South Moor Farm Vets

South Moor Farm Vets South Moor Farm Vets - Care you can count on. Independent, dedicated farm vets covering South Devon & East Cornwall for all of your farming needs.

Award Winning Vets - Best Vets in Devon & Top 25 Vets in the UK! Powered by VetHelpDirect

We are holding a calf meeting in conjunction with the AHDB GB calf week! This is a free meeting and it is open to all 🐮 ...
01/09/2025

We are holding a calf meeting in conjunction with the AHDB GB calf week! This is a free meeting and it is open to all 🐮
📍 18th September 2025
📍 1.30 - 4pm
📍 Cross Park, East Allington, TQ9 7RW
Places are limited! If you would like to come along please call us on 01803 900181 or email: farm@southmoorvets.co.uk

This cow went very weak and quiet a few days ago, and a vet exam showed that she was very anaemic (low blood cells). A q...
27/08/2025

This cow went very weak and quiet a few days ago, and a vet exam showed that she was very anaemic (low blood cells). A quick look at her blood down the microscope told us the reason - redwater!

Babesia (the cause of redwater) causes serious, and often even fatal disease. The signs are anaemia, fever, weakness and, as the name suggests, red urine. This cow had to have a blood transfusion from one of her mates, as well as a treatment to kill the babesia.

The warm weather seems to have caused a boom in tick numbers this summer. We’ve seen a lot more cases of tick-borne diseases such as redwater over the last few months, including farms that have never had it in recent years.

14/08/2025

📣 SAVE THE DATE! 📣
Agrifest South West – Devon’s Premier Primestock Show
🗓 Wednesday 5th November 2025
📍 Westpoint, Exeter
🎟 Free entry for all visitors!

Join us for a showcase of the very best in primestock cattle and sheep 🐂🐑
✅ 50+ agricultural business stands
✅ Innovative products & services
✅ Top speakers from across the industry
✅ Network with farmers & agri-professionals from across the South West

A must-attend date in the farming calendar!

Our next DHC Meeting is in the calendar! 🐄Kindly sponsored by SELEKT If you’re interested in coming along please let us ...
08/08/2025

Our next DHC Meeting is in the calendar! 🐄
Kindly sponsored by SELEKT
If you’re interested in coming along please let us know and we’ll make sure we have enough food for everyone!

We had a brilliant night on Saturday sponsoring Kingsbridge YFC speed shear. Well done to all those that took part! 🐑🪒
06/08/2025

We had a brilliant night on Saturday sponsoring Kingsbridge YFC speed shear. Well done to all those that took part! 🐑🪒

August Newsletter ☀️
06/08/2025

August Newsletter ☀️

🪱 Learn how to do your own faecal egg counts at home 🪱 We are holding another faecal egg count course on the 28th August...
01/08/2025

🪱 Learn how to do your own faecal egg counts at home 🪱

We are holding another faecal egg count course on the 28th August at our Ivybridge branch.
❗️Limited places available - Call us on 01803 900181 to book your place!

The South Moor team had another brilliant day out at Yealmpton show and to top it off our stand got 3rd place out of all...
30/07/2025

The South Moor team had another brilliant day out at Yealmpton show and to top it off our stand got 3rd place out of all the other stands at the show! 🫶🥉

Thankyou to everyone who came to see us today and we’re looking forward to the next show! ☀️

Seven cases of Blue Tongue Virus 3 have now been confirmed across England since 11th July 2025. The evidence suggests th...
30/07/2025

Seven cases of Blue Tongue Virus 3 have now been confirmed across England since 11th July 2025. The evidence suggests these cases are due to overwintering of the virus in England, and not blown over from the continent. Risk of disease transmission is considered to be very high, posing a very real risk to the livestock industry, especially once the virus enters livestock dense areas. If you haven’t already done so, please give us a call to discuss your individual farm and risk level.

Control options are limited, with vaccination being strongly advised.

