Livestock health
The routine that prevents most losses, and the diseases worth recognising before a vet arrives.
There are no medicines, no doses and no treatments anywhere on this page. Treating an animal on a website's word is how an animal is lost and how a disease reaches a whole village. Every entry ends where a vet takes over.- The routine that prevents most of it
Most losses in a small herd come from things that a calendar prevents. Vaccination on time, deworming on time, clean water and a dry floor do more than any treatment does.
- Keep
- A written record of every vaccination and deworming, per animal
- Ask your vet for
- The schedule for your district, because it follows local disease pressure
- Daily
- Clean water, a dry place to lie, and a look at every animal while it feeds
RoutineAll animals - Foot and mouth disease
Fever, drooling, and blisters in the mouth and between the hooves. Animals go off feed and lame at the same time. Milk drops sharply and often does not fully return.
- Watch for
- Drooling and reluctance to stand, together
- Do first
- Separate the animal from the rest immediately, and call a vet the same day
- Prevented by
- The vaccination round run by your state, which is why the rounds matter
CattleBuffaloNotifiable - Haemorrhagic septicaemia and black quarter
Two fast killers of cattle and buffalo that arrive with the monsoon. An animal can be normal in the morning and dead by evening, which is why these are vaccinated before the rains rather than after.
- Watch for
- High fever, swelling at the throat or in a hind leg, sudden severe illness
- Do first
- Call a vet at once. Hours matter with both of these
- Timing
- Vaccinate before the monsoon starts, not during it
CattleBuffaloMonsoon - Mastitis
A hot, hard or swollen quarter, and milk with clots or flakes in it. It is the single most expensive routine problem in a small dairy, and most of it comes from milking hygiene.
- Watch for
- Clots in the first few squirts, which is where it shows before the udder does
- Do first
- Strip the first few squirts into a cup and look at them, every milking, every animal
- Prevented by
- Clean hands, clean udder, dry bedding, and milking the affected animal last
DairyCommon - Peste des petits ruminants in sheep and goats
Fever, discharge from the eyes and nose, mouth sores and severe diarrhoea. It moves through a flock quickly and kills a high share of the young animals.
- Watch for
- Discharge and diarrhoea together in several animals within a few days
- Do first
- Separate the flock from other flocks and call a vet the same day
- Prevented by
- The national vaccination programme. Ask your vet when the next round is
SheepGoatsNotifiable - Brucellosis
Abortion in the last third of pregnancy, retained placenta and repeat breeding. It passes to people, which makes it different from everything else on this list.
- Watch for
- More than one late abortion in a herd
- Do first
- Do not handle the aborted material without gloves. Call a vet and say what you saw
- Worth knowing
- Female calves can be vaccinated at the right age. Ask your vet about the window
CattleBuffaloPasses to people - Worms and external parasites
A rough coat, a pot belly, slow growth and a poor milk yield with no obvious illness. Ticks and lice show on the animal and are worst where sheds are crowded.
- Watch for
- A young animal that eats well and still does not grow
- Do first
- Ask your vet for a dung test rather than deworming on a guess
- Worth knowing
- Deworming on a guess, over and over, is what makes the worms resistant
All animalsRoutine
The 3 things that prevent most of it
- Vaccinate on the schedule your vet gives you for your district, and before the monsoon rather than during it.
- Keep a written record per animal of every vaccination and deworming, with dates. A vet can do far more with a record than without one.
- Look at every animal while it feeds, every day. An animal that stands apart at feeding time is the earliest sign you will get of anything.
Something wrong right now? Animal self diagnosis sorts how urgent it is and what to tell the vet.