Pinkeye

[GoWyo]

Found one calf with a cheatgrass seed in her eye, but no watering, so only pulled the sticker out. Other had a white ulcer and couldn't find any seed or other object, so turned her out with a shot of Draxxin. They were going to their summer pasture which is 2 miles away and no corral to catch her in later, hence the Draxxin. Her eye quit watering by the next day and there was a red ring around the ulcer, which seems to be the first step toward healing.

 

[coachg]

Always worked for us ; use to feed erythromycin (spelling ?) but you have to have a vets prescription to get it now .

 

[TCRanch]

I have only had pinkeye problems and cancer eye problems with Herefords with no eye pigment. This is just my experience and I select for red hair around the eyes. I know others do not like google eyes. Just my opinion.

Flip of the coin. My herd is primarily black. Moxarella bovis/bovoculi is color blind.

 

[TCRanch]

Always worked for us ; use to feed erythromycin (spelling ?) but you have to have a vets prescription to get it now .

Aureomycin = chlortetracycline/CTC. That's what I use in my mineral prior to tick season. And yes, it does require a VFD. The purpose of the VFD for CTC is to help prevent anaplasmosis, but it's also helpful for pinkeye, foot rot, etc. - assuming each cow/calf/bull consumes the recommended dosage.

 

[TCRanch]

Catch early when watering and lid closed. Use 10% bleach/water. Open lid and do 2 mist sprays. ...quickly...I say...quickly....It burns..expect a reaction. It is an excellent disinfectant. We keep them inside then for 2-3 days.
Works for us.
Anyone else with draxxin doing good?

We have a terrible outbreak this season. A sheep strain I read somewhere.

Bleach?!?!? I wouldn't want it in my eyes; I suspect my cattle feel the same.

And yes, Draxxin works - if caught early. Nothing will save an eye that is already badly ulcerated.

 

[BrazosBottomHand]

We bought 3 young Hereford bulls about a month ago. My son picked them up but I really didn't want them because we are ok with the bulls we have. Looking at them today I noticed all 3 had pinkeye.
I went to TSC and picked up some LA 200 I wanted Biomicin 200 but had to settle for what they had.
I was able to pen them and vaccinate them. They were with 2 Red angus nand 1 black angus bulls so I vaccinated them too because they are always butting heads.
Has anyone used LA 200 for pinkeye?
It says on the bottle it treats pinkeye but I have never used it for pinkeye

LA does work (same active ingredient as Biomycin) but u probably need to come back after 3 days and hit them again. If it's really bad u may have to keep giving it several times. I wouldn't give it any more often than every 3 days though. Draxxin is really good on pinkeye if you can get some. Takes a script or maybe you know someone you can buy some from. Draxxin lasts 10 days so only retreat after 10 days. Eye patches work good too, esp on bad cases, but they are hard to keep on. About half of them stay on when I put the glue on type on yearlings. I've heard of people using duck tape and old blue jeans too but have never tried it. If you do that just make sure to tent the material over their eye so it doesn't rub. Also there's the safety concern of a bull throwing its head while ur trying to put all this on. U better have a good head holder on ur chute if u do that. Hope this helps.

 

[damengineer]

I have been very successful treating pinkeye with pennicillin and Draxxin. Even got the sight back in one with a complete white eye. I wash the eye well with Vetricyn eye wash. Then give 5-6cc Pennicillin in upper and in lower lid. This swells the eye shut. If available I will glue a patch over the eye. Some patches seem to never come off. 3M weatherstrip adhesive and old jeans work ok if you don't have the patch. I then give Draxxin at max dose. Harrowyou pastures every 3 weeks will cut down on flies. Any time I use Draxxin I always use max dose of Pennicillin to get started. That Today and Tomorrow mastitis ointment works good for eyes also. Anything that has propylene glycol in it can burn eye tissue.

