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Poison of the Season – Rat Bait

Every autumn and early winter we see a number of cases of rat bait poisoning in dogs, either via direct ingestion of the rat bait or less often by ingestion of rats/mice that have died from eating the bait. It is clear that dogs find these baits very tasty. Cats on the other hand are fussy about what they eat and prefer their prey to be alive and therefore are less likely to be poisoned. ...

West Coast Vets proud to support Meat the Need

West Coast Vets are proud to be a sponsor of the Meat the Need charity, a kiwi based operation aiming at connecting the dots and getting New Zealand meat into our food banks. This was founded by one of our Hoki locals - Siobhan O’Malley and her husband Christopher.Whilst there has been a need for a charity like this, to date, there has been a missing link between the willing farmer with livestock and the community organisations with the demands for a regular, reliable supply.Here at ...

Ukraine's Paws and Peeps Fundraiser with NZ Vets

Times are tough at the moment, but can be and are even tougher for others.With the current situation in Ukraine, we did our bit with a fundraiser from NZ to support animal welfare and those that provide it in Ukraine.What is more important in this situation: animals or people? It’s a tough call, but we know we can do a little something to ease the suffering so far away.We are stoked to share that our business along with our generous staff, clients and the NZ community, we raised $3,000 in...

Meet TJ!

Many of you recognise our senior Vet Nurse TJ from our Hokitika clinic. Her role is an essential part of our small animals operations and our staff and clients alike benefit from her vast expertise and knowledge. We took five to catch up with TJ and find out a little more about the lady in scrubs!...

Clinical case: Kovu and his prophylatic gastroplexy

We recently shared an article on the dangers of twisted stomachs and the danger in deep-chested dogs. Let’s meet Kovu, an at-risk dog that came into our clinic for some preventative surgery.Kovu is a very handsome, nine-month-old German Shepherd, whose owner booked him into our Hokitika clinic to have a prophylactic gastropexy under the same anaesthetic as his castration. Prophylactic – meaning preventative. Gastropexy – meaning surgical procedure where the stomach wall is adhere...

Is your pet at risk of a twisted stomach?

Did you know that you can do something for your dog to prevent a life-threatening condition you may not even realise he or she could be at risk of?Bloat is something that gets most people's attention, especially those who associate with large animals, like horses and cattle. Bloat is serious in any animal, but in the small animal clinic, when a pet arrives suffering bloat, it’s a big red flag! Respiratory distress, a distended (swollen) abdomen, retching and tryin...

The Tasty, and Dangerous, Fishy Morsel

Are you ready? I know I’m ready! The season is here. The mercury is rising, the days are longer and it’s time. It’s time to relish in the Summer sunshine and I hear our stunning West Coast is due for a cracker!Many of our favourite sports and activities rest in an awkward hibernation during Winter, only to have the dust blown off them at the first peek of Summer. The water skis come out, the mountain bikes get a service, the fishing rods come off the rack and walking shoes come out of...

A short Kōrero with Simon Hewitt

When Simon Hewitt first came to the West Coast, it rained for 20 months straight. Battling through and believing he was “solar-powered”, this rain was a new challenge he hadn’t quite experienced before at his previous clinic in Darfield. Simon is one of our large animal veterinarians and local owner at our Hokitika clinic. Seven years on from that 20-month-rain-welcome he had, we catch up with Simon to find out a little bit more. ...

What is your 3 week submission rate target?

How many cows are you putting up each day? Do this quick calculation:The number of cows in your herd x 0.9 / 21 days = Target Number of Cows per Day. If you are not getting as many cows up per day as you should then call your KeyVet to discuss. It is challenging to achieve a 6-week in-calf rate target of 78% if you do not get enough cows up in the first 3 weeks. The average Submission rate for 69 dairy farms in our area was 78%. Below shows data from the 2020/21 season:...

Catching up with Tara Hewitt

If you have ever stepped into the West Coast Vets clinic in Hokitika, you will have most likely met our Practice Manager and one of our local owners, Tara Hewitt. Smiling from behind the desk, it's a welcoming feeling – especially when you can feel quite nervous about bringing your furry friend in for their visit. We recently caught up with Tara to discover what her role is within the clinic, what brought her here and her life on the mighty West Coast. ...

Fake Facial Eczema

Although the spore counts have been zero to low in the last two months, there seem to be some signs of facial eczema around. How can this happen?If you are grazing turnips, rape or swedes as a summer feed there is a chance you see photosensitisation signs, the same as with facial eczema. This doesn’t have to be caused by facial eczema spores but rather caused by progoitrin (a compound in turnips and rape).Normally this progoitrin is broken down in the rumen. BUT if animals are suffering from r...

Beef and Lamb Facial Eczema Talk

On February 16th Briar Huggett from Beef and Lamb, Angela Leslie from Dairy NZ and myself put on a presentation about Facial Eczema (FE), with more emphasis on sheep and beef farms. Unfortunately, we did not get a great turn-out, but those that did make it got some valuable information and discussion about FE. Below is a summary:Facial eczema was diagnosed in Dairy Herds on the West Coast for the first time in 2016. No doubt it had been lingering around for longer than this undiagnosed. It ...

