7/24/24

Animal Health Check Reminders from our Fair Vet:

• Pay attention to withdrawal dates! This includes antibiotics, dewormers, vaccines, and other medications; injectable, oral, and topical products
  • Document any treatments on your Animal Husbandry form (date, product, amount, route, how many doses/days treated) and bring forms to weigh-in (if changes are made after the Aug 2^nd due date).
• Animals for Fair cannot be ill or have signs of contagious disease
• Contact your primary care veterinarian for recommendations NOW to have enough time to respond to treatment and clear withdrawal times

Some general items the vet will be looking for at the Health Check:

• Animals for Fair cannot be ill or have signs of contagious disease; this includes, but is not limited to:

• No draining lesions (pus/blood/other fluid), open sores, pustules, or abscesses that are painful when palpated or 'about to burst'
• Ringworm must be healed to not have any flaky/crusty skin, and no loose or easily pulled hairs at the edges
• No soremouth (scabs around lips)
• No external parasites
• No fever, excessive cough/nasal discharge/diarrhea
• No pinkeye

6/24/24

Hello NISF Livestock Exhibitors,

We are only 6 weeks away from the best 10 days of summer - the North Idaho State Fair and Youth Stock Show and Sale! We want to make sure you have the BEST Fair experience this year and now is the time to start looking for any issues that may need more attention before final check-in.

For all species, the best thing you can do is clip now, look for any skin issues and contact your veterinarian for treatment, if necessary!

We’ve included some information below from our Official Fair Veterinarian, by species, about what to watch for. Should you have any questions or concerns about non-emergency health issues feel free to submit them right here (look left)

If you have any health concerns, your best course of action is to contact your preferred veterinarian. Make sure to document any treatment on your animal husbandry form (found here): https://cdn.saffire.com/files.ashx?t=fg&rid=NorthIdahoStateFair&f=2024_Animal_Husbandry_Form.pdf)

Cattle:

• Warts and ringworm will not be allowed – please be sure to check for these 4-6 weeks before fair (ie NOW!) to allow proper healing after treatment
• If you are crossing state lines with dairy cows, you may have trouble getting health certificates due to avian influenza found in dairy cows in other areas of the US. No cases have been found in WA or the Idaho panhandle, however precautions are still in place. If you are crossing state lines, contact your vet now to find out what you need to do.

Pigs:

• Respiratory diseases, lameness, parasites/mange and sores on the body (due to sunburn, dippity, etc) are the most common issues the NISF Vet sees.
• Mange needs to be treated with an injectable dewormer
• Lameness is when your animal is in visible pain or cannot walk through a ring without having an obvious limp.
• Contact your vet now if you are concerned about these issues. Treatment can take 3-5 weeks.

Sheep/Goats:

• Fungus and Staph infections are the biggest concerns:
  • CHECK NOW as they take 4-6 weeks to completely heal. If you can, clip or dry shear your animals to check under all the hair/wool to make sure there’s not something hiding.
  • Fungus is considered healed when there is no flaking of skin, hair on the edges cannot be easily pulled out, and new peach-fuzz type hairs are growing in the center.
• Treatment suggestions for fungus include:
  • Use 7% iodine or lime sulfur dip on a gauze pad to vigorously scrub the area daily for 7 days (use rubber gloves as fungus can spread to humans).
  • Chlorhexidine or chlorhexidine shampoos can be used as a preventative measure.
• Staph must be treated and documented by a veterinarian.

Small Animals:

• Biggest issues are mites and castrella – contact your vet for treatment
• Don’t forget about poultry testing on August 7th from Noon to 7 PM.

We hope this information is helpful to insure that your experience with final check-in is a positive one! Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions you may have.