Pinkeye remedy

[J&D Cattle]

Checked my cows this morning and the bull has pinkeye. Didn't notice it on Sunday. Today the eye is running pretty good, has a nice size white spot, and he has the eye winked but not all the way closed. I don't have a headgate on this place and hauled the portable chute I borrowed back last week. Old timer told me to throw salt in the eye or even loose mineral out of the feeder. Said it will dry it up. I've had good luck with LA300 in the past but don't know if it is worth penning him and moving him to a chute. Buddy says he has a "bang stick" that we could use in the pen without having to catch him in the chute. Thoughts?

 

[Caustic Burno]

Checked my cows this morning and the bull has pinkeye. Didn't notice it on Sunday. Today the eye is running pretty good, has a nice size white spot, and he has the eye winked but not all the way closed. I don't have a headgate on this place and hauled the portable chute I borrowed back last week. Old timer told me to throw salt in the eye or even loose mineral out of the feeder. Said it will dry it up. I've had good luck with LA300 in the past but don't know if it is worth penning him and moving him to a chute. Buddy says he has a "bang stick" that we could use in the pen without having to catch him in the chute. Thoughts?

Ten percent clorox solution in a pump up sprayer will work.
You have a fly problem and you are going to have an out break if you don't get them under control.
That headgate will be a cheap investment if you get a full blown outbreak and end up with a bunch of blue eyed cow's and calve's. You will get hammered hard at the barn come sale time.

 

[ousoonerfan22]

I would give the bull a shot of LA300. :2cents:

 

[Caustic Burno]

I would give the bull a shot of LA300. :2cents:

Me and you both along with putting his head in a headgate and flushing those eyes.
Then in about three day's we would play rodeo again and do the same thing.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Peice of britches leg and sale barn tag glue. Patch his eye and give him a shot of what ever you use. Forget about it, when the patch comes off the eye will be good as new.

 

[J&D Cattle]

RBB, I've heard of that too.

I'm going to pen him tonight and can engineer something with panels to at least get him sqeezed into a corner for treatment.

 

[jerry27150]

yes the old guy is right throw some salt in it . 2 or three times is better. it is like putting saline solution in. used to be the only remedy

 

[-SCattle]

The britches leg an sale barn glue is the best remedy ever used. Give a dose of LA 200, squirt a couple cc's in the eye an patch it up

 

[Lucky_P]

Agree. Long-acting tetracycline - of your choice - and a patch; will allow all but the worst to clear and heal just fine.

Salt in the eye may have been the only treatment 'back in the day' - but you'd be as well off or better to just pee in the animal's eye - at least it would 'flush' it. ANYTHING you squirt or throw(if you even manage to get any in before they clamp the lids down) in the eye will be flushed out by normal tear action in less than 10 minutes - probably even faster in those irritated, heavily tearing eyes.
Treatment with a systemic oxytetracycline essentially results in constant bathing of the eye with OTC, as it reaches the same concentration in the tears that it does in the blood/tissue fluids.

There are some strains of bacteria that cause pinkeye that are showing resistance to OTC, so it may not work on every case.

10% clorox? Regular, straight out of the jug is 5%. I'm presuming you mean a 10:1 dilution of water & (5%) clorox, CB? Probably still a little strong, but probably not damaging.
The Vetericyn pinkeye stuff that some folks seem to be so fond of is 99.837% water(ooh, but it's electrolyzed water!), with 0.009% hypochlorous acid(what you get when you mix chlorine bleach(sodium hypochlorite) with water), and some salt(NaCl) at about 1/4 the concentration of normal saline, and some sodium phosphate to adjust pH. Awfully expensive very dilute chlorine bleach:water mix, to my way of thinking. Only good thing I can say about is that folks are flushing the eyes - and paying attention to the problem.
Don't believe me? Here's the MSDS sheet: http://www.statelinetack.com/ContentFil ... 0-msds.pdf

 

[snake67]

Checked my cows this morning and the bull has pinkeye. Didn't notice it on Sunday. Today the eye is running pretty good, has a nice size white spot, and he has the eye winked but not all the way closed. I don't have a headgate on this place and hauled the portable chute I borrowed back last week. Old timer told me to throw salt in the eye or even loose mineral out of the feeder. Said it will dry it up. I've had good luck with LA300 in the past but don't know if it is worth penning him and moving him to a chute. Buddy says he has a "bang stick" that we could use in the pen without having to catch him in the chute. Thoughts?

Yup - you will see all the recipes here - everything from salt in the eyes to God only knows what

With all the quack cures out there, half the time the animal heals up by itself - the other half, the animal loses its eye and the breed gets a bad name

Good rule of thumb to follow: If you can put it in your eye, you can probably do the same to any mammal

I will not give you any cures - however, I have several things that work on this farm and I can assure you that none of them are granular.

There are many ways to cure an ill - but not all the old ways really do work - sometimes they get used and as I stated - the animal heals itself anyways.

