Lifestyle Animal Vet Services

Why have chickens? Eggs! Or meat if you’d prefer. Fresh eggs are much tastier than store bought and chickens will produce about one egg each per day throughout the warmer months, on average 240 eggs per year. Leftover eaters - while you can’t feed only scraps if your...

So, you have a couple of alpacas on your lifestyle block. You sit down and think to yourself, I don’t know a thing about these cute creatures. All I know is that they like grass and they eat hay when I toss it over the fence. We're here to help! This article will...

I don’t know about all your animals, but mine have been grazing mud for months! I’d like to talk about feeding appropriately through the winter months and managing pasture in wet conditions. Stocking rate Make sure you aren’t overstocked, as this means less grass to...

With the warmer (and humid) weather approaching, there are several health conditions that might arise. Flystrike Flystrike is a term used to indicate animals affected by fly offspring. Flies will seek out moist and warm spots on an animal to lay their eggs. When the...

Recognising a sick chicken Healthy chickens have a full coat of feathers, a red upright wattle, bright eyes and non-scaly legs. A sick chicken is often lethargic, separated from the flock, fluffs its feathers, and could be lame, open beak breathing, be losing...

Believe me, I’ve been there when people say “10 acres? That must be so nice! Lots of space, beautiful views and peaceful walks on the weekend.” Not so much so; 10 acres can keep you as busy as 100 acres. This is what a farmer friend once told me. The main difference...

From the moment ruminants start eating grass, they can be exposed to worms. Worms are ubiquitous, especially in paddocks previously grazed by other ruminants. When larvae (young worms) or worm eggs are ingested by a ruminant (their host), they follow the digestive...

How do we know our animals have parasites? Common symptoms of internal parasites include diarrhoea, dags, ill thrift, slow growth, coughing, pale mucous membranes (in sheep) and even death. To monitor worm burden, we use faecal egg counting: counts of over 500 eggs...

We are seeing a lot of ticks this season especially in young calves. You may also see them on your sheep, goats, horses, deer and dogs, so keep an eye out. The adult tick is a blood-sucking parasite with eight legs. 80% of the tick lifecycle is spent out in pasture so...