Conjunctivitis in sheep.

[Farfrae]

My neighbour, a sheepfarmer with a lifetime's experience, is at his wits end with conjunctivitis in his sheep. Other than bought in rams he has no bought in stock and the infection seems to have come from a neighbours stray that crossed the river to his land.

Since then the sheep have been badly affected and he just cannot get rid of it.

I've read both of these previous threads

Sheep cloudy eye

Have noticed quite a few ewes with cloudy blue eyes what is the best treatment for them.They are housed feeding out of ring feeders which is probably causing some scratching followed by a secondary infection. Any ideas welcome. Jed

thefarmingforum.co.uk

Pink eye in sheep

We had the ewes in a week ago and had a couple with pink eye which were treated with terramycin spray which is clearing the problem up. Yesterday whilst moving them there appeared to be a lot more. My plan is to shed out the bad ones to be treated but is there anything I can do to stop it...

thefarmingforum.co.uk

and he has tried most of the recommendations there includinging a host of antibiotics suggested by the vet and spraying the eyes with vibramycin etc. Some improve for a while and then there is a breakdown again

It is also reducing the condition of the affected ewes.Very young lambs do not seem badly affected.

Has anyone got any first hand experience of trying to deal with the problem. The vets have not been particularly useful,

He runs 50 ewe lambs, on my land, that are away from his farm and not affected and I wondered if anyone had tried any system of quarantining the affected and unaffected sheep. He has been trying to separate the healthy ones after treatment but after a week or two there seems to be reinfected cases. I did read in one of the above threads that the infection can remain viable for 2 months?

Anyone got any thoughts?

 

[yellowbelly]

My neighbour, a sheepfarmer with a lifetime's experience, is at his wits end with conjunctivitis in his sheep. Other than bought in rams he has no bought in stock and the infection seems to have come from a neighbours stray that crossed the river to his land.

Since then the sheep have been badly affected and he just cannot get rid of it.

I've read both of these previous threads

Sheep cloudy eye

Have noticed quite a few ewes with cloudy blue eyes what is the best treatment for them.They are housed feeding out of ring feeders which is probably causing some scratching followed by a secondary infection. Any ideas welcome. Jed

thefarmingforum.co.uk

Pink eye in sheep

We had the ewes in a week ago and had a couple with pink eye which were treated with terramycin spray which is clearing the problem up. Yesterday whilst moving them there appeared to be a lot more. My plan is to shed out the bad ones to be treated but is there anything I can do to stop it...

thefarmingforum.co.uk

and he has tried most of the recommendations there includinging a host of antibiotics suggested by the vet and spraying the eyes with vibramycin etc. Some improve for a while and then there is a breakdown again

It is also reducing the condition of the affected ewes.Very young lambs do not seem badly affected.

Has anyone got any first hand experience of trying to deal with the problem. The vets have not been particularly useful,

He runs 50 ewe lambs, on my land, that are away from his farm and not affected and I wondered if anyone had tried any system of quarantining the affected and unaffected sheep. He has been trying to separate the healthy ones after treatment but after a week or two there seems to be reinfected cases. I did read in one of the above threads that the infection can remain viable for 2 months?

Anyone got any thoughts?

It can be a complete barsteward - especially in a flock that hasn't had it before.
The ones that seem to be getting over it just get reinfected in a sort of vicious circle.
Isolation is the best policy but not always easy to do.

You can keep on trying all the things described in the threads you mention but if you are feeding in troughs or buckets or blocks or feed rings, head to head contact spreads it all the more.

It seems to burn out here when we have enough grass to stop feeding.
Just hope he gets on top of it before the fly season starts.

 

[andybk]

Just had it , coming out the other side now , after reading a lot , i stopped treatment as they said results were inconclusive , they just need to get their own protection ,(time) bloody nightmare getting it a week or two pre lambing having to direct ewes too feed troughs as totally blind , and getting them to individual pens after lambing , even the lambs got it to a lesser degree , gets a lot better, quicker outside or in airy shed , they do come through it in a few weeks, though it hits some ewes really hard

 

[Macsky]

Wonder if a dip in a zinc sulphate bath would help? Clear the bacteria from the skin maybe? Do they not do that in Oz for dermatitis? Be a blanket treatment, get them all at the same time

 

[Farfrae]

Thanks, I had a very detailed private message from someone else in Wales whose experience was almost identical and who had also carried out their own research on different treatments. To cut a long story short no treatments had any lasting effects and they only resolved the issue by culling the worst affected which is something my neighbour may have to consider as well.

If you get this version (and we are not sure what is causing it as the vet labs have not been able to culture it) it seems impossible to treat, is costing a fortune in drugs and time and you just end up going round in circles.

 

[Highland Mule]

Got it a good few years ago. Put it down to them taking too long to eat the hay rounds and the hay getting a bit damp, which built up the bugs in it, then the ewes burrowing into them to get the good stuff on the bale centre. Now, I try to make sure they clean up before we put more bales out, swap all bales left out after three days and bring the old stuff back for the cattle.

Alamycin for treatment, both as injections and also half a mill as an eye wash.

 

[Longlowdog]

I've known a few folk have it bad up here and almost everyone has resorted to a dose of Oxytet' L.A for every sheep in the affected group on the same day.

 

[JohnGalway]

Did a favour, took in 3 neighbours sheep to an unrelated ram of mine, have had blind sheep since. Feeding atm so it's a ............ No good deed goes unpunished.

