Newsletter

Welcome to the Halifax County Veterinary Center Website!  We hope you enjoy the site, please tell your friends if you find it educational and interesting.  Since the objective of this project is community education, feel free to share your thoughts and recommendations on how we can better serve you through the website.  Our goal is to inform new clients about the clinic as well as keep current clients up to date as things change at Halifax County Veterinary Center.  We have added a newsletter page that will contain seasonal health recommendations and updates from the constantly changing world of veterinary medicine.  Periodically we will post two articles, one for small animals and one for large animals, to address the interests of the entire HCVC clientele. 

Annual Wellness Exam

Do not underestimate the importance of taking you pet to the veterinarian for regular wellness examinations.  These regular examinations will help your pet live a longer and healthier life.  During your annual wellness exam, the doctor will examine your pet and may detect any number of problems.  By detecting the problems early, the doctor can begin treatment and in some cases prolong the life of your pet.

 Some of the things detected during wellness exams are:

·        Heart murmurs

·        Dental disease

·        Tumors and skin growths, early detection would allow for surgical correction

·        Prostate and mammary cancer

·        Liver and kidney disease in earlier stages.  This allows the doctor to treat the disease and possibly lengthen the pets life.

 By having your pet examined yearly, weight issues (loss\gain) can be discussed and diet plans put in place to help maintain a healthier lifestyle for your pet.  During annual wellness exams, your pet’s eyes are examined which could detect cataracts, glaucoma, and damage to the inner and outer structures.

 Your pet can not always let you know when something is wrong; therefore, annual wellness exams are critical to your pet’s well-being.  Major health changes can occur in a short amount of time because of the accelerated aging rate; therefore, yearly wellness exams are just as important as yearly “shots”.  Having this done once a year, can save money and distress by catching problems early and lead to your pet living a long and happy life.

 By Cheryl Johnson

Calf Scours 

Calf scours or calf diarrhea is a problem of young calves typically in the spring of the year.  Scours may be caused by bacteria such e. coli or salmonella, virus’ such as rota or corona, and parasites such as coccidia or cryptosporidia.  Regardless of the cause the result is the same, diarrhea leading to dehydration. 

Calves with scours are easily recognized by the stool that is present on their tails and rear ends.  A normal calf will have a clean rear end and no stool on its tail.  Scouring calves may also be sluggish and laying by themselves or may be as energetic as normal calves.  A calf that has a messy tail but is energetic may or may not need to be treated.  A calf that has a messy tail and is sluggish should be treated with antibiotics and oral electrolytes.  The life threatening part of scours is dehydration.  A calf with diarrhea is losing fluid in the stool but since it doesn’t feel well it is also not nursing as much.  The calf must be force fed fluid in a bottle or esophageal feeder to get rehydrated.  Treatment must continue for a day or two after the stool starts to get formed.  A calf that is so dehydrated that it is flat out will need IV fluids administered by a veterinarian.

Even if a calf recovers completely from scours it will still be 20-30 lbs lighter at weaning than if they hadn’t gotten sick.  So, the best way to treat scours is to prevent it.  The source of scours causing organisms is the oldest calves in the pasture.  The first born calves pick up the organisms and let them reproduce in their gut and may get only slightly sick.  Several weeks later when younger calves are being born the older calves are shedding millions of organisms in the pasture.  The younger calves are exposed to many more scours organisms and get full blown scours.  There are several ways to prevent the calves from getting scours.  One is to move the cows that have not calved every few weeks so the younger calves are not around the older calves.  Another way to prevent scours is through vaccination.  Vaccination is very effective but the vaccine must be given to the cows, not the calves, during the last month of pregnancy.

If you have had problems with calf scours in the past or just want to keep from getting scours in the future we would be glad to discuss control measures with you.

Dr. Collins