Can people catch pink-eye from cattle?

Last night I woke up and it felt like Mr. Sandman had dumped sand in my right eye. It has been getting worse all day long. I don't think any of my cattle have pink-eye, not a watery eye to be found. I have been feeding a friends cattle for the past few days while he was gone and it is possible one of his steers could have pink-eye. I also was limbing up some spruce trees yesterday maybe I scratched my eye and didn't realize it. I can barely keep my right eye open. Any ideas? thanks.

If it gets bad fast to where you can't open your eye(hrs) its a scratch .Need to go to eye doctor. A scratch gets REALLY painful REALLY fast.
But........ it may just be allergies making tiny bumps on your inner eyelid which is causing the irritation/pain to your eyeball. That takes a whole day to get where you don't want to open your eye.And the pain is not overwhelming. Over the counter allergy eye drops will fix that eventually.
You use them once in the morning and once at night and then lubricating drops to get you thru the day.

Pink eye is different- not so much pain,red membranes and lots more goo coming out of your eye.

Yes, it's highly contagious.
Not that I know anyone who's caught it from cattle, I had it as a student when it went through the local population, goodness knows how, then stupidly carried the infection to the other eye myself. Generally scratchy "there's dirt in there" feeling is about right for it starting, the only reason you wouldn't be able to open your eyes is if they're glued shut.
Then they look red for several days after, as if you haven't slept for a week.
I seem to recall some of the other students visited their doc for antibiotics.

ohiosteve

Did you happen to notice if the spruce trees were giving any pollen off? Most areas have already gone through the spruce pollen season. Lots of people are allergic to the pollen. Itchy eye and often sneezing are signs of a reaction to the pollen.

I've given myself pinkeye from cattle to the point where I think I'm Immune to it. We would rope and doctor weaned calves all morning and there was never anywhere to wash our hands so we'd dig in there looking for a foxtail and find pinkeye instead and have it all over our hands during allergy season while we're scratching and wiping our eyes.
One time I had a small case just getting started in one eye and I got invited to go up in an open-cockpit bi-plane. By the next morning both of my eyes were swollen almost all the way shut.

Thanks for the replies, I must have either scratched my eyeball or gotten something in there from the spruce tree because this morning it was much better and now feels about as good as new.

Ohiosteve. Just south of you here in KY everyone is complaining this year about eye allergies.