How Prevelant is Pink Eye in herds today
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Black and Good
Well-known member
It does seem a little more common in your lighter skinned cattle. To me a good mineral program really helps keep down to a minimum. JMHO. To treat inject antibiotic like LA-2000,LA-300,Nuflor,Draxxin etc. And I will spray their eye with Vetricin Pink eye spray as well. In extreme cases I will do the above and put a patch on the eye. Hope this helps. B&G
Black and Good":bkxx9uzw said:
Just keep spreading misinformation since yours are all obviously black and good!
Tdarnen3K, ask a vet sometime how many black cattle get pinkeye. If one has cattle they will eventually deal with it.
Contrary to popular believe, oxytetracycline is the drug of choice as it concentrates in the ocular conjunctiva, so good ole LA 200 or equivalent does as good a job as anything. I inject IM at the correct dosage and squirt some on the eyeball as well, repeat 72 hours later.
You'll often see people using mastitis injections, most of them don't work as well anymore because of milk withdrawal. The active ingredient to look for in the intramammary injections is cloxicillin, it works very well, the other don't do much except washing the eye out. Curaclox Dry Cow is one brand name I knw that still has cloxicillin as active ingredient.
You'll often see people using mastitis injections, most of them don't work as well anymore because of milk withdrawal. The active ingredient to look for in the intramammary injections is cloxicillin, it works very well, the other don't do much except washing the eye out. Curaclox Dry Cow is one brand name I knw that still has cloxicillin as active ingredient.
Black and Good
Well-known member
AllForage":3dun541i said:
For your info. my herd bull is a Polled Hereford. A Nasdaq son. I just go by what I see in my part of the world. I've treated many black cattle with pink eye. They all can get it.
Lucky_P
Well-known member
Pigment has nothing to do with susceptibility to pinkeye. 'Cancer eye'(ocular squamous cell carcinoma), probably yes, but pinkeye, NO.
IF the strain of Moraxella bacteria causing the infection is susceptible to oxytetracycline, one of the long-acting tetracycline products, administered at the appropriate dosage, would be my recommended treatment; given properly - in the appropriate dose, by the proper route - the OTC reaches the same concentration in the tear film as it does in other body fluids/tissues, so the eye is constantly 'bathed' with a therapeutic level of the drug.
Anything you squirt or spray in the eye will be flushed out within 10 minutes, with normal tear action - and even faster if the eyes are irritated and tearing excessively.
While Moraxella bovis is the most common cause of pinkeye, over the past couple of years, we've been seeing more pinkeye cases with isolation of other species - M. ovis, M.bovoculi, which are often resistant to OTC, hence less-than-desirable results when treating with an oxytet product - and in some cases, IBR virus and Mycoplasma also play a role.
Patches or sewing the eyelids shut may be very helpful.
IF the strain of Moraxella bacteria causing the infection is susceptible to oxytetracycline, one of the long-acting tetracycline products, administered at the appropriate dosage, would be my recommended treatment; given properly - in the appropriate dose, by the proper route - the OTC reaches the same concentration in the tear film as it does in other body fluids/tissues, so the eye is constantly 'bathed' with a therapeutic level of the drug.
Anything you squirt or spray in the eye will be flushed out within 10 minutes, with normal tear action - and even faster if the eyes are irritated and tearing excessively.
While Moraxella bovis is the most common cause of pinkeye, over the past couple of years, we've been seeing more pinkeye cases with isolation of other species - M. ovis, M.bovoculi, which are often resistant to OTC, hence less-than-desirable results when treating with an oxytet product - and in some cases, IBR virus and Mycoplasma also play a role.
Patches or sewing the eyelids shut may be very helpful.
J&D Cattle
Well-known member
Lucky_P
What about the do nothing approach? I get mine up and give LA300 generally but I know others who do nothing to treat pinkeye and their cows seem to recover fine.
What about the do nothing approach? I get mine up and give LA300 generally but I know others who do nothing to treat pinkeye and their cows seem to recover fine.
Lucky_P
Well-known member
Some of 'em recover with minimal to no scarring. Some will lose the eye, if the cornea ruptures. Some just end up with corneal scarring of varying severity.
If you roll the dice, you take your chances.
Knock on wood, I've not had any in my herd this year.
Herd bull had it in one eye a couple of years back - at 8, he won't fit down the alleyway to my squeeze chute, so I had no way to treat him. Got over it on his own. That cornea is a little cloudy, but he doesn't have to read or drive, so it's all good.
If you roll the dice, you take your chances.
Knock on wood, I've not had any in my herd this year.
Herd bull had it in one eye a couple of years back - at 8, he won't fit down the alleyway to my squeeze chute, so I had no way to treat him. Got over it on his own. That cornea is a little cloudy, but he doesn't have to read or drive, so it's all good.
3waycross":37bjerly said:
Who must apologise?
The way I read it he was referring to lighter skinned cattle being more susceptable, Allforage called it BS and Lucky-P confirmed it, it is the minority of his (mis)information that was significant in this case, not the majority of the information (which was good).
Who must apologise?
