Thought I dodged a bullet

[TCRanch]

Pinkeye has been horrible around the area this year and a lot of my neighbors have been battling it all summer. Even my vet had an outbreak in his own herd. I vaccinate with an autogenous that targets both moxarella bovis and moxarella bovoculi and had my first case towards the end of July but nothing since. Feeling a little smug. Until Karma spanked me with my own outbreak, 6 calves so far. And of course they're out to pasture and generally nowhere near the corral or chute at the barn so I'm reduced to roping them in the pasture, snubbing them up to the grill of my Polaris and getting the snot kicked outta me (along with multiple rope burns) while I spray & administer shots. Picking my battles and going directly with Draxxin.

Anyone else dealing with this? Flies have been so bad this year I'm spraying once a week, even on their foreheads, and they have mineral with CTC. Not sure what else I can do for now.

 

[WinterSpringsFarm]

Flys have not been bad until about 3 weeks ago. My fly tags have done an amazing job and the cows don't have a single fly on them. The weaned calves have needed some spraying though. NO pinkeye (knock on wood)

 

[TCRanch]

Flys have not been bad until about 3 weeks ago. My fly tags have done an amazing job and the cows don't have a single fly on them. The weaned calves have needed some spraying though. NO pinkeye (knock on wood)

Do you vaccinate for pinkeye? I never had good luck with ear tags but we also haven't had such a bad year for flies. Shoulda, woulda, coulda?

 

[MurraysMutts]

I had a group vaccinated when I bought em last year. Pink eyes galore. This year no issues so far.
They were vaccinated again when I had em pregged and worked. We will see

 

[SBMF 2015]

Pinkeye has been horrible around the area this year and a lot of my neighbors have been battling it all summer. Even my vet had an outbreak in his own herd. I vaccinate with an autogenous that targets both moxarella bovis and moxarella bovoculi and had my first case towards the end of July but nothing since. Feeling a little smug. Until Karma spanked me with my own outbreak, 6 calves so far. And of course they're out to pasture and generally nowhere near the corral or chute at the barn so I'm reduced to roping them in the pasture, snubbing them up to the grill of my Polaris and getting the snot kicked outta me (along with multiple rope burns) while I spray & administer shots. Picking my battles and going directly with Draxxin.

Anyone else dealing with this? Flies have been so bad this year I'm spraying once a week, even on their foreheads, and they have mineral with CTC. Not sure what else I can do for now.

That sucks. Do you creep feed? You could get a VFD and have ctc out in your creep feed. The calves don't always eat enough mineral to get enough ctc to count. You could hang fly bullets on your creep feeder, and a dust bag on your min feeder.
I started vaccinating for Moraxella Bovoculi two years ago so far no out breaks.
I have always been taught to vaccinate in the face of an outbreak. Maybe try boostering their pinkeye vaccine?
Good Luck.

 

[Stocker Steve]

No fly ear tags.
Have about 25% white face in the herd.
Only vaccinate bulls.
Have a case every other year or so. No treatment.
Any cases go on the two strike cull list.

 

[farmerjan]

No fly tags and we don't vaccinate for pinkeye anymore. Seemed to get as many or more cases on years we vaccinated, did it for a few years, then stopped, then did it again and now don't do it, for the last 4 years or so. We seem to get it in spurts, and I mostly keep heifers for replacements from cow families that don't seem to have problems with it. At least half of the bought cows' calves will come down with it. So there has to be something about building immunity in the herd naturally for it. We will treat for it when they get it, and I am getting very adamant about giving an A&D shot when we run the calves through the chute in the spring to eartag and blackleg and work bull calves. We have kept a couple of the heifers for replacements over the years when they would have gotten creamed at the sale. Now they go in the group that will get killed for beef and sold so that we don't take a licking at the stock yard. Don't know if it is right or wrong, but just what we do (don't do).

 

[TCRanch]

Pinkeye has been horrible around the area this year and a lot of my neighbors have been battling it all summer. Even my vet had an outbreak in his own herd. I vaccinate with an autogenous that targets both moxarella bovis and moxarella bovoculi and had my first case towards the end of July but nothing since. Feeling a little smug. Until Karma spanked me with my own outbreak, 6 calves so far. And of course they're out to pasture and generally nowhere near the corral or chute at the barn so I'm reduced to roping them in the pasture, snubbing them up to the grill of my Polaris and getting the snot kicked outta me (along with multiple rope burns) while I spray & administer shots. Picking my battles and going directly with Draxxin.

