# pink eye



## .netDude (Nov 26, 2004)

Background: my Hereford / Angus herd has never had it until now, neither has any of the cattle here since I can remember back to my Grandparents. It's a closed herd for the last 5 yrs. I'm with them almost every day either moving fence in the summer, or feeding hay in the winter. Most will let me walk up and scratch their back. Last week the matriarch of the herd was down and I was hauling water and hay to her in a pasture separate from the herd. (her story is another post). Well, during the week that she was down, I didn't see the rest of them; when I let them back in the pasture with her, I found 3 of 26 with pink eye. I don't have a corral or adequate handling facilities, so the vet wasn't much help, except to provide me with 2 bottles ($140) worth of NuFlor (I'm not bad mouthing him, he's a good guy from what I can tell). So, I drank the Medi-dart Kool-Aid and had a 6' Medi-Dart pole shipped 2nd day air. To make this long story short, I wouldn't recommend this tool unless you have a corral or some sort of confinement. This pole will do nothing for you in the pasture even with a tame herd (if you have to do it, spend the 400 for the crossbow). Between the tool and the medicine I'm out a bunch of money with nothing to show; and to get to the real point of the post- what do you all do for pink eye? Any chance there is something they can ingest? Any chance the cows will beat it on their own? If not, how long do I have until they go blind?


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## unregistered41671 (Dec 29, 2009)

They need to be caught and treated. I have injected 1 to1/12 cc of penicillin into the eyelid for 3 consecutive days and have cured it in each case. I have treated many cows in this manner. The cow *must* be immobile. If not, you can stick a needle in the eyeball. You might need to try and find someone who has a dart gun but one treatment of any kind of pinkeye medicine probably won't be enough. IMO, if you have cows, have a way to capture and treat them.


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## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

Here is what the Merck vet manual has to say about it.

Merck Veterinary Manual

I hate pinkeye with a passion! 
It is so uncomfortable to the cattle and looks just terrible.
My experience has been that very few of them completely lose their sight from it.
Even the ones who get it in both eyes and wallow around like they are blind when it is at peak inflamation. 
They generally regain at least some of their vision.


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## agmantoo (May 23, 2003)

.netDude

I get shot down every time I post this but here goes.

I was told by a very qualified and knowledgeable cattle person that pinkeye is not all the same. As you may be aware there are lots of "fixes" by many consisting of old wives tales. People swear that these fixes work. What the person told me was that most pinkeye problems spontaneously heal them selves. That is why the "fixes" seem to work. The person told me to do the following.....Do nothing for two weeks other than observe the animal(s) with pinkeye. If at the end of the 2 weeks the problem persists then treat medically. If the pinkeye is improving do nothing. That is the method I use. Yes, I have had a case where the eye retained the white cloudy film as a small spot. The sale barn where is send animals to be sold does not penalize for the spot. I might add, I have never had an animal to lose an eye from pinkeye or go blind. My disclaimer..... These are my experiences, yours may vary.


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## unregistered41671 (Dec 29, 2009)

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/beef11747

http://www.uky.edu/Ag/AnimalSciences/pubs/id135.pdf

Catawba CountyÂ Center: Infectious Bovine Keratoconjunctivitis (Pinkeye) in Beef Cattle

PINKEYE TREATMENT, UC Davis Veterinary Medicine Extension


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## .netDude (Nov 26, 2004)

Thanks all for the responses.


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## VaFarmer (Mar 2, 2011)

I'd seperate the one's that are showing signs, give everybody a shot of peniciln, theat the eyes of the affected guys with a wash. Here the vet will do a shot in the eye then I just use the eye wash for about 2 wks. Pink eye is easly transmitted, I've been told that flyes move it cow to cow, so I do some barn spraying andfly treat on the criters at the same time.


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## .netDude (Nov 26, 2004)

Just a follow up - the 2 Herefords cleared up their own 4-5 days ago, the Angus had it a bit worse, but is pretty much cleared up now. No other animals are showing symptoms. 
Thanks Agman!


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## G. Seddon (May 16, 2005)

.netDude, glad your cattle are better. I guess you are one of the lucky ones. 

I know there are those who do not treat pinkeye (I'm not one). I know I've posted this link on this board, but here it is again:

Pinkeye in Beef Cattle - Home - Virginia Cooperative Extension

Pinkeye is PAINFUL. I believe it should be treated, not ignored.


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## PaulNKS (Jan 11, 2009)

.netDude... Sometimes, what looks like pinkeye can also just be an irritation from getting poked in the eye by a stem of grass... I would say if it cleared up in 4 to 5 days, it was most likely something like that. Otherwise, I think it would have taken a little longer to heal.

If I get a case of pinkeye, I get them in the squeeze chute, inject the animal with penicillin and then squirt penicillin onto the eyeball. If you don't have a working chute, get a rope around them and snub them to a tree. We've done that a time or two (years ago.) and give them a shot of penicillin or Nuflor if nothing else.


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## wvdexters (Apr 30, 2012)

We had the same problem a few years ago. One got it and within a few days they all were infected. Vet said flies carry it and it was bad in the whole area. We had to get a head gate and build a chute/sm corral to treat them even though we only had about 7 or 8 at the time. It was worth the work. One heifer ended up blind in one eye but the other cleared up after treatments. Couldn't have treated them without the head gate. Comes in handy any time I need it.


