Damory Farm Vets

09/06/2026

Final call for this year's FlockCheck scheme (testing for Enzootic Abortion and/or toxoplasmosis):

🐑 blood samples taken from 6-8 aborted or barren ewes
🐑flocks with >100 breeding ewes eligible
🐑ewes must not be vaccinated for the disease(s) being tested
🐑laboratory fees covered by MSD

Please contact us to book your visit in before the scheme closes on 30 June.

05/06/2026

Laura attended the latest Dorset Women in Dairy meeting this week, kindly hosted by Craig’s Farm Dairy. It was great to see the other side of dairy production - how milk from local herds is processed into a range of products (including delicious ice cream!) - and hear about the farm’s own herd.

01/06/2026

We are facing an uncertain year regarding bluetongue. It's likely that the bluetongue virus (BTV-3) will continue to spread within livestock-dense areas this grazing season; vaccination and biosecurity are important considerations to protect your stock. Contact our farm team to find out how to best protect your animals ahead of the high-risk period.

26/05/2026

Pelvic scoring is a great tool to help select the best replacement heifers for your herd, using objective measurements to reduce assisted calvings and calf losses. Get in touch to book in.

20/05/2026

12/05/2026

Bluetongue virus is now firmly established in the UK, with over 330 confirmed cases in England and Wales and both BTV-3 and BTV-8 strains circulating. Many of the cases observed in 2026 have been linked to infection in pregnant dams, leading to abortion or the birth of weak “dummy” calves.

As we head into midge season, the evidence from mainland Europe makes for sobering reading. When BTV-3 swept through the Netherlands sheep mortality rates reached up to 75% on affected farms. Since then, the picture has grown more complex: BTV-8 caused significant losses in northern France last year and increasingly other strains seem to pop up across Europe. These are not distant risks – and we know that midges will both cross the Channel and potentially spread disease across Britain and Ireland.

Vaccines are available for BTV-3 and are in good supply, but it is important to understand that they offer no cross-protection against BTV-8 or other serotype (other vaccines are available for this).

AHDB has developed free vaccination cost calculators for sheep, beef, and dairy farms to help you work through the economics and assess the risk to your specific business. We would encourage every livestock farmer to have that conversation with us before the vector season is fully underway - not after clinical signs appear.

06/05/2026

We are pleased to announce that Laura is now a Clinical Director alongside Matt. Since joining the team in 2018, she has completed a postgraduate Certificate and developed a strong interest in dairy and youngstock work, and is now looking forward to taking on this new role in the team.

16/04/2026

Please note, the practice is closed (emergencies only) this Saturday.

🚧 Important Notice – Saturday 18th April 🚧

Due to essential resurfacing works, our driveway and the practice, will be completely closed on Saturday 18th April. This means:

💚 The practice will be closed. We will be available for emergencies only.
💚 There will be NO access to our driveway or car park.

Any vehicles left in the car park on this day/night before, will be unable to leave, as there will be no access in or out.

We’d also like to take this as a chance to remind everyone that our car park is strictly for clients only so please do don’t park in our car park unless you are visiting Damory.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation 🐾

02/04/2026

This pair of twins required a bit of assistance last weekend, both attempting to enter the world at the same time! A prompt call from the farmer and help from one of our vets led to a great result all round.