Avondale Vet Group-Farm Department

11/05/2025

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With the recent warm spell it’s time to think about preventing blowfly strike.
Female fly are becoming active and laying eggs. Strike can develop very quickly, with the first maggots appearing within 12 hours of eggs being laid!! Strike leads to reduced growth rates, skim/carcass damage and can even cause death.

Carcasses, dirty backends, foot rot lesions and open wounds are all attractive egg laying sites.

Prevention involves:
* Shearing or dagging to reduce faecal contamination of the fleece
* Thorough worm control to reduce scour in lambs…discuss worming plans with us
* Prompt treatment of lameness including footrot and wounds
* Prompt removal of fallen stock
* Avoid grazing sheltered or shaded pasture where possible as these areas are likely to harbour more flies than exposed pasture
* Use of fly traps to reduce the overall fly population on farm

Correct application of a suitable product is essential to ensure maximum protection for the flock. Check the datasheet or ask us for advice before treatment. Not all fly products are preventative - some offer only treatment so it’s essential to make sure you are using the right product for the job!

28/04/2025

BVD CHECK TEST

Get this job done ✅ before turnout if you can

- 9-18 month old beasts
- 5 animals from every group within that age
range
- Homebred animals
- Not vaccinated for BVD

Contact us to get booked in!

25/04/2025

SRUC have lots of great podcasts that are worth a listen!

Listen to our range of📣Podcasts with expert vets & guests covering membership of Livestock Health Schemes 🐑🐮& Disease Surveillance topics for vets in practice!🧑🏼‍⚕️An easy listen & catch up between visits! More to come & requests taken! 👉🏼 https://tinyurl.com/5cnar2ju

SRUC School of Veterinary Medicine British Cattle Veterinary Association - BCVA Farm Vet Network

23/04/2025

FREE LAB FEES FOR ABORTED EWES

Investigate if you have seen abortions in over 2% of ewes, or if lambing % was lower than your scanning %, to find out if EAE or Toxo were involved (the most common causes of sheep abortion).

Call us to arrange blood sampling these ewes - this is done from 3 weeks onwards after the losses occurred, so it can wait until you are past the peak-busyness ness of lambing time.

Get this job done before you ship off those empties/culls to market!

15/04/2025

Dairy event in Ayrshire next month - follow the link to book a place.

With many cows now turned out to grass, the science of balancing buffer feeding is tricky when often grass intake and quality is unknown. If you want to

11/04/2025

One mummy sheep pretty chuffed with her new lamb!!

09/04/2025

CRYPTOSPORIDIOSIS

Crypto is a common cause of scour in young calves and can have devastating effects on both dairy and beef farms. It is caused by a tiny parasite and can be difficult to get rid of as it is hardy in the environment. Key to control are hygiene and colostrum. A vaccine is also now available.

We can test perform a quick and easy test on calf scour at the practice to determine if crypto is involved. Contact us if you are seeing scour in your calves.

Remember also that crypto is a zoonosis - that is, it can infect people and cause some nasty symptoms!

This short video from Moredun explains the disease in more detail.

Cryptosporidiosis, caused by Cryptosporidium parasites, leads to livestock production losses and poses health risks to humans.

05/04/2025

Tapeworms in sheep shed little pieces at a time into the dung, anything from of a grain of rice-size, up to a metre in length! While they may look concerning, there’s usually no need for treatment.

Do remember to regularly bring us your dung samples throughout the year prior to worming!

02/04/2025

🥇Colostrum is gold!🥇

The three Qs of colostrum:
1. Quality - test colostrum to ensure it is at least 22% Brix (we can test or teach you how). Colostrum quality declines quickly after 6 hours.
2. Quickly - give the first feed within 2 hours of birth (give no later than within the first 6 hours).
3. Quantity - the first feed should be 3l - this can be split into 2 feeds if necessary.

If the quality of your colostrum is less than adequate or if you want to have some powdered colostrum to hand, speak to us about SCCL - the best powdered colostrum you can buy! It’s made from real cows’ colostrum and is tested so is of a very high standard!! We keep it in stock 🐄 🐑🌟🥇

27/03/2025

SAYFC’s mental health campaign - all credit to them on great the work they have done!

25/03/2025

Chronic liver fluke identified on post-mortem, following the deaths of several adult ewes.

The liver and gall bladder were packed with these adult flukes that have been developing in there for at least 3 months!!

Speak to us if you haven’t yet dosed for fluke or are unsure of what’s best to use, and when, this season!

21/03/2025

🐄 Medicines Course 🐄

Thanks to all of our dairy farmers who made it along to one of our Red Tractor medicines courses this week. We hope you found it useful!

Certificates to follow soon! 💊