advice please -suckler calf- eye gone blue- what does pearl eye look like!?

Bodacious

i was out dehorning for a fella this evening and i spotted one good bull calf that seems to have lost an eye on him, its light blue and weeping with absolutely no sight at all in it, otherwise healthy colour under eyelid and other eye perfect.

Before i get a roasting i told him to get the vet out and he said he is not giving the vet E120 to tell him calf has lost an eye.

Ive no experience of pearl eye only what ive heard of it, treatable with antibiotics etc.. what ye reckon, leave well enough alone or could eye be saved as he is a fine calf?

pbthevet

What vet would charge 120 for that?

If your up for it inject the underside of the eyelid with a ml of penicillin and a ml of colvasone. Use a very fine needle and have good restraint and steady hands.

Bodacious

pbthevet wrote: »

What vet would charge 120 for that?

If your up for it inject the underside of the eyelid with a ml of penicillin and a ml of colvasone. Use a very fine needle and have good restraint and steady hands.

Good man PB,

Call out etc, His vet is reknowned for rounding things up, is also retired apart from TB testing so would not even attempt anything out of the ordinary so can see farmers point.

Does it sound like pearl eye to you or a prod of some sort?

So mix the 2 and a fine needle into the bottom eyelid itself? Would that want to be repeated then many times?

Good loser

What about an injection of oxytetracycline/alamycin - into muscle about 6 c cs? Treats pink eye. Is this the same thing?

ootbitb

best advice is to change vet.

vet isn't much use if you can't call him out.

Dont be daft

If there's no sight in it at all its probably to late, is it not?

If its the same thing as pink eye and silage eye then thats a real pity cos its the simplest thing in the world to treat. Just a shot of alymicin into the muscle and half a tube of that cream into the eyelid, cant remember the name of it. The rest a few days later if its still weeping.

Think someone mentioned the mix injected under the eyelid. Never done that myself but our cattle would be to big to restrain enough to be confident in it.

I know its not my place to comment nor do I know all the facts but if its the same thing I'm thinkin of thats terrible stockmanship not to spot that and treat it in time

Username John

Dont be daft wrote: »

If there's no sight in it at all its probably to late, is it not?

If its the same thing as pink eye and silage eye then thats a real pity cos its the simplest thing in the world to treat. Just a shot of alymicin into the muscle and half a tube of that cream into the eyelid, cant remember the name of it. The rest a few days later if its still weeping.

Think someone mentioned the mix injected under the eyelid. Never done that myself but our cattle would be to big to restrain enough to be confident in it.

I know its not my place to comment nor do I know all the facts but if its the same thing I'm thinkin of thats terrible stockmanship not to spot that and treat it in time

I treated something similiar before, albeit in sheep, with a tube of opticlox - which is prob the stuff you refer to above Dont_be_daft.

I would still do this, as some sight may come back.

I also heard that treating with dry cow tubes would help as well, but I feel this was more something that you could use if you didn't have the opticlox to hand right away.

Oh - what caused it I wonder? It might be worth investigating, as others might get it?
In my case, I think it was caused by very long woody kinda grass, as a few sheep got it all at once, having never had it before, I mowed the field down a bit, and the problem hasnt been seen since.

dar31

pbthevet wrote: »

What vet would charge 120 for that?

If your up for it inject the underside of the eyelid with a ml of penicillin and a ml of colvasone. Use a very fine needle and have good restraint and steady hands.

+1

Farmer Pudsey

Has he a large white cloud in eye if not it might be at early stage. If not willing to call vet get opticlox or dry cow tubes 1/2 tube today, the same in two days time and repeat if still weeping in 5 days time. If you have access to Alymicin LA give him the required amount. This is highly infective so treat amd keep away from rest while it is weeping.

