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How a pre-surgery blood test saved Rocky

Gorgeous Ragdoll kitten, Rocky, came into our Invercargill clinic last year for what should have been a routine desexing procedure. As part of his admission paperwork, his owner opted for a pre-anaesthetic blood test.It’s a simple step we strongly recommend before surgery, as it helps identify hidden health issues that could affect how a pet handles anaesthetic drugs and recovery. In Rocky’s case, that decision may well have saved his life.Prior to this test, everyone thought Rocky was a per...

Salmonella in dairy cattle on the rise

There are around 2600 strains of Salmonella identified worldwide. The most common strains seen in cattle in New Zealand are S. Typhimurium, S. Give, S. Bovismorbificans (primarily affects the gut) and S. Brandenburg (primarily causes abortions).In spring 2025, numerous outbreaks due to these serotypes were seen on both the South Island and the North Island. Last year, MPI reported the most cases of Salmonella in cattle ever recorded in New Zealand (see Figure 1 below)....

Bull sales: Key considerations before you buy

Here are a few things to consider to help you select the right bulls for your herd and ensure they’re in top health:  The bull sale catalogues will be in mailboxes and online now. Take your time to read up about the stud breeder you’re looking at and make sure they are focused on the same things you need from your cows. It’s a good time to give them a call to discuss their philosophy and how they go about running their stock. &nbs...

Protect your pack: Essential vaccinations for working dogs

Keeping your team healthy, happy, and ready for the job is a top priority. Following a simple vaccination programme is one of the most effective and straightforward ways to prevent serious diseases that can sideline your best animals.  There are two key vaccines that we recommend your team stays up to date with. These are what we call the ‘core’ vaccine and canine cough.    ...

Improving milk quality

You’ll be hoping that the Dry Cow and/or teat seal you put in is going to do its job over the dry period and they’ll come back all cleaned up of any infections.However, as much as we’d like to think that will happen, it’s not always the case. Wishful thinking doesn’t amount to much when it comes to mastitis! So, if you want to have less mastitis to deal with and better results next season, now is a great time to make a plan.Improving milk quality does not have to be complicated or expe...

What the FEC: Testing up 38%

This year (July 2025 - April 2026), we have done 663 FEC tests through our Parasight machines across our clinics. That is a 38% increase on the 2024-25 year and covers both individual samples and composite tests for sheep, beef and dairy animals.Testing is an important part of an effective parasite management programme and we are happy to see more farmers checking on the status of their stock instead of just blanket drenching.As well as helping to prevent drench resistance, testing can be benefi...

Analysing phantom cow results

Across all the regions we service, we’re seeing a big increase in dairy farmers wanting to do phantom scanning.In our East and South Otago hubs (which includes our Gore, Tapanui, and Balclutha clinics), we had 18 farms do at least one phantom scan this season – and several did up to four scans to catch as many phantoms as possible!The outcomes from these scans:...

Prepping ewes for the winter

So much of the farming year is about preparing stock to winter well.We work on crops, supplementary feed and body condition in almost every month of the year to help ensure they can handle whatever the southern winter throws at them....

What the FEC: A mixed bag of results

Some samples coming through from drench checks have been very good, but only a handful. The majority are showing some leakage, through to high egg counts after drenching. This means looking at the drenching procedure, checking drench guns and further investigation on drench effectiveness.We’re also seeing a wide range in 28-day FECs. Some lambs on crop still need drenching, while others don’t. Meanwhile, those on permanent pasture are also showing a mixed bag of results. It’s great to see ...

New Crypto vaccine for the toolbox

Calf scours are one of the most frustrating problems on-farm to manage. Not only do they result in reduced growth rates and more calf deaths, they also increase the workload of calf rearers and can be disheartening.There are many infectious causes of scours in calves.  The most common one down here in the South, which most farmers will have experienced, is Rotavirus. Another nasty one that can crop up is Cryptosporidium parvum (Crypto), a gastrointestinal paras...

Baleage wrap: A cautionary tale of two cows

Please note, this article contains medical photographs taken during post-mortem examination.A short while ago, I was asked to carry out a post-mortem exam on a cow that had bloated and died earlier in the day.This was a cow that I had seen before for a severe pinkeye infection, and she was quite blind in both eyes. However, she was not expected to die from that! She had been pregnancy scanned the day before, so I also had to consider the possibility of a perforated rectum.When I opened the abdom...

The team behind the team

Part of this wider team is Farm Services, whose role is to make life easier for both farmers and vets by doing the groundwork that allows the vets to focus on practical animal health work as much as possible.They manage all vet and vet tech calendars, booking routine visits, organising appointments for core services such as pregnancy scanning, and coordinating the likes of the recent Ram Run.Collectively, they handled over 11,230 phone calls in the past year. That’s more than 322 hours on the ...

Watch out for Hairy Shaker Disease

HSD, or Border disease, is a form of pestivirus in sheep, very similar to Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) in cattle. It is often the cause of poor scanning rates, barren ewes, abortions, stillbirths, and the birth of weak lambs.This highly contagious disease can be spread from ewe to lamb via the placenta or milk, from ram to ewe during mating, and between ewes via nose-to-nose contact.Ewes that are infected will not show any clinical signs. The effect of HSD depends on when they are infected:Healt...

