An Easter Warning

As Easter is approaching we will be enjoying the treats and flower that this encompasses however dogs and cats can become very ill if they ingest or come into contact with certain things.

Chocolate

During Easter we all enjoy eating some (a lot of) chocolate. Whilst for us it is a delectable treat, for dogs (and cats) if ingested, can cause life threatening illness. Chocolate contains theobromine that at toxic levels can cause vomiting, diarrhoea and shaking and can lead onto seizures (fits), heart issues and ultimately death. If you suspect your dog has consumed chocolate please ring the practice immediately as if treated early can reduce the risk to your dog.

Hot Cross Buns (raisins)

Raisins within hot cross buns can cause irreversible kidney failure and sadly death if consumed by dogs. Toxic doses vary and a very small amount can be deadly. If your dog has or even is suspected to have ingested raisins or grapes immediate veterinary treatment is indicated.

Bulbs

Easter is a time when spring emerges and our gardens and hedgerows are bright with colour from flowers. Certain flowers for example daffodils and hyacinths originate from bulbs buried in the ground. Dogs, especially puppies may be dig them up and may chew and ingest them. Toxicities can vary but usual signs of vomiting and diarrhoea are common. Veterinary intervention may be indicated so please contact the practice if you have any concerns.

Lilies

Lilies are highly toxic and extremely dangerous for cats and will cause kidney failure and sadly death. All parts of the lily is toxic i.e. stem, flower and pollen. The most common route of ingestion if through the pollen whilst grooming. Our advice would be to NEVER have lilies in a house where cats are present.

Anti-freeze

As the weather warms and people get out and about into their gardens and garages, cats have access to areas where chemicals such as antifreeze are stored. Antifreeze is sweet and is sadly enticing to cats which if consumed causes irreversible kidney failure. As cats are outdoor animals it can be hard to stop this however owners can alert unaware neighbours to keep chemicals such as antifreeze locked away from prying paws.

Conker poisoning in dogs

Conkers (seeds/nuts of the horse chestnut tree), may be synonymous with autumn but did you know that they can pose a serious risk to your dog if ingested.

Conkers contain a poison called aesculin which is toxic to dogs. A dog would normally need to ingest several conkers to suffer severe poisoning.

Clinical signs are usually seen between one and six hours after ingestion, although they can be delayed for up to two days.

Symptoms of conker poisoning include:

[checklist icon=”fa-paw” iconcolor=”#39aa87″ circle=”yes”]

Vomiting, which may contain blood
Diarrhoea
Drooling
Abdominal pain
Increased thirst and reduced appetite.
Signs of restlessness, wobbliness and muscle tremors may also be seen.

[/checklist]

Poisoning is not the only risk – these large nuts could cause a blockage in your dog’s intestines.

Although fatalities in cases where dogs have consumed conkers are thankfully rare, it is still very serious, so if you suspect your dog has ingested conkers, please contact your vet immediately.
https://www.high-endrolex.com/18
If necessary, the vet will give the dog medication to make them vomit and they may also perform gastric lavage (wash out the stomach). This is designed to ensure as much of the poison is removed from the dog’s system as possible.

Although dogs love to forage when they’re out exploring, do keep a watchful eye on them when they’re around conkers.

Diastemata

The 24 cheek teeth are designed to grind forage for up to 16 hours a day. These teeth erupt and are ground down continuously and those in each quadrant of the mouth act as a single grinding surface without spaces.

A diastema (plural, diastemata) is defined as a gap between teeth. Diastemata in the normally tightly fitting cheek teeth results in food entrapment. The stagnant food leads to painful periodontal disease (inflammation of the gums). If left untreated this can lead to the loosening of teeth, tooth root infections, sinusitis or food tracking up into the nose.

40-50% of horses suffer from diastemata. They are most common in older horses. It’s our most commonly treated dental disease.

Diastemata can result for many reasons:

[checklist icon=”fa-arrow-circle-right” iconcolor=”#39aa87″ circle=”yes”]

With older age, teeth have erupted to the level of the slightly narrower root portion of the tooth.
Displaced (out of line) or rotated teeth- both are developmental defects, more common in breeds with small or dished faces e.g. miniatures.
Teeth drifting apart, towards the space remaining following a tooth extraction.
The teeth have erupted with diastemata between them, perhaps because the horse had grown bigger than the relative size of its teeth or erupted with out angulation.
Caries (decay) of the teeth which rots tooth away creating diastemata between them.