The links below will take you to tools designed to help you make decisions for your individual farm, based on the cost of vaccination versus the cost of disease. We are more than happy to work through these with you.

https://ahdb.org.uk/knowledge-library/btv-3-vaccination-finance-calculator-beef

https://ahdb.org.uk/knowledge-library/btv-3-vaccination-finance-calculator-sheep

https://ahdb.org.uk/knowledge-library/btv-3-vaccination-finance-calculator-dairy

That’s the first show of the year done, we have had such a great day! 🐶🐮🐱🐑 A massive thankyou to everyone who came to vi...
27/07/2025

That’s the first show of the year done, we have had such a great day! 🐶🐮🐱🐑
A massive thankyou to everyone who came to visit our stand and also a big well done to all our clients who were competing today 😁
Next up .. Yealmpton Show!

⚠️ ⚠️ Since 11th July, a number of Bluetongue Virus 3 cases have been confirmed, in both sheep and cattle, in Herefordsh...
18/07/2025

⚠️ ⚠️ Since 11th July, a number of Bluetongue Virus 3 cases have been confirmed, in both sheep and cattle, in Herefordshire, Oxfordshire and Bedfordshire. These are the first confirmed cases in the UK for this season.

Midge activity is very high and warm weather is continuing. Risk of disease transmission is very high. ⚠️ ⚠️

BTV-3 has been shown to have devastating consequences within infected animals and has lead to huge production losses on affected farms within Europe and England. High mortality rates in sheep, significantly reduced milk yields and fertility impacts in cattle and birth of “dummy” calves.

The disease is spread by the midge and as a result we have very few control options. High speed fans in sheds and using more exposed grazing can help to some degree. As can transporting animals at times of the day when midge activity is lower (avoid dawn and dusk). Vaccination is available and for anyone who has been planning to vaccinate but have not yet done so, we advise doing so as soon as possible. It can take three weeks for full immunity after completion of the vaccine course. If you’d like to discuss your individual herd or flocks risk we’d encourage you to give us a call.

Please remain vigilant and report any concerns within your livestock to either ourselves on 01803 900181 or DEFRA on 03000 200 301.

For those that missed our information evening on this virus don’t forget you can catch up and view the recording here:
https://www.youtube.com/live/01L-5xiJ8w0?si=5yyoWCqUkAy3nL_Z
(Fast forward to minute 29 for the start of the meeting)

These updates are from Ruminant Health and Welfare and can be found here:
https://ruminanthw.org.uk/latest-bluetongue-announcement/

Pink Eye/ New forest eye /infectious Bovine Keratoconjuntivis We have recently had a lot of farmers ring in about the ab...
17/07/2025

Pink Eye/ New forest eye /infectious Bovine Keratoconjuntivis
We have recently had a lot of farmers ring in about the above condition. Above are just three of the names used to describe a condition that I’m sure most of you will have seen. Pink eye can cause significant production losses as well as be extremely uncomfortable for cattle suffering with a bad case.
Cause – the bacteria Moraxella Bovis is the causative agent and is spread between animals by flies.
Impact - Studies in cattle have shown that fly worry can cause growth rate losses of up to 0.3kg a day and 0.5l a day milk loss, mainly due to reduced feed intake.
Clinical signs – squinting, uncomfortable in bright light, discharge , redness and sometimes corneal ulceration and opacity ( whiteness ).
Diagnosis – is mainly based on clinical signs but you can swab the eyes and culture the bacteria.
Prevention – appropriate fly control (collars / pour-ons/ ear tags ) - this may have to be repeated throughout the summer . Reduce stocking density, avoid grazing long pasture and recently there have been some vaccines developed including a one off vaccine.
Treatment – 98% will respond to treatment if treated in time. Mild cases can be treated with topical antibiotic cream – normally cloxacillin and an anti-inflammatory injection. Severe cases often require systemic treatment with antibiotics – oxytetracycline is most commonly used and can be repeated 72 Hours later. IF this fails to work other antibiotics can be used and in particularly bad cases the eyelids can be stitched shut to allow the eye time to recover and worst case scenario the eye removed.
Although pink eye is probably the most common eye related problem seen in cattle it may not always be the cause of the problem. Other potentially causes include IBR, Bovine Iritis (silage eye ) foreign bodies stuck in the eye/ trauma and cancer eye.
If you are having eye issues in your cattle give us a call on 01803 900181 and we can discuss how we can help to solve the issue.

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South Moor Vets
Ivybridge
PL219JL

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