Howells Veterinary Services
York Road,
Easingwold,
Newsletter
Welcome to the January edition of the Howells Veterinary Services Farm Newsletter.
With this month seeing the start of lambing for many of you we give advice on how to cope with the most
common difficulties encountered during parturition, which includes knowing when to call for help. We also
discuss lameness in beef cows and the pros and cons of once-daily feeding of dairy calves.
Don’t forget that lambing courses are being run on 28th January and 18th February—ring for more details.
If you would like to know more about anything you have read then please contact us.
Howells Veterinary Services Ltd
Tel.: 01347 823678
Lambing a ewe: handy hints
by Anna Leach
Things to have handy:

Plenty of obstetric lubricant: this is invaluable for any lambing, but especially those that are a
bit dry or a bit tight.

Lambing ropes and/or a snare: these are designed to be minimally traumatic to the lamb.

Arm-length gloves: these are useful to reduce the risk of metritis during assisted lambings, and
also to reduce the risk of you catching zoonotic diseases (e.g. toxoplasmosis) from ewes.

A clean environment: lambing in a dirty pen increases the risk of ascending infection for the
ewe, and also infection in the newborn lamb.

Warm water and disinfectant to wash hands between sheep, especially if not using gloves.

Antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs for ewes with assisted lambings.

Things for newborn lambs: iodine (navel dip), stomach tubes, colostrum source.
Common causes of dystocia:

Wrong presentation: coming backwards (back feet will face the roof of the vagina rather than
the floor; front legs bend the same way at fetlock and knee, whilst back legs bend in different
directions at the fetlock and hock); breech (backwards but just a tail); head back; more than
one lamb at the same time (follow a leg up to the body to identify which lamb is which).

Fetal oversize: lamb is too big to be delivered through the ewe’s pelvis.

Ringwomb: the cervix has not fully dilated. Sometimes this is because the ewe has been caught
too early in the labour process. NEVER give oxytocin as this can lead to uterine rupture.

Problems with the ewe: e.g. metabolic disease, fatigue.

Dead or mummified lambs.
When to intervene:

A ewe that has stopped straining after two hours.

Feet seen at the vulva but no lamb after 30 minutes.

Interval between lambs being delivered is over an hour.
When to ask for help:

If you can’t work out what’s going on.

If she has ringwomb and hasn’t opened after 15 minutes of trying manually.

If you have been trying for 20-30 minutes and are making no progress.

If the lamb is clearly too big to be delivered.

If there is a vaginal or uterine prolapse.
On examination we may find that epidural anaesthesia or a caesarean section is required. It is always
better to ring us earlier in the process as it is more likely to lead to a positive outcome for both the
ewe and the lamb. Please do not hesitate to ring us with any queries during the lambing season.
Visit our website for more information about the practice:
www.howellsvets.co.uk
Lameness in beef cattle
by Matt Barden
Lame cattle cost you money. Lame cattle eat less and grow more slowly; one study estimates
a reduction in growth rate of lame cows by 0.5kg each day (growth rate of 0.8kg/day versus
1.3kg/day). Another way of looking at it is the increased time it takes to finish cattle: a single
episode of ‘foul’ can add a fortnight on to the time it takes them to reach finishing weight.
Digital dermatitis is the most common infectious cause of lameness in cattle. It is easily
spread between cattle and between farms. The most common way it is spread between cows
is through standing in communal muck, and the biggest risk for spreading it between farms is
by buying in new stock. Fresh, dry bedding goes a long way to reducing the spread between
cows, and running new stock through a footbath on arrival will reduce the risk of introducing a
new strain of the bacteria onto your farm and causing an outbreak—ask us for advice.
This picture shows a typical lesion associated with digital
dermatitis, although they often look a lot milder. If a cow is
lame the foot really needs to be picked up and examined,
because if there is no sign of infection (digital dermatitis or
foul) then all the antibiotic in the world is not going to help.
Understandably, it is usually more practical to give beef cattle
injections than to apply topical treatments, and the organisms
involved in digital dermatitis and foul are usually responsive
to penicillins (e.g. Betamox) or tetracyclines (e.g. Alamycin).
Failure to respond to these antibiotics might be because more
than a single injection is needed and it would be worth giving
a full 3-5 day course (i.e. 3 injections) before reaching for
more expensive and unnecessary antibiotics.
Once-daily feeding of dairy calves
by Tom Downes
The concept of once-a-day feeding of calves has a tendency to polarise opinion. Whilst scientific
research on calf-rearing is abundant it is far from conclusive, and the evidence for and against once-aday milk feeding is both scarce and conflicting. There is no doubt that the more you feed calves the
better they perform, however this does not discredit once-a-day feeding, especially when you consider
that most calves are fed a limited amount of milk in two feeds.
Once-a-day feeding provides a restricted amount of calf milk replacer (CMR), which is just slightly higher than the calves’ maintenance requirements in one highly-concentrated feed. In theory this
encourages calves to consume more pellets or coarse mix, which promotes rumen development. As a calfrearing strategy, once-a-day feeding has some obvious benefits: reduced labour costs; reduced consumption of CMR; and, theoretically, improved rumen development and earlier weaning.
Clinical trials carried out in the UK and Ireland comparing once-a-day feeding to traditional twice-daily
regimes seem to suggest that overall Daily Live Weight Gain (DLWG) and weight at weaning is in fact
improved with once-a-day feeding systems. However, this benefit was only observed in calves started
on once-a-day feeding from three weeks old, when daily concentrate consumption is already around
0.25kg. Calves that began once-a-day feeding at five days old demonstrated poorer DLWG in the first
three weeks but no significant difference in growth by weaning when compared to calves fed twice daily.
Once-a-day feeding also has drawbacks. Calves may not be inspected as frequently, leading to a delay
in detecting health problems. Whole milk cannot be used as a feed for once-a-day feeding because it is
insufficiently concentrated to satisfy the calves’ requirements. CMR must contain casein and milk-based
proteins, allowing a milk clot to form in the abomasum, resulting in prolonged absorption of nutrients.
Calves fed once daily must have access to fresh clean water and good quality concentrates containing
18% crude protein.
All calf-feeding regimes have advantages and disadvantages and no one system works on all farms, so
it is important to consider what will suit your holding. Ultimately there is no substitute for good
colostrum management and husbandry. Time and time again research has shown that the biggest
single impact on a calf’s growth and performance is management of colostrum intake and feeding in the
first ten days of life. Beyond this, as long as adequate nutritional support is consistently provided,
calves will thrive under any good management system.