We appreciate farming is tough, juggling weather, regulations, staffing, optimal productivity, and animal care, all whilst balancing your wellbeing. Having a trusted source of information and farm advice to help you make informed decisions is our goal.
As animal health experts, we have written this collection of farm animal care articles to help you provide the best possible lifetime care of your herd, stock or flock.
The Barber’s Pole worm has some features that make it different from other sheep worms and explain why the worm can be a major problem at certain times during the year. These features mean the Barber’s Pole worm should be regarded as a sheep disease condition in its own right.
When it comes to reproduction cattle/sheep services the farm vets at VetEnt are experts. Current reproduction in cattle and sheep is monitored; poor reproductive performance is identified; a management plan is created to improve reproductive performance in the future.
Ryegrass staggers is a nervous disease affecting sheep, cattle, horses, and deer after they have grazed endophyte-affected ryegrass dominant pastures under close grazing conditions.
The 4 species of fly which cause flystrike in NZ are attracted to the moist smelly areas on the fleece. The most common attractants are dags and urine stains in the breech areas and along the back above the shoulders where wool can stay wet for sometime after rain.
A very common condition affecting sheep characterized by severe inflammation of one or both eyes. The condition is caused by infection of the eye by infective agents Chlamydia and/or Mycoplasma conjunctivae.species with secondary bacterial infection.
Footrot in sheep is a very complex disease. It is an infection which causes major changes to the hoof resulting in lameness and loss of production. It is a very painful condition and has the potential to become an animal welfare issue.
Campylobacter (Campylobacter fetus fetus) is one of the most common causes of contagious abortion in sheep. However, 30% of Campylobacter isolates from sheep abortions were diagnosed as species other than C. fetus fetus, the majority of these other species is Campylobacter jejuni.
Lice are external parasites that can live on most animals. They are very host specific so can only breed on their own hosts. Sheep lice breed only on sheep and complete their entire life cycle on the animal. They usually spread by direct contact between sheep.
Liver fluke can infect sheep, cattle, horses, pigs, goats, alpacas, deer, and a range of wild animals including wallabies and rabbits. Humans can also be infected by eating watercress from creeks in fluke-infested country.
Toxoplasmosis (Toxoplasma gondii) is one of the most common causes of contagious abortion in sheep. Toxoplasmosis is so common that it is a case of when an abortion outbreak will occur -not if.
