Learning Center

PBS Animal Health Learning Center

Learning Center

We’re farmers too, so while we carry the best products for your animals, we also want to share our insights about trending industry topics, animal health issues and solutions that can benefit your operation. Whether you’re interested in cattle and calves, other livestock or companion animals (horses, dogs and cats), we can help! The experts at PBS Animal Health will be adding to this weekly so check back often for new insights. 

Do you have a topic you’d like us to cover in the future? Send us your ideas to email@pbsanimalhealth.com for consideration.

NEW!

How to Wean Calves Without the Digestive Woes

The weaning process: It’s a double whammy of a new environment and a new diet can bring calves stress and nutrient disruption from limited feed and water intake. Even worse, these digestive disruptions can increase a calf’s susceptibility to disease and affect its future productivity. This transition is important, and can bring stress on management and staff, too. But it doesn’t have to be that way thanks to TechMix Weaning Calf Protocol.
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Are You Ready for Fall Deworming?

Prevention management is key when it comes to internal parasites in cattle. While there are ways to limit exposure to various worms, lice, mites, flies and grubs, fall deworming gives the animals a healthy head start into the winter.
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Animal Antibiotic Changes are Coming in 2023. How Will They Impact Access to Everyday Medications?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in June 2021 that all medically important antimicrobials for food-producing animals and pets will move from over-the-counter (OTC) to prescription (Rx) effective June 2023.
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Skip the Scours. Start with First Defense!

Managing a herd of breeding cows requires significant knowledge, precise timing and a sizable investment to succeed. With so many variables that can affect the success of the operation, wouldn’t it help to secure proven tools that protect this investment for the long haul?
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The PBS Animal Health 5 Point Promise – Vaccines Done Right!

When you order something as important as an animal vaccine, you want to be confident that your vaccine source is taking the necessary steps to control storage temperatures and ensure viability.
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The Smart, Simple and Safe Animal Pharmacy You Need

Producers and pet owners alike trust and value the easy prescription medication ordering process at PBS Animal Health. But you may not know about a NEW service where our pharmacist will call the veterinarian to verify prescriptions for you. Ordering has never been easier, even with the required paperwork.
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Inflation is Tough on Farmers. Saving is Easy at PBS Animal Health.

Farming is not for the faint of heart and requires true grit every day, all day long. Caring for animals, growing food, and tending to the farm and land is a lifestyle and a special calling with long hours, loads of responsibility, and more dimensions than many people realize. These days, inflation is sucking the livelihood out of that lifestyle.
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Calf Stressed After Weaning? FerAppease Can Help.

Animal handling is stressful, especially on calves. Weaning is at the top of that list and the process can lead calves to cry, lose weight and get sick. When these things happen, it also inflicts stress on the humans managing their care, not to mention the bottom line.
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Pregnancy Testing Cows Has Never Been Easier

Attention cattle producers! If you dread the process – and the expense – for determining the pregnancy status of breeding females in your herd, we’ve got great news for you. The IDEXX Alertys OnFarm Pregnancy Test is a complete game-changer.
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5 Tips for a Successful Fall Calving Season

The first 24 hours in a calf’s life are the most crucial for its survival. We know it’s been a journey and an investment getting to this point, so we want to help make this critical time easier for you.
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How to Help Prevent, Treat and Control Pinkeye in Livestock

Are you thinking pink? Pinkeye, that is – and how it can affect your cattle herd? A single cow with pinkeye can lead to, dare we say, an “udder” mess in your operation. While treatment is possible once it’s caught, prevention is a far more cost-effective and reliable strategy.
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How to Handle Lice in Your Herd

Think your insect problems will solve themselves come winter? Think again. Lice love the winter, and they’re ready to find a host in your herd. hese tiny, wingless insects give cattle irritated, itchy skin by either sucking or biting them.
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Find the Best Fly Bait for Your Operation

If your operation is booming, chances are your fly population is too. Tis the season to Fight Filthy Flies! These pests are capable of far more than simply bothering us and our animals – they can carry diseases and even affect animal output.
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The Problem with Horse Flies – and What to Do About Them

Sweet, sweet summertime is here. And when the heat is on, so are the horse flies! These pesky insects can cause quite the problem for humans and horses alike. Whether you’re casually riding, grooming or competing in a stadium event, a 1,000-pound horse’s reaction to a horse fly bite can cause serious injury.
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Essential Dog Vaccines List

Is your dog due for one or more vaccines? While vaccines prepare every dog’s immune system to minimize and prevent illness, vaccine timing and frequency can vary based on a dog’s age and individual risk factors like their breed, living environment/region, and more.
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Selecting the Right Needle and Syringe Combos

Do you often feel like your head is spinning when it comes time to shop for needles and syringes? You’re not alone. Understanding injectable products – and the proper administration of those products using the proper tools – can feel like a chore most days.
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Rodent Control Solutions and Tips

