According to Dr. Rob Swackhammer, veterinarian with Upper Grand Veterinary Services in Guelph, Ont., who specializes in large animal veterinary care, these situations can often be managed with a little common sense and confidence.

“Having the basic skills and self-confidence to assist an animal that’s uncomfortable not only improves the animal’s welfare but can be the difference between calling the vet or not, or even buying time until the vet arrives,” says Swackhammer. Knowing what to look for and how to manage an animal health situation can also provide a veterinarian with valuable information to make timely decisions.

A firm believer in lifelong learning, Swackhammer often works with clients to educate them on early symptoms and signs of animal illness or distress. He shares his practical on-farm approach with farmers to identify common issues, how to manage emergency situations and when to call in a veterinarian for help.

Here are the top four animal health concerns Swackhammer believes livestock farmers should be able to identify and know what to do if faced with the situation. 

1. Dystocia 

Commonly known as an abnormal or difficult birth, dystocia can occur at any stage of labour, in all types of livestock and at any age.

Swackhammer advises farmers to brush up on the stages of labour based on the type of animal they have. For example, the first stages of labour in a cow could take up to five hours, and once feet are presented the calf should be born within the hour. Understanding the labour stages can help farmers understand if the situation is prolonged or problematic, and if they need to call a veterinarian for help.

If an animal’s labour becomes prolonged or it exhibits signs of discomfort, Swackhammer advises farmers to perform an internal examination. “The ability to properly assess an animal, like checking on the position of the baby, can help everyone make informed decisions. If a vet needs to be called, the ability to provide as much information over the phone about the length of labour and position of the baby inside the mother will benefit everyone, especially the animal in distress,” says Swackhammer.

“If labour is going well and progressing there is no need to touch the animal,” Swackhammer reminds farmers. “But knowing when to step in can save the baby and result in a healthier mother.”

Of course, mitigating dystocia can be managed even before the animal becomes pregnant, by selecting sires that offer calving, lambing, foaling or kidding ease and proper nutrition to maintain ideal animal body weight and animal condition before and during pregnancy. 

Swackhammer recommends pregnancy checks or ultrasounds to identify the accurate birth timing and determine if the animal is carrying multiples. He reminds farmers that the more information you know ahead of time, the better prepared you can be.

When it comes to being prepared, having the right supplies on hand is a must. These should include OB gloves and lube, clean rope, anti-inflammatory medication, needles and syringes, and colostrum. 

Swackhammer reminds farmers that wearing personal protection when assisting with livestock births is important because some zoonotic diseases can be transmitted to humans. 

A clean and dry environment where animals can be caught easily and restrained, if necessary, should also be prepared to reduce stress on the animals and farm workers.

2. Scours

Scours refers to diarrhea and is most common in young animals, such as calves, lambs, piglets, kids and foals. It’s a common and potentially serious condition that can lead to dehydration, weakness and even death if not treated promptly. 

According to Swackhammer, the best defence against scours is colostrum. Ideally, every newborn animal should drink colostrum within eight hours of birth to reduce the risk of scours. Young animals should also have access to plenty of clean water to supplement their hydration.

Watery, loose feces are the most common signs of scours. Young animals can also show signs of dehydration, such as sunken eyes and a dry mouth or nose. They can also be lethargic and show little interest in nursing, drinking or eating.

Early intervention is key to managing scours. As soon as signs are detected, the animals should be quarantined to reduce the transmission of pathogens to other young animals. If the animals are on pasture, Swackhammer advises farmers to rotate pastures and isolate sick animals to reduce pathogen buildup in the animals’ environment. 

Early treatment can be as simple as supplementing the young animal’s hydration with oral electrolytes once or twice a day. Electrolytes can be easily fed with a bottle and, as an added benefit, can help reduce the risk of acidosis in young animals. Swackhammer reminds farmers to read and follow label directions when administering all medication, including electrolytes. Providing an anti-inflammatory can also help young animals recover faster and keep them comfortable.

