Pink eye HELP!

[Cnfletcher]

I noticed my cow had symptoms of pink eye so of course I took action with pink eye spray and LA-300. But the pink eye is only worsening. It's so bad now the center of his eye is protruding. Also there is a yellow film, all around his eye. It seems as if his eyeball is just deteriorating. I don't know what else to do, I squirted antibiotics in his eye, and put an eyepatch on. I feel so bad for him, any advice?

 

[M-5]

Call your vet.

 

[TCRanch]

You may have caught it too late and agree with M-5, definitely call your vet to come out or take him in (him? or cow?) It will probably heal but may end up being blind, or partially blind in that eye. For pain you can give aspirin boluses or Banamine.

 

[Lucky_P]

Have had more pinkeye this year in my herd than in many years.
You've done about all you can do - other than trying another antibiotic.
We've been isolating, in recent years, more strains of the Moraxella bacteria that are resistant to oxytetracycline, so your vet may have another antibiotic suggestion.
Your cow may lose vision - but you may be surprised at the recovery, as well. I've had several this year, that looked a lot like your description, treated pretty much the way you handled yours, and several weeks down the road, they now look perfectly normal - not even any corneal scarring.

 

[Cnfletcher]

I'm going to squirt more Oxyteteracylin in his eye, do you think it will at least heal back over to where the center isn't bulging out? And called the vet, all they said was to cover it and hope for the best.

 

[TCRanch]

It should heal within a couple months & you'll see white or blue scarring. I've also used Nuflor. The only other thing I can think of, did you ask your vet about IBR? Looks a lot like pinkeye but doesn't respond to antibiotics.

 

[Cnfletcher]

Okay, thank you so very much. A ease of mind with you saying that your cows eye healed over. I hope for the best for him.

 

[Bigfoot]

I've switched to draxxin exclusively for pink eye treatment. Had some pretty nasty cases this year, and you could see marked improvement in one day. I figure every white eye cost me $100 on sale day. I try to keep it to a minimum.

 

[Cnfletcher]

Did you just give a shot of Duraxxin? Or squirt it into the eyeball with a syring? What is the best way?

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Did you give your cow a shot or squirt it in her eye?

 

[kenny thomas]

Did you just give a shot of Duraxxin? Or squirt it into the eyeball with a syring? What is the best way?

When you just squirt the antibiotic into the eye, 3 blinks later it is gone. It just washes away. A shot of 1cc dexamethazone(sp) and 2cc pennicillin into the eye will help.

 

[Bigfoot]

Draxxin, I shoot. Don't put it in the eye.

 

[gizmom]

We had a real bad case of pink eye in a bull one time, vet had us get the bull up once a day flip the eyelid back and put a shot of penicillin SQ in the eye lid itself. The penicillin would then leak out over the course of the day keeping the eye washed in the penicillin. It was a pain in the backside to get done but worked really well. Bull made a full recovery and to be honest I didn't think there was a chance in the world that the bull would still have his eyesight, it was pretty nasty.

gizmom

 

[Lucky_P]

As KT said - anything you put in the eye - powder, liquid, ointment - is going to be flushed away in no less than 15 minutes, just with normal tear action; when tearing is in full flow - as we see with those pinkeye animals - it probably is washed out even faster.

I used to do the old subconjunctival injections of penicillin and steroids, back when I was in practice. No more. I don't think 'it keeps seeping out' for more than the few minutes it takes for that little needle puncture to seal over. Steroids inhibit healing of corneal ulcers... so I don't know how that came to be such an accepted practice... guess most of them healed up in spite of it, and folks made a faulty assessment.

If, however, you treat systemically, with an appropriate dosage of an appropriate drug - like the long-acting oxytetracycline formulations, Draxxin, etc., those drugs are present at therapeutic levels in the tears, so the eye is constantly being bathed with what should be an effective level of the drug - provided the organisms involved are susceptible to the antibiotic used.
That said, I usually keep a tube of mastitis treatment on hand and squirt some in the affected eye before I turn 'em out... knowing it's gonna be flushed out pretty quickly... but it's not the principal treatment.

I used to sew lids together or sew third eyelid to the upper lid. Nowadays, I'd just glue on a patch and call it good - I think the results are just as good.

As always, consult your own veterinarian.

 

[Bigfoot]

I don't have the skill set for these eye/eye lid injections. La300 is cheap enough, I will squirt some in their eye, but they don't leave the squeeze with out a cc per hundred/Lb of draxxin. It cost, but it works. I can't say that about everything.

 

[Cnfletcher]

I'm going today and check and see how the eye is with one week under the patch and a shot of La-300. Hopefully it'll be doing better.

 

[Cnfletcher]

Today I lifted his patch on his eye, and it's still pretty gross it's still red and yellow with the center protruding. And it smells god awful. I cleaned it again and squirted some more LA-300 in his eyes to just clean, going to get some Duraxxin this weekend for him. Hopeful it'll help.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Put the La-300 in the meat instead of the eye.

 

[milkmaid]

If it smells bad there may be more going on than just the standard pinkeye. Sounds like a place where getting your veterinarian involved would be a good investment.

Otherwise, antibiotics in the cow, not the eye. Steroids tend to cause corneal ulcers in common species except cows, so the professors at school said; I've seen them treated with sub conjuctival injections, systemic injections, no treatment, patch only..... the jury is still out for me. I treated a bad one today with pen/dex subconjunctival and draxxin SQ (but then it also had respiratory disease). Also did an enucleation, but that calf's problem was trauma not pinkeye.

They do seem to heal regardless of how bad they get, however as mentioned you'll get docked at the sale ring and painful eyes cause lower weight gains, so....

Also evaluate your mineral program.

 

[Lucky_P]

Dr. Milkmaid,
Even an old dog (me) can learn new tricks.

Back in the Dark Ages, the ophthalmologists were like, "corneal ulcer - corticosteroids are a no-no". But in doing some googling around, there have been some extensive studies done in the human arena... and while corticosteroids alone are probably still regarded as a no-no with regard to bacterial-induced corneal ulcers... if re-epitheliazation of the cornea has commenced, use of corticosteroids, in conjunction with an appropriate antimicrobia, can and does reduce inflammation and while it may slightly prolong total healing time, preservation of visual acuity is improved.

So... the antibiotic/steroid injections *may* be of benefit in treating pinkeye cases... though I still question whether or not their 'effectiveness' lasts more than just the few minutes that the injected solution is leaking out of the needle-prick. I just don't think it continues to 'leak out' for very long, and doubt that that isolated subconjunctival bleb exerts significant local effects once the injection site closes.