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Monday 8am - 5pm Tuesday 8am - 5pm Wednesday 8am - 5pm Thursday 8am - 5pm Friday 8am - 5pm Saturday 9am - 12pm Sunday 9am - 12pm

http://www.thelifestylevet.co.nz/

The Lifestyle Vet, Auckland (2026)

02/04/2026

🐾 Calling all 3rd, 4th & final-year veterinary students! 🐾

Ready to build your practical skills and confidence in lifestyle block practice? Come join us at The Lifestyle Vet for a hands-on placement experience you won’t forget!

We have availability in April, June, September, and additional months later in the year.

During your placement, you’ll get real, practical experience including:
• Performing thorough clinical examinations on alpacas, pigs, sheep, goats, and cattle
• Collecting blood samples across a range of lifestyle block species
• Learning how to place IV catheters and what equipment is required
• Assisting with patient hospitalisation and ongoing care
• Understanding preventative healthcare and annual requirements for lifestyle animals
• Practicing essential skills like drenching, vaccinating, foot trimming, and body condition scoring
• Learning how to navigate triple drench resistance

We love working with senior veterinary students and are passionate about teaching, mentoring, and helping you prepare for practice.

📅 Secure your placement with the Lifestyle Vet team today!
📩 For more information, email: [email protected]

We look forward to having you on the team!

23/03/2026

👁️ A Surge in Eye Cases This Week – What You Need to Know

This week, the Lifestyle Vet team has seen a high number of animals presenting with eye issues — across goats, sheep, and cattle.

Most have shown similar signs:
🔹 Cloudy eyes with a grey/blue appearance
🔹 Often affecting both eyes
🔹 Significant discomfort and pain

Seeing this many eye cases back-to-back is unusual, so we wanted to take the opportunity to share some important information with our community.

⸻

⚠️ What’s going on?

What we are seeing is fungal keratitis — a serious and painful eye condition.

This is peak facial eczema season, and the sporidesmin toxin (produced by fungus growing in pasture) can come into contact with the surface of the eye while animals are grazing. From there, it damages the cornea, leading to swelling (corneal oedema) and that characteristic cloudy blue/grey appearance.

⸻

🚨 Why is this serious?

If left untreated:
➡️ The eye becomes extremely painful
➡️ Animals may rub or traumatise the eye
➡️ Corneal ulcers can develop
➡️ Secondary bacterial infection may occur

In severe cases, this can progress to a “melting ulcer”, where the cornea begins to break down. This can ultimately lead to rupture of the eye, requiring emergency removal (enucleation) or euthanasia.

⸻

💛 Real cases from this week

We’ve had some incredible clients go above and beyond for their animals:

🐑 One client hospitalised three sheep, all with fungal keratitis and ulceration. They required two-hourly treatments for nearly two weeks before going home for ongoing care.

🐐 Another client has had half their goat herd affected. One goat developed a severe melting ulcer, requiring hourly treatments with multiple medications. Thankfully, after intensive care, we are now on track to save the eye.

Unfortunately, not all animals have been as lucky. In some cases, due to the inability to treat or hospitalise, euthanasia has been the only option.

⸻

🌱 Prevention matters

Facial eczema is often associated with liver damage, but eye disease like this is an important — and often overlooked — consequence.

One key prevention tip:
❌ Avoid mowing paddocks between December and April

Mowing increases dead plant litter, which creates the perfect environment for the fungus to grow and produce toxic spores.

⸻

📈 Why are we seeing more of this?

This condition is becoming more common each year due to:
🌡️ Warmer temperatures
💧 Increased humidity and rainfall

This season, in particular, has been especially high risk.

⸻

📣 Please share

We’d really appreciate you sharing this post to help raise awareness among lifestyle block owners and farmers.

If you notice cloudy or sore eyes in your animals, please contact your local vet or the Lifestyle Vet team as soon as possible — early treatment can make all the difference.