Swackhammer says it’s time to call the veterinarian when more severe signs of dehydration and lethargy are visible, or if the animal doesn’t respond to electrolytes. He explains that more severe stages of scours can be identified by drooping ears, sunken or glazed eyes, or if the young animal has difficulty standing. 

“That’s when you really need to call your vet,” he says, reminding farmers to keep detailed records of the illness timeline and any medication they have administered to provide the veterinarian with the most accurate and timely information.

If a herd or flock is prone to scours, Swackhammer advises farmers to consult with their veterinarian about preventative vaccine programs for mature animals that can help reduce the risk when young animals are born.

3. Lameness

Lameness is a frequent issue in livestock and, according to Swackhammer, the most common cause is foot rot. This is especially prominent during the muddy seasons of spring and fall, and that’s why he reminds farmers that prevention starts with keeping a clean and dry environment for livestock.

“Lameness due to foot rot can look like a broken foot, too,” says Swackhammer, noting that other common signs include swelling and an animal’s inability to bear weight on the foot. 

On-farm treatments can start with a long-acting antibiotic that should show signs of improvement within two days. Administering an anti-inflammatory is also recommended to reduce swelling and improve recovery time. 

If the animal doesn’t respond to treatment, or doesn’t improve within two days, Swackhammer recommends calling a veterinarian for a consultation. He says that in prolonged cases, it’s best to seek professional medical care to determine the cause and best course of treatment.

4. Respiratory infections

“Pneumonia is the predominant respiratory illness in livestock, especially in young animals,” says Swackhammer. He says that once again colostrum is a young animal’s best defense, along with a clean, dry and well-ventilated environment. 

Signs of pneumonia in young animals can vary, but common symptoms include coughing, laboured or rapid breathing, nasal discharge, fever and lethargy. Swackhammer says that in cases of respiratory illness, he recommends calling a veterinarian if any of these signs appear, especially if an animal is open-mouth breathing. 

Having a thermometer on hand to monitor the animal’s temperature is the first step to managing pneumonia. He says the first line of treatment will likely be a long-acting antibiotic, but that should be directed by a professional. And if there’s no response to treatment within 24-48 hours, then a second call to the veterinarian is recommended. 

Infected animals should also be quarantined, and nose-to-nose contact with other animals should be restricted or prevented altogether.

To help prevent pneumonia, farmers can start by minimizing stress in young animals. “Stress weakens an animal’s immune system and increases their risk of picking up bacteria and infections, especially respiratory infections,” explains Swackhammer.

Some of the most stressful periods in a young animal’s life can be weaning and transportation. Swackhammer advises farmers to consider a pre-weaning vaccination program to reduce the risk of illness and a weaning program that reduces animal stress. These management considerations can also help manage stress and boost immunity during transportation, reducing the risk of “shipping fever,” a common term for respiratory illness in livestock.

Empowering farmers

“Farmers are resourceful and intuitive, they just need to feel empowered sometimes, and have the proper tools and skill set to take action,” says Swackhammer, who recommends that farmers consult with their veterinarian to learn more about these common illnesses and what they can do to prevent and manage them on their own farm.

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The departures come as the country battles its longest-ever outbreak of bird flu and faces the encroachment of New World screwworm, a flesh-eating pest detected among cattle in Mexico.

“With the decrease in USDA veterinary positions, there is concern that fewer veterinarians will be able to perform ongoing regulatory requirements, disease investigations, and response planning and preparation,” Kansas animal health commissioner Justin Smith said.

“This could result in slower response times and less responsiveness to local veterinary needs,” he added.

Egg prices set records this year after bird flu wiped out millions of laying hens. Cases have slowed in recent weeks, though experts warn outbreaks could flare up again during the spring and fall migratory seasons for wild birds that spread the virus.

More than 15,000 USDA employees have taken President Donald Trump’s financial incentive to quit, about 15 per cent of agency staff, as part of administration efforts spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk to shrink the federal workforce.

In that exodus, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the agency that fights livestock diseases and pests that hurt crops, lost 1,377 staff. That represents about 16 per cent of APHIS employees, according to a Reuters analysis of data from the federal Office of Personnel Management.

