Pink eye

[Rniemann]

Anybody else having trouble w pink eye? How do you treat?

 

[JW IN VA]

Good dose of LA200 or Biomycin (4.5 ml/100lbs) and 1-2 mls sprayed on eyeball with the syringe

 

[boondocks]

Anybody else having trouble w pink eye? How do you treat?

Here's a good article: http://beefmagazine.com/health/vets-opi ... attle-0401

We had a bad spell of it last year. I'll tell you what NOT to do: toss salt at the eye. As article notes, antibiotic (LA) and an eye patch help. As a newbie, I took everyone's advice to not treat, and almost lost a good heifer who went totally blind and then wouldn't breed, and kept bashing into fences and getting butted by the others. She did recover some sight back, and did then breed, luckily. She is still smaller then she should be.

Now we are trying to get more on top of the fly situation upfront, and also vaccinated for pinkeye.

 

[Aaron]

Oxy LA and eye patch. If in the very early stages, then eye patch only.

 

[Howdyjabo]

Worst year I have ever seen for pink eye. Normally if I get the pastures clipped I have few problems with it.
I am having good luck with spectam pig scour med squirted in the eye. Coats it real well and stays for awhile.
Treated all the calves eyes when we ran them thru to weigh them. Seems to have stopped a mounting problem dead in its tracks(for now anyways).

 

[bmoore87]

Most pastures nothing but at one it is very bad and have treated about half the herd twice and some 3 times. Use large does of LA and penicillin some of which I spray in the eye, seems to work. Definetly prevention like others are saying seems to be the best route to go.

 

[dun]

Most pastures nothing but at one it is very bad and have treated about half the herd twice and some 3 times. Use large does of LA and penicillin some of which I spray in the eye, seems to work. Definetly prevention like others are saying seems to be the best route to go.

In the vein of prevention, we had a horrible year for pikeye, calves and cows all hat recurrent issues. Since then we have vavvinated for pinkeye in the spring and knock on wood, haven;t had any problems since. I figure the vaccination, IGR, pasture rotation and fly mops have all played small parts.

 

[chorewife]

we have had trouble with pink eye in our heifers this year too, our 6 year old cows haven't had an issue. But we are treating with LA300 and Draxxin.

 

[skyhightree1]

Those that are having trouble with pink eye what breeds of cattle do you have?

 

[chorewife]

We have Angus and Angus Sim cross.

 

[skyhightree1]

oh ok. That stinks how is the treatment going?

 

[Bigfoot]

I was using LA300. Denver turned me on draxxin, and it's the way to go. I'd used it for other issues, but not pink eye. The low dose makes it a little more cost effective.

 

[Katpau]

Pinkeye can and will attack every breed. I know that the white face cattle have a reputation for more eye problems, but in my experience I have found pinkeye to be an equal opportunity problem. It does not seem to target the white face animals any worse than solid blacks. I understand there may be some individual animals that are more tolerant. In my part of the country, Pinkeye seems to come in full force every few years. We may have three or four years with few outbreaks, and then all of a sudden there it is in full force, although we have done nothing different. I have had years when I have treated almost every single calf, and a few cows. There are many different types of Pinkeye, so unless you can identify the one your cows are afflicted with, the Pinkeye vaccines may not be of any use. My worst year ever just happened to come on a year I had vaccinated for Pinkeye. I think the cycle of bad year followed by a few good years is the main reason those who vaccinate after a bad year think it worked. It would likely have been a good year even had you not vaccinated. I have heard that they will become immune to Pinkeye once they have fought it off once. I believe this, because I usually do not have many older cows get it. The only thing I have found that seems to keep it from getting started is to control face flies. I do a pour on every three or four weeks when flies are at their worse. I also use a fly control mineral and have rubs out. I have not seen it yet this year, but it often seems to show up just about the time I think I have made it through the summer. One year it started just before I was ready to wean and sell. Very frustrating.

If they already have it, I give them a dose of LA300 or its generic equivalent. The patches are just too impractical on larger herds, and the medicine seems to always clear it up. I was once told to just let it run its course and most would get better on their own. Tried that and ended up with some blind calves. Yes, most got better, but those that did not sure cost me a lot more than a shot of LA300. I treat it as quickly as I can now. They will pass it from one animal to another, so if you can, it would probably be helpful to separate the affected animals.

 

[chorewife]

Have one Heifer that still has watering eye after a 5 days so I am getting and eye wash to help her out. I think her problems came from a seed head since we have had rain about every 2 to 3 days its been hard to get in the pasture to mow but we finally got it bush hogged.

 

[Aaron]

Unless your loading them full of LA with a dart gun, I fail to see how patches are impractical. You have to put them in the chute, one extra quick task isn't going to cost you thousands of dollars.

 

[Katpau]

Aaron,
Maybe I am just lazy. The fact is I have never tried it. It just seems like when you have over 50 calves with Pinkeye that need treating at the same time, it would take too much time. The patches I have seen were rather expensive and it would be very time consuming to cut out a bunch on your own. The shots are quick and fairly inexpensive and seem to work on most calves in a fairly short time. I can run them through the chute and give an injection really fast, but I think it would take a lot of extra time to glue on all of those patches and it would leave the calves that are affected in both eyes totally blind.

 

[dun]

Some friends of ours had a eral problem with pinkeye so they started vaccinating. The next year it was just as bad. The vet told them what vaccine to use but they couldn;t get it at the feed store so the continued using the other stuff. The next year, more pinkeye. The following year they finally broke down and got the stuff the vet recommended. 3 years now, no pinkeye. So basicly I've eomt to the conclusion that the cheap generic crap from the feed stores isn;t as effective as the name brand stuff.

 

[Aaron]

Aaron,
Maybe I am just lazy. The fact is I have never tried it. It just seems like when you have over 50 calves with Pinkeye that need treating at the same time, it would take too much time. The patches I have seen were rather expensive and it would be very time consuming to cut out a bunch on your own. The shots are quick and fairly inexpensive and seem to work on most calves in a fairly short time. I can run them through the chute and give an injection really fast, but I think it would take a lot of extra time to glue on all of those patches and it would leave the calves that are affected in both eyes totally blind.

50?! Wowza, you definitely have a problem there. I figure I have really dropped the ball when I have 2 or 3 with bad eyes.

 

[redsimangus]

We have had a couple come down with pinkeye this year also but we usually dont vaccinate but i have started doing it this year. I had one calf this spring that i could not get over it and i talked to the vet and he said that as long as the eye isnt watering or tearing then the infection is over with and it does no good to treat u just have to let it heal. But if it is watering then it needs to be treated. But if they have a cloudy eye and it isnt watering then you just need to let it heal he said that it starts to heal on the outside of the eye and works its way inward so thats the reason why on some calves that they end up with a little dot on the middle of eye that is permanent.

 

[raykour]

I treated nearly all the juveniles in my herd for pink-eye one year. I think there were close to 30 of them. I am one little lady, and I put eye patches on all of them. I cut them out of my husband's old blue jeans that I had stacked in the feed room just for this sort of purpose. I gave them LA200 and an eye patch and by the time the patch fell off most of them looked great. I credit the patch with helping the most so it is worth the hour I spent cutting patches out, in my opinion. I have never had a calf affected in both eyes, but I certainly would not patch both eyes if they were. At any rate, pink eye causes extreme discomfort which will lead to loss of gain and the patch is also supposed to help alleviate the pain and discomfort and I am all for that.