One of the new features in the Herd Health Plans that we are doing at the moment are measures to ensure that calves get adequate quantities of high quality colostrum within six hours of birth. It is only in the first six hours of life that the gut of a calf is open to the long chain protein molecules that are in this precious substance. After that colostrum can give some protection locally on the surface of the gut to stop pathogens gaining a hold, but it cannot be absorbed to prime the immune system of the calf. Cows can only produce a fixed quantity of quality colostrums. High yielding dairy cows may produce a large volume, but its quantity is reduced because the antibodies are diluted but the quantity produced. Some high yielding cows will start loosing colostrum for several days before the calf arrives the best part may be lost. It should also be realized that heifers especially if they have not had much time to mix with the herd and cows that have recently been brought onto the farm will not have developed a good immunity to the infections that the calves are likely to face so their colostrum will not be as good as from the more regular members of your herd.

It is now recommended that newly born calves should have three liters of quality colostrum within the first six hours of birth. This is quite a volume, and we cannot rely on most calves to take that quantity on their own. Small calves will have difficulties sucking that much, they may appear to be swallowing, but sometimes they are teat searching and playing with the teats rather than swallowing. Bigger calves are often dopey at first and cannot co ordinate themselves for long enough to take the required volumes. It is better to use a feeding bag.

Poor colostrums intake is often though to be responsible for poor performance in young calves. Animals that develop navel and joint problems are often shown to have low colostral antibodies and there is a definite link with low intakes and pneumonia developing in the first four weeks of life. We are able to do a blood test in the first two to seven days to check on the quality of the colostrum that has got through and is working in the blood stream. It is often useful to do this if you are not sure that the system that you have in place is working.

Buying In

Many calves change farms within the first month of birth and it is not easy to determine if they have had a good start. You should be suspicious if there have been any signs of scouring or any thickening of the navel or any joints as these are indications that things may not be as good as they should be. Pneumonia is a common problem on many farms at the moment. If you are having problems and you have a choice of which calves to buy it might be better not to take calves from heifers as they will not do as well as some of the others that are available.

There are four diseases that animals commonly get which can cause us to have health problems which can be serious if they are not recognized early enough. Leptospirosis is a disease that does not get so many mentions as it used to, but it is still active on many farms and a significant disease risk if you milk cows because it is difficult to avoid the urine that contains the infection. In man the symptoms are described as flu like with severe headaches. Being a bacterial disease it is quite treatable especially if you suspect you might be infected at an early stage. You might get suspicious that something is going on if you get flu like symptoms when nobody else does and especially if it does not spread to anybody else in your family.

Salmonella infections are still surprisingly common in calves and sometimes in adult cows and sheep that abort. There were nearly twenty separate cases reported from the Shrewsbury Veterinary Laboratory in November alone. Salmonella infections in calves can sometimes be chronic with only mild scouring. Often it turns up in older animals that have cases of severe pneumonia with few enteric symptoms. This is a problem particularly for young children and you should be certain that hands have been washed thoroughly if they have had any contact with young farm animals and always before meals.

Third on my list is Orf. This is a problem because it often seems innocuous on the sheep although young lambs can sometimes get a serious dose of it if they get it inside their mouths. For some reason some people can react adversely to this organism. You should take particular care if you have any small cuts or abrasions on your hands when handling affected sheep. Orf is a particular problem if you only have a small number of infected animals. The temptation is to use the Orfoids every six days or so. These do seem to work, but they are difficult to give with gloves on and even young sheep have sharp back teeth so it is difficult to do safely. If you do get Orf in your flock it is often better and safer to vaccinate the whole of the flock as you can keep your hands away from the infection that way.

Sadly I now have to add contact with Badgers to this list. In the past we have had occasion to treat road traffic accident Badgers and have sometimes been able to rehabilitate them. Often when Badgers are brought to the surgery they either die on the way here or are so badly injured that euthanasia is the only option available to us. In the past we have been able to treat individuals with concussion, they are good patients that are relatively easy to handle, as their natural instinct is to sleep during the day when things are going on so they can be placid when treatments are given. They usually have huge numbers of lice that respond well to our anti parasitic treatments.

The problem now is that so many of the road traffic accident badgers found in our area have been found to be infected with tuberculosis and it is difficult for us to handle and treat them safely. The message is that if you find a dead badger on the road do not touch it, only move it with a shovel that you will be able to disinfect thoroughly before you next use it or use disposable gloves to transfer it to a bag so that it can be buried. We will be able to advise the best course of action should you find an injured Badger. Don’t take risks with badgers it is not worth it.

ADAS have organized a meeting in the evening of the eleventh of January at the Stretton Hall Hotel. The meeting is about improving lamb survival. Admission is free but they would like to have some idea of numbers attending. Please contact the surgery if you are able to go to this meeting.

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