Ribble Farm Vets

Ribble Farm Vets We are a dedicated farm animal team within a busy mixed practice in Lancashire.

We offer a high standard of veterinary care to all large animal species, and here for you 24/7.

❄️ Cold weather 🧊With temperatures reaching well below zero at the moment, please regularly check that your animals stil...
06/01/2026

❄️ Cold weather 🧊
With temperatures reaching well below zero at the moment, please regularly check that your animals still have access to clean drinking water, and that it has not frozen over.


05/01/2026

🐮 Colostrum: the most important feed a calf will ever have!

A calf is born with no protective antibodies of its own. The only way it can fight disease in the first weeks of life is by absorbing antibodies from colostrum — and this can only happen in the first few hours after birth.

🔑 The 3 golden rules of colostrum: Quality, Quantity & Quick

1️⃣ Quality
Good colostrum should be:
• From a healthy, well-vaccinated cow
• Ideally tested with a Brix refractometer (target ≥22% Brix)

Poor-quality colostrum = poor immunity, even if the calf drinks plenty.

2️⃣ Quantity
A newborn calf needs:
• 10% of bodyweight in the first feed
• Typically 3–4 litres for a Holstein calf
• Equivalent to 20 minutes non-stop drinking for a suckler calf

If a calf won’t suck strongly, stomach tubing early is far better than waiting.

3️⃣ Quick
Timing is critical:
• First feed ideally within 2 hours of birth
• Antibody absorption drops rapidly after this
• By 24 hours, absorption is almost zero

Delays mean wasted colostrum and vulnerable calves.

🧼 Don’t forget hygiene
Dirty teats, buckets, or tubes can undo all your hard work by introducing bacteria, which reduce antibody absorption and increase scour risk.

❄️ Storage tips
• Fresh colostrum: use within 24 hours (refrigerated)
• Frozen colostrum: freeze quickly, label clearly, and thaw gently (never microwave)

📉 What happens when colostrum management slips?
• Higher scour and pneumonia rates
• Poor growth rates
• Increased medicine use
• Lower lifetime performance

Good colostrum management isn’t just about calf survival — it’s about future yield, fertility, and longevity.

If you’d like help testing colostrum quality, reviewing protocols, or training staff, speak to your farm vet — small changes here can make a big difference. Being a member of our youngstock club means we can continuously monitor your calves immunity throughout the year.

Lambing Course 🐑On the 14th of January we will be running a lambing course. It’ll involve both theory and practical sess...
30/12/2025

Lambing Course 🐑
On the 14th of January we will be running a lambing course. It’ll involve both theory and practical sessions, and will be tailored to the individuals attending, wether that’s a refresher or learning for the first time.
The course is £55, and will include lunch. There will be discounts for subsequent participants from the same holding. Please ring 01772746393 for more information or to book your place




Colostrum 🍼We now have immucol in stock available to order for the lambing season. It can be used as a complete replace...
30/12/2025

Colostrum 🍼
We now have immucol in stock available to order for the lambing season. It can be used as a complete replacement, or as a supplementary boost, and contains the immune complexes essential for healthy lambs. It is important to use high quality products, such as immucol, where the first ingredient is real colostrum as opposed to cheap filler ingredients.
Speak to us if you want to discuss lamb colostrum replacement or management this lambing.




24th of December 🎁Christmas Eve! We hope you all have a happy and peaceful festive period. A reminder that we are closed...
24/12/2025

24th of December 🎁
Christmas Eve!
We hope you all have a happy and peaceful festive period. A reminder that we are closed over the bank holidays for routine work, but will have vets on call 24/7 to attend to emergencies.



🎄

23rd of December 🎁👹Bloat is a condition in ruminants where there is too much gas build up in the rumen due to fermentati...
23/12/2025

23rd of December 🎁👹
Bloat is a condition in ruminants where there is too much gas build up in the rumen due to fermentation. This can be due to several reasons, with key risk factors being feeding too much concentrate, pastures with lots of clover, and animals that accidentally get into the wrong feeds. Symptoms mainly are a distended paralumbar fossa on the left hand side, but also inappetance, lethargy, recumbency, grunting and laboured breathing. Treatments for this involve letting down the gas, one method of which is having a vet insert a trochar, or ‘red devil’, as pictured above.



21st of December 🎁🤒Animal Health and Welfare PathwayThe animal health and welfare pathway is a government funding initia...
21/12/2025

21st of December 🎁🤒
Animal Health and Welfare Pathway
The animal health and welfare pathway is a government funding initiative to go towards disease testing and veterinary discussion. The funding goes towards an initial vet visit, and subsequent diagnostic testing.
Eligible holdings have:
11 or more beef cattle
11 or more dairy cattle
21 or more sheep
51 or more pigs
See the government website, or contact our vet team for more information.



20th of December 🎁🏉Welcome to our new Vet Tech, Georgia! Georgia joined us earlier this month, and will be taking over o...
20/12/2025

20th of December 🎁🏉
Welcome to our new Vet Tech, Georgia! Georgia joined us earlier this month, and will be taking over our youngstock as well as other vet tech jobs. She has previously worked on a dairy farm, and in her spare time she plays rugby and likes to hike. She is looking forward to meeting all of our clients!




❤️

19th of December 🎁👩‍🏫Did you know, we run regular courses for clients. These can vary from medicine courses for red trac...
19/12/2025

19th of December 🎁👩‍🏫
Did you know, we run regular courses for clients. These can vary from medicine courses for red tractor, to lambing courses. This month our lovely vet Holegn ran multiple AI courses, to teach people how to artificially inseminate cows and heifers. This involved cadaver, theory and practical sessions over multiple days. Here they are practicing with cadaver uteruses on day one. If you are interested in any of our courses, read our newsletter to be the first to hear, and ring us to book on!



18th of December 🎁🐄Earlier this month we were called to a calving, as the dam had a twisted uterus meaning that the calf...
18/12/2025

18th of December 🎁🐄
Earlier this month we were called to a calving, as the dam had a twisted uterus meaning that the calf couldn’t pass through the cervix. Signs of this can be a prolonged parturition with no progress, and difficulty feeling the calf on vaginal exam. Our brilliant vet Katie rolled the cow and untwisted the uterus, then manipulated the calf to calve it, resulting in a lovely live calf!




17th of December 🎁🐑Lambing is fast approaching for some! So it’s important to make sure you are prepared with the essent...
17/12/2025

17th of December 🎁🐑
Lambing is fast approaching for some! So it’s important to make sure you are prepared with the essentials. Some things you might want to remember can include iodine, l**e, prolapse harnesses, ropes, gloves, paint sprays, high quality powdered colostrum, teats and bottles, disinfectant for pens.
Speak to our farm team to create a plan, and for any veterinary products you may want to order.




**eandglovesbuthappyending

16th of December 🎁🛏️Nesting scores! Following on from yesterday’s post, a nesting score is a way of seeing if there is e...
16/12/2025

16th of December 🎁🛏️
Nesting scores! Following on from yesterday’s post, a nesting score is a way of seeing if there is enough bedding in a calf pen for them to keep themselves warm. We aim for a score of 3.

Score 1 - calves legs are fully visible.
Score 2 - calves legs are partially visible.
Score 3 - calves legs completely obscured by bedding.




Address

80 Liverpool Road
Preston
PR10HT

Telephone

+441772746393

Website

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