Worst outbreak I had was years ago. Had 90 something ewes on 19 acres from October to May.

Solved it that time by housing all the sheep, against vets wishes but I told him we'd tried it his way and we're going to try my way, injected them all with alamycin (iirc) on the same day. One week later, no blind sheep.


Presume everyone knows it spreads on our clothes as well.

 

[RobDog]

Did a favour, took in 3 neighbours sheep to an unrelated ram of mine, have had blind sheep since. Feeding atm so it's a ............ No good deed goes unpunished.

Worst outbreak I had was years ago. Had 90 something ewes on 19 acres from October to May.

Solved it that time by housing all the sheep, against vets wishes but I told him we'd tried it his way and we're going to try my way, injected them all with alamycin (iirc) on the same day. One week later, no blind sheep.


Presume everyone knows it spreads on our clothes as well.

 

[RobDog]

I've been battling with this for months now, as with the other post nothing seems absolutely consistent. Some sheep don't get it at all, others get it respond to treatment and it clears up never comes back and others get it respond to treatment with strong antibiotics and it comes back. My treatment has been mild, la penicillin dropped into the eye , bad cases an injection of Alamycin at the high rate ie 8ml for 80kg sheep bad cases Draxinn at 2ml for 80kg . It can be an expensive , long drawn out , demoralising job. Some sheep seem to be naturally resistant or immune and I have a suspicion that the carriers don't always show symptoms.

 

[JohnGalway]

I've been battling with this for months now, as with the other post nothing seems absolutely consistent. Some sheep don't get it at all, others get it respond to treatment and it clears up never comes back and others get it respond to treatment with strong antibiotics and it comes back. My treatment has been mild, la penicillin dropped into the eye , bad cases an injection of Alamycin at the high rate ie 8ml for 80kg sheep bad cases Draxinn at 2ml for 80kg . It can be an expensive , long drawn out , demoralising job. Some sheep seem to be naturally resistant or immune and I have a suspicion that the carriers don't always show symptoms.

I think you're correct about the carriers as the three neighbour sheep I let in weren't affected.

 

[JohnGalway]

Was talking to my vet today regarding the ongoing saga here. I was sent off with an interesting shopping list chamomile tea, cotton wool, and disposable gloves.

According to him, and he's a good vet, chamomile tea (cool obviously) has antibacterial components, not quite at the level of antibiotics but helpful if the eye is gently wiped with it (that's where the cotton wool and gloves come in). Also got something, I forget the exact name, but eye lube (!) was on the pack, it's like a gel.

He said windy weather is a barsteward for this as it dries out the eye which makes it susceptible to the infection. To my mind that's a very good reason to plant more shelter on sheep farms.

 

[Welshram]

Old shepherd told me lay used to wipe the eye with a used tea bag and sprinkle sugar in the eye never had it thankfully but maybe worth a try

 

[Macsky]

Was talking to my vet today regarding the ongoing saga here. I was sent off with an interesting shopping list chamomile tea, cotton wool, and disposable gloves.

According to him, and he's a good vet, chamomile tea (cool obviously) has antibacterial components, not quite at the level of antibiotics but helpful if the eye is gently wiped with it (that's where the cotton wool and gloves come in). Also got something, I forget the exact name, but eye lube (!) was on the pack, it's like a gel.

He said windy weather is a barsteward for this as it dries out the eye which makes it susceptible to the infection. To my mind that's a very good reason to plant more shelter on sheep farms.

Forget the cotton wool, I’d be brewing up a knapsack full!

 

[Mc115reed]

Had it in my ewes at lambing about 10%… all jabbed with alamycin as soon as I spotted them and then again at turn out… touch would haven’t spotted anybody else blind since… personally don’t think the alamycin did anything and it just fizzled out

 

[JohnGalway]

Forget the cotton wool, I’d be brewing up a knapsack full!

Yeah good idea, the problem was it has to be done several times........a day. So, really only an option for small #'s close to hand. Interesting to know anyway.

 

[ritchiekirkland]

Had it in my ewes at lambing about 10%… all jabbed with alamycin as soon as I spotted them and then again at turn out… touch would haven’t spotted anybody else blind since… personally don’t think the alamycin did anything and it just fizzled out

Same here . C of a thing to get , specially at lambing

 

[JohnGalway]

Been trawling the internet and came across a guy talking about using sodium bicarbonate, so I mixed in about 20 grams per ewe with their ration today, may have to up that but will try it for a little while.

 

[Andreafp]

Did a favour, took in 3 neighbours sheep to an unrelated ram of mine, have had blind sheep since. Feeding atm so it's a ............ No good deed goes unpunished.

Worst outbreak I had was years ago. Had 90 something ewes on 19 acres from October to May.

Solved it that time by housing all the sheep, against vets wishes but I told him we'd tried it his way and we're going to try my way, injected them all with alamycin (iirc) on the same day. One week later, no blind sheep.


Presume everyone knows it spreads on our clothes as well.

Hi, I too am having a bit of a nightmare with Pink Eye at the moment, please may I ask, how long did you house your sheep for after you injected with Alamycin? I am in a catch 22 situation, do I keep them housed for a few days after injecting (less flies in the barn but eating hay out of hay nets etc...or best to put them out so they are not head to head with each other?!)

 

[Longlowdog]

Alamycin L.A lasts for about 8 days. If all are jagged then let them out after you've done them. It worked for me, has worked for a neighbour recently and worked on a place I worked on about ten years ago. I don't see any merit in housing sheep and encouraging them to go head to head for feed.