 

[BrazosBottomHand]

Also like someone else said, flies are the main culprit and an ounce of prevention is worth a lb. of cure. High grass and weeds can do it too but probably at least 90% is flies. I put a fly tag in each ear when the flies start getting bad and this takes care of most pinkeye problems as long as the tags are working well. Pour- on can work too, esp. with a little extra drop on the forehead. However pour-on usually only lasts about half as long as fly tags ( depending on the weather). Don't forget you need to rotate classes of active ingredients from year to year on whatever you use for your fly repellent.

Also when you are giving an LA200 or Draxxin you are not vaccinating, you are just treating with an antibiotic. You are only vaccinating when you give a vaccine, not an antibiotic. Hope I don't sound like a tool on this lol. Just that I went for a long time not knowing and I was really embarrassed looking back on how long I said vaccinate when I was using an antibiotic.

 

[Dan-DK Farms]

Flies hugely exacerbate pinkeye problems. Hard to tell how much LA-200 helps because you have no true basis for comparison...no control group in the study. However, patching the eye does help. We also use Vetracin ophthalmic spray and fly dust bags in quantity. We have had less of it this year because of the drought in our area. This decreases the fly populations.

 

[WFfarm]

We use LA200 or LA300. They usually clear up with one treatment, but if you have a bad case you'll want to give a second treatment 3 days later. 300 is the same as 200 just more concentrated and you can give a smaller dose. Either one will likely leave a large welt at the injection site that may last a couple weeks. Read the label and make sure to get the right dosage based on weight, and only 10cc per injection site. Big heavy cows you may have to stick them in a number of places.

We have variety of colors in our herd and we got pinkeye in every colored cow. We have a black angus cow and she's gotten it the worst a couple times. Best to keep a good lookout for it during fly season and try to catch is early and it should clear up quickly with antibiotics. Look for the hazy white spots starting and squinty eyes. For bad cases we will put a patch over the eye.

 

[JParrott]

I don't know if the wet late spring and early summer has something to do with this breakout. There's lots of flies this year.

Last year was terrible for me. Whole herd got it, several still have white spots and one lost an eye. This year, all good. No problems so far.

 

[kenny thomas]

Last year was terrible for me. Whole herd got it, several still have white spots and one lost an eye. This year, all good. No problems so far.

I have a theory on that. I have seen the same thing. I think a bad year leaves some resistance to the same strain at least. I have never had 2 bad years in a row.

 

[JParrott]

I have a theory on that. I have seen the same thing. I think a bad year leaves some resistance to the same strain at least. I have never had 2 bad years in a row.

Same. Seems like every 5-10 years there's a bad year or two in there.

 

[Lee VanRoss]

Find out which of your grazing and animal husbandry practices contributes to pink eye and don't do that anymore.
If you have a problem in a given situation expect a problem every time you are in the same situation.
Prevention is cheaper than medicine. Caveat (All signs fail in dry weather,,)

 

[TCRanch]

Find out which of your grazing and animal husbandry practices contributes to pink eye and don't do that anymore.
If you have a problem in a given situation expect a problem every time you are in the same situation.
Prevention is cheaper than medicine. Caveat (All signs fail in dry weather,,)

Precisely why I've been known to trespass on the adjoining pasture & spray their cattle (plus, I feed the poor, neglected things).

 

[dodger2]

Catch early when watering and lid closed. Use 10% bleach/water. Open lid and do 2 mist sprays. ...quickly...I say...quickly....It burns..expect a reaction. It is an excellent disinfectant. We keep them inside then for 2-3 days.
Works for us.
Anyone else with draxxin doing good?

We have a terrible outbreak this season. A sheep strain I read somewhere.

Flies hugely exacerbate pinkeye problems. Hard to tell how much LA-200 helps because you have no true basis for comparison...no control group in the study. However, patching the eye does help. We also use Vetracin ophthalmic spray and fly dust bags in quantity. We have had less of it this year because of the drought in our area. This decreases the fly populations.

