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 tomorrow 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. 

lambing and kidding time

a important consideration for ewes and does that are approaching delivery in the next month or two is boosting their immunity to clostridial diseases, the enterotoxemias C&D. these diseases can cause sickness and death in lambs, often the best growing ones. CD, or usually, CD/T vaccines, confer immunity to these along with tetanus protection. they are the basis of small ruminant vaccination protocols and the one that is universally recommended.

twice yearly is the typical timing for adults, but the point now is to vaccinate ahead of delivery so that colostrum quality is improved with a higher level of antibodies, providing the the lambs/kids with early protection. If they've been done before, one vaccination before delivery to boost is sufficient, but if it's their first time, two injections are needed, as with most vaccines. And in these younger animals, often their colostral quality isn't as great as an older ewe/doe, so this helps their offspring even more.

march and april will be here quickly - plan on this to help your spring kids and lambs - and ask me on the next visit to your farm, or call,  if you have questions on timing and the products best suited for your flock.

what a cow!

from Bovine Veterinarian:
by Geni Wren, Bovine Veterinarian Magazine | January 09, 2012


Mid-Valley Veterinary Hospital's Michael Karle, DVM, sent me an email last week about one of his Orland, Calif. dairies that experienced a quadruplet heifer birth.

Karle says that Zuppan Dairy owner John Zuppan had a cow that gave birth to live heifer quadruplets. The 4-year old cow had quadruplets on Dec. 6, 2011. All four heifer calves were born alive, healthy and at term without assistance.

"This is the cow's third time calving- the first two times she had single calves," Karle says. "The cow did not have any hormones before or after getting pregnant, and was artificially inseminated with non-sexed semen from a natural heat."

Karle explains that she likely released three oocytes from her ovaries which were fertilized, one of which then split, producing two calves out of the four which are identical genetically. Hair samples were taken from the cow and all four calves and sent to the Veterinary Genetics Lab at UC Davis and were confirmed to be all related.
 
Karle did the math and says odds of quadruplets in cattle are 1:700,000 (Veterinary Obstetrics and Genital Diseases, Roberts 1971 p. 84). The odds of quadruplets all born alive are 1:11.2 million, and the odds of quadruplets all alive, all one sex, are 1:179.2 million.

I chalk it up to the dairy having some great veterinarians!


article URL - http://www.bovinevetonline.com/newsletter/bovinevet-wir/Quadruplet-heifers-in-Calif-136913963.html

flooded corn and your cows

A good amount of standing corn was flooded last month and in early september, and some of that is now being chopped for silage. A concern with these feeds that have soilborne contamination is the likelihood of clostridial spores being present in higher amounts in this harvested feed.

Most corn that is properly ensiled will not have minimal concerns of disease with this because of the moisture range and a pH below 4.5; those cases with higher moisture and less than ideal fermentation conditions, which can occur on all farms, could have higher levels of Clostridial activity. Generally C.perfringens is lower in inoptimal silage than other Clostridial species. If however there is a higher spore count in the silage, there would be greater risk of GI disturbances and subsequent higher risk of enterotoxemia and other clostridial caused disease. 

It is often a good recommendation in general, in our part of the country, to include a 7/8 way clostridial vaccine in dairy cattle vaccination programs all the time. Some may add Type A, but it is optional.

Consider at the next herd check or farm visit discussing this vaccine, which provides good protection at low cost, and particularly if you have any corn that has been exposed to flood waters. It's an effective vaccine simply for cases where any forage has less than ideal fermentation and storage or with injection site infections that may favor growth of an anaerobe like Clostridium.   

Klein Farms on TV! Tonight at 9:00pm

Tune away from the Yankee game tonight to see local dairyman Layne Klein and his family's Klein-Farms featured on the TLC network show 'Cake Boss' - here's the article,  courtesy of the Palmer-Forks Patch, on this episode:

"Cake Boss" Comes to Klein Farms

TLC show will focus on 75th anniversary

• By Dino Ciliberti

&nbps;

View full size

    

PHOTOS (5)

When you walk into the dairy store at Klein Farms Dairy & Creamery in Forks Township, two signs cause customers to start chattering.