Are your cows pointy or plump?

As we flick our calendars over to March it’s time to begin thinking about making adjustments to your milking herd management. How you manage your herd in the next couple of months will have a significant impact on BCS at calving, which as a result, will affect your reproductive performance and milk solid production.The first step to meeting calving BCS targets is to BCS all milking cows. This allows you to draft out groups of cows with the intention to implement a mixture of strategies su...

What is a Dry Cow Consult?

A lot of us are only just pregnancy testing at the moment, but the seasons come around faster each year (or that is what it feels like to me). We want to support you and help make the best decisions going forward both for the health and welfare of your animals but also financially and for responsible antibiotic usage. ...

Listen up Ikamatua!

It’s always great to enjoy the company of who you work alongside and I’m now a little further away from the team in Greymouth. Luckily pretty much every day we get a visit (even if just for a break) from one of our vets, and the phone rings regularly so we’re always in touch with the Greymouth and the Hokitika teams. Being based that little bit out the road means the space is a bit more rural. It's a nice space to get to know all the locals out this way a bit better - whatever their animal...

Facial Eczema

Facial eczema is caused by the spores of a fungus (Pithomyces chartarum). These spores contain a compound which is toxic to the liver. The damaged liver leads to photosensitivity, making all the white areas of the animals or bare skin a lot more susceptible to sunburn. Lesions are normally seen around the face, the white sections of the back and the udder....

Late calvers

With November already upon us and the year speeding by, hopefully, we have had all the cows calved or if not – we are only waiting for a small handful to uncross their legs. However, as mating has started for some and just about to for others, we are left with the issue of these late cows. Generally, once a cow becomes a late calver she remains so until either she drops out of the herd as an empty cow or becomes a carryover. This has become a lot more of an issue for farmers since the abo...

Calves, worms and drenching

Warm and moist… good conditions for grass growth and also for gastrointestinal worm production. If calves are grazing, they are also picking up worm larvae and they don’t have any immunity gastrointestinal worms. This immunity develops over 18 months to 2 years. However, the calves generally do not need to be drenched until the majority of their feed intake has been grass for about 3 weeks, or about 3 months old, often coinciding with weaning.Some ways to lower the intake of worm larvae are ...

Passive Transfer Results

This year we blood tested over 100 calves to test their antibody levels and see their range of passive transfer. The results were quite mixed, the majority were very good however, there were a few that were surprisingly lower.Calves are born without their own immune system which does not kick in until 2-4 weeks of age. They rely entirely on the passive transfer of antibodies via good quality colostrum to fight infections, illness, and disease in the first ...

Calf Coccidiosis

Coccidiosis is a parasitic disease that can occur in calves from as young as 4 weeks of age, but normally between three and eight months. The main risk periods are times of stress such as moving, re-grouping, transport, weaning, etc; or within a couple of weeks of ceasing meal feeding. Infection is caused by the ingestion of oocysts, which survive well in moist environmental conditions. It is a parasite that is often around in low numbers, and clinica...

Antibiogram is the way forward

As discussed at the Dry Cow Consult and the RVMs, we are promoting responsible and cost effective mastitis treatment. We encourage the use of antibiograms to culture Staph aureus and Strep Uberis, which are specific to your farm from a bulk milk sample, and titre them against 10 of the most common antibiotics that make up mastitis and dry cow treatments. It allows us to maintain a treatable population, and allows you to be aware if you are bringing in cows from a more resistant herd.A ...

Do you need to test your calf scour?

We have the ability to investigate calf scours at both Hokitika and Greymouth clinics. Our quick test can tell you which of the 4 main scour pathogens are present in a fecal sample; E. coli, rotavirus, coronavirus (the non-human kind unfortunately), and cryptosporidium. Drop off a small sample of scours (we only need around a teaspoon amount) from affected calves, in a sample pot. If someone is available to run it the results can be reported back to you in around 15 minutes. This informatio...

Are your trace minerals working effectively?

As we all know, adequate trace minerals are vital for reproductive performance. Copper, Zinc, Manganese, and Selenium deficiencies can cause huge problems for mating outcomes. Therefore, most of you check the status and supplement these trace minerals to cows through their water or feed. But are these supplemented minerals in an organic or inorganic form? For example, is Copper supplemented as sulphate (inorganic) or chelated (organic) form? The form in which minerals are supplemented has a...

Metacam 20: Should you be using it routinely?

Mastitis is costly to manage on farms with its effects on milk quality and production is well known. Mastitis also results in an increased risk of culling through decreased reproductive performance. Compared to healthy cows, the odds of pregnancy by 29% and 46% for cows with mild and moderate to severe cases of mastitis respectively.Two large studies (the MAMMARY study and the FERTILE study) have shown that cows with mild to moderate mastitis that were treated with ...

Are your cows up or down?

The weather has treated us well this winter with higher temperatures and lower rainfall. So with more feed around and a better calving environment surely we should be seeing less down cows right? Unfortunately, on some farms we are seeing the opposite effect! We’re hearing of more cows that are struggling to get up, despite magnesium and other mineral supplementation. The daily requirements of magnesium does not change, however in a normal West Coast winter/early spring, we tend to have h...