NEXT MILKING GOAT MEETING

Do you have questions about your milking      goats? Have you come up with a solution to a problem in your herd? Would you like to meet some of the other people in the area who are milking goats? Then come to our Fall Milking Goat Meeting. This will be the fourth meeting we have had goat producers and everyone is welcome!

The meeting will be held at the clinic on Thursday September 20th from noon to 2 pm. We will be meeting in the back of the clinic building in the garage. Lunch will be served at noon and the program will start at 12:30, but don’t worry about coming late. You are welcome to come anytime.

We want this to be a meeting where you can ask questions and discuss solutions amongst producers and not just having some outside “Expert” present the “Facts.” We realize that many people have started milking goats recently and are still learning. Please come with your challenges, successes, frustrations and
solutions. Ideas that you have might help someone else.

Sally will just be back from attending the American Association of Small Ruminant Practitioners meeting, so she will be sharing lots of new information.

Everyone is welcome to come and learn about milking goats. Please invite your friends and neighbors who might be interested. RSVP by Monday September 17 so we can get a head count for lunch.
 

BLOOMINGTON SALE BARN RECOMMENDATIONS

The recent newsletter sent out by the Bloomington Sale Barn had the following vaccination recommendations for weaned beef calves:

    Bovishield Gold 5 (4 way viral)
    Ultrabac 7 (7 way blackleg)
    One Shot (pasteurella)

The calves should be vaccinated at least 30 days before the sale date. Anything vaccinated 7-21 days before the sale date may not respond to the vaccines due to moving stress and will not bring as high a bid. We can give you a verification of vaccination if you get the products from us.

The sale barn advises against implanting calves. Unless you are finishing the calves yourself, you will not get the return on the implants. Buyers would rather implant their calves on arrival.
 
Calves should be dewormed before the sale with a pour-on or injectable product.

Please ask if you have questions about how to get the best price for your calves when you take them to Bloomington or any other sale barn.
 

HEAT AND HUMIDITY CHALLENGES

Making dry hay has been about impossible this summer and now the flooding, humidity and heat are causing health issues for cattle. If you have been seeing lots of pinkeye, mastitis and pneumonia in your animals, you are not alone. We have also been helping clients with more scouring calves.

The real key to preventing these problems is keeping things clean and dry and barns well ventilated. Even bringing in hot, humid air from outside helps because ammonia levels are lower, bacteria counts are less and air is moving to help evaporative cooling. You cannot have too much air moving when it comes to animals.     

Keep these additional factors in mind when dealing with pinkeye:

• Clip tall grass in the pasture to prevent eye irritation.
• Treat at the first sign of watery eyes. Don’t wait till they’re red.
• If possible, keep affected animals out of the sun for about a week.
• Fly prevention blocks and pinkeye mineral can help.
• Pinkeye will continue to be a problem through the fall and winter even though the flies are gone if your cattle have Moraxella bovoculi.

Good nutrition with adequate trace minerals is necessary to keep your cattle’s immune systems strong and able to respond to vaccines and fight off infection. Vaccinations can help prevent pinkeye and mastitis and pneumonia, but they have to be given to healthy cattle before the problems show up. You can give the Multi-Min vitamin supplement when vaccinating calves to give them an immune system boost and better response to the vaccines.

If you are fighting calf scour problems, we can sample the scours and see exactly what the cause is. Then we can help you design a prevention protocol in addition to treating your current sick ones.
 

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL FAIR PARTICIPANTS

After a wet start, the weather stayed nice this year for the fair and everything looked great. Thanks to all the livestock entries that remembered to bring their animal ID and health paperwork. It made things easier at check-in. Sally missed the livestock auction because she was in the middle of a cow surgery. Jill’s sheep did great! We appreciate all the work that goes into making the fair successful.
 

USE DEWORMERS IN COMBINATION

Using combination dewormers for sheep and goats has been shown to be the best method for using dewormers. You should NOT rotate between dewormers. Rotating will not help prevent resistance, but will allow resistance to develop to two drugs at once.

Why does a combination work?

1. You get an additive effect with each drug used, thus increasing efficacy
2. Fewer resistant worms survive the treatment, making a greater dilution of resistant worms by the susceptible population

Recent studies in New Zealand (where drug resistance is common) have shown that after 5 years, using dewormers in combination resulted in an improvement of efficacy of the dewormers.

Products need to be given separately, but at the same time, at the full dose for each. Treat only affected goats, not all. Please call with any questions.
 

CAT CASTRATION CLINIC COMING UP

This year’s annual Cat Castration Clinic will be held from 7-noon on Saturday October 13, the Saturday after the Harvest Fest parade. Last year, we did nearly 350 cats! The reception/waiting area will be in the garage. We have a great crew lined up to make things run as efficiently as possible.

On October 13th, we will anesthetize and castrate for free any male cat brought to the clinic. We will not be doing female cats nor male dogs. Vaccinations and deworming will be available at regular prices. We will not be doing any declawing procedures during the free cat clinic.

Please take advantage of this opportunity to have your male cats castrated. They will be much better pets. You will also be helping to cut down on the feral cat population which is responsible for spreading diseases like feline leukemia and ear mites and for killing song birds.

Please call if you have any questions. Cats are taken care of on a first-come, first-served basis. Please bring your cat in a carrier or box and plan on waiting till your cat is done to take it home right away. Everyone is welcome, so tell all your friends and neighbors to come, too.
 

WELCOME BACK, ALISHA

We are happy to welcome back Alisha, one of our certified veterinary technicians, after her maternity leave. She and Andrew had a baby boy back in June. Everyone in the family is doing great. She even brought him in to the clinic to see everyone last week!