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Rosabrook Veterinary Services

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Australia
Margaret River, WA
Rosabrook Veterinary Services

Farm animal veterinary clinic based in the southwest corner of Western Australia. We treat cattle, sheep, goats, alpacas and pigs.

We are not an equine or small animal service.

02/06/2026

Look who's back 🙌 Biggest welcome back to Bettina, after some time away on maternity leave. No easing back into it round here, straight out the door for some pregnancy testing.

28/05/2026

The sight and sound of a cow greeting her baby for the first time never gets old, even if she did interrupt my evening plans and somehow get meconium and amniotic fluid through my waterproofs and all down my jeans. 🤦‍♀️🤣

27/05/2026

We've got a new product hitting the shelves- Cosecure cattle boluses. These provide slow release copper, cobalt and selenium to support growth, fertility and immune health in cattle - a great alternative to injectable supplementation.

There are some great field research results coming out of Esperance using these boluses at weaning to provide long term trace element supplementation. On label claim for 6 month supply of trace elements after administration (with unofficial farm level testing showing they are covering the animal for up to 10 months post weaning).

The sales rep is keen to get out on farm in June for anyone interested. Send me a text if you're keen to hear more.

Will be interesting to see how these calves grow over the next months after supplementation!

04/05/2026

Let's talk calf nutrition - the goals in rearing dairy and poddy calves are different to the goals for rearing with cow/calf units. Milk feeding of calves costs money in labour, time and medications. Not to forget the significant costs of milk powder if you're not on a dairy farm.

The goal for hand reared calves is transitioning the calf from a pre-ruminant (reliant on milk) to a ruminant, able to efficiently utilise concentrates and roughage to continue to grow. Calf rearing and weaning practices should be based around growing and developing the calf's rumen to enable it to thrive following weaning.

Calves with poorly developed rumens are likely to regress in body condition and growth rates post weaning, and are more likely to become immunocompromised due to stress. The rumen requires both roughage and grain to develop properly, these should be introduced with water from day 1.

Really high growth rates can be achieved in the short term on milk and concentrates alone, or even on just high volumes of milk. However, the calf's long term growth rates, especially post weaning, will be reduced.

Getting technical: concentrates are broken down into volatile fatty acids (VFAs) which stimulate development of the rumen papillae (imagine a s**g pile rug, the papillae increase the surface area for nutrient absorption). However, without roughage these papillae can become thickened and keratinised which will then reduce absorption of these VFAs. As VFAs are part of the end product of digestion that stimulates the rumen papillae (from the breakdown of concentrates) then the lack of roughage will inhibit further development of rumen papillae. The roughage is also developing the rumen as a whole, in terms of size of the rumen, correct pH/internal environment. So, whilst a concentrate fed calf will have a high number of rumen papillae, and a roughage fed calf will have a large rumen you need both roughage and concentrates to develop a large rumen with good pH (roughage) and well-developed rumen papillae (concentrates).

This will lead to a calf that is able to thrive and continue to excel even with early weaning practices. The calves in this video were weaned from milk at 7-8 weeks of age and are 11 weeks old in the second half.

27/04/2026

Read this post if you like free stuff...

We’ve recently had a few test results come back showing selenium deficiency, so it feels like a good time to highlight why selenium is so important—and what it means for your herd or flock.

Low selenium levels can lead to:
• Reduced fertility
• Weakened immune function (often seen as increased mastitis and “dirty” cows)
• Higher risk of retained membranes after calving
• White muscle disease in young animals—appearing as hunched posture, weakness, and even death in calves and lambs

On the flip side, adequate selenium levels have been shown to boost IgG levels (AKA good stuff) in colostrum, giving newborns a stronger start.

Selenium plays a critical role in both cattle and sheep health. Unfortunately, in our southwest region, soils are often naturally low in selenium—and several common factors can reduce levels even further:
• High rainfall (leaching selenium from the soil)
• Heavy fertiliser use, especially superphosphate
• High clover content
• Rapid pasture growth

We have the ability to offer some free selenium testing. Spaces are limited, and unfortunately the test is only for animals that have NOT been dosed with selenium in the last three months. If you have a group of animals that fit that profile or you just want to chat about selenium give our vet Tayla a call on 0498703443 Monday to Friday, 9-5.

14/04/2026

We've had lots of exciting developments in the bull testing side of the business recently.

Liz has achieved her ACV Bullcheck accreditation 🎊 and we got a new tool to help improve the accuracy of our bull testing - an Androscope by minitube. This device is able to analyse the concentration and motility (including the all important progressive motility) for semen samples.

Bull testing is an important tool to help identify infertile or poorly fertile bulls - much better to find out prior to mating than at the pregnancy testing.

18/03/2026

Watch this space, new work shirt colour incoming! We'll definitely be standing out from the crowd!

We will keep navy as a colour option, but I reckon with enough encouragement we could convince Nige to join us women in pink 😉

16/03/2026

Calf disbudding: a vital husbandry procedure for horned animals, that is far superior to dehorning of older animals. Disbudding of calves, when performed with sedation and local anaesthetic is a very quick and humane procedure that removes the horn bud on calves, to prevent the growth of horns.

Here you can see the sedated calves having their hair over the horn buds clipped (reduces smoke and reduces the carcinogenic risks to the operator), cornual block given and disbudding with a hot iron. The calves are given meloxicam (anti-inflammatory/pain relief) and aluspray applied to the disbudding wound.

The last three photos show the calves immediately after (still sedated), the night following and the day following their disbudding. As you can see, the calves are eating and bright, showing no signs of pain, no head or ear flicking and all are straight back into eating.

14/03/2026

We've been a bit quiet on the posts for the last month - which is inversely related to how busy we've been!

A quick post tonight with the first caesarean of the 2026 season. A caesarean is never a way we'd like a calving to go, but in some cases it is the only way to deliver a calf. Most caesareans are a result of foetomaternal disproportion, in other words, the calf size is too big for the diameter of the dams' internal pelvis. This could be due to the calf being oversized, or dam being undersized or a mix of both.

Successful case, with Mum and baby both doing well!

22/02/2026

Meet the Team: 5/7

Dr Nigel Gifford:
"I grew up on a sheep and cattle property in Boyup Brook, and I graduated as a vet 26 years ago. After that, I worked for nine years in mixed practice in South Australia, before moving to Switzerland to work with Swiss dairy cows for three years. Returning to Australia in 2014, I worked in mixed practice for 2 years before dedicating myself to small animal care until 2021. In 2022, I returned to Switzerland, rediscovering my love for cattle in the Swiss hills. Now back in Australia since 2023, I work part-time with Rosebrook Vet Services, enjoying all aspects of cattle medicine and surgery and farm livestock. In the other half of my week, I also work as a small animal veterinarian at Busselton Vet Hospital.
My wife and i enjoy spending time outdoors with our three boys. I try to stay active in nature enjoying my Creator and his creation. I love a good adrenaline rush, spending time with friends and family, talking about more than the weather, and am slowly trying to get over my fear of emus."

Address

Unit 4/17 Minchin Way
Margaret River, WA

Telephone

+61429497791

Website

facebook.com

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