[/checklist]

Periodontal disease is very painful and horses often present with quidding (dropping of balls of hay). Some horses ‘pull faces’. Subtle signs e.g. eating less or weight loss are often attributed to old age. Symptoms are commonly seen during winter as long forage is more likely to become trapped between teeth than grass.

Diastemata are diagnosed at a routine oral exam, recommended every 6-12 months. To perform a thorough examination, a headtorch and mirror is essential; diastemata can be easily missed. Sedation is useful for fidgeting horses.

Treatment is carried out using sedation, pain relief and local anaesthetic in our clinic and involves removal of trapped food with the guidance of the oral endoscope camera that can view into the deepest pockets. Widening of diastemata is sometimes required to release entrapped food. The cleaned deeper pockets are sometimes packed with a protective putty whilst the gum heals beneath. Tooth overgrowths are floated (reduced) using powertools in order to balance the pressures on the teeth, reducing tooth drift. Severe cases may require tooth extractions.

Following a course of thoroughly performed treatment, the prognosis for resolution is very good especially with early diagnosis and action.

Neonatal Lamb Care

Lambing time is the most crucial part of the year for making your sheep business profitable. Lamb deaths from birth to 3 days old should be less than 7% however many farms range between 10- 25%.

A major factor influencing mortality in neonate (young) lambs is ewe body condition; as this directly relates to lamb body weight, colostrum quality and quantity. It is therefore important to ensure ewes are at BCS 2.5 to 3.0, (so vertebral spinous processes only felt with pressure and transverse processes only felt with hard pressure), and they are on a rising plane of nutrition in the run up to lambing. Energy and protein blood profiles can be taken 2 to 3 weeks before lambing to ensure ewes are receiving the correct nutrition to help reduce cases of twin lamb disease.

Another major cause of neonatal mortality is watery mouth. These lambs typically are lethargic, salivate and have a distended abdomen. It is caused by Ecoli and picked up by ingestion. Treatment involves electrolytes and antibiotics but is often hopeless. Therefore the emphasis should be on prevention which involves keeping pens clean, (especially towards the end of the season), dipping navels with strong iodine and ensuring all lambs get enough good quality colostrum quickly. See below:

Always ensure colostrum is…

QUALITY

Ensure ewes in good BCS, if you’re uncertain as to the quality of colostrum; colostrum quality can be measured using a refractometer: aim for specific gravity >1.05. Only use sheep colostrum replacement (colostrum from a milking sheep farm will usually be better quality than powdered colostrum); cow colostrum can cause a fatal anaemia. Also remember to give your Clostridial and Pasteurella vaccine four to six weeks before lambing to ensure the lambs receive antibodies against these diseases. (Any ewes that haven’t had this vaccine before will need a course of two injections four to six weeks apart).

QUANTITY

200ml/kg within 18 hours of birth, with a maximum of 50ml/kg intake on each occasion.

Remember lambs in adverse weather conditions will require more colostrum or milk as more energy from their feed will be used to keep them warm.

QUICKLY

Within 2 hours of birth.

SQUEAKY CLEAN

Ensure ewe udders are clean and dry and the equipment to mix and administer colostrum is cleaned and disinfected between lambs.

QUANTIFY

We can also look if your lambs have received enough colostrum by blood testing any less than a week old.

Finally, there is continual pressure on antibiotic use. So to ensure we don’t end up with a world full of super bugs we need to be careful how we use antibiotics. Preventative use of antibiotics, such as blanket use of Spectam or Betamox LA for watery mouth needs to be reduced as this will actively select for resistance and there is pressure from Red Tractor Assurance to reduce this practice.

We recommend only using antibiotics….

- Towards the end of the lambing season, when the sheds have a build up of Ecoli.

- In triplets, when their ewe may have poorer quality and quantity of colostrum

In lambs from ewes in poorer condition, as the quality and quantity of colostrum will be poorer.

Also remember entropion, where the lamb’s eyelid is inverted causing the eye to be held shut, tear staining and damage to the eye. This is a heritable condition so affected lambs should not be kept as replacements, ewes should not be used to breed replacements and consider ram choice if a large percent of flock are affected.

If you have any questions regarding lamb care, please contact the Oakhill Farm Team.

Mastitis in ewes

Mastitis in ewes can be fatal and usually results in the end of her productive life.

