A large animal veterinarian must be adaptable today, especially with the dynamic production animal industry.
The local veterinary practitioner generally attends to most cattle needs.
Others at the practice do companion animals while yet others take an interest in production animals such as sheep and goats as well as diversified livestock such as bison, camelids and the equine species.
Producers who have these other species should find a veterinarian with an interest in their species and then use them so that the level of service is maintained in their community.
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Many specialists are available for referral if necessary.
Herd health visits are regularly scheduled on larger operations, especially on dairy farms, which has cut out a lot of emergency work.
As well, easy calving lines of beef cattle means caesarian sections and hard pulls are pretty much becoming things of the past.
Reproductive work in both the cow and bull is a mainstay of most large animal veterinarians.
Prices dropped and business fell off when BSE hit the cattle industry hard 12 years ago. Many routine procedures such as pregnancy diagnoses, vaccinations or treating individual cows were left out. Management decisions such as when and what to vaccinate the cows for or when to pull the bulls were neglected.
The cattle industry is now stronger because of higher prices, and many top producers are starting to reimplement preventive procedures. Others never stopped, which is admirable.
Now is the time for many producers to start catching up as they realize that a lot of these procedures can make them a profit, especially in a high market. We are starting to examine more individual bulls, cows and calves again as their value increases. The individual exam may reflect what is brewing in the herd.
I want producers to carefully review the following list and think about whether these procedures get looked at and attended to on their ranch.
- Get an autopsy for most deaths because these are a window into the health of the herd. Feedlot practices base a lot of their decisions on autopsy results.
- Treat newborn calves for pneumonia or scours and hook them up to intravenous fluids if they are dehydrated from scours. Some clinics can keep these calves isolated, warm and the fluids running. As a result, prognosis for recovery is reasonable. They will often bounce back in one to two days. A veterinarian visit to work on diagnoses, biosecurity and prevention, in-cluding scours vaccination, can minimize new cases considerably.
- Broken legs on calves usually have a good prognosis and are worth examining because of today’s market. They need to be looked at as quickly as possible. Be careful transporting them. During the BSE era, we sent many samples of dead cows that were never treated. Nowadays, prices are good and either deciding to ship a cow early for salvage or treating early may have a good outcome.
- Cows with kidney infections can recover and carry their calf to term if caught early enough and treated long enough.
- Lumpy jaws or wooden tongues carry a good prognosis if treated early. Your vet may need to run sodium iodide intravenously as well as other treatments, but in most cases the wooden tongue is cured and the lump jaw is arrested at that point. The bony changes to the jaw will stay the same, but the condition should not worsen.
- Mastitis or metritis, which is an infection in the uterus, also has a favourable outcome most times if treated vigorously. Your veterinarian may prescribe anti-inflammatory drugs, which go a long way to keeping the cows eating and making a faster recovery.
- Bulls with a cut penis can often be rehabilitated to the point of being used the following year. Bulls are valuable animals and at times require individual attention. As well, insurance brokers need to see due diligence in the care of the herd sires.
- Ask a veterinarian to check unresolved lameness conditions. Sole abscesses, corns and septic arthritis can all have favourable outcomes if treated properly. It’s worth knowing if the animal has a high leg injury that will just take time to heal because then the producers know they can let the animal convalesce. A large number of lameness issues at pasture may be injuries such as strains and sprains. Convalescence may be all that is needed. Claws can be am-putated in septic arthritis of the distal joint and the animals can live out productive lives with no pain.
