New label - New withhold

For those of you who have and continue to use Excenel on your cattle, there has been a change in formulation which will be welcomed - the new product Excenel RTU-EZ is named for it's easier syringeability. Less time holding the bottle pulling up the dose! (and NOT accomplished as one skeptical dairyman commented on by 'adding more water'). Same potency, same price, and easier to use.

An important note - this new formulation still has zero hour milk withhold - but the meat/slaughter hold is now 4 days, not 3 days. That will be noted on the Rx labels on the medicine and I will be emphasizing this as the switchover occurs.

Enjoy the easier draw up and follow label instructions. Call anytime with questions on usage

AABP and AASRP meetings this week

Time again for a meeting of the American Bovine Practitioners and American Small Ruminant Practitioners Associations - i'll be in Milwaukee attending the preconference seminars and meetings themselves this Tues-Thursday - some exciting topics and looking forward to this info helping out back on the farm with dairy and beef, sheep and goats!

A wet lab on laparascopic AI/ET in small ruminants, a full day on new topics in lameness management in dairy (and beef)cattle as well as 'Fecal Fluency' - new strategies in interpreting egg counts and larval development assay' - primarily for small ruminants, but helpful in all sizes. Thursday transition cow management, tube ventilation in calf barns, and calf scours therapy and control...many others too - Hope to be at your farm in the next few weeks and can pass along some of this education and help your animals.

(Will have phone and email at the meeting, so please do let me know, as always, any questions on your animals you have - thanks!)

cow catcher

Had a nice back and forth over the weekend with a UK cattleman on twitter and he mentioned a cow catcher that mounts on the front end loader of a tractor. Having just come off a call to treat a pinkeye case that required a lot of coaxing, ropes, and mild rodeo effort, this sounded very useful.

And i think it is - have a look at the full series of pictures on this blog he provided me.
 http://anorfolkfarmer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/cow-catcher.html

His is a telescoping version and as the cows are often quite used to having tractors in the field around them(carrying round bales)they often and usually can be just driven up to and have the 'corral' drop over them. Great for pastures far from home corral - also was suggested (and many thanks to Andrew Holding @andrewholding1 for passing on all this info)that it was very useful for a newly calved cow to help get the calf sucking and tagged, leave them in for a few hours. Or *walking* cattle in them to get them closer to home.

Much as I love my lariat(and try to keep it hidden unless absolutely needed)this looks like a great piece of equipment to reduce cow(and owner - vet)stress and allow quick more easy treatment when cattle are on summer pastures.

March Madness time is back at UPenn New Bolton

(this is an updated version from past years - it is an annual event worth taking advantage of if needed)

The Annual Food Animal Rotation at New Bolton Center offers good discounts for bovine/small ruminant surgery and medical cases referred in to Penn for treatment in the next several weeks. Not only a good savings for you, but helps out students to see 'normal' cases that they will be encountering in practice. (I know this as a member of the original March Madness crew in 1989). Have a calf with a hernia? Great time to have her repaired. 

There is a continuing 'twist' this year - the first 8 LDA's of each 2 week rotation will be done for free, and for other cases they will pretty much offer a free evaluation and depending on the nature of the problem, can discuss cost of treatment and discounting.  

It starts today Monday, February 25th and goes for 4 weeks through March 24th. Take advantage of the expertise at Penn Vet, save some money and help your cattle, sheep, and goats, not to mention future livestock veterinarians.