I often used dry tube as it is much the same, why do 12 miles return journey when I can get a couple tubes off neighbour. Be suprised if your neighbour had not spotted it already it is a dirty infection but easy enough to cure

dar31

Mastitis/ dry cow tube must contain oxytetracycline as an ingredient to be effective against pink eye, silage eye etc
Read the side of the tube first
Multi mast contains it and fairly cheap

bob charles

spray with Terramycin. why such a practice is off label in Ireland is beyond me

puzzle factory

hi lads, where can i buy penicillin and colvasone ?

Juniorhurler

dar31 wrote: »

Mastitis/ dry cow tube must contain oxytetracycline as an ingredient to be effective against pink eye, silage eye etc
Read the side of the tube first
Multi mast contains it and fairly cheap

And there was me thinking I was uber clever using the multi mast to treat this.

pbthevet

Good to see theres a good knowledge base out there!

Yer all basically right. Pearl eye is just another name for pink eye. Called after the "shadow" that appears in the eye in the early stages. Its caused by the bactia moraxallo bovis, comes from dusty hey, straw but usually spread by flies. Very infectious so expect to see it in other animals. Plagued with it myself at the moment at home with the young stock. Easy to treat thos thankfully. Penicillin works grand imo but oxytetracyclene will also do the job, i just find the simple white penicillin is less irritant to the eye.

Opticlox is the tube thats the official treatment but any milk cow tube with penicillin in it will do the job, only problem is as youll find out is assoon as they blink or scratch eye off wall or other animal the whole stuff falls out. Thats why i just go and inject it subconjuctively.

To do this is simple enough, 2 man job in cattle, one holds other injects. Place your thumb on the eyelid and roll it upwards. This will expose the underside of it, a muscly pinky bit. Using a very skinny needle inject sideways one ml. This creates a little blob. The penicillin will leak out of this blob thru the needle whole for the next few days constantly treating the eye. Add colvasone (steroid) to speed up results.

There is another eye condition too. Its called silage eye and comes from poor quality silage. Mainly in younger animals as their teeth are erupting and this leads to an exposed nerve thru which the bacteria called listeria can actually travel up and into the eye and even the brain. Effected animals look similer enough to pink eye but eye usually redder. Bewarre these animals can also get meningitis. Main differeence is the treatment. You need to inject animals too as well as eyelid injection due to the infection also being "outside" the eye". Alamycin la would be grand for the job.

Hence i usually do both. Silage eye is mainly a winter thing and pink eye spring summer autumn. Could be either at this stage with the weather were having so inject alamycin too is my advise.

As eye gets more damaged a big blister will form on it. Bigger it gets, less chance of success. So get in there early.

Best of luck

Bodacious

Hi lads/ladies,

Great advice as always, i went out there again there late tonight and put the calf into the crate, i went to the pharmacy after work and got 2 tubes of optilox (only E2.15 a tube and would have taken the leo yellow tubes as i didnt expect them to have it)

He said he had almycin in the house so i would have given him 6cc of that into the muscle but when he handed it to me it was in an aerosol form (blue spray) but i cleaned him and gave him 1cc of penicillin (Pen & Strep) into lower eye lid with a fine neddle and half tube of optilox and 6cc of penicillin intramuscular, will repeat dosage in 2 days

I couldnt get that other drug as suggested by PBVet,,... would not chance spraying alamycin spray into an animals eye.. am i wrong on this?

LostCovey

pbthevet wrote: »

Good to see theres a good knowledge base out there!

Yer all basically right. Pearl eye is just another name for pink eye. Called after the "shadow" that appears in the eye in the early stages. Its caused by the bactia moraxallo bovis, comes from dusty hey, straw but usually spread by flies. Very infectious so expect to see it in other animals. Plagued with it myself at the moment at home with the young stock. Easy to treat thos thankfully. Penicillin works grand imo but oxytetracyclene will also do the job, i just find the simple white penicillin is less irritant to the eye.

Opticlox is the tube thats the official treatment but any milk cow tube with penicillin in it will do the job, only problem is as youll find out is assoon as they blink or scratch eye off wall or other animal the whole stuff falls out. Thats why i just go and inject it subconjuctively.

