The lowdown on livestock medicines

While over-medication can be a problem, sometimes leading to poisoning, medications play an important role in functional and profitable farming

- Shane Brody

As a proponent of holistic farming methodology, I believe good care, adequate nutrition, and ongoing veld management can prevent or greatly minimise the effects of many livestock diseases, and even parasite infestation.

An example here, is that after animals have been dewormed, leaving such livestock in a particular camp to shed parasites for, say, two weeks is a good idea.

After the stay in the camp, ‘clean’ livestock should be moved to a new camp that’s been free of livestock for some weeks or months.

Meanwhile, the area where parasites were expelled after treatment should be kept free of livestock for a few weeks or even a couple of months so that expelled parasites can die off.

This is an instance of how a holistic or proactive management strategy can systematically reduce parasite numbers.

OXYTETRACYCLINE ANTIBIOTICS 

Returning to livestock medications, most farmers have access to oxytetracycline antibiotics. These are very effective in treating a number of infections, but you need to know the following:

How and where these medications are injected (intramuscularly or subcutaneously) and at what dosage.