When you really think about it, your dog team are truly amazing! They are not only hard-working, willing employees, they are elite athletes, who may run up to 8 hours a day over 10-20km of steep terrain. We'll help you maximise the performance of these essential team mates.
When you really think about it, your dog team are truly amazing! They are not only hard-working, willing employees, they are elite athletes, who may run up to 8 hours a day over 10-20km of steep terrain. We'll help you maximise the performance of these essential team mates.
You invest a lot into raising and training your working dogs, and rely on them to get the job done, so prolonging their careers is paramount. Including them as an integral part of your animal health planning ensures:
A Working Dog Health Plan should include health checks, disease prevention, nutrition, parasite control and housing.
Your dogs can’t tell you when they need help and will naturally try to hide any weaknesses, including pain, so you may not notice something is amiss until the problem is severe. Working dogs deserve a yearly health check, where we will inspect their teeth, eyes, ears, nose, skin, assess their body condition, check for lumps and wounds, observe them moving, checking for limping or signs of stiff
joints. The most common issues we find with working dogs are broken teeth, dry itchy skin (from parasites or unbalanced nutrition), mammary masses and arthritis.
Vaccinations help prevent your puppies and dogs from getting debilitating diseases and protect your health by helping control Leptospirosis, which can also affect humans. If you take your dogs to any dog trials, we recommend you also consider vaccinating them against Canine Cough.
Key symptoms of the main diseases controlled by vaccinations are:
We use the vaccines Vanguard Plus 5 & Leptoguard for puppies and Vanguard 5 & Leptoguard for adults. Vanguard and Leptoguard are given together in one injection.
Your dogs are uniquely designed for endurance, with their muscles having a large capacity to use oxygen when exercising. They also have muscles suited to high intensity sprints, so they really are great all-rounders. To enable your dogs to work at full potential, you need to feed the right fuel. You wouldn’t put the wrong fuel in your ute, so why risk it for your dogs?
Working dog food should contain:
If working dogs are not fed enough fat for energy, they will start to draw energy from their muscles, losing weight, condition and becoming weak. If their food is not highly digestible, more will go to waste and your dogs will lack energy to work. VetEnt is committed to only recommending nutrient-dense, high quality food containing optimum calories per bite for Working Dogs. A Heading Dog (weighing ~21kg) needs 1400–2100 kcal/day whereas a Huntaway (weighing ~32kg) needs 1700-2500 kcal/day, depending on their workday requirements.
Talk to our team today about our Working dog food options, all with money back guarantee and great savings on bulk purchase pricing. Pesty parasites can steal your dog’s productivity!
A worm burden will not only affect the health and energy levels of your dogs but also help complete the lifecycle, and spread, of Sheep Measles. We recommend a monthly worming regime to maximise your dog’s performance.
Droncit®
Controls all tapeworms including Taenia ovis (Sheep Measles). 1 tablet per 20kg body weight.
Drontal® AllWormer
Effectively controls roundworm, hookworm and all tapeworms. Flavoured for improved palatability and acceptance, also safe to give to puppies.
We recommend:
Convenient and easy, we can organise for worming tablets to be delivered direct to your farm, when you need them, for your dog team. Monthly dosing of your working dogs is required as the ovis tapeworm matures in 35 days so dosing 3-monthly is not enough. Tak to our team or visit VetServe for more information.
As you know, a good night’s sleep is restorative, critical for performing at your best the next day. This is also true for your dogs, so if they are itching from fleas it can really disturb their sleep.
The NZ cattle tick is endemic in New Zealand and is more commonly found in warmer regions. These little blood suckers cause local irritation near eyes, ears, and armpits, easily distracting your dog. Heavy burdens can lead to low red blood cell count.
We recommend Bravecto® as it provides long lasting flea & tick protection in a single treatment. It breaks the flea life cycle by killing fleas before they can lay viable eggs, providing excellent control of flea infestations. Bravecto’s active ingredient belongs to a new class of parasiticide compounds, so there is no known flea or tick resistance to it. Bravecto® is also safe for puppies from 8 weeks (min 2kg); breeding, pregnant, lactating dogs and ‘ivermectin sensitive’ Collies. Also approved for the treatment and control of mange and ear mites. Bravecto has two format choices:
Imagine trying to sleep in a cold damp house, with no bedding, insulation or door keeping the warmth in, wind and rain out, especially during Winter. The energy used shivering to keep warm would become very tiring and prevent a good night sleep. Callouses and pressure sores can also develop from constantly sleeping on hard surfaces. Studies of NZ working dogs reveal the majority of kennels are not insulated and half don’t have bedding.
We recommend bedding at least be provided, which can be as simple as an old duvet, blankets, sleeping bag, wool sack stuffed with wool. Or, we have some great offers on commercially made dog beds.
Vanguard Plus 5, Vanguard 5 and Leptoguard are only available for use under the authority or prescription of a veterinarian. Registered trade marks of Zoetis Inc. or its subsidiaries. ACVM No’s A7448, A4473, A6526. Drontal & Droncit are registered trademarks of Bayer Group. ACVM No’s: A2919, A7042, A8215, A5557, A4751, A7658. Bravecto is a registered trademark of Schering-Plough Animal Health Limited (MSD Animal Health). ACVM No’s: A11019, A11261, A11446.