The usual presentation is acute gangrenous mastitis (blue or black bag) usually caused by either Staphylococcus Aureus or Mannheimia Haemolytica. S. Aureus is normally present on the teat skin but damage to the teat ends allows it access into the teat canal and causes mastitis.

M. Haemolytica is present in the tonsils of lambs so colonises the udder during suckling. The bacteria produces toxins which prevent blood flow and cause the udder to turn blue/black hence the name. This often occurs around peak lactation (three to six weeks post-lambing) and the initial clinical signs may be as subtle as a ewe looking lame or a lamb bleating because it’s hungry. The disease then rapidly progresses.

The risk factors include:

[checklist icon=”fa-arrow-circle-right” iconcolor=”#39aa87″ circle=”yes”]

Under feeding ewes round lambing or ewes in poor condition, as lambs to these ewes will cross suckle or create teat lesions by over suckling.
Damaged teat end or Orf on teats
Lumps in the udder
Lambing inside (the longer the time spent inside the greater the risk of developing mastitis)
Dirty, wet pens and dirty hands when handling udder/ underneath of sheep
Harsh, cold weather

[/checklist]

Treatment is unlikely to save the udder but may save the ewe’s life:

[checklist icon=”fa-arrow-circle-right” iconcolor=”#39aa87″ circle=”yes”]

Remove lambs from the ewe and ideally artificially rear as rearing these lambs on another ewe may spread the mastitis
Antibiotic injectable AND non-steroidal anti-inflammatory such as Loxicom
A ewe that has had mastitis will be more likely to get fly strike so preventative fly treatment is essential.
There is a vaccine against S. Aureus available; VIMCO. This has to be given three and five weeks pre-lambing. Most of the trial work has been done in dairy ewes and it is licenced to reduce to the incidence of subclinical mastitis. Potentially this could also help to reduce the incidence and severity of black bag in your flock however at the moment there is limited evidence to prove this.

[/checklist]

If you have any questions regarding mastitis in your flock, please contact our Farm Vet Team.

New Export Health Certificates & guidance notes

New Export Health Certificates have been made available on Export Health Certificate Form Finder service in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

Example Export Health Certificates and notes for guidance for exports to the EU, (in the event of a no deal Brexit) are now available on the following link. These provide the requirement for export.

https://www.gov.uk/export-health-certificates

Equine Influenza – what’s the current situation?

There have been separate cases of Equine Influenza confirmed in the UK. Horses in Essex, Cheshire and Derbyshire have been affected this month with further reports of outbreaks in Belgium, France and Germany. With all three outbreaks it has been unvaccinated horses that have tested positive.

Currently the number of outbreaks is small but they have occurred within a short duration; to put things into perspective a similar number of cases were reported during the whole of 2018.

It is currently unknown which strain of the virus has caused these outbreaks, but research is being conducted to find out. While there are several signs of flu in horses, those affected may only show one or two of them.

What are the signs of infection?

Unvaccinated horses

In unvaccinated horses the virus targets the upper respiratory tract, this leads to a very dry, harsh or hacking cough.
They usually have a raised temperature which can last around 7-10 days. The fever often makes them dull, off their food and lethargic
A clear or white nasal discharge is often seen with enlargement of the submandibular lymph nodes (under their chin/throat area).

Vaccinated horses

Horses that have been regularly vaccinated often show no clinical signs, but they may still shed enough virus to infect other horses. This is how the outbreak in Australia in 2007 started.
Horses that have been vaccinated but only have partial protection, e.g. because they haven’t been vaccinated frequently enough or because the vaccine type used was not updated, may show varied signs of mild non specific respiratory disease. This can include mild lethargy, nasal discharge and possibly a cough.

What to do if you think there is a possible infected horse?

Owners should seek veterinary advice if they suspect there is flu on the yard and carry out the following precautions:

Isolate the possibly infected horses. Infected horses will spread the virus in respiratory droplets, through coughing, and can spread the virus for up to 10 days. They must be isolated until the vet advises they are no longer infected.
All horse movements on and off the yard should be stopped.
Monitor all horses on the yard for clinical signs and record their rectal temperature daily, it should be less than 38.0˚C. A rise in temperature can be an early sign of an infection.
Booster vaccinating all in-contact horses, even if they are not yet due their annual booster, has been shown to provide horses with even more protection against flu.

