The Sunday News
Last week we discussed the implications of the season of abundance to the cattlemen. This week I would like to dovetail on that just to discuss basic items that a smallholder livestock farmer needs to keep in his or her veterinary trunk.
As we discussed last week, during a year of plenty rains like this one, there will be prolific growth of vegetation in the veld. This comes along with diseases and pests hence you find you are treating your animals for one issue or the other every week.
This is the time when an ill prepared farmer becomes a nuisance to his or her neighbour because of begging for this and that drug.
It is therefore important for a smallholder livestock farmer to have a dosing chemical so that when there is need to dose your animal you do not have to wait for someone coming from town to bring along the dosing remedy.
It doesn’t matter that you dosed your entire herd recently, one or two animals may pick parasites in the veld because there are plenty parasites going around due to rains. Secondly you need to have an oxytetracycline like Hitet 120, readily available in your veterinary stash.
This is an important drug which every farmer should have especially during this time of the year. It is a drug that is used to treat a number of diseases especially tick borne.
A visibly ill and even off feed animal when given a jab of this drug, it is usually on the recovery path the next day. As a farmer it is irresponsible and irritating to your neighbours that every time you have to rush to them to ask for Hitet or any such drugs to treat your animal, why not keep your own stock!
It is also important to have broad spectrum antibiotics as well as wound dressing antiseptic ointments.
It is very common during this time to have animals developing abcesses and wounds that may need cleaning and dressing hence having antiseptic powder or ointment is a good idea.
The eye and wound powder is particularly a very important powder to have in your veterinary cupboard. Twice I have brought my animal from complete blindness by simply applying the eye and wound powder to the eyes. The cataract goes away in about three days and your animal sees clearly again!
It is that’s very important for farmers to keep a minimum stash of veterinary drugs that will help us to provide immediate treatment when need arises.
Some of the illnesses may not provide you with the luxury to wait for your visit to the farm during the weekend.
The animal will be dead by then if no drugs are administered as a matter of urgency.
Dipping is an important animal management practice during this time of the year. As a rule of the thumb, animals should at least dip every week during this time of the year due to high tick load in the veld.
You therefore need to have your own dipping chemical so that in addition to Government dipping programme you will also supplement with your own chemicals.
In some cases your animals will miss the dipping session because your boys failed to round them up from the veld for dipping. Sometimes the dilutions on the dipping acaricides are too much and the dip seems to be less effective in dropping ticks, hence the need to supplement with home spraying.
It is actually wise to get tick grease as part of your dipping chemicals. Tick grease is very effective in controlling stubborn ticks like the brown ear ticks which are a serious problem at the moment.
It is very common to see animals with ears and the area around eyes clogged with small brown ticks. As a result of the irritation the animal will rub on tree branches and stumps to rid of the ticks and the result is blood dripping from the ears. In extreme infestation cases the ear is severed off.
Applying tick grease will control these ticks and because of the grease nature, it is not easily washed off by rains like other ordinary spray dips. A properly equipped veterinary trunk makes managing the health of your animals not only easy but a pleasure to execute.
Uyabonga umntakaMaKhumalo.
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