Mention the Rat Pack and most people think Sinatra and Co. But for livestock operations, the rats in residency at their facilities are of an entirely different caliber. Rats, mice, and voles like to overstay their welcome. But the health and safety of both humans and animals on the farm depend on timely evictions.
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Foot Rot: Causes, Treatments and Prevention

Fusobacterium necrophorum. It might sound boring, but this bacteria can survive in soil for even longer than it takes us to sound out the pronunciation. With a potential survival of up to 10 months in your soil, it has the potential to wreak havoc on your livestock through foot rot.
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How Weather Changes Bring Wellness Concerns for Calves

Farmers know when the temps fall, the susceptibility for illness among their herd rises. Even though livestock can tolerate the cold, the changing weather opens them up to potential respiratory illnesses and scours.
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Protect Pets this Fall with Flea & Tick Prevention Products

This time of year, most of us look forward to the peak weeks of leaves changing colors. For pet owners, it’s also peak flea season. The drop in temperatures doesn’t mean you can let your guard down. Protecting pets during these fall months can help prevent flea infestations from invading your pet and your home as the weather turns.
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Your Livestock Tag Team Partner

Tag, we’re it! The state of livestock tags these days feels like more of a game than ever before, doesn’t it? With unprecedented supply chain issues causing delays and other trouble across the industry, PBS Animal Health is ready to be your tag team partner. We’ll address FAQs from producers like you, and keep you informed about this frustrating situation for all involved.
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How to Help Molting Chickens

Finding lots of feathers in those leaf piles this fall? The trees are turning, but chances are the chickens are molting, too. They may appear patchy and even ill with missing feathers, but it’s a normal process they experience each fall. We’ll break down the process and explain how you can help your molting birds while they’re building up their winter coats.
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Navigating the Livestock Penicillin Shortage

After nearly two years of the livestock penicillin shortage, producers are wondering how long this will last and what they can do to keep animals healthy until we get through it. The experienced team at PBS Animal Health is here to help ease your concerns and shine a light on some of the shortage-related trouble (especially with the OTC status change coming up in 2023).
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A Guide to Cydectin Dewormers

Every producer needs confidence in their dewormer, and that’s exactly what you gain with Cydectin products. Cydectin is the industry’s #1 selling pour-on deworming brand, so let’s find out why that is. With fall deworming efforts underway and so many dewormers on the market, it’s helpful to see why Cydectin stands out. Check out the key differences and learn more about the three Cydectin options PBS Animal Health offers to you.
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Livestock Calories: Have You Increased Enough for Winter?

Livestock can experience a rise in health issues when the temperatures drop. The cold air, snow, rain and even mud can lead to animals needing to increase metabolism to maintain body temperature (i.e. they need more energy just to stay warm). It’s even worse for calves because they have far less body fat. To keep them healthy in the cold months, they can build that extra energy with additional calories.
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Ultimate Guide to Colostrum for Calves

As the first milk produced after a newborn calf arrives, colostrum is chock full of nutrients, natural colostral fat and immunoglobulins/globulin protein. And it plays an incredibly important role in giving calves their best start. However, the quantity and/or quality of colostrum available may vary in each herd based on the possibility of disease transmission as well as management’s ability to accurately collect and store a herd’s colostrum.
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The Ultimate Guide to Canine SpectraⓇ Vaccines

Have you been looking for cost-effective, easy-to-administer, reliable vaccines for your beloved family dog or your dog’s recent litter of puppies? SpectraⓇ delivers a strong portfolio of single-dose, multi-protection vaccines that are USDA-approved! We’ve got everything you need to know about these economical and comprehensive options, and everything in stock when you’re ready to protect your pets.
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Everything You Need for Lambing-Kidding Season

With the turn of the calendar into January, that means one thing for our lamb and goat operations: the babies will be here before you know it. That means it’s time to stock up and ready your facility and workforce for safe and healthy lamb and kid arrivals. The health of your herd – and your operation – depend on thorough preparation, knowledge and tools.
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Beat Horse Boredom this Winter

For horses, the cold season is less winter wonderland and more boredom blah. Thanks to the weather, many horses spend more time in their stalls and since there’s often less stimulation and traffic around the stable, it’s easy to get bored. They need the opportunity to express natural behaviors, even if they’re stuck inside.
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Why You Need the TechMix Calf Scour Protocol

Scours: it’s one of those unpopular topics in dairy herd management, but it’s critical to understand so you can avoid costly loss. The USDA says scours, diarrhea and other digestive problems account for more than 50% of all pre-weaned heifer calf deaths - which negatively affects your bottom-line profits.
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Don't Wait: Be Prepared to Protect Weak Calves

Are your calves lacking energy? Frigid and extreme weather and even changes in handling can bring stress on a calf and leave them depressed. Or worse, a difficult calving can make them slow to stand after birth, with little interest in attempting to nurse. Each of these scenarios can lead to weak calf syndrome and threaten a calf’s potential from the start.
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Make Transport Easier on Your Calves

When we think of transportation protocols for cattle, we often focus on the factors around the animal like crammed trailers, climate, possible pathogen exposure, receiving practices and handling. It’s easy to forget about the animal’s internal health.
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