About 400 of those leaving worked in the agency’s Veterinary Services arm, representing more than 20 per cent of its 1,850 staff, one source said. That branch works across the U.S. and globally with farmers to test animals for disease and control its spread.

The tally includes 13 of the agency’s 23 area veterinarians who oversee veterinary work across the country, according to a chart of staff departures seen by Reuters and a source familiar with the situation.

Also leaving are 20 -30 per cent of staff at one USDA lab that tests for animal disease like bird flu, a second source said.

Those remaining must have all purchases above $10,000 approved by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, potentially adding up to four weeks of delay, the source said.

The USDA did not respond to a request for comment.

‘A big deal’

The staff losses threaten APHIS’ ability to respond to bird flu, which continues to infect dairy herds and poultry, said three state veterinarians and three other sources.

Seventy people, mostly farm workers, have contracted the virus since 2024, and further spread raises the risk that bird flu could become more transmissible to humans, experts say. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the risk to people from bird flu remains low.

Among other responsibilities, area veterinarians can support culling of infected poultry flocks and receiving of payments for their losses, said Beth Thompson, South Dakota’s state veterinarian.

“The federal government, they won’t have the number of people to be able to help out the states,” said Thompson, who had seen the chart of staff losses. “It’s a big deal.”

Thompson said USDA’s chief veterinarian, Rosemary Sifford, told her the agency will determine how to organize the remaining area veterinarians after seeing whether there are further departures.

Other APHIS departures include about half of its 69-person legislative and public affairs office, which handles correspondence with members of Congress, external groups and the press, including on issues like bird flu, according to another source.

In New Mexico, state workers are assuming additional duties after USDA support staff resigned, state veterinarian Samantha Holeck said.

“We won’t know the full impacts of these changes immediately,” she said. “The important thing is that we work together as a team through all of these challenges.”

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“Canada needs a veterinary workforce enhancement program that supports expansion and innovation of clinical teaching, training, and research,” said Canadian Veterinary Medical Association president Trevor Lawson in a news release today.

The CVMA said it visited Parliament Hill today to call for more investments in programs to shore up the industry and for mental health support for veterinary workers.

The profession is facing a worker shortage that “poses a significant threat,” the CVMA said.

Between 2022 and 2031, 5,000 veterinary jobs will open due to expansion and replacement needs while only 4,300 job seekers will be available to fill them, the CVMA website says.

The shortage of vets and veterinary workers has been an ongoing topic of concern.

A 2020 survey of Western Canadian vet clinics showed that of 526 practices, 44 per cent of them were looking to fill 281 positions. Practices that had recently hired new workers reported it could take anywhere from three to 12 months to hire someone.

The data suggested that mixed animal practices, which likely are representative of rural and small-town clinics, struggled most to fill openings.

The shortage makes it difficult for vets to provide care, the CVMA said. It also threatens veterinary workers’ well-being, with a survey of Canadian vets showing that more than 89 per cent were suffering from burnout.

The CVMA said the shortage could be addressed by recruiting internationally trained veterinarians, by setting up a national testing centre for vets trained outside of Canada, and by dedicating cash to veterinary infrastructure.

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The provincial ag ministry on Monday launched a round of public consultation on the Veterinarians Act, which governs licensing of veterinarians and accreditation of veterinary facilities in Ontario.

The ag ministry said it’s “looking for specific feedback on how we can better define animal care activities provided by veterinary professionals.”

That means more clearly laying out the “scope of practice for veterinary medicine,” such as the procedures, services and processes a licensed veterinarian or other veterinary professional — a veterinary technician, for example — is permitted to perform.

Updates to the legislation would also “clarify” specific care activities, such as massage therapy or rehabilitation, that can be provided to animals by people other than vets and vet techs.

The province said it’s also weighing how oversight of the Ontario veterinary profession can be better lined up with that of other self-governing regulated professions, so as “to ensure that the veterinary profession continues to be managed in the public interest.”

