Pinkeye In Blacks

[greenwillowherefords]

Neighbor to my lease stopped brush-hogging to talk to me today when I was over there. He brush-hogs twice a year to knock the weeds down. Said he found out for the first time in his life a couple years ago that solid black cows get pinkeye, so he keeps the weeds down to help.

I hesitate to say this as I may have problems with it tomorrow, but to date I have had no pinkeye in the four-five years I've been in operation. This is the third summer next door to this man's field. My pasture is worse than his. I just thought it goes to show that not all stereotypes are true all the time.

 

[Farminlund]

Never had pinkeye in my herd for almost 20 yrs (never trimmed, never did anything that would keep it a bay) - then one summer it swept the herd - some completely blind - a real nitemare! Have been fighting it for the last 4-5 yrs, don't know why or what brought it on, but I am currently looking at how to prevent this yr from being a repeat of the last 4-5. Increased CTC in the minerals, flace flips on the mineral feeders, etc. Hope it doesn't surprise you some year like it did me.

 

[stocky]

Farminlund, I would strongly recommend you give the blackleg shot with pinkeye in it as soon as possible to eliminate the pinkeye in your calves. we use to have pinkeye real bad every summer and we started giving the pinkeye in the blackleg and we havent had a bad case in the 7 or 8 years we have done this, if a calf gets the pinkeye, it isnt bad and it heals without treatment in a week. this has been a real time and money saver since we have started doing this

 

[Farminlund]

Started that last yr - seemed to help somewhat but not nearly as effective as I thought it should have been (may that had the vaccine still got pinkeye). Continuing the process (pinkeye vaccine) this year, hope I'll seem better results. First case last yr was 5/25, none to date this yr (but flies have also been down in our area this yr).

 

[greenwillowherefords]

Like I said, I was almost afraid to post that statement. I just wanted to make the point that Herfs aren't the only ones who get it, and it is in everyone's best interest to keep the weeds and flies down.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Never had pinkeye in my herd for almost 20 yrs (never trimmed, never did anything that would keep it a bay) - then one summer it swept the herd - some completely blind - a real nitemare! Have been fighting it for the last 4-5 yrs, don't know why or what brought it on, but I am currently looking at how to prevent this yr from being a repeat of the last 4-5. Increased CTC in the minerals, flace flips on the mineral feeders, etc. Hope it doesn't surprise you some year like it did me.

Work on your fly control all breeds are equally vunerable to pinkeye the best management is get rid of the flies.

 

[ctlbaron]

I have been very reluctant to say this because I'm sure some of you will think I'm totally nuts. We get have few with pinkeye every year even with the pinkeye salt mix. I intend to vaccinate next week with what you folks have recomended. That being said, When we have one come in with watery eyes we give it a good squirt of 30% bleach solution right in the eye. I know it sounds rough but it works like magic. Believe it or not my method is more gentle than what I was told to do which is to use straight bleach. I was scared to death to do it the first time with the 30%. I was afraid it would leave them blind. But at the time we had about 13 head showing signs out of 50 steers we had bought about a week before. We mixed up the bleach solution and put it in my son's super soaker water gun. We tried it on one steer first. The next day his eye was pouring the tears but he had it wide open. The next day it was dry. No shots, no squeeze shute, no problems. The next day we gave the remaining 12 the same treatment. Same results, all better in two days. Not even a white spot in any of their eyes. The watering flushes the bacteria out of the eyes and starts the healing. Same as using Furox which hurts just as bad as the bleach solution. I may not be for everyone but it it the easiest for me and I know it works.

 

[jerry27150]

http://www.agric.nws.gov.au/reader/bk-a ... =a0931.htm

 

[jerry27150]

don't work, try this one

http://www.agric.nsw.gov.au/reader/cattlehealth

 

[Chuckie]

ctlbaron, I have never heard of using a bleach solution. Tell me more about this treatment. When you say bleach, are you talking about Purex or Clorox? So you mix 7 parts water and three parts bleach and squirt it into their eye with a watergun so that you don't have to restrain the animal? Where did you learn of this method. I am not saying that this isn't so, but I have always heard that bleach will blind you. Maybe with the eye forming a sore across it, the bleach only reacts to the diseased covering. I use bleach on my hands to get rid of calluses. It doesn't dry them out nor does it burn if I have a cut. My hands smell like burning hair after I rinse them off, but my hands are much smoother afterwards. It seems to only attack the dried skin, and leaves the skin that is healthy alone. Another use for bleach is on your feet. Some people go to the doctor and get a real expensive paint to put on their toe nails to get rid of a nail fungus. A dip in bleach rids you of the fungus and also removes dry thick skin on your feet. Didn't mean to drift from the eye, but had to share the other uses.

 

[jerry27150]

chuckie, the old guys just threw a handfull of white salt in their eyes. i have done this too. it will make eye tear & kill some bacteria & flush out more

 

[ctlbaron]

I'm not telling anyone else to do it by any means. I'm just saying that it's what I do at the onset of watery eyes that are always the first sign of pinkeye. Yes sir, I am talking about Clorox. Salt and furox are as painful as anything you do for treatments. Spray Furox in the eyes of a 1900lb bull, stand clear and see what he does. And it does the same thing as the bleach solution. The eyes will pour tears for a day. I learned it from someone around here. "She uses 100% pure bleach." All I know is if I hit them with watery eyes, it never progresses futher. Quick and done. They still love me the next day. I'm sure it hurts but they are back to normal in a few minutes. Less stressful than a head gate, shots and spray. By the way I am sure its pinkeye before I do it.

 

[d844833]

farminlund; i also farm in va and i started getting mineral mixed for
me with extra iodine and chloratetracylene,rabon and mag along with
all the other things. if i do get a case then i get la200 about 1ml and
squirt in into the eye this stops it pretty quick.

 

[Chuckie]

Finding out things I have never heard of before. d844833, I've never heard of spraying LA200 in their eyes. I wonder if anyone else has used the bleach or the LA200? The bleach just blows my mind. But I am sure several years ago when a doctor said he was going to cut you wide open and take out some of your body parts, that they got a stranger reaction. Not doubtin' you ctlbaron, but it scares me to think about putting bleach in their eyes after having been around it for so long. But at the same time, it sounds like it would wipe it out any kind of bacteria. I'll have to study more on this one. I have never heard of anyone splashing bleach in their eyes and going blind. At the same time, I have never had to treat a cow for pink eye yet. I am sure my day will come.

 

[Crowderfarms]

One more thing to add, and I've seen it done, is a syringe with 5 ml. of Oxytetracycline, squirted into the Eye. Folks claim it works too.

 

[Rustler9]

Two yeras ago we had several cows and heifers, even one bull that got pinkeye. About half of those that got it were black. Anytime I have one that gets it I throw a handful of salt in the eye and it goes away fairly quickly. I used to try to get them up and use a spray medication for it but it's alot easier to use the salt like my familiy has always done.

 

[jerry27150]

also if you have the tubes they use for mastitus, you can squirt a little of this in their eyes

 

[ctlbaron]

I don't blame you Chuckie, it scared me too the first time. I was pretty freaked out to hear people talking about giving bleach to a calf with scours here. I know bleach is poisonous. I've never done it but if worse comes to worse I will try it.