Pinkeye is an annual problem, which usually shows up in summer and autumn. The severity of the issue varies year to year across districts. It is a common form of infectious eye condition. An infection of Moraxella bovis is spread by flies, and made worse by injuries around the eye area. Depending on the severity and number of stock affected, it can be both a productivity issue and a welfare issue. Severe cases can result in blindness, and affect the ability to graze and reproduce.

Signs of pinkeye include avoiding bright light (eg. Standing in shadows), squinting, and eye discharge from one or two eyes. The eye may appear white or reddened. Weight loss may be noticed. Iii

The infectious component is typically spread by flies, and in drier years, dust too (not much of an issue locally this year though!). Minimising flies can be helpful. Parasiticides like Cooper’s Easy Dose and environmental management, like breezy paddocks, and thistle management, can all be useful strategies.

Treatments are best individualised for each affected animal and can include;

Remember, medication supply from Orange Veterinary Hospital relies on a bone fide client relationship to ensure our legal requirements are met, and that your animals require appropriate care.
For more detailed information, see this DPI Primefact:

Three-day sickness, or bovine ephemeral fever, is a viral disease spread by mosquitoes and biting midges.

Young stock are more commonly affected because infection provides long immunity. This disease is more common in wetter, northern regions and more sporadic in cooler, southern regions.

It is common following big wet seasons, especially if it follows several dry years. Under these conditions there are more transmitting insects, and a higher proportion of older animals will become infected.

Diagnosis of three-day sickness will require assistance from a veterinarian.

Clinical signs that would lead you to suspect three-day sickness include:

• Depression
• Lameness, muscle stiffness, shivering, twitching, droopy ears
• Drooling saliva, watery eyes, runny nose
• Recumbency
• Reduced water and food intake
• Abortion

Heavier and older animals are more severely impacted because long periods of recumbency leads to muscle damage.

A vaccine is registered for the prevention of BEF. It is only available through vets, as it is a prescription product. It is most helpful to vaccinate heavy, high value stock, like bulls, who may be worst affected.

Two injections of the vaccine two weeks to six months apart under the skin of the neck are necessary for long-lasting protection. Annual boosters are recommended. It is advisable to commence vaccination in the winter months so that cattle are fully immunised prior to summer rains.

Field observations have shown that some vaccinated cattle can develop mild disease, however the severity and duration of illness is very much less than in unvaccinated cattle.

Treatment with anti-inflammatory drugs has been shown to reduce the course of the disease and calcium injections may aid animals that are down. Most animals will recover if provided with water and shade. Lifting down animals can also be helpful, however, in extensive management situations, this is often impossible to provide. Dairy Australia has made an excellent reference for managing 'Downer Cows' (click above image).

We live on an island surrounded by beaches and centered by deserts, and  most of our horses are kept in an environment where there is at least some sand. When horses graze pasture or eat off the ground, they will inevitably take in some soil. In summer, when pastures get dry and our horses need supplementary feed, they can take in more sand than is good for them. This sand can accumulate in the large bowel and, as it’s heavier than most gut contents, form a layer on the bottom of that gut. This can cause irritation, colic and sometimes obstruction. This can be an expensive process and distressing for your horse.

Prevention

Depending on the environment your horse is kept in, preventing sand colic is relatively straightforward. If you have pasture that your horse is grazing, make sure it’s long enough so your horse isn’t picking up sand and soil. This is not usually a problem locally. If the pasture is too short, move the horse to another pasture that’s long enough, or provide other feed until the pasture recovers.

If you have limited facilities, which make these steps difficult, you can put mats on the ground or use feed bags to limit contact with sand. Make sure when you are feeding hay or other dry feeds that you use a feeder that is off the ground. There are also a large range of commercial products that can help to prevent sand accumulating in the gut. These can be as simple as adding psyllium husk to the diet to increase gut movement. Speak to your vet to see what is best for your circumstances.

Symptoms

Symptoms of sand colic can be mild, but most typically show in gut discomfort and a decrease in manure production. To get some early indication of sand in the gut, put some manure in a bucket of water and see how much sand sinks to the bottom.

Treatment

As usual, our vet team can offer the best source of advice on treatment, which can range from giving your horse mineral oils via a stomach tube to specialist emergency surgery in the most severe cases.

Most of us who’ve walked barefoot on sandhills are aware of the intense pain catheads can engender, but did you know they can also cause liver disease in sheep?