Ewe focus: Trace elements

Two key elements to consider prior to mating and before winter are selenium and iodine. Selenium plays a vital role in immune function, fertility, and lamb viability. Southland, as we know, has very deficient soils, meaning pasture alone usually does not meet requirements. You can check your stock’s selenium status with a blood test measuring glutathione peroxidase (GPx). This reflects selenium intake over the previous few months. GPx levels <4 - indicate deficiency and ewes should receiv...

Do you need to do larval cultures?

An LC is when faecal samples are cultured at the lab to see what type of worms are present. They hatch the eggs and count the different types of larvae (e.g. Ostertagia, Trichostrongylus, Haemonchus) and then let us know what percentage each one represents in the sample.   These parasites lay eggs that are practically the same, so they can’t be differentiated in just a FEC, which simply counts the number of eggs present. Why woul...

Condition counts: Score now for scanning success

Light ewes at mating will have worse lambing performance come spring. Ewes should be at body condition score (BCS) 3-3.5 for tupping.  What does BCS 3-3.5 look like? Well, if there is more than 6 weeks’ wool on the sheep, you will have to FEEL to get the full picture. To do this:  Place your hand with the thumb on top of the spine and fingers along the short ribs (flank area).  With your thumb, you should be able to feel the spine, but not particularly e...

The autumn parasite flush

Over the previous 6-7 months, we have had lots of parasite factories (lambs and calves) grazing our pastures. These young animals do not yet have an immunity to parasites and provide high levels of contamination onto the pastures.  Autumn weather also provides an excellent environment for parasite eggs to hatch and for larval development.    One thing we hear from farmers is that they want to “challenge their replacement stock” so that they develop a g...

Celebrating three vet-erans

During Southern Field Days 2026, we raised a glass for an awesome large animal vet trio, who have collectively stacked up 65 years of service with us.Fleur Barker freed her diary from fondling rams to recognise her 30th anniversary (she started in January 1996), Bianca Mackintosh stepped back from scanning cows to celebrate 20 years with us (she started in January 2006), and Lisa Roberts made it off-farm to mark 15 years working here (she started in January 2011). That’s a pretty amazing innin...

Dairy cow nutrition at dry-off

There are a lot of changes that occur in a dairy cow around the time of drying off in order to transition her from a lactating cow into a dry cow, including:Milk production needs to slow down to, ideally, 5-10 L/day in the 1-2 days leading up to dry-off (not always achievable in high producing cows), before completely stopping in the 1-2 weeks after the final milking.The rumen needs to adapt to a dry cow diet, which is often very different in both nutritional quality and quantity.The cow’s req...

Test trace elements with PP+

Trace element testing can seem like an expensive investment, but it’s an important part of getting the best performance out of a dairy herd.Production Profile Plus (PP+) is our dairy trace element monitoring programme. It aims to simplify the monitoring process, lower the costs, and give dairy farmers the information they need to make more informed decisions around supplementation.Through the programme, we do blood and liver tests at key times of the year to check trace element levels: pre-cal...

Looking closer with videoscopy

Using a thin, flexible tube with a high-definition camera on the end, videoscopy lets us look inside areas such as the stomach, airways, nasal passages, and bowel. The live images appear on a screen in real time, helping us diagnose problems accurately while minimising discomfort for your pet. Because videoscopy avoids large surgical incisions, it often means less pain, faster recovery, and a gentler experience overall. ...

Seeing more with ultrasound

Ultrasound is a safe, radiation-free imaging tool that uses sound waves to create live images of your pet’s soft tissues and organs. It’s commonly used to investigate concerns such as vomiting or diarrhoea, loss of appetite, weight loss, difficulty urinating, to assess organ health, or to check trauma-related issues like internal bleeding or fluid build up in the chest or abdomen.Because ultrasound shows movement as it happens, it helps our vets understand not just w...

Clear answers with X-rays

X-rays are a fast, non-invasive way for our vets to look inside your pet’s body and understand what might be causing pain, illness, or changes in behaviour. They’re commonly used to investigate things like internal injuries, tumours, fractures, dental disease, and swallowed foreign objects - especially when time matters. Because many problems can’t be seen or felt during a physical exam alone, X-rays help us get clearer answers sooner, so we can make the right deci...

Why an in-house laboratory matters

Our in-house labs allow us to run a wide range of tests without sending samples away. This includes blood and urine testing, cytology, clotting tests, hormone testing, blood gases and more. Because these tests are done in-clinic, results are often available within minutes, not days. External labs can take from 24-72 hours. That speed really matters. In emergency situations, such as toxic ingestion, sudden collapse or serious injury, fast results help our vets make informed de...

Tina, an unusual kitten

During her examination, the vet noticed a few unusual signs. Tina was unusually subdued, and her body shape wasn’t quite right for her age. Her legs were shorter than expected, and her head was broader than normal.  The vet was concerned that Tina might have a congenital condition, meaning something she was born with. With assistance from a local pathologist, the vet suspected congenital hypothyroidism – a rare condition in cats where the thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid ho...