Dosing

Mortan

When it comes to administering medications or treatments to cattle, there are different methods available, and the choice of dosing method may depend on various factors such as the specific medication, the desired effect, ease of administration, and the expertise and preferences of the person handling the animals.

Ak84

In relation to dosing at housing.

Would it not be better to let the parasites remain in the animals over winter, letting them build natural resistance. The parasites c an not complete their life cycle in a shed?

I imagine no extra burden as they not ingesting new parasites from the grass.

mr.stonewall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121354276#Comment_121354276

Looking at the example of Fluke. If left untreated animal performance will suffer greatly and in extreme cases to animal death due to damage of the liver. Having a look at the lifecycle of Fluke it needs the host of the mud snail for it to breed and then its ingested by the animal to continue the next stage of the lifecycle. With winter housing it give the best chance to break this cycle. Think of the Autumn we have had it was perfect for snail and the up take of liver fluke. Housing cuts the access to the snail and stops up take of the larvea. The only Fluke you have to deal with is the Fluke currently in the animal and not what can be picked up via larvea

Lung worm leads to the damage of the lungs and higher cases of pneumonia and again death. Chronic cases leave the animal on a tightrope

Dosing at housing is an animal welfare issue. Now we are encouraged to use sampling pre and post dosing to only use the correct product. Even organic famers can does again based on evidence and sampling, but with a doubling of withdrawals.

Water John

A lot depends on the size and age of animals. Weanlings need different regemes to stronger cattle. I'm organic so all dosing is based on level of parasites. I would certainly only dose stronger cattle as needed.

Lime Tree Farm

Lung damage

893bet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121354302#Comment_121354302

Given you can’t sample for lung worm how do you work it( just based on coughing?

same for lice/ticks? Just based on visual news?

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121354828#Comment_121354828

Yes and wet weather like this summer/autumn which is prone to hoose pneumonia. You will hear them coughing when moving them or when calling them to the feed troughs.

On the advice of our Vet we treated all the bought in spring born dairy x beef calves with the equivalent of Levacide injection on the 14th of Sept (the day of the herd test reading) as there was a number of them with a persistent (tongue out) dry cough. TBH there wasn't much improvement after when they came to the troughs for meal and we had to treat a few for pneumonia. Again on the advice of our Vet we treated them on the 7th of Oct with Dectomax. We had got them weighted for the dairy/beef scheme a few days before so we knew their weights. Thankfully they haven't looked back and are thriving.

adne

Does endofluke cover stomach and lung worms in stock under 1 year?

Water John

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121356174#Comment_121356174

Neither, only fluke.

adne

That's what thought but assistant in vets was adamant covered worms.

Does weanlings with endofluke today, how long before I could go again with something for worms? What oral dose best for worms?

Lime Tree Farm

Looks like the only oral dose is Levamisole for lung/gut worms only, according to my new Bible.

funkey_monkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121356231#Comment_121356231

Fenbendazole and Oxfendazole based Benzimidazoles will also cover worms along with tapeworm.

Can't say I recognise any of the products in the range though.

epfff

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121354936#Comment_121354936

Dectomax is the the business.

The longer it stays at the price it's at the better.

greysides

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121356196#Comment_121356196

Possibly confusing Endofluke and Endospec.

Conversations 3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121354828#Comment_121354828

You can test for Lungworm, costs a bit extra I think.

countryjimbo

Really useful advise in this thread, thanks for all the input lads!

mr.stonewall

The link here maybe of benefit to show the Fluke problem this year. Just found it on Met.ie.

https://www.met.ie/liver-fluke-forecast-2023

Diarmuid B

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121354828#Comment_121354828

You can test for it, just request it as part of your faecal test (fluke and worm). Costs a little extra but it’s worth it

greysides

In the SE, I'm suggesting that in lieu of particular suspicions, farmers delay fluke sampling until before/after Christmas, for cattle. This is due to time between intake and egg laying (10-12 weeks). Livers from local lambs in the local abattoir are not showing up fluke yet.