The first says "Klein Farms featured on Cake Boss, TLC Channel, Monday, Aug. 1, at 9 p.m." The next says "Cake Boss" Cow Prize episode filmed here.

Yes, this farm is going big time.

"We're semi-famous; this will make us a little more," said owner Layne Klein, whose farm celebrated its 75th anniversary in the fall.

It started with a phone call "out of the blue," Klein said.

He picked up the phone seven weeks ago and "Cake Boss" was on the horn seeking a farm to film an episode.

Klein said the TV show checked out several farms and zeroed in on Klein's farm because it thought "they had the right place."

"Cake Boss came up with a theme to have a birthday party for a special cow," said Klein, who wouldn't elaborate. Details are kept under wraps until the episode airs on TLC.

For the episode, the Kleins go to Hoboken, where the bakery is to order a cake. Meanwhile, the film crew visited the farm for more than six hours.

"It's amazing how many people watch the show," Klein said. "Now I'm even watching the full episodes."

Klein said he had fun on the set, too. There was a lot of joking around and talk about cow tipping, which he said "you can't really do."

"This show will get us on the map," Klein said.

"We had a lot of fun. They were very nice and respectful," said Renee Wilkins, who handles retail sales and serves as wholesale coordinator for Klein Farms Dairy & Creamery. "They all came into the store and bought stuff. They were really nice people.

The Ram Effect

The Ram Effect
Although it's going slowly, the days are starting to get shorter and those spring lambing ewes will soon begin to start cycling. If you're aiming for mid-late winter lambs, it's time to start planning for breeding season.      


To help those non-cycling ewes come into heat, sudden introduction of the ram(or a teaser)is often used and this will cause those females to ovulate in 3-4 days. Often this is a 'silent' heat and they aren't bred - but it will start them and the next estrus will be fertile.

It's important to separate the ram completely from the ewes for at least 3-4 weeks prior to this and sometimes up to 6 weeks. He must be kept out of sight, sound, and smell of the ewes. Some recommend turning the rams straight in after this separation, but there are some that suggest the rams and ewes be along a shared fenceline in sight and proximity and then turned into the same paddock.

Another practice just prior to inducing the rams is called 'flushing' the ewes, and that implies giving them a bit of grain supplement to increase their energy balance and subsequent fertility, the effect desired being to increase the numbers of ovulations and multiple births. It won't result in all triplets as in the picture above, but it will help overall numbers.

One final practice if handling the flock is to consider deworming if there has been close grazing of the pastures, or having the animals checked for their 'FAMACHA' score(more on that in a coming post)to evaluate if anemia is present. Having egg counts done prior and after deworming can help you not only assess need of deworming, but effectiveness of that if they have been treated.
 

pinkeye pressure

early signs of pinkeye

The early wet spring and now heat of june is bringing on a fairly heavy amount of flies and some early pinkeye in cattle in our area. it's not too late to help reduce the amount of infection in your cattle or if unaffected, help prevent your herd from having an outbreak. vaccination is part of the solution, but fly control is the real saver. Consider fly tags which will help all summer and if on calves, their ears swatting around the udders of their dams will reduce fly irritation and bites on the teats. Pour-ons work well - have had good success with UltraBoss and UltraSaber as well as Synergized De-Lice. Once a case is established in a herd, higher fly levels equal easier spread and contagion to remaining members of the herd. Treat tearing clinical cases showing some 'white' with injectable tetracycline or florfenicol(remember withholds)as simple topical treatment, while relieving symptoms, doesn't eliminate the carrier state in those individuals. Some producers have had success with patches. I also do include a topical treatment with antibiotic and a steroid to give some immediate relief. 

Best results as with any condition are getting them in the chute quickly upon first signs - severe ulceration of the eye can occur rapidly! With estimated cost per case at or greater than $150 per head in treatment and lost performance, as well as bringing them relief from this painful condition, it is well worth the preventative measures as well as effective treatment.