ONE of Cumbria’s senior politicians says the county is not prepared should another devastating foot-and-mouth crisis strike. Cumbria County Council leader Stewart Young spoke of his concerns, 20 years to the day since the start of the crisis that brought the county’s farming community to its knees. In 2001, it ravaged the Cumbrian countryside for seven long months, and cost the county an estimated £230m – one third of the money garnered annually from tourism – as well as the loss of 7,000 of the 47,000 jobs in the tourism sector. More than 1.3m animals were destroyed in the county alone, with the Army called in to help. By the end of the outbreak, a total of 893 county premises were infected and 3,500 farms lost all or some of their stock.
AT this time of year we are in the depths of winter and the cold temperatures can be problematic for calves and lambs, writes Dan Griffiths of Paragon Vets. Adult cows and sheep have a fully functioning rumen which acts as a great big fermentation vessel, releasing heat in the process of digestion. Calves and lambs on the other hand have yet to develop a fully functioning rumen and so are more prone to the effects of the cold. Short periods of cold temperatures is usually well tolerated and similar to us if we get cold as long as we can warm up again quickly we won’t suffer any ill effects.
A VETS practice is making an urgent appeal after the coronavirus pandemic has led to a decline in the number of blood donations. Paragon Veterinary Group is among thousands of other practices who rely on donations of lifesaving blood and plasma to perform many of its operations and treatments. The importance of blood donations has been highlighted by Annette Nicholson, from Hesket Newmarket, whose 11-year-old Jack Russell, Hugo, needed critical surgery. She said: “At first I thought it was just an age thing, he started sleeping a lot and I had no idea what was wrong with him. “He was very ill, he just stopped eating and was really unwell. So I brought him to the vet and veterinary surgeon Ann Noble saw him and realised that something wasn’t right. They did various tests and found that he’d got a growth on his spleen and it was the size of an orange.
A Cumbrian veterinary practice is urging dog owners to sign their pets up to be blood donors as the coronavirus pandemic has led to a decline in donations. Like thousands of other practices, Paragon Veterinary Group relies on donations of life-saving blood and plasma to perform many of its operations.