Vigilante Fly Control?

[Ben H]

Who has tried Vigilante Fly control Boluses? How long have they been on the market? It looks like they accomplish the same thing as having Rabon or IGR in your mineral.

 

[Ben H]

just trying to push this back up to the top, hoping for a response.

 

[cedardell]

I have used the Vigilantle Fly Control boluses for over ten years now. I thought they were the best of the miracle drugs. Ater twenty one days from administration-bingo no flys. We give each cow one bolus and each calf 1/2 bolus at branding time. It will disqualify them for "organic beef" but the cattle sure live in comfort. I skipped it one year and really felt sorry for them. They were so covered with horn flies that they stayed in the woods and laid on their backs trying to rub them off.

 

[Ben H]

Sounds good, I think I'll get them into the animals this weekend. Flys are just starting to appear. When I went to the manufacturer's website there were two products, one was twice as much. One over $100/24, one over $200/24. I purchased from Jeffers, they were like $110/24. What is the difference with the two products?

 

[IL Rancher]

We looked at them once, decided against using them (Coulodn't tell you why, probably the thought of running that many cows through and bolussing them).. Might try IGR again this summer but our direct sale customers really like that we don't use it.. I am guessing that is why you want to use the boluses Ben? The cows get it but not the calves?

 

[Ben H]

The way I look at it, it's no different then using mineral with IGR or Rabon. When I was looking into Crystalyx with Rabon I was told that the products doesn't leave the intestinal tract, therefore it has no effect on a "natural" product.
I have told my customers that I'm not organic because I want the option to treat a sick animal the way I feel it should. I will use LA-200 or Tetradure to treat Pinkeye but I carefully follow the dosage by measuring body weight, track the lot number, experation date, injection site and witholding time.
I'm pretty good at educating my customers. For example, why the problem with antibiotics is not treating animals, but the daily amounts in the feed on feedlot rations. That is what's causing resistance.
I'm planning to use Vigilante on my calves that I will be slaughtering, I won't hide the fact from the customer. I can point to a steer in my herd who got pinkeye last year, got the very best treatment I could possibly give him, above and beyond what most people would do, and he still lost his eye. Not only that, but it actually sticks out. I bought him a $17 fly mask yesterday at the feed store to help him through his last summer.
I want to do what I can for my animals to fight off flies. As far as running them through the chute, I'll be vaccinating for Pinkeye and putting in fly tags at the same time. With these three things I'm going to see how it works out without using the cattle rubber. Mostly due to the trouble of moving the thing around in a Management Intensive Grazing System.