We had a bad out break 8-10 years ago in replacement heifers and a few cows. 17 heifers treated, five could not see. They were pastured by a road to the stock yard with too much stock trailer traffic. We were lucky enough to get them into a trailer and carried them to a corral with shade. First day treatment was 6 ml bio-Mycin 300 sub-q , 5 ml . Bio-Mycin squirt in each eye with syringe , no needle. Next day , another squirt in the eye, next day same as the first . Fourth day, Vetericyn plus in the eye. Fifth day same as the first. sixth day vetericyn again. A lot of labor, after first day of spraying it was a real job to spray the eyes, good head gate and tied the head to limit head swing. Second week used Vetericyn every other day. Ever sense that out break we use 20/20 Vision with spur by Merck. We have not had any pinkeye using this vaccine on calves in March/April then early May. There are many strands, we are lucky this works in central Va. . Every year there farm here that have pinkeye some. The farm store learned to stock up on 20/20, some farms don't have a working corral, they probably work through a vet for limited success through feeds with medications in them.

 

[dodger2]

We had a bad out break 8-10 years ago in replacement heifers and a few cows. 17 heifers treated, five could not see. They were pastured by a road to the stock yard with too much stock trailer traffic. We were lucky enough to get them into a trailer and carried them to a corral with shade. First day treatment was 6 ml bio-Mycin per 100 lb. sub-q , 5 ml . Bio-Mycin squirt in each eye with syringe , no needle. Next day , another squirt in the eye, next day same as the first . Fourth day, Vetericyn plus in the eye. Fifth day same as the first. sixth day vetericyn again. A lot of labor, after first day of spraying it was a real job to spray the eyes, good head gate and tied the head to limit head swing. Second week used Vetericyn every other day. All the animals recovered, the blind ones only had a small spot left and they were kept in the heard with no problems. Ever sense that out break we use 20/20 Vision with spur by Merck. We have not had any pinkeye using this vaccine on calves in March/April then early May. There are many strands, we are lucky this works in central Va. . Every year there farm here that have pinkeye some. The farm store learned to stock up on 20/20, some farms don't have a working corral, they probably work through a vet for limited success through feeds with medications in them.

 

[dodger2]

We had a bad out break 8-10 years ago in replacement heifers and a few cows. 17 heifers treated, five could not see. They were pastured by a road to the stock yard with too much stock trailer traffic. We were lucky enough to get them into a trailer and carried them to a corral with shade. First day treatment was penicillin at max. ,6 ml bio-Mycin 300 sub-q , 5 ml . Bio-Mycin squirt in each eye with syringe , no needle. Next day , another squirt in the eye, next day same as the first . Fourth day, Vetericyn plus in the eye. Fifth day same as the first. sixth day vetericyn again. A lot of labor, after first day of spraying it was a real job to spray the eyes, good head gate and tied the head to limit head swing. Second week used Vetericyn every other day. Ever sense that out break we use 20/20 Vision with spur by Merck. We have not had any pinkeye using this vaccine on calves in March/April then early May. There are many strands, we are lucky this works in central Va. . Every year there farm here that have pinkeye some. The farm store learned to stock up on 20/20, some farms don't have a working corral, they probably work through a vet for limited success through feeds with medications in them.

 

[Ky hills]

We have a few cases a year, and like some have mentioned some years a lot more than others. I think in those times it is likely a new strain. Last year was pretty rough, had it in cows and calves. So far this year, just a bull and a few calves. When ever we notice a watery eye or the slightest hint of something we are treating it. Some years it would only be in a newly purchased bull and would then apparently spread to a few calves.

 

[preston39]

Bleach?!?!? I wouldn't want it in my eyes; I suspect my cattle feel the same.

And yes, Draxxin works - if caught early. Nothing will save an eye that is already badly ulcerated.

Vet says you can't find a better disinfectant.