Bovine Iritis

[HuSeaksy]

Hello All,

My family has a flock of two hundred black face- mountain and texel cross sheep. We have not bought any animal into our flock within the past year.

I am the farmers daughter, I am a young aspiring farmer who hold great pride for the care of our animals. I operate my own small group, who have been titled 'The Pensioner Pen', who are a group of mostly aged ladies with the exception of four lambs, a retired 'thief' and a ewe whose eyes we suspect to have been taken in a grey crow attack while lambing (unsuspectedly) when she was situated away from home (whose name is Zorro).


None of the Pensioners can leave their allotted field (A large flat one) and no livestock can enter them. So it has came as quite the terrifying surprise that my prized flock of ten have became affected with uveitis.

While they are all in isolation now (and being treated), we cannot fathom how this has started. They are not fed bales of anything. Meal wise they are fed at troughs which will have contributed to the spread, But how did this start?

The only conclusion we have been able to create is Zorro and this is very upsetting to me as someone who is without a doubt emotionally attached. My father has made his mind that Zorro 'must have/be carrying something (and will continue to carry this) and as this is too much a risk of spreading to the entire flock - to get rid'.

My suggestion however is quite different, being that the only realistic idea of Zorro having spread this, would be from some carrier fly landing on her eyes and 'infecting?' her. Or that maybe it was pink-eye that ruptured her eyes instead of crows feasting on them?
But when she first arrived here at home in Early June, I made a mask/bandana to cover her eyes and everything was okay and the only reason she is not wearing this anymore is that we thought it could be better for her with fresh air now her eyes have crusted. So by any chance if any of this makes sense, would we not be able to treat Zorro with something and maybe if I made another mask? so nothing can land on her eyes, would there be any possibility of a more positive outcome?



I thank you all for taking your time just to read.



I do not want to give up on Zorro so easily.

 

[PaulNix]

Unsure about sheep but our herd of cattle had a run of New Forest eye in the summer and I assume this is what you have ?
Back in mid summer we heard that a neighbour had been having a few cases and even though his cattle were at least 300yd's away, sure enough a couple of days later we had three cases spread over a week in a group of 20 stores, it is carried by wind, dust, flies as well I think, we've had another case yesterday in the same group but previously unaffected BB yearling.

Could be Zorro got it first and passed it on as it carries a long way in the atmosphere and I would be doubtful it was harbouring the disease for so long without symptoms although I am only basing this on cattle and my knowledge of sheep mostly revolves around them being on a plate.

 

[primmiemoo]

Hi, it is so vexing when a condition comes in out of the blue. Pink eye and silage eye are a pain at so many levels.

I'm sure you will have looked up eye ailments, so apologies in advance for any over explaining, but here's the Nadis site with brief descriptions, etc, if needed - the second and third on the page show what you describe:

NADIS Animal Health Skills - Eye Diseases in Sheep

NADIS is a unique online based animal health resource for farmers, vets and SQPs. The information is written by veterinary experts, peer-reviewed and presented in a practical format with a high visual clinical content to improve disease awareness and highlight disease prevention.

nadis.org.uk

In my experience, silage eye is from feeding silage or haylage, and can also crop up when feeding nuts without quite enough trough space. Pink eye comes in via flies, and I'm sure can also be blown in the wind. Insufficient trough space allows it to spread between sheep.

It reads to me that dust or irritant from feed nuts is lodging in Zorro's already damaged eyes, leading to infection. If they are still crusted, there's infection still to come out.

Are you able to catch her and gently bathe her eyes with warm saline solution to help the dust out? My experience of corvid damage is that the tear ducts and third eyelid are often pecked out, so an afflicted sheep can't produce enough/any liquid and everything gets very dry.

Has she had topical antibiotic eye ointment to be put into her eyes after bathing to knobble infection?

I have known a Vet to sew eyelids together when the eye has been completely lost, so that might be something to talk to yours about.

Hth