How to best manage your animal health during winter

The Beef Edge

‘Getting Winter Ready’ is a three-part series on the Beef Edge podcast focusing on nutrition, health and housing and for this second part, vet Cara Sheridan with MSD Animal Health discusses how to manage animal health over the winter. Cara highlights the importance of making adjustments to housing, fixing drinkers and ensuring cattle are dosed and vaccinated prior to housing. It is best to try and house stock on a dry day, keep stress low, divide stock bases on ages and weight and monitor stocking rates in sheds. Cara discusses in detail the anthelmintic treatment of lungworm, gutworm, fluke and lice (biting, sucking lice) for different types of cattle groups. In relation to animals that are sick or show symptoms, the animal should be isolated and Cara advises to act quick, get your vet involved to investigate and implement a targeted treatment plan. Plus, Cara highlights the benefits of learning from last year to plan for this year. For more information: AHI Heath Videos: https://animalhealthireland.ie/resources/?q=&resource_type%5B%5D=videos&prog%5B%5D=parasite-control Parasite Control at housing: https://animalhealthireland.ie/assets/uploads/2021/06/PC-at-Housing-2021.pdf?dl=1 For more episodes and information covered on the Beef Edge, visit the show page at: https://www.teagasc.ie/thebeefedge Produced on behalf of Teagasc by LastCastMedia.com