Caring for the ABC Farm Stock - by Alastair MacVicar (introduced by little Maisie)

Hello everyone.

My name is Maisie. I’ve been at the sanctuary for a couple of years now and may I say what a lovely place it is. My friends, Maeve, Matilda, Bluey and I are very happy especially since we now share our field with Bluebell the big horse… well she looks big to me because I’m quite small.

Anyway, I was chatting one day a while back with our vet Mr Alastair, he’s a nice man, although just for fun we give him and the volunteers the runaround when he comes to see us (hee hee)!

I asked him if he would write a little story about us - although I think the hoomans call it a blog and I don’t know what that means. Mr Alastair readily agreed. All of us farm animals were over the moon. Anyway… here it is.

Love and baa’s Maisie (the smallest sheep)!

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Spring has sprung and with it the days are warming and lengthening, bringing new challenges to the larger farm animals who are cared for at ABC.

The goats are happy in their enclosures, but in wet weather they need special care of their cloven hooves. With mud and cold, infections of the feet are commonplace. Special care is given by regularly trimming the hooves with special ‘hoof shears’. This prevents over lay hooves, which attract ‘foot rot’ and ‘scald’. Occasionally they have needed anti biotics to control these.

Strangely, goats are very prone to urinary stones (calculi) and tragically, one of the ABC goats, Jay, succumbed to such a problem in the winter. This is especially true of billys who have very small urethra. It is also at this time of year that we watch for lice – which causes endless itching – but is readily solved.

Their cousins, the sheep have similar issues but have specialised problems of their own. None of the ABC ewes have been in lamb but nationwide lambing is now in full swing It is one of my favourite times of the year and to me, heralds the spring in. Because of the dry spring the sheep have relatively unmuddied fleeces. However, nevertheless, fleece hygiene is important and regular treatment to prevent fly strike (maggot infestation of the skin) is needed into the warmer months. Ultimately, shearing the fleeces is a good way to reduce strike.

Sadly, fleeces have very little value now because clothing is mostly made of man-made fibre… something I really regret!

Both sheep and goats – indeed all cloven hooved animals (including alpacas and llamas) are susceptible to Blue Tongue.

This is a disease spread by flying insects that reached our shores relatively recently… a product of global warming causing the insects that spread Blue Tongue to be carried here from the south on warmer winds. This means that wide areas of the south and east of the country have seen severe restrictions in the allowed movement of these cloven hooved

creatures within, but especially going outside the restricted zones.

Other southern diseases may yet attack the UK – West Nile Fever and African Horse Sickness are but two. These are strange times indeed! However, the government vets are alert to these risks and monitor our animals widely to nip such events in the bud.

Pigs are a law unto themselves, and their care needs to take into account a decent respect for their formidable teeth. A pig bite is no laughing matter! Unfortunately, the boars have constantly growing and sharpening canine teeth. These are called ‘tusks’ and can be used by boars in a swathing action to cut deeply into wellington boots and deeper. I have to trim these tusks periodically. Needless to say, the boars do not like their teeth being blunted or shortened and a good dose of deep sedation is needed.

We have also had situations where illness has afflicted a pig, and treatment can be challenging because giving injections and collecting blood samples is never straightforward with a pig. I use a local anaesthetic cream (Emla ointment) to numb the skin behind their ears. This allows me to inject sedatives or antibiotic drugs into the thin skin in that area.

Spring 2025 has so far, been an exceptionally good start for the ABC farm animals. Let’s hope for great weather to keep them all well fed and happy!

Alastair MacVicar BVM&S, MRCVS