Are we over dosing animals?

We probably are. I was on at the others here to get them dung sampled before dosing this year as they look fine and no coughing/failing. We should only be administering dose when needed and part of that would be improved testing to determine the need. Should farmers be trained to do this themselves?

I would also like to try some herbal leys which have species with anthelmintic properties - plus not grazing tight will reduce worm uptake. Cost will be the driver for everyone.

Ah, isn’t penicillin already a prescribed medicine? So if yer flaking through that now, how will prescribing doses help?

as funky said - fecal sampling seems to be the way it’s going.

It depends on the year, generally dose calves in Jun/Jul for worms, everything in August and then after shedding, but was involved in a lung worm burden in September that took a cow and yearling heifer.

Any member of the public can contact the Food Safety Authority if they have suspicions. I have submitted food samples twice in the past and have found their response satisfactory in both instances. I only contacted them when I didn't get a satisfactory answer from the Supermarkets when I complained.

Feeding ewes welll to ensure good quality colostrum and proper hygiene is the healthiest answer to watery mouth, spectram is just another antibiotic that's overused and is on borrowed time.

The way wormer resistance is rampant around the country now, farmers are only guessing if dosing lambs without testing, I've seen cydectin fail on one farm and yellow dose fail on another farm, all it'll take now is one of those farms to buy sheep off the other, then they'll have real problems

It's hard to know how to properly dose cattle. It seems to be a battle between the worms and the animal's immune system. If you overdose, it seems to cause 2 problems. One you kill off all , or most of the worms in the pasture. Cattle never get exposed to worms as they grow and so never develop a natural immunity.

Secondly the worms that do survive develope an immunity to the wormers and so dosing becomes ineffective.

I think it is best to maybe wait till calves are coughing in the first season before dosing and also vary dose types from year to year.

Read the AHI literature on Rumen Fluke. In line with what your vet is saying.

Read an article in journal by vet that said similar ( all cattle at grass will have some trace of rumen fluke, only one active dose effective against it so if resistance develops nothing left, if cattle appear healthy best leave alone ) My cows showed high in rumen fluke last year in BEEP but they were on outside block with poor crush so left them, then thought they too heavy in-calf when home so ended up not doing them at all. This year low rumen fluke detected.

Let us know how you get on Herd…

Tis something I have in the back of my mind starting as well. Be very interested how you get on, and how easy it is…

That would be the way to go - not too expensive either. Definitely interested.

Spectam is going from the market totally I think .

Agree with beastings being the answer but the odd time you get a ewe that seems to have poor quality stuff that might not be obvious. Or a lamb / lambs that miss out for some reason especially at peak lambing .

Baytril etc is about the only answer at that stage.

Had an issue re. wormer resistance here some years ago but thankfully over that now .Still blame routine dosing of mature ewes as causing it .It was an ivermectin problem from dosing ewes with closamectin in the winter for fluke for a few years in a row .

No lungworm and stomach worms are totally different to earthworms

Dosing livestock has no effect on soil fertility