional test available which allows us to diagnose haemonchosis - we are very proud to be one of the first practices in the UK to be using this test which gives rapid and reasonably priced results and allows us to help our clients choose the most appropriate, cost effective and sustainable course of action for their livestock.

Cost wise this test will be 5.02 above the usual ovacyte charge for subscribers and 6.00 above the usual ovacyte charge for non subscribing clients. If the egg count is low, we can choose not to look for haemonchus and you will then not be charged the extra.

When submitting group samples we need individual samples please ie 10-15 gloves and we will pool them when they get to the lab for most accurate results.

Make sure the samples are fresh and if you're looking at a group sample make sure you sample a representative number of sheep not just the scouring ones.

Feel free to whatsapp us on the farm phone for advice: 07940 477469 - we can also supply wormers at very competitive prices if required - or avoid you needing to treat altogether!

Who’s up for a sheep visit? Early supper included and back in time for the last Lymington ferry I’m going - if anyone wo...
30/07/2025

Who’s up for a sheep visit? Early supper included and back in time for the last Lymington ferry
I’m going - if anyone would like to join please let me know

Tb testing - last week, the practice and three of us farm vets, were audited by UK farmcare (APHA subcontractors). The T...
27/07/2025

Tb testing - last week, the practice and three of us farm vets, were audited by UK farmcare (APHA subcontractors). The Tb testing that we do out on farms is only a small part of the background work that goes into providing this service - we have to keep records of fridge temperatures, (daily), calibrate the fridges for storage of the injections, the guns have to be sent away to be regularly serviced and cleaned and taken apart weekly in the practice, the vets have to re train every two years (and pay for the privilege. Every year, the practice is audited including all records, training, our anthrax and brucella testing. Thank you to the farm we were on for being patient during the audit and very big thanks to everyone in the office who keeps the show on the road. (Sorry Euan and Rosie for the photo but it had to be done). Happy to say audit passed for another year!

Heptavac - there have been ongoing issues with heptavac supply for the last year or so and this year is no exception. We...
22/07/2025

Heptavac - there have been ongoing issues with heptavac supply for the last year or so and this year is no exception. We have just been informed by our wholesaler that they have supplies of Heptavac P in all sizes but that stock is limited and when they run out they may not be replaced. The shelf life on these vaccines is usually long if stored correctly and not opened. For subscribers we can match farmacy prices.
Let us know if you're interested - competitive pricing for bulk orders, please ask.

Bluetongue alertWe expected at some point during the warmer weather, that bluetongue would begin to reoccur in the UK - ...
13/07/2025

Bluetongue alert
We expected at some point during the warmer weather, that bluetongue would begin to reoccur in the UK - there are now confirmed cases in Oxfordshire and Hertfordshire and many more reports coming in.
Please remember that this is still a notifiable disease - if you have any concerns please phone the practice. The clinical signs range from the typical ones - eg lameness, high temperature, ulcers in mouth and on tongue, nasal discharge, to more subtle signs of high temperature and lack of appetite.
In cattle clinical signs may be mild but reports of deformed calves from cows infected in early pregnancy are beginning to emerge.
If you have a sick animal you'd like to discuss please phone the practice.
If you'd like to talk about vaccination, this remains an option although immunity takes a while to develop after the vaccine so sooner is better than later!

A great few days at Groundswell Agriculture has meant some interesting connections made and some invitations for us to v...
09/07/2025

A great few days at Groundswell Agriculture has meant some interesting connections made and some invitations for us to visit a variety of farms. After a fabulous trip to Dorset with some clients last year, we are thinking about organising a trip to North Cornwall in September / October with a visit to an innovative sheep breeder who's breeding for resilience to worms, a dairy who is doing things different on a big scale and a couple of beef farms. It would be great to know if this might be something of interest to anyone? We also have the option of a day trip, closer to home, to visit Oli Chedgey at Kingsclere just outside Basingstoke. Oli is a really innovative farmer, who makes the absolute most out of grazed grass - we could potentially add a sheep visit to this day and of course a pub lunch!
Please let us know if you're interested in either or both - no obligation but it would be good to get an idea of interest before we take things further. Thank you

Worms!It's getting to the time of year where the risk of roundworm in ruminants (and camelids) is increasing and the num...
09/05/2025

Worms!
It's getting to the time of year where the risk of roundworm in ruminants (and camelids) is increasing and the number of at risk (usually young), animals is also on the rise. Here's a few top tips to remember when taking samples to assess the need to treat:

1. Lambs under 6 weeks old rarely graze enough to pick up roundworm so don't usually need treating

2. Worm egg counts are not helpful in predicting the risk of nemaodirus infection - this is the worm we are talking about when we talk about the lamb's first drench. The damage by caused by this worm will already have been done by the time we can see the eggs in the dung, instead, keep an eye on the forecast:

https://www.scops.org.uk/forecasts/nematodirus-forecast/

Currently low risk for the Isle of Wight.

3. When collecting samples, please bring your samples in individually and we can pool them in the lab - at least 10 samples per group (ideally more ie 10% of the group in large mobs).

4. Collect FRESH samples - warm and still shiny! Old samples will give a false reading since many eggs present will have hatched. If you need to keep them in the fridge over night, that's fine. Collecting in individual plastic gloves is ideal.

5. We - and you - need to know what your lambs/ kids/ crias look like when interpreting the results - the first thing to happen will be that there will be a reduced growth rate in infected animals before the worm eggs start to rise, so we need to look at the whole picture.

6. Please ask for advice about treatment - we can also supply wormers, often the next day, at competitive prices if needed - and if you don't need to treat we will happy to advise you about that too!

Address

107 Carisbrooke Road
Newport
PO301HP

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 6pm
Tuesday 8am - 6pm
Wednesday 8am - 6pm
Thursday 8am - 6pm
Friday 8am - 6pm
Saturday 8am - 3pm

Telephone

+441983522822

Website

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