When you deal with livestock, it is your job to make sure that all your animals are fit and healthy. Doing so is more difficult than it sounds. Your livestock may spend much of the time outside in fields or barns. That means that they are open to a whole range of infections and diseases that could be a problem. When one animal in a group gets ill, the illness tends to spread throughout the group.
Your livestock is your livelihood. That means that you need to do everything in your power to make sure that they are safe and well. If they get sick, that puts your business and your farm in jeopardy. You should always be alert and take the time to look for problems with your animals. No matter what type of animals you have, they can all have serious problems. Here are for killer problems your livestock might have and what to do about them.
1. Nutritional problems
What you feed your livestock goes a long way in determining how healthy your animals will be in the long term. It is vital that you give your animals extra supplements within their diet. In the wild, these animals would roam around and find a wide variety of food to eat. The variety of vegetation they would eat would be much wider if they were wild animals. Within their field, they get much less by way of vegetation and food. Take the time to access your animals’ diets. You can talk to an agricultural vet, who will tell you what you should be feeding your animals. Make sure that you follow his or her advice so that your animals don’t encounter any nutritional problems in the long run. Nutritional issues can lead to poor nourishment and death.
2. Worms and fleas
Worms and fleas might sound like a minor threat to your livestock, but you need to approach the issue in a serious manner. If your animals get fleas, they could become infected with other illnesses too. Often fleas carry a range of infections. When they bite your animals, they could give your animals a disease. Worms also make your animals ill. In the long term, worms can lead to the death of animals. That means that you will lose out on a great deal of your livestock if you ignore problems such as worms and fleas. Sheep and cows can suffer from worms. When you notice a problem in your livestock, you should get a prescription from the Vet. Make sure that you treat all your animals at once to stop the fleas or worms spreading.
3. Notifiable diseases
Sometimes when your livestock has a disease, you will need to tell the authorities about the problem. If you hope to sell the animals on, you need to be honest about health and history. Notifiable diseases are illnesses that could cause harm to people if they eat your meat. That means that the authorities will have to step in and deal with the problem. The main thing to remember is that the disease should stop with you and your animals. The authorities may have to put your livestock into quarantine so that the problem does not spread.
4. Grass tetany
Many cows suffer from grass tetany. It is a serious issue that can result in cows dying. You should look for the signs of this intolerance in your cows. Symptoms include muscle spasms and hyperactiveness. If your cows begin to act in a strange way, it is worth investigating the problem. The disorder means that cows can not tolerate magnesium in their diet. That means that they will have a problem with what they currently eat. If you believe that your livestock has this disorder, you should call a vet as soon as you can.