For example, the province said, that could involve “altering the composition” of the profession’s governing council to include a “wider range of membership and voices” such as vet techs, academic representatives and/or “additional public members.”

The province said it’s also looking for public feedback on “how to improve accountability and transparency to make sure that powers, responsibilities and processes under the (Veterinarians) Act are clear to the public.”

Feedback collected in this round of consultations would go to help develop a “more detailed proposal” for amendments to the Veterinarians Act, the province said.

Such proposals would then be laid out in a discussion paper that’s expected to be posted on the Regulatory Registry for further public consultation in early 2023, at which time the public would be able to provide “additional input.”

A ministry representative said via email there’s no firm deadline for submissions to the current round of consultations, but feedback received by early January 2023 will go to help develop the discussion paper. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The college and the Saskatchewan and Manitoba governments on Thursday announced the two provinces will each step up their funding commitments to the college, raising the number of subsidized seats for new students each year.

Saskatchewan, which until now has subsidized 20 new students per year, will raise that number to 25 starting in 2023-24, and Manitoba’s count will increase to 20, up from 15, at the same time.

British Columbia already announced this spring that it would double its subsidized seat count at WCVM to 40 starting in 2022-23.

Veterinary schools in Canada serve defined geographic regions, and only students who meet the residency requirements in those regions can apply to attend. The terms of the cost-sharing interprovincial agreement (IPA) between Saskatchewan, Manitoba and B.C. for WCVM cover provincial enrolment quotas and the residency status of applicants to the college.

As of next year the expansions will bring the agreed-upon total of subsidized IPA seats at WCVM to 88, also including one from the three northern territories and two Indigenous students through the college’s education equity program.

Alberta had been a party to the WCVM IPA until 2020, when it stepped out of the partnership and reallocated that support to its veterinary program at the University of Calgary.

The WCVM until now has had 20 non-subsidized, non-IPA seats, which give preference to students from the three partner provinces but are also open to residents of the territories or Alberta if they’re not filled by Saskatchewan, B.C. or Manitoba residents.

A WCVM representative said via email that the college will advertise those 20 non-IPA seats as available until it confirms whether B.C. plans to maintain its IPA quota at 40 beyond 2022-23.

“The provinces’ support allows more students from Saskatchewan and Manitoba to achieve their dreams of a career in veterinary medicine,” WCVM dean Dr. Gillian Muir said in a release. “It’s also a sound investment in protecting the health and wellness of all animals — from companion animals and wildlife to livestock that play a critical role in Canada’s agriculture industry and the country’s economy.”

Factors including a “rapid increase” in pet ownership, more veterinary professionals reaching retirement age and a “limited number of graduates each year” have led to shortages of veterinarians and registered vet techs across Canada, the college said.

That shortage is more glaring in rural communities, where vet clinic service is essential for livestock producers and the ag industry.

Manitoba’s ag minister Derek Johnson, in a separate release, said that province’s additional seats will be “targeted for the support of commercial livestock, such as cattle, bison and pigs as well as sheep and goats, in rural areas to address this critical labour market need.”

Saskatchewan didn’t say whether its new seats would specifically favour livestock vets, but did say the increase would “help address the growing need for veterinarians across the province, particularly for large animal and mixed animal veterinarians in rural Saskatchewan.”

In 2022-23, Saskatchewan is providing $11.9 million to the WCVM, with an additional investment of $539,000 in 2023-24, which over the four-year veterinary medicine program will mean an increase of $2.2 million by 2026-27 over 2022-23, the province said.

Manitoba, meanwhile, said its funding contribution to WCVM will increase by $539,200 for 2023-24 to a total of $7,009,600, in turn bringing its total contribution in 2024-25 to $7,642,400.

“Increasing the number of students who can attend vet school and enter the profession is the logical first step in addressing the veterinary shortage,” Michelle Streeter, a fourth-year WCVM student from rural Manitoba, said in that province’s release Thursday.