The Lifestyle Vet- Your Lifestyle Block vet

0278385433
[email protected]

17/03/2026

⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️Warning ⚠️ ⚠️⚠️⚠️

It’s facial eczema season and the spore counts are through the roof on some of our client’s properties ! We are talking 100,000 OR MORE !

This goat was one of 3 goats in a big herd of 7 who ended up with bilateral fungal keratitis caused by sporidesmin fungus getting into the eyes while grazing affected pasture.

Some of the affected goats are now also developing secondary bacterial corneal ulceration with melting ulcers🤦‍♀️😢.

Not only is the treatment costing the clients a fortune but the treatments required for many of the goats includes various 1-2 hourly topical eye medications. I’m sure you can imagine how difficult administering eye medications to a goat every 1-2 hours would be 🫠🫠🫠

A special thank you to Peter Collinson at Auckland Animal Eye Centre for helping us work through an appropriate treatment plan for these lovely goats. The owners are incredibly dedicated and are going above and beyond to help their goats 🐐

The Lifestyle Vet- Your Lifestyle Block Vets

04/02/2026

🐑 Sheep Shearing Run – Bookings Now Open (Early March!)

We’re excited to let you know that our wonderful professional sheep shearer will be working with us again in early March.

📅 Shearing dates:
Our shearing run will take place from Monday 2nd March, with limited availability the weekend prior (subject to demand).

✂️ Additional shearing is recommended for:
• Obese sheep
• Sheep with fast-growing wool (e.g. Black-Nosed Valais)
• Lambs that haven’t yet been shorn

💰 Pricing (excl. GST):
• $80 visit fee
• $10 per animal – sheep 55kg or less, or lambs
• $12 per animal – very large ewes or obese ewes
• $15 per animal – rams

📧 To book or join our shearing run:
Email [email protected] with:

• Your full name
• Address
• Phone number
• Number of animals requiring shearing

Spots fill quickly, so please get in touch as soon as possible if you’d like to be included.

The Lifestyle Vet – providing an exceptional level of veterinary care for your lifestyle block animals. 🐾

04/02/2026

⚠️ Alpaca attacks can cause serious injuries ⚠️

Not all alpaca are aggressive, and many intact males are lovely, calm animals. However, it’s really important for owners to be aware of the behaviours that some intact males can develop — particularly as they mature and testosterone-driven behaviours emerge. The goal is always to castrate males before these behaviours start to appear, rather than waiting until there is already a problem.

Male alpaca have very sharp fighting teeth that are shaped like hooks. These teeth are designed to tear the skin of their opponents during fights — and unfortunately, when males become aggressive toward humans, these same teeth can cause severe injuries.

The images we’ve shared show injuries sustained by a woman who was attacked by her own alpaca. As the alpaca lunged at her, she raised her arm to protect herself. The result was significant trauma to her arm, including nerve damage.

These injuries are not freak accidents — they are a real risk when dealing with aggressive, intact male alpaca.

If your male alpaca is not intended for breeding, early castration is strongly recommended to reduce the likelihood of testosterone-driven aggression developing. Your safety, the safety of your family, and the safety of anyone working with your animals matters.

The Lifetsyle vet - Your alpaca vet

04/02/2026

🚨

Every year, our Lifestyle Vet team comes across a handful of alpaca that are simply too aggressive for us to safely handle or provide routine preventative care to.

Alpaca are often seen as cute and cuddly… but the reality? They’re not natural cuddlers at all. They have a strong flight zone and generally prefer their space. Intact males in particular can pose a serious health and safety risk to people and other animals, and our team sometimes encounters very aggressive behaviour from uncastrated males.

We’re sharing this video to highlight what intact male behaviour can look like. These animals can be aggressive not only toward other males, but also toward humans.

👉 If your male alpaca is a pet and not intended for breeding, please organise castration.
Alpaca can safely be castrated from around 9 months of age, and the earlier this is done, the less likely testosterone-driven behaviours are to become ingrained.

