11/09/2025
⚠⚠ Need small amounts for your lifestyle block? We have vaccinations available in clinic now! ⚠⚠
Farm Friday Lifestyle Lessons: Vaccinations! 💉
It's coming up to tailing and weaning time, which means it is time to think about vaccinations!
Vaccinating your young stock is so important to protect against nasty diseases and sudden death. But do you know the difference between 5in1 / 7in1 and lamb vaccine?
5in1 is a vaccination against the 5 most common clostridial diseases. 7in1 protects against these 5 clostridial diseases but also has the added benefit of 2 strains of leptospirosis. Lepto is a very dangerous bacteria that causes kidney and liver failure. Most importantly, humans can catch lepto and become very sick, so we want to make sure our animals are protected!
Vaccinations should be given to ewes / cows 4-6 weeks pre-lambing / calving. This means they can develop antibodies that they can pass on to their babies, who would otherwise be born with no immunity! In these cases, the babies only need 1 vaccination, usually at weaning.
If the dam has not been vaccinated, the babies will need 2 vaccines, 4-6 weeks apart. This varies for calves and lambs so give us a call for timing specific to your property!
Now, lamb vaccine is different to traditional vaccines like 5in1 and 7in1.
In a traditional vaccine, a safe form of the disease is injected, and the body creates antibodies in response. However, it takes 2-4 weeks for antibodies to be created by the body! Lamb vaccine contains already formed antibodies that attach to the tetanus and pulpy kidney toxins, neutralizing them.
At tailing, tetanus and pulpy kidney are thriving, so we want to be giving both lamb vaccine and 5in1 or 7in1 for complete cover. The body breaks down these antibodies from lamb vaccine with 2-3 weeks, but by then the body should be responding well to the vaccine and developing its own antibodies!
Long story short, if your dams are vaccinated, the babies only need one vaccine at ~6-8 weeks of age. If your dams are unvaccinated, babies need 2 vaccines, 4-6 weeks apart. If you are dealing with unvaccinated ewes, lamb vaccine should also be given at tailing, at the same time as the first 5in1 dose.