“I am also hopeful that Manitoba’s decision to increase seats draws more students from the Prairies who are interested in working in rural mixed animal practice, since agriculture is such an integral part of so many local communities.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The province’s Loan Forgiveness for Veterinarians and Veterinary Technologists program was first announced in April last year, offering forgiveness of 20 per cent of an eligible provincial student loan debt, for up to $4,000 per year, for up to five years, or $20,000 maximum.

To be eligible, a program participant licensed to work as a veterinarian or veterinary technologist in Saskatchewan had to have started working in a designated “rural or remote” community — or with livestock services in designated communities — on or after Jan. 1, 2021. The loan forgiveness program started taking applications Jan. 1 this year.

The eligible vet or vet tech has had to be either “new to the profession or new to the community” and had to have been employed in that community for a minimum 12 months and provided at least 400 hours’ service in that community.

The change announced Tuesday extends the same level of loan forgiveness to those working at any Saskatchewan practice that “offers veterinary services to livestock stakeholders from rural or remote communities.”

That expanded criteria would also cover mobile veterinary services, among others, the province said.

“This expansion will ensure that veterinary professionals providing services to smaller communities are eligible for the program,” provincial Advanced Education Minister Gord Wyant said in a provincial release Tuesday.

Wyant described the move as “a positive step forward in addressing the need for veterinarians and veterinary technologists in rural and under-serviced communities in Saskatchewan.”

The Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association “had raised concerns with the government previously around the qualifying parameters for this program,” SCA chair Arnold Balicki said Tuesday in the same release.

“We truly appreciate that (provincial officials) took our concerns to heart and made the necessary changes to allow clinics in larger centres such as Prince Albert, who also serve rural clients, to now qualify.”

Balicki, for example, ranches at Shellbrook — about 45 km west of P.A., the province’s third-biggest city.

The beef cattle industry, among others, “is facing a shortage of vets which can negatively impact our industry, our ability to expand, our need for an established vet/client relationship for access to drugs and even animal welfare,” he said. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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“This targeted enrolment funding will go towards hiring on more faculty/staff to teach the increased number of students,” Sam Blackett, press secretary for Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides, said following Tuesday’s funding announcement.

“It will also go towards purchasing additional course materials such as textbooks and/or other equipment needed to support a larger number of learners for the program.”

The new money comes as rural Alberta and its farmers and ranchers face what Finance Minister Travis Toews on Tuesday called “an emerging shortage” of veterinarians and veterinary technologists.

The Alberta Veterinary Medical Association (ABVMA) published a workforce study last year showing vacancy rates for veterinary positions as well above the provincial job vacancy average.

That report put Alberta’s vacancy rate for veterinarians at 16.7 per cent, and for veterinary technologists at 18 per cent, compared to the provincial average of 2.6 per cent.

To bridge that gap, the province aims to increase the existing number of seats in the U of C veterinary program by up to 50, which would double its current capacity.

“Agriculture is a key pillar of Alberta’s economy. That’s why it is so critical we ensure that livestock have access to the veterinary care that keeps them healthy,” Premier Jason Kenney said in Tuesday’s release.

“Alberta will be well served by this new and expanded generation of veterinarians,” ABVMA president Dr. Daren Mandrusiak said in the same release.

The new funding follows February’s capital budget commitment of $59 million over three years for animal health infrastructure at U of C — which includes money for a new facility at its Spyhill campus, more core teaching capacity at its W.A. Ranches site, and renovations at its Foothills campus.

The new facility at Spyhill will be about 7,200 square metres and include a mix of classrooms, lecture theatres, an instructional wet laboratory, administrative space and student service space.

The W.A. Ranches site will get about 1,200 square metres of space including a classroom trailer, a multi-purpose trailer, and administrative office space for academic and teaching technicians.

New animal holding facilities are also planned at that site, including penning for cattle and a Sprung tent structure, Blackett said Wednesday.

Alberta’s recent investments in veterinary programs follow its 2017 decision not to renew its funding for the University of Saskatchewan’s Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon, shifting that funding instead to U of C starting in 2020.

— Liam O’Connor reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Saskatoon.

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