The forecast would raise my concern status a bit but I'm just not seeing them.

You'd need to be more careful with sheep than cattle.

Livers in lambs from Sligo, Mayo, Donegal have already been obviously infested for several months.

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121379443#Comment_121379443

You really need to talk to your Vet. She/He will have local knowledge of your area. The only thing that I recommend when housing your cattle is apply a topical lice treatment (Spot-On, Spotinor etc) to all your stock and repeat it again in three weeks.

mr.stonewall

With lice it's vital that the all the animals in the shed are treated on the same day.

mr.stonewall

From the egg samples I have got back I have small bits of rumen Fluke. Advice from the vet is to treat anything scoury and not thriving. It's cutting down the amount of dosing and saving time and money. No Fluke showed up but advice was to dose due to history and kill sheets from ahi in the past, due to the year we have had. Added to the fact that house has broken the lifecycle of fluke

Lungworm is an issue as cattle dose a week ago are coughing 3 times stronger now since dosing. Evidence of a serious problem

Only advice I would give to people is talk to your vet

greysides

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121379443#Comment_121379443

Look up the advice leaflets on the AHI site. They'll give you some background and a picture of what might be expected to be needed in an average situation. You then have to modify from there to suit yourself.

greysides

The post by limo_100 has been given its own thread, "Pneumonia vaccination".

greysides

Some info from Teagasc here:

https://www.teagasc.ie/news--events/daily/beef/a-guide-on-winter-dosing-products.php

Hard Knocks

We dosed everything with Levacide low vol drench and Fluconix to the bigger stock 6 weeks ago. Given the year and our land type I was expecting to be giving a second round 6 weeks after the first. We’re going with a white drench next year would you give white now instead of the yellow

greysides

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121400902#Comment_121400902

A couple of questions:

Roughly what area of the country are you farming in?

What was the timing of the dosing relative to housing?

What groups of stock do you have?

The problem with Levacide is the active ingredient, levamisole, doesn't hit type II (inhibited) worms. These can cause problems when they become active in the Spring, as well as act as a source of pasture contamination for the coming grazing season. However, I've never seen that risk quantified and it should be of lesser importance in certain ages/groups of stock (stronger or older). In recent decades there's simply been no need to take that risk due to the doses available.

Fluconix is "Trodax". A good fluke dose once your target is fluke more than six weeks in the animal. If your animals are housed more than six weeks at the time of dosing, then one dose gets all, otherwise .... you may well need another dose.

Hard Knocks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121402812#Comment_121402812

Cows and breeders (1.5yo) got both, weanlings got just Levacide. First dose was 2 weeks after entry. We’re in Leitrim

Last year we used ivermectin

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121378845#Comment_121378845

Yeah up here (Donegal) we've done our lambs 2 weeks ago (except ones nearly ready to go, which went on Monday) because we know our land and it's been even wetter than normal this year.

Should get one more draft before Christmas once the withdrawal is up.

Finishing cattle have been in since the start of October before they could get a chance to destroy the ground. Pour on used on them. It's just easier and so much faster.

greysides

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121403435#Comment_121403435

Cows (apart from any exceptions- older, weaker, previously sick, etc.) should be virtually immune to worms. You would probably be safe enough not dosing these again. However, I would take faecal samples about the beginning of March to check for eggs and find whether dosing is needed.

At the other end of the age groups, I would expect the weanlings to need dosing for worms later in housing period as they are not as immune as the cows, and in that case it might be as well to go ahead and do it now, white dose or ivomec type. If the weanlings are in very strong order you could go the sampling route later in the season instead.

The yearlings would be in-between the other two groups. You'd have to decide which of the other two groups they most relate to.

All in all, you can see why your local vet who knows the farm, would be better placed to advise.

Given your location and this year's fluke forecast, I think you'd need to give the fluconix to all once they're housed six weeks. There is no immunity to fluke.