The way I read it he was referring to lighter skinned cattle being more susceptable, Allforage called it BS and Lucky-P confirmed it, it is the minority of his (mis)information that was significant in this case, not the majority of the information (which was good).[/quote]
Whoever told him he was giving bad advice about treatment. That was the only thing that could be potentially harmful.
BTW as anecdotal as this is when we raised herfords we had pinkeye all the time. I have seen or heard of a case of it around here in a long time. Of course there ain't many herfs around here either.
Just Ned Jr and i don't know if it's a problem for him or not!
FWIW I have walked through Black and Goods cowherd and if ya'll think he doesn't know cattle ya better think again. They are one of the best lookin commercial cowherds i have ever seen.
The way I read it he was referring to lighter skinned cattle being more susceptable, Allforage called it BS and Lucky-P confirmed it, it is the minority of his (mis)information that was significant in this case, not the majority of the information (which was good).[/quote]
Whoever told him he was giving bad advice about treatment. That was the only thing that could be potentially harmful.
BTW as anecdotal as this is when we raised herfords we had pinkeye all the time. I have seen or heard of a case of it around here in a long time. Of course there ain't many herfs around here either.
Just Ned Jr and i don't know if it's a problem for him or not!
FWIW I have walked through Black and Goods cowherd and if ya'll think he doesn't know cattle ya better think again. They are one of the best lookin commercial cowherds i have ever seen.
KNERSIE":m47kp7h3 said:
Knersie, the LA200 treatment was my treatment method 2 years ago, and prior. I quit squirting it in the eyes last year. We were losing eyes, they'd swell and never go down. I reasoned that some cows developed lumps from LA 200 injections in the neck, maybe squirting it in an eye with severe pinkeye would cause the same swelling. Anyway, I switched to veterycin in the eye, patch it, and inject LA 200 IM. I haven't lost an eye since, not even any scars. I also changed my pinkeye vax the same year, that may have had more impact, I don't know.
Our ranch experienced some pretty bad pinkeye outbreaks in previous years. A pure guess but I would say up to 15% of the herd would be impacted, probably 5% severely. In the last two years we've increased efforts and improved our execution of fly control and seed head control. Fly control is with tags, IGR in mineral and rubs. The crew is better now about rotating pastures and clipping/baling pastures the cattle can't keep eaten down. There's still room for improvement on that front. We now vaccinate our cows for pinkeye.
We have two physically separate pasture areas about 25 miles apart. Each has a primary hand responsible for getting mineral with IGR out and taking care of rubs and clipping. One does a good job(East) the other (West) hasn't quite bought into the program. There's a clear difference in results. This year our calves on the West pastures had some issues but no cow or bull problems. The East pastures had minimal or no issues at all. I think it's clear the tags and vaccines made a difference across the board but we could do better managing the grass and weeds in the West pastures.
We treat with LA200 shots and patch the more severe cases. We're 98% BA with a few baldies and mottled faces.
We have two physically separate pasture areas about 25 miles apart. Each has a primary hand responsible for getting mineral with IGR out and taking care of rubs and clipping. One does a good job(East) the other (West) hasn't quite bought into the program. There's a clear difference in results. This year our calves on the West pastures had some issues but no cow or bull problems. The East pastures had minimal or no issues at all. I think it's clear the tags and vaccines made a difference across the board but we could do better managing the grass and weeds in the West pastures.
We treat with LA200 shots and patch the more severe cases. We're 98% BA with a few baldies and mottled faces.
Lucky_P
Well-known member
Fly control is the deal, as the causative bacteria/mycoplasma - and to a lesser degree, viruses are transmitted from animal to animal by face flies.
Certainly, keeping pastures clipped (I rarely do) may diminish irritation from weeds/seedheads.
Proper mineral/vitamin supplementation - particularly with attention to Vit.A/E and selenium levels may diminish incidence and severity.
If it's not formulated and approved for putting in the eye - I'm not squirting/spraying it there.
Same for wounds - if you wouldn't put it in your own eye, don't put it in/on a wound - otherwise, it's likely to impede healing.
Vaccination... can be hit or miss. If it seems to work for you, I'm not gonna tell you to stop. I did; didn't help my situation.
I've seen plenty of pinkeye in black cows (and solids of other color phases). Don't think there's but one cow left in the herd here that's without pigment around her eyes; she's never had it - but some of the blacks have. Again, pigment has nothing to do with pinkeye susceptibility.
Certainly, keeping pastures clipped (I rarely do) may diminish irritation from weeds/seedheads.
Proper mineral/vitamin supplementation - particularly with attention to Vit.A/E and selenium levels may diminish incidence and severity.
If it's not formulated and approved for putting in the eye - I'm not squirting/spraying it there.
Same for wounds - if you wouldn't put it in your own eye, don't put it in/on a wound - otherwise, it's likely to impede healing.
Vaccination... can be hit or miss. If it seems to work for you, I'm not gonna tell you to stop. I did; didn't help my situation.
I've seen plenty of pinkeye in black cows (and solids of other color phases). Don't think there's but one cow left in the herd here that's without pigment around her eyes; she's never had it - but some of the blacks have. Again, pigment has nothing to do with pinkeye susceptibility.
