VTS257: Lg Animal Diseases & Nursing

1. Husbandry

2. Environment
• Assessing surroundings help assess the care of
the animals
• Water sources should be clean with fresh
water
• Unclean water spreads disease and many
animals will not drink it leading to chronic
dehydration and impaction
• Goats are especially sensitive to water quality

3. Clean
• Barns may appear dirty to people who are not
used to large animal facilities
• Time and cost prohibit daily cleaning
• Uneaten hay can be used as bedding, being
put down in layers to cover manure while
urine sinks to the bottom
• These barns are cleaned out every 2-4 weeks
depending on the number of animals

4. Clean cont’d
• Neonates and young animals require more
frequent cleaning of every 2-3 days to prevent
disease
• Layers of hay may pile up to high that animals
can escape enclosures by jumping over
• After cleaning, farmers put down a layer of
lime to help kill bacteria and prevent
mold, followed by wood chips and then the
hay

5. Dry
• Wet barns are breeding grounds for all kinds
of pathogens, esp. coccidia
• Coccidia loves moisture, warmth and darkness
(cleaning more frequently in neonates helps
prevent this disease in that population)
• Wet, damp barns lead to pneumonias and all
kinds of respiratory problems
• Urine causes burning eyes, runny
noses, coughing and irritated mucous
membranes

6. Drafts
• Cause huddling, crowding
• Dust is blown around causing eye and
respiratory problems
• Animals get chilled and sick
• Sheep seem to be more resistant to drafts

7. Ventilation
• Poor ventilation is a major cause of respiratory
disease in barn animals
• Stagnant air causes respiratory disease in
dairy animals
• A herd of cows produces a lot of heat and
humidity
• Exhaust fans that blow from young to old are
installed at either end of the barn to remove
heat and humidity

8. Bedding
• An important decision to control disease while
adhering to cost considerations

9. Straw
• Relatively cheap but stays wet from urine
• Needs to be replaced frequently
• Some animals will eat it and can lead to
impaction
• Used mostly with swine and horses

10. Old Hay
• Worse than straw
• Usually is full of mold which leads to
respiratory problems if inhaled and digestive
problems if eaten
• Layers cover manure while urine soaks
through

11. Wood Shavings
• Best but expensive, in the long run it reduces
disease
• Pine chips are good for young stock and non
milking animals
• Soft pine chips can grow Klebsiella and E.coli
that can enter the teat>>> mastitis
• Dairy animals should have hard wood shavings
like oak or maple over lime

12. Corn Husks
• Similar to straw in how it is used
• Can lead to digestive problems if eaten
• Not very absorptive, stays wet

13. Commonly used bedding by species
Dairy Cattle
- Concrete
- Rubber mats
- Sand
- Straw/chopped hay
- Shavings, sawdust ( green wood may contain
bacteria that can lead to mastitis)
- Slotted floors

14. Beef cattle, sheep and goats
- Concrete
- Straw
- Sawdust
- Sand
- Wood chips

15. Horses
- Wood chips
- Clay
- Concrete
- Rubber mats
- Wood shavings
- Sawdust, wood pellets, newspaper pellets
- Sawdust and straw

16. Hogs
- Concrete
- Slotted floors
- Rubber mats
- Wood chips for pets

17. Fencing
• Must contain large animals
• Some fencing is safe and effective for one
species and not for another
• Animals may learn to open gates
• Large animals that are loose are a danger to
themselves and others

18. Wood
• Expensive but attractive
• Horse farms have wood with electric wire to
prevent chewing the wood (goats also)
• Maintenance is expensive, treated wood is
toxic
• Many farms have switched to plastic fencing
for lower maintenance costs and durability

19. Electric
• Inexpensive and easy to install and move
• Power boxes and electricity are stronger than
solar
• Electric provides a constant current while
solar pulses
• Will usually hold species in, utilized in many
zoos
• Test current daily as animals will sense when
power is off

20. Wire Panels
• Good for goats, sheep, calves and swine
• Can be expensive but easily moved and
installed
• Come in heavy guaged wire
• Should not use with horses as they can get
their feet caught