Anyone else dealing with this? Flies have been so bad this year I'm spraying once a week, even on their foreheads, and they have mineral with CTC. Not sure what else I can do for now.

That sucks. Do you creep feed? You could get a VFD and have ctc out in your creep feed. The calves don't always eat enough mineral to get enough ctc to count. You could hang fly bullets on your creep feeder, and a dust bag on your min feeder.
I started vaccinating for Moraxella Bovoculi two years ago so far no out breaks.
I have always been taught to vaccinate in the face of an outbreak. Maybe try boostering their pinkeye vaccine?
Good Luck.

I don't creep but I do feed a small amount of cubes year 'round (every other day in the summer) so the calves have an easier transition when I wean. Most of my calves are hand feeders and I did give one Terramycin boluses with cubes (worth a try - it is Oxytetracycline). She had just a small white spot so caught it early. Not sure if I got lucky but it cleared up within a couple days.

I did not booster - never have. Yes, it's recommended, but even my vet said it really isn't necessary. The following article supports that. And yet this year has been an anomaly. That said, I could booster here & there; getting the entire herd rounded up is not an option right now.

The back rub & bullets have been sitting in one of the sheds for probably 9 years. I guess the cows were freaked out by them because they wouldn't go near 'em. I could pull them back out, try again.
https://www.beefmagazine.com/vaccination/autogenous-vaccine-another-pinkeye-control-option

 

[TCRanch]

No fly ear tags.
Have about 25% white face in the herd.
Only vaccinate bulls.
Have a case every other year or so. No treatment.
Any cases go on the two strike cull list.

Only one of the calves (so far) is black/white.

No treatment? It just runs the course & heals on its own or are they blind (or partially) in that eye?

 

[TCRanch]

I had a group vaccinated when I bought em last year. Pink eyes galore. This year no issues so far.
They were vaccinated again when I had em pregged and worked. We will see

Good luck! And you're not too far from me with similar weather this year. BTW I haven't had any problems with the cows because they have built up immunity; just the calves.

 

[chaded]

Had three out of around 20 animals get it this year. One was a red white face calf and the other were two solid Black cows. I vaccinated before and treated after with benign neglect. The white face calf cleared it and her eyes look perfectly normal. One cow cleared it very quick and is normal. The last cow is doing better but has a slight spot on her eye still, but this was fairly recent so not sure what will happen in time. She was on the cull list anyways.

 

[MurraysMutts]

I had a group vaccinated when I bought em last year. Pink eyes galore. This year no issues so far.
They were vaccinated again when I had em pregged and worked. We will see

Good luck! And you're not too far from me with similar weather this year. BTW I haven't had any problems with the cows because they have built up immunity; just the calves.

They flies have really come on here lately.
The last batch of calves, that are weaning now, I have 1 steer with a white dot. Never even noticed he had it thru summer. May just be an injury or something.
The calves were never vaccinated until weaning.
All natural til I weaned em. So I guess things are pretty good this past year.

 

[Stocker Steve]

People often treat cattle for eye and foot problems and most recover. If you don't treat cattle for eye and foot problems most
will still recover. We have some pretty remote pastures and are not a rope um and drag um outfit.

Issue is what to do with the chronic few? I corral and drylot them when they rotate back to HQ. Usually by them they have healed up on their own. I have had one partially blind in one eye cow in the past 7 years.

We had some bad pinkeye outbreaks back in the BTO stocker days. We learned to feed our way out of it.

 

[TCRanch]

Thanks for all the wisdom! I haven't had true pinkeye in so long I'm a little out of touch. Not necessarily a bad thing. Another friend got hit pretty hard last year and they got docked at the sale barn - actually pulled any calf with cloudy/white eyes from the group. Ouch! Just trying to avoid that but I understand that benign neglect goes a long way ;-)

 

[SBMF 2015]

Pinkeye has been horrible around the area this year and a lot of my neighbors have been battling it all summer. Even my vet had an outbreak in his own herd. I vaccinate with an autogenous that targets both moxarella bovis and moxarella bovoculi and had my first case towards the end of July but nothing since. Feeling a little smug. Until Karma spanked me with my own outbreak, 6 calves so far. And of course they're out to pasture and generally nowhere near the corral or chute at the barn so I'm reduced to roping them in the pasture, snubbing them up to the grill of my Polaris and getting the snot kicked outta me (along with multiple rope burns) while I spray & administer shots. Picking my battles and going directly with Draxxin.