Catheads are a flowering plant native to many warm, temperate areas of Australia. The flowers are 4-to-10mm wide with a lemon-yellow petal. A week after each flower blooms, it is followed by a fruit that easily falls apart into four or five single-seeded nutlets. These nutlets are hard and bear two-to-three sharp spines 10mm long and 4-to-6mm broad, point-to-point. These spines are hard enough to puncture bicycle tyres and will cause intense pain to the inadvertent barefoot stroller.

Ingestion of toxic catheads can cause a disease known as 'yellow bighead', which damages the liver. The toxic part of the plant is a steroidal saponin that accumulates in the leaves and stems. Young animals are most severely affected, with liver damage causing severe photosensitisation and swelling of the ears, lips, eyelids often leaving the whole head with a weeping raw muzzle. Many animals can die, despite attempts of treatment.

The second disease entity is lameness caused by perforation of the sole of the hoof by the spiny thorns of the nutlets.

Remember, tread lightly around your sandy paddocks this time of year and be observant of strange-looking sheep moving slowly in pack formation.

A well-designed crush makes for efficient, low-stress and safe cattle handling. As vets, we have seen the full crush spectrum, from hydraulically operated walk-through crushes to the older style guillotine crush? From our perspective, we are looking for a crush that is efficient to work in and safe. The cattle crush can be a dangerous place, and injuries from crushing, being kicked or being knocked by fast moving bits of the crush have been all too common.

Choosing a crush will depend on several factors, including the stock being restrained, the procedures being performed, staffing levels, experience and cost. There is not a single crush to suit all purposes.

To help vets, farmers and manufacturers with the design and selection of appropriate crushes, Australian Cattle Veterinarians (ACV) has put together the Crush Design and Safety Publication, which can be downloaded from the new ACV website.

If you are thinking about investing in a new crush, or if you just want to check whether yours is up to scratch, then this is an invaluable guide. 

Overexposure to the damaging UV rays of the sun can cause skin damage, as well as heat stress in horses. Like most animals, horses help to regulate their body temperature and protect their skin by moving between shade and sun exposure.

Most horse welfare codes now expect that some provision of shade, either from trees or other structures is mandatory. This is in your horse’s best interest.

Heat stress

Working your horse on a hot day may cause their heat regulation system to fail and put their health in jeopardy. When you work your horse in summer, make sure the temperature is not oppressive and ensure that your horse is hosed down (and then scraped off too) after work and given access to plenty of water and shade.

Your horse may be at risk of heat stress without any exercise if the day temperature is excessively hot and/or humid. On these excessively hot days, ensure your horse has lots of cool water. Hosing down then scraping your horse can also prevent heat stress. Elite competition horses may make use of fans, misting, and icing, though this is seldom needed in Orange.

Sun exposure

Although some sun exposure is a normal part of a healthy horse’s life, in certain circumstances it has some health risks. As with us, excessive exposure to UV rays in horses can cause skin cancers. Squamous cell carcinomas are more common in horses with light-coloured skin, as they are in humans. Be particularly careful of excessive sun exposure in horses with white areas of skin on the face, ears or back where sun exposure is highest.

Some feeds, such as certain clovers and perennial rye grass, can cause a chemical reaction under the skin, making skin areas to be oversensitive to the sun (photosensitisation). This can occur when even normal sun exposure causes the skin to go red and crusty. Try to minimise your horses sun exposure and consult your vet if this occurs.

In summary, always provide shade for your horse to keep it protected from the ravages of the Australian summer sun. When designing shade structures, always consider fire risk in their design - and with that in mind, always ensure your fire plan is up-to-date to gaurantee you can get your horse to safety, without panic, if you are faced with an imminent fire risk.

Weaning is one of the most stressful events in the production cycle of beef cattle. When weaning is managed poorly, weaners have poor weight gains and are more susceptible to diseases like pneumonia. Conversely, when managed well, weaners will continue to gain weight, and cows will maintain or improve their body condition.

The economics

Weaning basics

Weaning should routinely be done with calves down to 130kg and, under drought conditions, down to 100kg. With that in mind, here is our handy checklist for yard weaning preparation.

• Managing numbers - batch wean if group sizes will be >100
• 2.5 metres squared yard space is required per animal
• Vaccines (7-in-1, BRD vaccines, Piliguard as required)
• Drench 
• High-quality pastures and nutrient-dense feedstuffs - weaning ration needs to be 11.5ME/kg dry matter with 16-18% crude protein
• Fresh, clean water - with adequate trough space
• Management of dust or mud in yards
• A set of scales to weight at the start and end of weaning