How to prevent it

Horse Flu is endemic in the UK, which means that most horses will come into regular contact with the virus during their lifetime. The control of horse flu in the UK is based on limiting the signs of infection in horses that have been exposed to the virus, rather than trying to prevent exposure itself. This is primarily achieved through regular vaccination which is given either once or twice a year.

If you have any questions about your horse’s vaccinations, please call our Equine Team on 01772 861300

Free* ACTH tests are back for 2019

Testing for PPID in your horse or pony

A few years ago PPID or Equine Cushing’s Disease was considered a rare hormonal disease in horses. Now it is thought to affect over 20% of horses over the age of 15 and is a condition recognised almost daily in equine veterinary practice.

Past ‘Talk about Laminitis’ test results show that you should look out for any of these clinical signs in your horse:

Laminitis
Abnormal or delayed moulting
Muscle wastage
Periorbital fat (fat round the eyes)
Increased drinking and urinating

In 2017, thousands of laminitic patients benefitted from PPID being ruled in or out of their condition during the Talk About Laminitis campaign, as a result, the Talk About Laminitis campaign will continue offering FREE* ACTH lab testing during 2019

You can claim your complimentary testing voucher code by visiting www.careaboutcushings.co.uk

If your horse is already on Prascend, you may be eligible for a free monitoring test (lab fees only). You can generate your voucher code for this by visiting the link above.

Terms & Conditions:

This free ACTH test voucher code is for the laboratory fees for a blood ACTH test only.
Each voucher is only redeemable against an ACTH blood test where the patient has not been previously diagnosed with PPID
Full T&Cs can be found below at www.careaboutcushings.co.uk
Oakhill blood sampling fee, visit fee and postage still apply.

Extended liver fluke season and climate change

Fascioliasis

An important stage of the Liver fluke life cycle takes place in mud snails and requires wet and warm conditions (above 7 – 10°C) during the summer months. Over the last couple of years unseasonal weather has seen these conditions well into autumn and winter. This means that sheep and cattle are still being infected later in the season and more frequent testing and treatment may be required.

Fascioliasis can have a serious financial impact on a sheep farm with immediate losses up to 10 per cent caused by acute/subacute disease. Chronic disease could half profits by reducing lamb crop and increasing ewe mortality. Lack of treatment in cattle will lead to reduced growth and yields and discarded milk if treatment is no targeted.

We recommend testing your sheep and cattle for the presence of Liver fluke. Treatment needs to be targeted at your flock/herd and will vary from farm to farm. Please discuss your individual requirements with your vet to develop a treatment plan for the coming months.

Beef & Youngstock – Housing Considerations

We have experienced a drier summer than we are used to and this has posed different challenges. Worm burdens have been greatly reduced on pasture over the summer however if we get a heavy rainfall following this dry period there is likely to be mass emergence of worms onto pasture which may have severe consequences for our livestock if left untreated.

Exposure to lungworm may also have been reduced over the summer and so we would advise watching out for or listening to cattle to see if they are coughing over the next few months and treating if necessary. Lungworm can cause significant respiratory disease and death in cattle and should not be overlooked in any grazed stock. Where cattle have been grazed for extended periods the use of long acting anthelmintic bolus activity may have worn off and further treatment may be necessary.

Testing for Lungworm larvae can be done on a faecal sample however is slightly different to a normal worm egg count. If you would like to check grazed stock for Lungworm please submit a faecal sample stating that you require Lungworm testing.

Bringing in cattle from markets, other farms or common grazing can introduce new diseases to your own farm, including parasites such as liver fluke. Liver fluke is a common parasite that infects cattle, sheep and other domestic animals as well as wildlife such as deer and rabbits. Following several wet years monitoring, testing and treating for liver fluke early is also recommended during this year.

Resistance of liver fluke to treatments, in particular products containing triclabendazole (TCBZ), appears to be an increasing problem and one that needs managing on all livestock farms. It is important that care is taken to reduce selection pressure for resistance whenever possible by only using triclabendazole-containing products when no other options are suitable. Other medicines which contain the active ingredients, closantel, clorsulon, nitroxynil, oxyclozanide and albendazole are effective against adult flukes and some (nitroxynil and closantel) are effective against late immature stages between seven and eight weeks old.

If treating now or immediately on housing we would recommend using a Triclabendazole product but if cattle are housed for 7 weeks or more, one of the other products is often more suitable. Please speak to us about testing or when to treat.