Digital Dermatitis
Digital Dermatitis (DD) is a very common infectious cause of lameness in UK cattle - many of you will recognise the characteristic painful skin lesion between the heel bulbs in the hind feet.
Treponemes are the bacteria thought to cause DD - there are many strains which can cause varying severity of disease. Once a cow is infected the bacteria can become dormant and it is these carrier cows that are the main source of infection in the herd spreading it in slurry where the Treponemes can survive for up to 3 days.
Once you have infection on farm, control must include strict biosecurity to stop new, more aggressive strains being introduced; rapid diagnosis and treatment of infected cows to reduce the infection pressure to herd-mates; and a good slurry management plan to reduce foot contact times with slurry.
Summertime can be a really good opportunity to hit DD hard whilst either cows are out at grass, or conditions for housed animals are drier underfoot. Treatment for affected individuals is relatively simple - lift, clean and dry the foot and apply a topical antibiotic spray to the lesion allowing it to dry before walking out onto a clean yard. This may need to be repeated for severe lesions.
Prevention of DD includes setting up a practical and effective footbathing protocol that suits your farm, cows and infection level, as well as minimising contact between cows feet and standing slurry. Particular infection hot-spots to consider are difficult to scrape areas such as cross passageways, tight corners or down races/crushes.
Please get in touch if you want some help in getting to the bottom of DD during the summer months before housing pressures start.
Can hoof knives spread DD?
Some new research out of the University of Liverpool has looked at foot trimming and the risk of the hoof knife in passing infection between cows. Treponemes can survive for up to 2 hours on a hoof knife and, as 12.5% of healthy feet will have subclinical DD, there is potential to spread DD even when doing routine trims.
The research found submerging the hoof knife in 1% FAM solution for 20 seconds killed any Treponemes on the knife and prevented spread of infection.
Hoof Knife Hygiene
- Make sure knives are clean before you start
- Dilute your disinfectant: 1% FAM (10ml in 1litre)
- Submerge the blade in the disinfectant for at least 20 seconds
- After trimming each foot clean your hands and knives by swilling in a bucket of soapy water
- Dry knives in clean paper towel
- Return knives to the disinfectant for at least 20 seconds before next use
- Use 2 sets of knives so one set can be in the disinfectant whilst you trim the other foot.
Crypto: control in the summer months
We often think of Crypto as being a seasonal disease that builds up in calving yards as cows calve inside through the back end of the year. A tipping point in infection pressure is reached, usually after Christmas, and you can see spikes of disease in calf pens from January onwards. But it isn't just a winter disease - summer time has its own pressures too and we usually see issues when the calving pen has had an unusally busy spell!
Crypto is found in adult muck so the most common time for a calf to get infected is at the point of calving, in busy calving yards or once infection has taken hold, from infected calving pens. An infected calf takes the parasite into the calf pens and within 3-5 days can be shedding millions of the eggs as they scour into the environment and infect neighbouring calves.
We have calf-side scour test kits that can give us a diagnosis on what bugs are causing your calf scour so treatment and prevention strategies can be targetted.
Crypto is primarily controlled with improved hygiene:
- Calving yard - this needs mucking out, steam cleaning, allowed to dry and disinfected with an approved Crypto disinfectant every 4 weeks even in the summer. Use sand on the base of the yard if you're worried about grip for calving cows.
- Calf pens - muck out between each calf, power wash, allow to dry and disinfect with an approved Crypto disinfectant
- Make sure all feeding equipment is clean before going in the calf pens
- Make sure all people going in calf pens are clean and a fresh boot dip used
As always, I can't mention calf health without mentioning colostrum. It is vital that calves get great colostrum uptake 365 days a year. There are a lot of different management pressures on you, the cow and the calf at calving; snatching calves for Johne's, calving outside, silaging in between storms - make sure those pressures don't compromise those first few feeds.
Ask if you want to check calf immunity levels in the first week of life - it's a simple blood test that can highlight a problem, or reassure you that you can focus elsewhere for prevention.
NADIS Parasite Forecast: Cattle & Sheep
The hot dry weather in Spring 2020 has reduced overwintered worm eggs on pasture but the rain in the last few weeks will soon change that, and has massively increased the risk of blowfly strike. Click on the buttons below to have a look what the local worm and blowfly risk look like near you.
Did you know?
