I HAD a recent call to a slightly thin beast with a bit of diarrhoea, and a sample of dung revealed many worm eggs.

These worm eggs were from Ostertagia, a worm that can cause severe damage to young animals in the summer.

Part of Ostertagia’s life cycle is to form cysts in the stomach wall and, in midwinter, the larvae emerge from these cysts to cause diarrhoea.

While the larvae is killed by most wormers, the cyst stage is not; so the choice of wormer given when the cows are put inside for winter is important.

Aside from this, liver fluke is another parasite commonly treated indoors and again, choice of product and timing are vital to guarantee success.

In addition, there are more cases of flukicide resistance being reported.

It is a good plan to check if your wormers and flukicides are working properly through dung samples and your vet can advise on the best way to do this for your farm.