Staff Changes at Merlin

Since the last newsletter we have had several changes of staff - vets, nursing and reception. At Duns Katie Gray has left her post of veterinary surgeon to travel in Australia and New Zealand. She has been replaced by Catherine Owen who qualified in 2008, and has worked in Wales and Ayrshire. Catherine and her husband are living near to Duns and settling in very nicely to the practice and we wish them a warm welcome to the Borders. Diana Hickson is back working on a Friday at Duns after the birth of her baby. This allows Diana to keep in touch with the practice, keep her vet skills up to date and the extra staffing means that the vets on the full 3 man rota get some extra time off from what is a very demanding on-call rota. Natalie McDonald is working at Galashiels for 2 days every week and also taking a full share in the on-call rota and it is great to see her back at work after her maternity break. To finish on the vet front Iain Lathangie is now working full time, spending 3 days at Galashiels, the other 2 at Kelso. His equine chiropractor skills are proving extremely popular as is the new stabling facility at Potsclose, and our new equine zoning system is starting to provide positive benefits for those equine clients willing to organise work in advance. We are very lucky to be able to employ and retain a great group of young veterinary surgeons to work in mixed rural practice - not all areas of the country are as fortunate - living in such a beautiful part of the country is a help as is having 3 strong sites in which to work, but the most important element is a superb group of clients totally committed to whatever area of livestock, equines and companion animals they are involved in.

Jeanette Lee has left her nursing position at Kelso to work on Alderney Island in the Channel Islands, in an animal welfare role. After 10 years at Kelso she is much missed, but this is a perfect role for her. Her replacement is Gayle Stockdale, and Gayle is currently being trained in all aspects of animal care. Also joining us at Kelso is Fiona Hogg. Some of you may remember Fiona from a few years ago, and she will be coming back to support Marion in reception. We hope when fully staffed to be able to extend our opening hours and that having 2 full time receptionists will reduce waiting times at the clinic for collecting prescriptions, placing orders, and general enquiries.

Neil Anderson, one of the vets working from Kelso was recently awarded his PhD entitled "An investigation into the ecology of trypanosomiasis in wildlife of the Luangwa Valley". So it is now Dr Neil in the practice - this is a wonderful achievement, and all the more difficult to complete successfully when trying to work in practice and balance family life with a new baby, and all at Merlin would like to congratulate Neil on his success. His next task is preparing papers for publication, going to be a busy year for the new doctor!

 Bluetongue - where are we now?

Hard to think about midges with the weather we have experienced over the last 3 weeks, but last year we were all involved in a massive successful vaccination campaign - over 90% penetration, a wonderful achievement, and this effort played a key role in keeping Scotland free from disease. Although vaccination is now voluntary the threat from BTV has not gone away, so how best to keep it out of Scotland? The hard work with double vaccinations was done last year, so best advice is to vaccinate all adult cows and sheep previously vaccinated in 2009 with a single booster within a calendar year. This will protect them for another summer season. Calves and lambs born in 2009 and already fully vaccinated will need a single booster before going out for the summer. For those animals to be born in 2010, a decision can be taken about vaccination later in the spring. For those wishing to export cattle and sheep remember that vaccinations must be done by a vet and individual identities must be recorded.

 Bull Sales and Health Information

If you are selling bulls and have not yet had them blood sampled for Health Declarations it is vital you get them done now. Most bulls will be sampled on an individual basis for BVD and IBR and on a herd basis for Johnes. Official health declarations supplied by CHeCS licensed laboratories e.g. SAC are the only reliable indicators of herd and individual health, do not rely on any other "health forms", and when you get your bull(s) home let us have a look at the health declaration to make sure the bull is safe and also that he can be made safe from the diseases you may have on your farm. It takes about 4 weeks to get full protection from vaccines, so keep them isolated till any necessary testing and vaccination has been completed. Very few bulls are semen checked before sale, so our advice would be to test bulls soon after purchase. That way any problems are highlighted straight away and can be resolved. If the bulls check out with no problems then you can be confident about their ability for the coming mating season.

 Weather and fluke/worming

It has been a very tough spell of weather for sheep, just at a critical stage of their pregnancy. Hopefully scanning results will prove how tough the foetus is to nutritional strain, and how much sterling effort shepherds have put into their care. We were seeing lots of fluke related ill thrift before the snow came, so just be aware the threat is very high this year, and that any suspicious loss of condition and weight loss may not just be down to the weather but could be fluke or indeed worm related. To date looking at faecal samples for fluke eggs is still the best way of confirming disease. The fluke leech protein out of the blood due to liver damage, and the low blood proteins affect lamb birth weights and vigour, plus greatly reduce colostrum and milk supply. A neat system of monitoring pregnant ewe health is to take some blood samples for protein and energy status, often just after scanning when the twins and triplets are known. Low protein levels could indicate fluke infections. More usually testing is done in the high risk period of 3-4 weeks before lambing. This allows fine tuning of the diet, can avoid cases of twin lamb disease, prolapses and can even reduce concentrate feeding costs. One to think about in February. We often use the Vet School at Edinburgh for these metabolic profiles, and in many cases you can persuade your compound feed supplier to foot the bill!

 Discontinued Products

Every month the list of licensed products to use in production animals gets less and less. Inevitably the reason is the small total volume used worldwide means that production is no longer economic, and companies focus on solutions for more prevalent diseases. This spring plain Heptavac (not Heptavac P) will run out and the sheep vaccine to control Erysipelas - Eryvac - is no longer available.

Heptavac - the replacement would be Bravoxin 10, offering unsurpassed protection against 10 clostridial diseases. This does not protect against Pasteurella pneumonia, for control of that deadly disease, Heptavac P Plus is the vaccine of choice for optimal clostridia and Pasteurella protection.

Eryvac - this disease causes severe joint ill in lambs in affected flocks, and whilst good hygiene and prompt treatment can minimise the disease the vaccine did offer very good control. Erysipelas vaccines do exist for other species, but are not licensed for use in sheep. If Eryvac is currently part of your health planning then best advice is to contact you usual vet for advice in using these alternative vaccines.

 Scour Vaccines in Calves

It is getting to that time of year again when we begin the think about calving and what to do to make sure calf health is as good as it can be. Most herds will be using vaccines against BVD, Lepto and Bluetongue in the next month, and the trick is to try and use no more that 2 vaccines at any one time, and separate vaccine intervals by 2 weeks. Not easy to do, but you don't want to overload the cows immune system and you want to get best value for money out of the vaccines you use.

Rotavec Corona scour vaccine is the best and probably the only way to protect against young calf scours caused by rota and corona virus infections. Needs to be given to the cows and heifers, best advice is around 4 weeks from calving. It is a small dose so make sure not to waste it, giving into plump muscle of the neck or rump. It is essential that the calves suckle or are fed colostrum in the first 12 hours of life. Current thinking is 10% of birth weight, so around 4-5 litres per calf - seems a lot but does the trick, you rarely see any calf for health issues if it has had those volumes of colostrum.