News & Advice

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   Stay up to date with the latest news and advice for pets and farm animals from our team of dedicated vets.

LATEST Deer ARTICLES

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Lame Stags – is there a new condition affecting our industry?

Written by Andrew Bates – Vetlife Scientific  This year has been tough for deer farmers, with uncertainties over continued access to overseas export markets, mixed pricing messages and an increasingly fragmented market. Vetlife recognises the challenges facing its farming clients and is committed to supporting animal agriculture in New Zealand for the long haul. Part […]

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Hind Scanning 2023

Hind deer need scanning

Contrary to that in the North Island, the Central Otago sunshine has been relentless since the new year. Driving around you can see the effect this is having on feed quality throughout the countryside. For hinds coming up to the rut, this may be particularly problematic.   Mating will be a tough time, especially for hinds […]

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Preparing Stags for the Mating Season

A stag roaring

The stag has only one job when it comes to the breeding herd, and that is to sire offspring. To perform at their best, stags need to have adequate body condition score, trace element status and be free of injuries, abnormalities and disease. Stags will put on considerable weight over the spring and early summer period […]

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Managing Stags Post-rut

Managing stags post-rut

The feed requirement of stags during the roar has been less than half that of other times of the year. This is despite the huge energy investment that goes into protecting their patch and herding hinds (or fence pacing) as stags simply do very little eating over this time. Consequently they lose up to 30% […]

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Yersiniosis in Deer

Yersiniosis is one of the main causes of death in four to eight-month-old deer, resulting in stock losses of 10 and 30% in unvaccinated herds. Stress is a major factor in making fawns vulnerable to yersiniosis around weaning. Stresses include: Separation from mother Cold, wet and windy weather Poor nutrition or sudden change of feed […]

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Velvet removal in deer – losses may occur

A stag whose velvet will be removed

The removal of velvet antler from farmed stags is justifiable for both human and animal safety as well as for economic reasons, but it must be performed with all due regard for animal welfare. If a working crush is not available, then this often requires the stags to be given a chemical restraint (sedative) by […]

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New deer drench: Cervidae Oral

A herd of deer

Cervidae Oral, the long-awaited triple drench for deer, has arrived. Cervidae Oral is a triple combination drench containing: Moxidectin (a member of the macrocyclic lactone (ML) drench family), Oxfendazole (a member of the benzimidazole (white) drench family), and Levamisole. Because of the unique way deer process or metabolise actives in drench, Cervidae Oral has been […]

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Managing stags to maximise velvet production

Velvet production is highly heritable, meaning that much of the velvet weight and characteristics achievable from your stags are due to their genetics – however, for them to express their genetic potential they require optimal feeding. Good feeding rewards good breeding. Of course, good feeding is important at all ages and stages to ensure target […]

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Leptospirosis in deer

Leptospirosis, or Lepto, can affect a wide variety of livestock including deer. There are three predominant strains or serovars of Leptospira bacteria that can affect deer: Leptospira Hardjo-bovis is the most common one, causing mild infections and sub-clinical disease. It does have the potential to cause significant production-limiting effects through reduced growth rates in weaner […]

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Restricted Veterinary Medicine Authorisations

Many sheep, beef and deer farmers will be reviewing their annual scripts at this time of year, so why not use this process to your advantage rather than treating it as a pain in the proverbial? Often this is your one chance to sit down with your Vetlife vet and revise your animal health plan […]

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Lungworm in young stock

Recent rain around Christmas will lead to unprecedented grass growth. Unfortunately, the conditions promoting good grass growth also promote parasite survival. Parasites like moisture, warmth and shade which are the conditions currently prevailing on most irrigated pasture and on a lot of unirrigated pasture. Lungworm reared its head last autumn on some properties, and the […]

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Weaning strategies for deer

The timing of and process for weaning is crucial to the success and therefore profitability on deer farms. It is a highly stressful time for hinds and fawns, and careful thought needs to be given to the process to minimise this and maximise growth. While natural weaning does not occur until the fawns are at […]

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