Watch: getting skin and feet right at housing

Housing time provides an excellent opportunity to clean out parasites. With nearly 200 different products on the market, it is important to pick something that works for your herd.

Sometimes we make these decisions based on cost, ease of use and often familiarity. We must, however, make sure that the product covers and kills what we want. Part of this process is administering it correctly.

Firstly, have the animal properly restrained for safe effective treatment. Always read the back of the box to see how to administer the product. Always work out the correct dose rate based on the weight of the animal. If using oral doses or pour-ons, it is good practice to calibrate dosing guns at the start.

This can be done by setting correct volume and dispensing an amount into a measuring jug to ensure it is correct. Under-dosing can lead to resistance problems and poor treatments.

When applying pour-ons, use on dry animals ideally and possibly clip back before administration at housing.

When using injections, we have two options – under the skin (subcutaneous) or into the muscle. With subcutaneous injections we have a wide area around the shoulder blade in which to administer.

For intramuscular injections, we should try to use the muscle in the neck. Don’t inject animals into the hip muscle as this can often lead to be being kicked and damaging that valuable cut. Always use clean needles as introducing dirty needles leads to abscesses, infections, pain for the animal and damaged carcasses.

Watch our video on tips to administering medicines.

Over the last numbers of years there has been a lot of debate around the importance of rumen fluke on farms.

Rumen fluke or stomach fluke is commonly found on faecal egg samples.

The adult parasite will make its way to the rumen where, even in big numbers, it will have limited impact on performance.

However, it is the immature rumen fluke that cause the damage and are responsible for the symptoms we see in the intestine. The symptoms are the same for a lot of other gut parasites, with watery scours and weight loss being the most significant. Severe cases with heavy burdens can result in death. Occasionally, with treatments where heavy numbers are present, there can be severe scouring after dosing.

Worms and fluke are still the main parasites to worry about this winter. Where heavy levels of rumen fluke eggs are found along with clinical symptoms, it is important to discuss treatment options with your vet.

There is only one product licensed for treatment – oxyclozanide – and it will only kill adult rumen fluke. It will also only kill adult liver fluke so the timing of this dose at housing is key.

Be careful with oxyclozanide to stick carefully to recommended dose rules and rates. Where necessary or if there is cause for concern, this dose can be repeated in three to seven days.

1 Run scrapers more frequently to keep passages clean. When we have faeces build-up where cattle are standing, there is a much higher risk of infections occurring. The two main bacteria that cause lameness in cattle – mortellaro and fouls – are both in slurry.

2 Lift lame legs early. With any infection, the earlier we treat it the more success we have with treatment. This is particularly the case with mortellaro because the treponemes that can cause it are corkscrew-shaped. The older the infection, the deeper the infection, meaning a poorer chance of response to treatment. Topical antibiotic treatments work well when the infection is identified early.

3 Before treatment, clean the foot to remove any faeces, always clean or hose the leg down before applying any topical preparations, dry the skin, apply the treatment and allow animal to stand in clean yard after being treated.

4 Isolate the lame animals. It is good to remove animals that are lame on to a soft bedded surface for comfort. It is also important to remove infection from the rest of the herd.

5 When purchasing, never buy in lame animals. Always check feet for any swelling or lesions. It is good practice to hose down dirty feet to try pick up early infections.

6 Regular footbathing at housing really helps foot condition by preventing build-up of infections on the skin. Where infections are present, more regular footbathing is required. Aim to set up a footbath in a place where cows can flow through without being rushed. Make sure the correct volume is used and concentrations are right. For example, in a standard 200 litre footbath, a 5% solution means 190 litres of water and 10kg of solution. Footbaths need to be topped up and changed regularly.

7 While there definitely are more important minerals to balance on a winter diet for cattle, there is some evidence where zinc is supplemented that it may aid hoof health. Farmers dealing with lameness issues that are ongoing could look at options around supplementing zinc and biotin this winter. Remember to get the basics right first before we look for these minerals to completely resolve lameness issues.

8 Carefully trim feet to ensure lesions, particularly from mortellaro, aren’t affecting the tips of the toe or the back of the heel.

9 For severely lame animals, use anti-inflammatories. This can result in a quicker, more pain-free recovery for the infected animal.

10 Clean all hoof-trimming equipment between cows, wear gloves and disinfect everything after use. These bugs are contagious and you don’t want to help them spread.

With the change of weather, a lot of cattle are now indoors. While it provides an opportunity to treat any existing parasites in the animal, it also presents a new risk. Lice and mites both pose a risk for animals when indoors. Neither like sunlight and prefer long hair, humidity and cattle close by each other to facilitate spread from one animal to another.

The symptoms are irritation scratching, licking and tail swishing. In heavy burdens, they can cause a lot of ill thrift and weight loss. Mange tends to cause more severe symptoms because the mites burrow into the skin where as lice feed on the skin.

Some farms will opt to treat when symptoms like these appear, but possibly a much better option is to treat animals early to prevent build-up of these parasites on animals and in the environment.

Where do they come from?

Most likely they survive on animals and only start multiplying when indoors. There is the chance some mites may survive in houses.

Where treatments such as spot-ons or pour-ons aren’t working, it is always better to dig a little deeper by getting your vet to do some skin scrapes. There is definitely some resistance out there I feel but different lice and mites will also respond differently to different products.