21. Barbed Wire
• Seen around dairy farms, dangerous
• Rusted wire can cause tetanus
• Never use around horses
• Many animals get severe lacerations with
barbed wire

22. Feeders
Water
- Many farms have automatic waterers with
heating elements
- Make sure they are in working order and clean
- Make sure electricity is not shocking animals
when they are using the waterers

23. Bowls
- Rubber bowls used for horses or small groups
of large animals
- Animals will step in them and get it dirty
leading to spoilage of feed

24. Troughs
- Good for feeding multiple animals
- Feed stays cleaner
- Goats will jump in troughs and soil feed
- Need to clean frequently because mold will
grow on wet feed leading to GI upsets if
ingested

25. Hay Racks
- Keeps hay clean but animals can get caught in
them
- Horses should not be fed where the head is
elevated. Keeping their heads low allows fluids
to run out of their lungs and not accumulate
leading to respiratory problems

26. Structures
• Depend on species, environment and
economics

27. Sheds
- 3 sided or lean tos are good for all species
- Keeps them out of the wind and bad weather
- Good ventilation and no moisture build up
- Reduces parasites as well

28. Barns
- Stanchion
- Free stall
- Tie stall
Calf hutches
Creep feeders

29. Housing Goals
• Increase productivity/yield
• Natural habitat expensive but difficult to
maintain
• Bring feed to animals not animals to feed
• Minimize losses
- Predators
- Disease and parasite control
- Lightning, blizzard, drought

30. Construction
Materials
-cost, availability, durability, maintenance
Facility design
- Land, water availability
- Industry goals
- Environmental considerations
- Animals socialization needs, maximize gains
and minimize losses

31. Housing Examples
• Feedlot
• Dairy stanchions
• Swine confinement units
• Horse stables
- Loose box
- Tie stall

32. Socialization
• Herd animals are social animals
• Excessive animal density can be as serious as lack
of socialization
• Both can lead to vices
- Cribbing
- Wind sucking
- Weaving and stall walking
- Self mutilation
- Human injury and other animal injury

33. Sanitation
• Insect and vermin control
• Noxious/toxic gases
- Lead to respiratory tract
inflammation/susceptibility to disease
- Methane, ammonia, carbon sulfide

34. Parasite control
- Slotted floors
- Spreading manure on pastures can seed
environment with intestinal parasites ova and
larvae
- Reduce crowding
- Use of 3 sided sheds

35. Environmental impact
- Ground water
- Air quality
- noise

36. Biocontainment
Sterilization- eliminate or kill microbes
Disinfection- inhibition or prevention of growth of
microbes on inanimate objects
Antisepsis- inhibition or prevention of growth of
microbes on living tissues
Sanitation- reduction of the number of microbes to
a safe level
Pathogen control- must remove organic debris
first, cleansers ineffective on
feces, urine, pus, mucus etc

37. Fixed Surfaces
Barns, stalls, fences, pastures, pens
- Pressure washer
- Rotate facilities to reduce spread of disease

38. Mobile surfaces
• Buckets, feed tubs, shovels, pitchforks, water
hoses/nozzles, milking equipment
• Veterinary equipment, dental floats, stomach
tubes, endoscopes
• Human hands, clothes, feet
• Vehicles
• Use sanitary precautions to prevent spread of
disease

39. Animals
• Identification/isolation of sick animals
• Identification of pathogens
• Prompt removal of carcasses

40. Drug residues
Implications in human consumption/exposure
- Antibiotic resistance
- Allergic reactions
- Neoplasia (growth hormones)
- toxicosis

41. Implications in performance animals
• Alters performance
• Sources
1. Feed additives
- Antibiotics
- Hormones/growth promoters

42. 2. Drug administration
- Drug withdrawal times for meat/milk
- Non FDA approved medications
- Off label use
- Compounded medications

43. 3. Environmental contamination
- Pesticides
- Heavy metals
- Toxic waste
- Pasture contamination with extraneous plants
- Substance abuse by caretakers
- Human foodstuffs, chocolate, caffeine,
poppyseeds
- Feed mill contamination, bulk milk contamination