jabs/innoculations

[min]

Hello everybody ,
I am min, and I am about to start my very first heard of Dexter cattle,all be it a small heard,1 steer for slaughter next spring,perhaps earlier and two maiden hiefers that Iwant to breed from.
I am in wilts ,in the UK.
my very first question to all you lovely knowledgeable people out there is this....
I asked my vet what jabs/innoculations my Dexter cattle would 'have' to have,and he ran off a list of things,ie tetenus,leptospirosis,blue tongue,and a few others I think.Of coarse they have to be TB tested.
When I asked the vender who is selling me the cattle what jabs had they had to date,he has only mentioned blue tongue, and they have been regularly wormed .they had thier blue tonge jab about 2yrs ago.
so what jabs are a real nessesity ,I am the first person to go to the vet if one of my dogs or horses are sick ,but sadley I have had a few occassions when I have been prompted for expensive treatment ,and that expence has been for nothing,I just dont want to feel I am having something that isnt truely needed,though with all my stock fencing being barbed wire I dont think I would want to miss them a tet jab,it is all the others I havent a clue about?????,
all advice gratefully recieved,
kind regards,
Min.

 

[wbvs58]

Required vaccinations will vary from country to country and also from region to region within a country. Your best bet is to talk to local farmers to see what they use. You might be lucky and be able to scrounge from them the left overs from their vaccination program. Large animal vaccines are relatively cheap per animal, the only catch is they come in multidose bottles, sometimes the smallest is 25 or 50 doses, which for 3 animals is very expensive, so I would suggest ask around.
As for Tetanus and Lepto, in Australia we have a 7in 1 which includes both, plus a couple of other Clostridial (related to tetanus) diseases. They require 2 doses 4-6 wks apart, then an annual booster usually I give mine 6wks before the cows calve.
Blue tongue I know nothing about and TB we eradicated in the 1980's. Other options I have are BVD, Vibrio, BRD,Ephemeral fever, Botulism, Pink Eye, Tick Fever, these are just what come to mind. In fact 7in1 and BVD and Vibrio in the bulls are all I use generally.
As you can see you need local knowledge and cost sharing.
Ken

 

[min]

Thanks for replying Ken,I am in UK,have spoken to some of the farmers in the area,and apart from TB as far as the beef cattle go ,one said his didnt get anything else,as they werent going to be around long enough to warrent it,unfortunately there are very few vets over here that will hand over drugs that have to be injected,so far my experiance has been that you can only have it if a qualified vet comes out to you to give it ,which is when it gets expensive over here,but that has been my experiance with horses,cows are new for me,so perhaps it will be different for the cattle ? I shall have to speak to a lot more farmers to get a proper conclusion, and I think the best place to go for that is the local cattle sales.
Thanks for your' input hun. ;-).
kind regards,
MIN.

 

[wbvs58]

Ask at farm supply companies, over here the basic vaccines are open sellers and most farm supply outlets have fridges full of the stuff and often sell it cheaper than what the vet can buy it for.
Ken