We’ve also included photos of a serious arm injury sustained by someone attacked by her own alpaca. These photos can be found in a separate post on our page. These injuries are real — and preventable.

If your shearer or our veterinary team strongly recommends castration for safety reasons, please take this on board. It helps protect you, your herd, and our team.

⚠️ If you have an alpaca showing aggressive behaviour:
• Do not enter the paddock alone
• Carry a large stick or pole for protection
• Make sure someone else is present

🐾 The Lifestyle Vet Team – providing exceptional care for your lifestyle block animals all year round.

📞 Book a consult: 027 838 5433
📧 [email protected]

03/02/2026

🦙 Managing Skin Disease & Mites in Alpacas – Introducing Flexolt 🦙

We’d like to share an update on a product we are now fully supportive of using in alpacas as part of managing external parasite–related skin disease.

Flexolt is an oral liquid treatment licensed for use in sheep for the treatment and prevention of lice. The active ingredient in Flexolt is fluralaner, which many of you may already be familiar with.

Fluralaner is the same active ingredient found in:
• Bravecto® Spot-On for dogs and cats
• Oral Bravecto® for dogs and cats
(used for fleas, mites, ticks, lice, and a wide range of external parasites)
• Exzolt® for chickens, which is used to target red mite

Based on the available literature in sheep and our own clinical experience, we have been using Flexolt off-label in alpacas to help manage external parasites, particularly chorioptic and sarcoptic mites. We are using the sheep dose rate, and it has been highly effective so far.

Flexolt has become part of our treatment and management plans for alpacas presenting with skin disease ranging from:
• mild hair loss and subtle skin changes
• through to more severe allergic skin disease

It is important to note that in alpacas, many chronic and severe skin conditions have an allergic basis. For this reason, successful management often requires addressing the allergic component as well as reducing mite numbers.

While Flexolt does not cure the underlying condition, it plays an important role in lowering mite numbers, which helps reduce the severity of skin disease and improves comfort.

⚠️ Veterinary involvement is essential for more severe cases.

Alpacas with severe skin disease, ongoing discomfort, or open skin wounds require veterinary assessment and treatment. This may include:
• medications to manage allergic disease
• treatment of secondary skin infections (including antibiotics where appropriate)
• pain relief
• management to reduce the risk of fly strike

Clients on our alpaca healthcare plans will have noticed that we are already recommending and administering Flexolt for alpacas with skin disease, with very positive results.

For clients not based in Auckland, or those not currently on our alpaca healthcare plans, we are able to supply Flexolt in small quantities — please get in touch with us to discuss suitability.

📩 Contact us:
Email: [email protected]
📱 Text: 027 838 5433

🔔 Important note:
Flexolt is off-label for use in alpacas, as currently no products in New Zealand are licensed specifically for alpacas. Any use is based on veterinary guidance, available literature, and clinical experience.

If you have alpacas with skin issues or would like advice on an appropriate management plan, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

— The Lifestyle Vet Team 🦙✨

02/02/2026

🎉 Meet Our New Veterinarian – Mandy! 🎉

We’re very excited to introduce Mandy, the newest veterinarian to join our team! Mandy has recently made the move to Auckland and will be out and about this week seeing many of you during our February alpaca health care runs.

After graduating from Massey University in 2022, Mandy spent the last three years working in a busy mixed practice in the Waikato. She grew up on a lifestyle block in Wellington, where her passion for lifestyle block and small block animals began well before starting her veterinary studies.

Mandy has a strong interest in both medical and surgical cases, with a particular soft spot for neonatal care. She’s always keen to get stuck in and learn more, with a real focus on continuing to educate and support her clients.

When she’s not at work, you’ll likely find Mandy outdoors — at the beach, out walking or running, or on the tennis court. She also loves travelling (both locally and overseas!) and is enjoying the adventure that comes with life as a vet.

