Avondale Vet Group-Farm Department

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! 💊

17/03/2025

💊💉💉 MEDICINES COURSE 💉💉💊

As of February there are new rules for red tractor assured farms:

- For beef and sheep farms - at least one member of staff must have attended a medicines course since 2016
- For dairy farms - at least one member of staff responsible for administering medicines must have attended a course within 5 years

We are running courses on two days this week:
- Wednesday 19th March 12am - 1pm
- Thursday 20th March 12am - 1pm

Attendance is required on 1 day only. If you would like to book attendance on the course please get in touch with the practice.

13/02/2025

https://www.facebook.com/yellowwelliesuk

This is Yellow Wellies 'Mind Your Head' campaign week - it aims to raise awareness of the growing mental health issues in the farming industry.

Mental health issues are a normal part of life. In any one year approximately one in four people experience eat least one mental health issue.

It is important to create a culture in farming that promotes positive mental health, prevents people from experiencing mental ill health and helps them better manage mental health problems.
One of the key ways to do this is to ensure everyone can talk about mental health but it is also essential to know how to provide support. This might include knowing how to spot the warning signs and being confident to signpost colleagues to the support available.

UK-wide charity set up in 2014 to preserve & protect the physical & mental wellbeing of farmers

16/12/2024

🐄 Cow Signals 🐄

MBM vets in Kilmarnock are hosting a dairy-based Cow Signals workshop on Wednesday. Catriona and Jenna will be attending and there are a couple of farmer spaces still available…we would love it if you could join us! It’s 9.30 for 10am - 3pm. Get in touch with us at the practice or by text if you’d like to come!

So what is ‘CowSignals’? It is an approach used worldwide to help dairy farmers prevent disease and prolong the lifetimes of their cattle through learning about cattle behaviour and its involvement in cow comfort and wellness.

Improving cow welfare will increase productivity and result in happy cows, happy farmers and a happy planet!

14/12/2024

🎄 Avondale’s Farmer Christmas Party! 🎄

A massive thank you to all of our amazing farmers who made our first Christmas Party such a success. The rugby club was packed! We hope you all had as much fun as we did 🥳

It was also an opportunity for us to celebrate Avondale Vet Group’s 100th birthday! Originally set up by Hugh Begg, the practice then became Begg and Whiteford, and now Avondale Vets. We are proud to have been party of the Strathaven community for so long 🎂🎉

Thank you for your ongoing support of your local farm vets. We are very lucky to have such a wonderful bunch of farmers and appreciate you all! Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year ✨

11/12/2024

We are looking forward to our Christmas social on Friday night! Please come at 7pm for a 7.30pm meal.
Numbers are at full capacity for catering so if you are no longer able to attend, please do let us know as someone may be able to take your spot!
Farm clients who have not yet RSVP-ed are of course still welcome to join us for a drink after the meal.
In case you are arranging lifts home, last orders are at 11.30pm and we must all be out of the rugby club by midnight!

10/12/2024

🥩 Cow of the Future Webinar 🥩

Webinar tonight, for beef cattle farmers, at 7:30pm featuring our very own Rosie!

Perthshire farmer Neil McGowan will give an insight into the data recording they do at Incheoch and how that has benefited his beef herd. Rosie will then share data from her recent investigations into calf survival and fertility.

Register at the link below!

Following on from our first Sustainable Beef Systems webinars in 2023/24, series 2 will feature a four part webinar series over the autumn and winter

09/12/2024

⭐️ Congratulations Rosie! ⭐️

As many of you know Rosie has spent the last two years studying towards her Diploma in Bovine Reproduction. Well, she’s only gone and done it!! Rosie has passed all of her exams, projects and dissertation and today she attended her graduation at the University of Liverpool 🎓

This qualification covers all aspects of cattle fertility in great detail and Rosie is one of only a few vets in Scotland to have achieved this diploma. We are very proud of her! A special thank you to our farmers who were involved in Rosie’s projects and helped her with data collection - she couldn’t have done it without you! 🐮

07/12/2024

We are looking forward to seeing you all on Friday next week. To ensure accurate numbers and everyone gets fed, please ensure you have RSVP either out on farm or via text/phone 🎉🪩🎅. Further details to follow.

🎅🎅 **FRIDAY 13TH DECEMBER 2024** 🎅🎅

Join us for a farm client social evening to celebrate 100 years of Avondale Vets. Held at Strathaven Rugby Club with catering provided by Country Bake!

Please RSVP by 30th November🍻☃️

05/12/2023

🎄 Merry Christmas from the Avondale farm vets! 🎄

Last weekend we had our Christmas party at Boogie Bingo at The Strathaven Hotel which was such fun. This cardboard cutout of Lewis Capaldi was the prize secured by one of the farm vets who won a dance off! Video evidence is posted in the comments - it is probably not the vet that you expect!! 🥳😅