Anyone else dealing with this? Flies have been so bad this year I'm spraying once a week, even on their foreheads, and they have mineral with CTC. Not sure what else I can do for now.

That sucks. Do you creep feed? You could get a VFD and have ctc out in your creep feed. The calves don't always eat enough mineral to get enough ctc to count. You could hang fly bullets on your creep feeder, and a dust bag on your min feeder.
I started vaccinating for Moraxella Bovoculi two years ago so far no out breaks.
I have always been taught to vaccinate in the face of an outbreak. Maybe try boostering their pinkeye vaccine?
Good Luck.

I don't creep but I do feed a small amount of cubes year 'round (every other day in the summer) so the calves have an easier transition when I wean. Most of my calves are hand feeders and I did give one Terramycin boluses with cubes (worth a try - it is Oxytetracycline). She had just a small white spot so caught it early. Not sure if I got lucky but it cleared up within a couple days.

I did not booster - never have. Yes, it's recommended, but even my vet said it really isn't necessary. The following article supports that. And yet this year has been an anomaly. That said, I could booster here & there; getting the entire herd rounded up is not an option right now.

The back rub & bullets have been sitting in one of the sheds for probably 9 years. I guess the cows were freaked out by them because they wouldn't go near 'em. I could pull them back out, try again.
https://www.beefmagazine.com/vaccination/autogenous-vaccine-another-pinkeye-control-option

I don't booster either. I was just throwing out ideas. One thing I have done in the past when I have had a bad pink eye year is; when I get a calf in to treat. I also vaccinate it with a straight haemophilus somnus. It is a gram negative vaccine just like pink eye vaccine. It must trigger an immune response. It seems like the calves that got vaccinated recovered quicker than the ones that just got tetradure and eyes sprayed.
Back rubbers seem hit or miss. One pasture we had one hanging in a row of trees where the cows liked the shade. The cows would use it free choice. Another pasture 2miles down the road we had to "force" the cows to use it. If they wanted water from the tank they had to walk under the back rubber.
Good Luck.

 

[76 Bar]

Not affiliated but love him or hate him I think Kit Pharo's philosophy of selection pressure for environmental compatibility and perpetuation of the fittest has merit.

 

[Stocker Steve]

No doubt that there are some cow families that are health problem prone. Combine this with with growthy genetics and dry pastures adds up to a whole lot of stress.

 

[WinterSpringsFarm]

Flys have not been bad until about 3 weeks ago. My fly tags have done an amazing job and the cows don't have a single fly on them. The weaned calves have needed some spraying though. NO pinkeye (knock on wood)

Do you vaccinate for pinkeye? I never had good luck with ear tags but we also haven't had such a bad year for flies. Shoulda, woulda, coulda?

No vaccinations, and rotate tags every year. Used to try everything and never could find anything that worked well. Fly tags seem to be the winner, at least for us.

 

[TCRanch]

No doubt that there are some cow families that are health problem prone. Combine this with with growthy genetics and dry pastures adds up to a whole lot of stress.

Aside from the original coming 3 year old bred cows we bought, every retained heifer/cow has been born & raised here. Lineage & health history are a huge factor whether I retain a heifer. This is the first year I've ever had problems with pinkeye.

Pastures definitely aren't dry!

 

[MurraysMutts]

No doubt that there are some cow families that are health problem prone. Combine this with with growthy genetics and dry pastures adds up to a whole lot of stress.

Aside from the original coming 3 year old bred cows we bought, every retained heifer/cow has been born & raised here. Lineage & health history are a huge factor whether I retain a heifer. This is the first year I've ever had problems with pinkeye.

Pastures definitely aren't dry!

I attributed the pinkeye problems last year to the cows/heifers I bought and brought in. They mostly came from the barn.
Oddly enough, the ones I bought privately, didnt have a problem. They were never even worked b4 i turned them out. Weird huh?