Would you want some salt in your eye?

Try asking the vet - s/he probably has a few more qualifications than some have here.

Your telephone call costs you nothing and at the same time you might learn something that you will use for years.

Pretty sure I will get a bit of a stormy reply from one or two folks - but remember - despite the fact we raise them to kill them, you have a responsibility to be humane whenever possible. Toss the salt on your steak or test it in your own eye to see how it works first.

As for the effort you mentioned - if he is worth keeping, he is worth the effort

This question comes up so often and all the old folk recipes start floating around - I think I will keep this one back for a standard response. LOL

Have a great day

Best to all

Bez



Sorry - edited for spelling errors - hate them!

 

[Lucky_P]

Good point, Bez - and to turn it around - if you wouldn't put it in your OWN eye, don't put it in an animal's - or, in/on a wound, for that matter.
As a vet, I'm the first to affirm that, in fact, many of these animals heal up IN SPITE of what we do to them.

 

[highgrit]

Diesel fuel squirted in the eye will work. In the old days they used mineral oil.

 

[hillsdown]

We had a pink eye problem this year as flies were horrid here ,even with the oilers ,spraying and clipping pastures. I ended up treating 2 cows ,one yearling bull and all the calves on the west quarter.

You need to lock him up and treat him properly.

If the corneal ulcer is deep and appears likely to rupture, we sew the eyelids shut or sew the third eyelid to the upper lid across the ulcer ,which is done by our vet an experienced LA specialist .

You can treat him with an oxytet successfully ,but don't be frugal with it ,and he may need to be treated in a few days again. If you patch his eye make sure you leave an opening on the bottom for it to drain .

The progression of clinical signs of pinkeye is consistent and predictable. Excessive tearing, reddening of the conjunctiva, and frequent blinking (lacrimation, conjunctivitis, and blepharospasm) are followed within 1-2 days by corneal ulceration and cloudiness (edema). The ulcer begins in the center of the cornea and may expand to occupy most of the cornea. In severe cases the ulcer may erode the entire thickness of the cornea, resulting in rupture of the eye and permanent blindness. Corneal edema may quickly affect the entire cornea, resulting in the characteristic "blue eye" seen in advanced cases. The eye is blind and very painful and the animal will hold it shut and avoid the sun.

 

[jerry27150]

if a person has any eye problem, first thing your dr. does is put saline solution in it which is salt & water

 

[Nite Hawk]

Seen some pretty nasty pink eye, and ruptured eyeballs hanging down on cattles faces from it. Not nice at all, not to mention the suffering the critter went through.
Yes he might just recover, but then again he might not, and a blind bull isn't too good for breeding, or sale. I would treat it.
Bleach can and will cause eye damage.
Around here they use keraplex ( gentian), they used to use a sulfa based powder in the eyes, not sure what they use nowdays.
Heard of using cefalac ( mastitis medicine) but never used it myself.
Why not a quick phone call to the vet and ask what is recommended nowdays. They often will tell you what to use, often without charge.
Better than a blind animal
Nite Hawk

 

[Banjo]

I hear an awful lot of gnashing of teeth about salt in the eyes.......while granulated salt wouldn't be my first choice a strong solution of sea salt water is all I ever use....successfully I might add. about it being humane.....has anybody ever been to the ocean? got salt water in their eyes......it may have stung just a tad but it wasn't the end of the world.

on to my next point............I don't think pinkeye is necessarily a fly problem. I think its more nutritional and stress related. I have had just as many flies this year as anybody and I've not got to use my seasalt solution one time.
The year or two bef
ore I only had 2 or 3 cases out of a 100 hd cow herd plus calves.
Now somebody smarter than me can tell me about herd immunity......if I get some kind of pinkeye it just goes thru a very few then stops....same way with sore foot or a cow limping it is just 2 or 3 then it stops.

 

[Nite Hawk]

Have seen pink eye when there was a decent amount of snow on the ground and no flies at all. It was bright and sunny and cold and there was a mess of pink eye. My guess is it may have came in from the auction.
Only the herefords were affected, none of the other breeds of cattle got sick at all, and they were all running in together. That tells me of possible genetic tendencies, and / or the fact they had white around the eyes.
Personnally I prefer to "nip" sickness in the bud before it spreads too far, instead of letting it run...
Nite Hawk

 

[Banjo]

Genetics certainly seem to play a role in pinkeye but not exclusively IMO and experience. I like treatments other than antibiotics when possible and use antibiotics as a last resort so the animal builds up some immunity.
Of course, I'm looking at it from the standpoint of a closed cow/calf operation. If I were bringing in stockers all the time then I may think totally different.

 

[highgrit]

This is a little off the wall but here it goes. I feel my free choice minerals and salt feeders are why we don't have a pink eye problem. I could be wrong because we spray our cows with permethrin and diesel fuel also.
I don't know which one or if its a combination of both that works good for us.