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## goodhors (Sep 6, 2011)

I just got the cattle Pinkeye vaccine from the vet and did the preventative shots, along with other cattle shots, to our calves. I don't want to have to be injecting eyelids, washing faces, when I can give the shot and prevent the issue from ever happening. I figure that shots are pretty good insurance, that I won't have to deal with illness or problems later on, and worth the cost.

Pinkeye vaccine is evidently rather fragile, so if you pull the meds from the bottle, you need to give it to the cattle quickly. Vet told me this. No storing and holding the syringed shot, to give when convenient like other meds allow. Takes 2 shots to get animal protected, yearly booster after that. The bottled stuff does store well if left in the fridge.


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## PaulNKS (Jan 11, 2009)

goodhors said:


> I just got the cattle Pinkeye vaccine from the vet and did the preventative shots, along with other cattle shots, to our calves. I don't want to have to be injecting eyelids, washing faces, when I can give the shot and prevent the issue from ever happening. I figure that shots are pretty good insurance, that I won't have to deal with illness or problems later on, and worth the cost.
> 
> Pinkeye vaccine is evidently rather fragile, so if you pull the meds from the bottle, you need to give it to the cattle quickly. Vet told me this. No storing and holding the syringed shot, to give when convenient like other meds allow. Takes 2 shots to get animal protected, yearly booster after that. The bottled stuff does store well if left in the fridge.


A good vet will tell you that the pinkeye vaccine will NOT always prevent pinkeye. What it does is lessen the severity should they get pinkeye. Also, in many states, you can buy the pinkeye vaccine at a coop or at a farm store and pay a lot less than what a vet will charge.


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## G. Seddon (May 16, 2005)

Vaccination and fly control (fly eartags, pour-on, cattle rub), accompanied by manure management and keeping pastures at a proper height, will go a long way toward keeping pinkeye at bay. It's very contagious and moves through a herd fast.

One of ours picked it up at a fair and was treated at the fair, but we still ended up having to treat about 7 others a few days after we came home. All it takes is one nasty fly with the bacteria on its legs visiting cow after cow. One shot of a long-acting tetracycline (Bio-mycin 200) was used at the time, and one cow had to have an eye patch. 

I know of pinkeye outbreaks in Angus herd where the owner had Addison Labs create autogenous vaccine from an infected animal's eye secretions; it was used, in addition to Maxi/guard, on his entire herd.


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## ycanchu2 (Oct 21, 2011)

.netDude said:


> Background: my Hereford / Angus herd has never had it until now, neither has any of the cattle here since I can remember back to my Grandparents. It's a closed herd for the last 5 yrs. I'm with them almost every day either moving fence in the summer, or feeding hay in the winter. Most will let me walk up and scratch their back. Last week the matriarch of the herd was down and I was hauling water and hay to her in a pasture separate from the herd. (her story is another post). Well, during the week that she was down, I didn't see the rest of them; when I let them back in the pasture with her, I found 3 of 26 with pink eye. I don't have a corral or adequate handling facilities, so the vet wasn't much help, except to provide me with 2 bottles ($140) worth of NuFlor (I'm not bad mouthing him, he's a good guy from what I can tell). So, I drank the Medi-dart Kool-Aid and had a 6' Medi-Dart pole shipped 2nd day air. To make this long story short, I wouldn't recommend this tool unless you have a corral or some sort of confinement. This pole will do nothing for you in the pasture even with a tame herd (if you have to do it, spend the 400 for the crossbow). Between the tool and the medicine I'm out a bunch of money with nothing to show; and to get to the real point of the post- what do you all do for pink eye? Any chance there is something they can ingest? Any chance the cows will beat it on their own? If not, how long do I have until they go blind?


I will probably get shot down too but I'll offer my advice anyway. mix up a solution of seasalt water, put it in a garden sprayer and get as close as you can and spray their eyes with it. I have had real good results with it, seeing improvement the next day. My cattle don't like being got up too many times in a row, so this way I can treat them out in the field, ...no stress on me or them.
Before anyone starts gnashing their teeth saying how harsh it may seem to be, let me remind you if you have ever been to the ocean, did you get saltwater in your eyes if it did burn it wasn;t that bad and any cuts or wounds on your body would heal right away. Salt especially sea salt is a healer like an antibiotic.
I rarely have over 3 or 4 cases a year out of a 100 cow herd plus almost as many calves this time of year. This year to date I haven't had the first case, thankfully. About a year ago I started feeding sea salt free choice it has a myriad of trace minerals, far more than conventional TM salt. In my opinion, most problems including pinkeye is caused by some kind of imbalance that we have created either by commercial fertilization, overgrazing, Ammonia nitrate etc. or even some of the minerals/tubs that we feed where they can stand and eat it like candy.
About losing an eye or not. Last year I had a calf that i didn't treat with the sea salt thinking it would clear up it went blind in that eye, soon after my herd bull got a watery eye just like the calf did, but I treated him a couple of times with sea salt water and he got just fine.


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