# Sheep with Milky Eye



## hillbilly123 (Jun 3, 2012)

It seems my good fortune never ends. Today I noticed that my ram has a milky looking eye. He seems to be squinting a bit. Its been really hot here today, so I dunno if that has anything to do with it. He comes up to the fence regularly and I just noticed this today, any ideas on what it could be? Its not super white, just looks like a whitish glaze.


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## hillbilly123 (Jun 3, 2012)

Update: Just wrangled my 4 mo ewe, she has it too, so I assume this is pike eye and my whole flock is exposed. None of the others but the little one and ram are showing signs. I had some oral antibiotics that my vet gave me when the little one that passed had problems, sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim. I gave the ram and the little one this stuff tonight hoping it may help. Does this sound like pink eye? How do I treat it?

Is this par for the course with sheep? I'm getting very discouraged at this point.


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

A shot of long acting tetracycline should clear it up


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

Or 2 if its a persistent strain.


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## hillbilly123 (Jun 3, 2012)

Ross said:


> A shot of long acting tetracycline should clear it up


Thanks Ross, should I treat the whole flock or just the ones with signs? I'll run to TSC or call the vet and pick something up.


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

Just the affected ones. It can be a pain because one can get it right after another but tetracycline doesn't have a vaccinating effect. Sure you'd get a few that are not showing but its better to use antibiotics sparingly.


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

You are right, sounds like Pink eye and Ross is right... best thing to use if you can get it, is tetracycline. 

I also like the terramycin the eye ointment but it is very hard to get right now. And you have to have pretty tame sheep to use this.

In a pinch, LA 200 should also work.

Just dealt with this for the first time, when I brought those two new hair sheep wether's in. Took over a month to get theirs to clear up.


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## mawalla (Oct 28, 2002)

Here's a good article for you. Infectious keratoconjunctivitis (pink eye)


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## hillbilly123 (Jun 3, 2012)

Thanks everyone for the help. I got some antibiotics to put in their eyes, along with giving a shot each. Pretty dang hard to wresle that ram down and get him on his butt though. He wont come withing 30 feet of me now, I hope the first treatment does it....


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