Eye Injury

[Bright Raven]

This past week, I observed a cow with her left eye closed and tears dripping. She had a tear icicle hanging from her cheek.

My first thought was pinkeye. It took me a couple times of squeezing her up in the chute to isolate the cause. I used two halters to immobilize her head. The first time I put her in the chute I could not see an issue so I flushed her eye with an isotopic solution of bicarbonate of soda.

Couple days later, it was worse. This time when I got her head totally immobilized, I used a rattail file as a roller and was able to roll her upper eyelid inside out. She has a large lesion on the inside surface of her eyelid. It had formed a puslike scab. I probed the scab and cleaned it. I flushed her eye again with bicarbonate of soda. As a precaution, I administered an antibiotic. I also noticed a white streak on her cornea.

I am assuming an object entered her eye and grazed across her cornea and went up under her upper eyelid. Fortunately, it did not enter the eyeball. Today her eye is looking much better and she has it open.

 

[Silver]

Good job getting that figured out.

 

[True Grit Farms]

Another plus for an Arrow Chute is it will hold a cows head still. I squirt penicillin directly in the eye, if it's not noticeably better the next day I do it again and glue a patch over the eye.

 

[wbvs58]

Not easy to deal with eyes sometime. Just make sure what caused the injury is not still hiding in amongst the swollen eyelid. When the surface of the cornea is scratched it allows water to leak into the cornea and produce the cloudiness we see.

Ken

 

[Bright Raven]

Not easy to deal with eyes sometime. Just make sure what caused the injury is not still hiding in amongst the swollen eyelid. When the surface of the cornea is scratched it allows water to leak into the cornea and produce the cloudiness we see.

Ken

Ken. It was difficult because I wanted to get to the bottom of the lesion. I probed it and scratched off the pus like scab. I am pretty sure it is clear of an object.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Good catch.

 

[Bright Raven]

Good catch.

Jeanne

As of today, I am very happy with her healing. The cornea is clear now and her eye is open. Thanks

 

[TJSideBiz]

Good catch.

Jeanne

As of today, I am very happy with her healing. The cornea is clear now and her eye is open. Thanks

Excellent! Good job keeping an eye on the herd.

 

[MRRherefords]

We had one just like that a few years back. Thought for sure it was pinkeye but turned out to be eye trauma. Formed a white bubble over the eyeball, but helped heal it and she was good as new in a week.

 

[snoopdog]

I bought a heifer with an obvious eye injury several years ago, wonderful mama, raised the best of calves, but when the butting began at the hayring or feed trough she would inevitably get hit in that eye, and it would just stagger her.

 

[farmerjan]

Great job getting it figured out. Sometimes they just get something in the eye, it gets scratched, irritated and can cause them to lose the eye. Glad you caught it and it is healing up.