Part 1 Veterinary Involvement on Farms

This first Part looks at the veterinarian’s involvement on farms, from flock inspection to recognising fear and pain, identifying acute and chronic illness, and promoting veterinary services by demonstrating benefit:cost. Much of farm animal veterinary medicine is strictly determined by agricultural economics: farmers expect a benefit:cost in most situations, which largely excludes veterinary care for many conditions affecting individual sheep or cows. Extramural studies form the major component of an undergraduate’s clinical experience, but finding an experienced mentor in farm animal practice has become increasingly difficult with the dramatic rise in demand. This Part will provide a ‘virtual mentor’ in the form of the author, helping the veterinary student understand their immediate role on the farm and showing the challenges and demands faced by recent veterinary graduates arriving on a farm for the first time. Surveys reveal that some beef and sheep farms have fewer than one visit veterinary per six months and that engagement is often restricted to emergency events such as dystocia, uterine prolapse, hypomagnesaemic tetany etc or sudden high rates of mortality when circumstances are not always conducive to an easy working relationship. Two chapters here are specifically written on how to recognise sick cattle and sheep, highlighting those clinical signs farmers identify before requesting veterinary attendance.

Part 1 - Contents

1 1.1-25 Farmer identification of sick sheep

These videos demonstrate how a farmer can detect a sick sheep, looking at individual and/or flock behaviour, body and fleece condition.

2 1.26-45 Veterinary inspection and clinical examination

These videos show clinical examination of sick sheep, starting with general examination for Toxaemia, then identifying pain and fear (including using the sheep pain facial expression scale), and finally promoting veterinary services by demonstrating a benefit:cost.

3 1.46-50 Acute illness in beef cattle

Videos demonstrate signs of acute disease in beef cattle, such as dullness, salivation and coughing.

4 1.51-62 Chronic illness in cattle

Videos show signs of chronic illness in dairy and beef cattle, including lameness, a major cause of body condition loss in dairy cows, chronic respiratory disease (bronchiectasis), paratuberculosis, a common cause of chronic weight loss in beef and dairy cows, and chronic illness in youngstock.