On-Call / Vet

This is the time of year many area farmers are calving. Usually this time of year is not as cold as it has been this year. The weather definitely presents difficulties we don’t have when we calve in later spring and fall.

Recently the West Nile virus has been in the news. This year has provided excellent conditions for the virus to be seen. Thirty-two states have reported human cases. Most of the cases are occurring through Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana. Missouri has had 2 cases occurring in horses.  

Most horse owners I know have at least one "easy keeper". These horses seem to require very little in terms of nutrition to maintain their body condition. Often the battle is in keeping them from becoming obese and horse owners go to great lengths, even what seems like near starvation to prevent these "easy keepers" from getting fat. As with all species, unchecked obesity comes with great health risks and for horses, Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS) is a condition not too uncommon for the overweight horse.

Over the past several weeks I have had numerous questions regarding the safety of Johnson grass as a forage or for hay. The extremely, hot and dry summer left many pastures short and several producers feeding hay as we approach fall. Johnson grass is a plant that tends to grow and proliferate during periods of heat and drought when other grasses fail to grow. As a result many pastures have an abundance of Johnson grass this year in comparison to other forages and during periods when feedstuffs are in short supply, producers naturally consider grazing or haying the Johnson grass. However, under the right conditions Johnson grass can accumulate high levels of nitrate and/or prussic acid and become highly toxic to livestock.

In this day and age significant concern has developed over the use of pharmaceuticals in animals intended for human consumption. Amongst consumers, there are many varying opinions regarding the use of drugs and chemicals in food animals ranging from those that prefer organically produced products to those that give little concern over the matter.

According to the calendar, spring is here and you have your calf crop on the ground and are thinking maybe you should be going over the farm equipment before spring planting starts. Something else you should be thinking about is getting ready for breeding season so that you have a new calf crop for next year. Some planning now on your part can go along way to making next year’s calf crop successful.

Blackleg is a disease that most cattle producers are relatively familiar with, if for no other reason than the ‘blackleg’ vaccine is probably the most commonly administered vaccination by cattle producers. And this for good reason, because for those producers that may have elected to forgo vaccination and unfortunately experienced the disease firsthand as a result, blackleg can be truly unforgettable. The disease frequently affects the biggest, fastest growing calves and renders them acutely dead in the majority of cases.

It is the time of year when cattle are seen rubbing on trees, fence post, feeders or anything they can. They will rub until the skin becomes raw, thick and irritated and often the cause for this is lice. It costs cattle producers millions of dollars in losses each year. They are biting the lice, which live on their skin and hair. These are a sucking lice. Sucking lice tend to cause anemia, which will cause the immune system to become weaker leading to other illnesses. The lice will cause a decrease in weight gain and in milk production, and this will lead to an increase in feed costs and cause you to treat other issues resulting in less profit.

Each year producers have lost several dollars in profit, either by loosing calves or in the expense of treating calves that have diarrhea problems. These problems can be in most cases prevented with good management practices. Calf diarrhea may be caused by bacteria, viral or poor nutrition.