Please join us in giving Mandy a very warm welcome — we’re so glad to have her on board, and we know you’ll enjoy meeting her over the coming weeks 🐾💙

27/01/2026

🦙 Alpaca owners – important shearing update!

Our wonderful alpaca shearer, Nigel Wood, will be in Auckland from this Thursday until the end of the weekend to shear any alpacas that haven’t yet been done.

This will be his final trip up north before the main shearing season in October–November, so if your alpacas are still needing a trim, please get in touch with us as soon as possible so you don’t miss out.

Shearing is especially important at this time of year — heat stress is a real risk in alpacas, particularly if they haven’t been shorn in the last 12 months. Alpacas with a history of skin disease are also more prone to flystrike and skin infections when carrying heavy fleece.

📧 Email: [email protected]
📱 Text: 027 838 5433

The Lifestyle Vet team 🐾

22/01/2026

🐑🐄🦙 Facial Eczema – a serious risk for lifestyle block animals

Facial eczema (FE) is caused by a toxin from pasture fungus during warm, humid weather. It damages the liver – not just the skin.

Common signs include sunburned faces/ears, weight loss, reduced milk or growth, and in severe cases, death.

⚠️ For every animal that shows visible FE, around 30% of the rest of the flock or herd will already have liver damage, even if they look normal.

Once liver damage occurs, it cannot be reversed – so prevention is critical.

⸻

Prevention options

Sheep & cattle
✔ FaceGuard® or zinc capsules (boluses)
🗓 First capsule: early to mid-January

These large capsules must be administered so that the capsule enters the oesophagus, using special equipment. Incorrect technique can cause serious injury or suffocation, so this is best done by experienced professionals.

Alpaca
✔ Zinc feed pellets daily
🗓 Start: mid-December (before Christmas)

We recommend Country Harvest Zinc Alpaca Pellets (more palatable than Ringrose).
A 70–80 kg adult alpaca usually requires 200 g per day.

⸻

Our Lifestyle Block Healthcare Plans 🩺

We offer annual healthcare plans for:

🐑 Sheep | 🐄 Cattle | 🦙 Alpaca | 🐐 Goats | 🐖 Pigs

Each plan is fully customised to your property and covers the most common diseases, including facial eczema. Zinc capsule administration is included in all sheep and cattle plans.

They’re a cost-effective way to prevent illness, reduce emergency vet visits, and keep your animals healthy year-round.

📞 Get in touch to learn more on 0278385433 or email us at [email protected]

The Lifestyle Vet – exceptional care for your lifestyle block animals, all year round.

27/11/2025

Are you sick of waiting for your shearer to turn up?
Have you been rescheduled three or four times already?

If you want to guarantee your alpaca and llama receive everything they need each year in terms of preventative healthcare and ensure their shearing happens in early November, give us a call.

At The Lifestyle Vet, we offer Annual Alpaca and llama Healthcare Plans with 3–5 visits per year, tailored specifically to the needs of your beloved pets.

Our preventative care includes:

🟠 Regular Vitamin D injections throughout autumn and winter—at the time they actually need them.
🟠 Targeted drenching based on faecal egg count results, especially during high-risk periods to protect against Barber’s pole worm.
🟠 Nail trimming as required to keep your alpacas comfortable and free from foot issues or disease.
🟠 Routine body condition scoring so we can monitor their weight and advise you on nutrition and supplementation.
🟠 Six-monthly vaccinations using a veterinary-only vaccine that also protects against leptospirosis—a zoonotic disease transmissible to humans.

If you like the sound of a one-stop shop for maximising your alpaca herd’s wellbeing, our team would love to help.

Although our main alpaca shearing run has finished, we’re organising a backup shearing week in December exclusively for our new healthcare plan clients.

📞 Get in touch with us today!

0278385433

[email protected]

The Lifestyle Vet

02/04/2026

23/03/2026

17/03/2026

04/02/2026

04/02/2026

04/02/2026

03/02/2026

02/02/2026

27/01/2026

22/01/2026

27/11/2025

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