Studies have shown that 95% of UK sheep farms have resistance to white drenches (BZD), nearly 70% have resistance to yellow drenches (Levamisoles) and half have resistance to clear drenches (ML) which means the wormer you are using might not be as effective as you think!
Faecal egg counts are widely used to assess worm burdens and check for resistance on farm but remember, faecal egg counts only tell you about the number of larvae eaten 3 weeks ago, not what is happening right now. Monitoring growth rates gives you a much better handle on the effect those worms are having on daily live weight gain.
Question of the Month
The ethos at HFV is that we build relationships and trust between farmers and vets - we make time for that conversation, and being challenged and questioned by farmers whether that is on the phone, or in person, in a quick message, on email or WhatsApp, is a brilliant sign that this ethos is working well.
WhatsApp 23rd June: "Taking the temperature of a ketotic cow is standard procedure because...?"
Answer: "Ketosis is what we call a "gateway" disease - it's often secondary to another disease that stops them eating such as milk fever, an assisted calving, lameness, dirty after calving, mastitis etc. It is really important that if you find subclinical or clinical ketosis with your ketone meter on farm that you don't stop there, we need to find out the underlying "why".
Another reason we take the temperature in a ketotic cow is because part of the treatment may be a small dose of steroid which helps her appetite and liver function, but as a side effect can cause a dip in immunity. A high temperature can be an indicator she is fighting off an infection somewhere else that the steroid could make worse and justifies a conversation about treatment options."
Meds News
The vet-med supply chain over the last few years has been volatile as you will all know. Old brand names have come and gone, there are new pressures on limiting the use of certain types of meds, there have been sudden batch recalls on some favourite meds, not to mention the recent supply issues with lactating cow tubes. At HFV we focus on clear communications between medicine suppliers, vets and farmers so we can help you plan ahead, find alternatives for the must-haves and put prevention strategies in place. Use your med reviews as a reference for the specific diseases and treatments, doses and withdrawal times and ask all your staff to download the NOAH compendium app so they can quickly review data sheets in case brand names change and you need to quickly double check withholds.
Some new options:
Vigophos
Vigophos is a supportive treatment for ketosis in dairy cows. It is an injectable combination of vit B12 and phosphorous which changes the energy cycle in the liver, boosts appetite and reduces ketone production and can be part of the support package given to these at-risk cows.
Bovigen Scour
This is a single shot vaccine given to the dam before calving to boost colostrum levels of antibodies against the common causes of newborn scour in calves: E.coli, Rotavirus and Coronavirus. This is a particularly useful tool for suckler calves or dairy calves that are fed on whole milk for a week or more, as the boosted antibodies in the milk attach to the gut lining of the calf, stop the bacteria and viruses attaching and covers those critical first few weeks.
Double XL Colostrum
Most dairies now have a good supply of Johne's free, good quality colostrum stored in their freezers, but for those emergency situations or on any suckler units when colostrum is less available HFV now stock Double XL colostrum. This is good quality, freeze dried cow colostrum from UK herds that are accredited Johne's/IBR/BVD free. It is in a powdered form that you add 2 litres of warm water to and feed direct. One bottle can be used as a supplement to boost poorer quality colostrum, or it has a license as a colostrum replacer if you use 2 bottles in the first couple of hours.
Sensiblex
Sensiblex is a new relaxant for calving heifers and cows - once the calf is in the birth canal, it relaxes the cervix and soft tissues which reduces injuries to the mother, reduces length of calving, reduces risk of retained membranes and whites, as well as easing the birth process for the calf which meant treated heifers had 6 more live calves born per 100 compared to control groups.
Obviously this won't solve an over-large calf, a twisted uterus, or a milk fever calving but can help with those that aren't progressing if the calf is lined up correctly.
HFV Team
Rose Jackson
DBR CertVBM BVSc MRCVS
Rose graduated from Bristol in 2004 and has worked as a farm vet in Derbyshire ever since, and alongside Paula between 2007 - 2013. Rose completed her Diploma in Bovine Reproduction (DBR) from the University of Liverpool in 2010 and her Certificate in Veterinary Business Management in 2016. Rose's particular interests lie in cattle fertility, bull fertility examinations and genomics. Rose will be working on a part time basis from July and will be heading up HFV farmer training including DIY AI courses, AI refresher courses and the FarmSkills workshops.
INFO
- Emergency Phone: 07398 743095
- Email: mail@haywoodfarmvets.com
- Website: haywoodfarmvets.com
- Open hours: 08:30 - 16:30 (24hr emergency cover)