To do this is simple enough, 2 man job in cattle, one holds other injects. Place your thumb on the eyelid and roll it upwards. This will expose the underside of it, a muscly pinky bit. Using a very skinny needle inject sideways one ml. This creates a little blob. The penicillin will leak out of this blob thru the needle whole for the next few days constantly treating the eye. Add colvasone (steroid) to speed up results.

There is another eye condition too. Its called silage eye and comes from poor quality silage. Mainly in younger animals as their teeth are erupting and this leads to an exposed nerve thru which the bacteria called listeria can actually travel up and into the eye and even the brain. Effected animals look similer enough to pink eye but eye usually redder. Bewarre these animals can also get meningitis. Main differeence is the treatment. You need to inject animals too as well as eyelid injection due to the infection also being "outside" the eye". Alamycin la would be grand for the job.

Hence i usually do both. Silage eye is mainly a winter thing and pink eye spring summer autumn. Could be either at this stage with the weather were having so inject alamycin too is my advise.

As eye gets more damaged a big blister will form on it. Bigger it gets, less chance of success. So get in there early.

Best of luck

pbthevet,

This is the second time I have had reason from your posts to suspect you are not a vet.

Bit more evidence in this post

- the correct spelling is subconjunctivally not subconjunctively

- your claim that listerial pan-uveitis (silage eye) is contracted through Listeria travelling up nerves from the teeth is beyond absurd. You have mixed it up with listerial encephalitis.

- instructing people how to inject into the inside of eyelids over the internet is fairly irresponsible - I can imagine the accidents that are likely to happen

- putting steroids into infected eyes that may have a corneal ulcer is simply reckless (but if you really were a vet, you would know that)

I'm a Professor of Epidemiology meself (I might as well pretend to be, tis all the rage). The internet is fantastic isn't it - we can be whoever we want to be.

LostCovey

bob charles

Bodacious wrote: »

would not chance spraying alamycin spray into an animals eye.. am i wrong on this?

yes your wrong. treated around 15 cases in the one shed last winter that appeared overnight. isolated them, sprayed them as I walked around them as didn't want to subject them to the stress of putting them through the crush considering vision was now poor in one eye. Condition was cleared up after a day

bob charles

I have dealt with and studied along side allot of vets in my time. You know its not always to ones with the best spelling and knowing every bit of theory that make the best vets. Nowadays I have at my disposal 3 fantastic vets that are superb within there fields. I know each one of them has there strong points. One is brilliant at prevention whereas one of the others is a treatment genius, using allot of outside main stream thinking while the other is just an excellent all rounder.

LostCovey

bob charles wrote: »

I have dealt with and studied along side allot of vets in my time. You know its not always to ones with the best spelling and knowing every bit of theory that make the best vets.

That's all very well in theory Bob.

Bizzum

Bodacious wrote: »

The internet is fantastic isn't it - we can be whoever we want to be. "LC, I'm sorry to tell you but be it in life or on the internet you are always going to be the same.......... a.....

Very harsh.

While I would not always agree with LC, I usually enjoy his posts, even when the sparks fly!:eek:

Username John

LostCovey wrote: »

That's all very well in theory Bob.

Bizzum wrote: »

Very harsh.

While I would not always agree with LC, I usually enjoy his posts, even when the sparks fly!:eek:

I would agree Bizzum, a bit harsh.

But... I had to smile at LC last post.
I see where you coming from LC, but it's ironic you ignore Bob Charles post with the practical experience, and respond with "in theory"

LostCovey

Username John wrote: »

I would agree Bizzum, a bit harsh.

But... I had to smile at LC last post.
I see where you coming from LC, but it's ironic you ignore Bob Charles post with the practical experience, and respond with "in theory"

I was being selective!

pbthevet

Might have woked out for you bob but i personally wouldnt spray alamycin into the cows eyes. Theres lots of impurities in the spray such as the blue dye that might make things worse plus theres a good chance none will get in eye at all. But the active ingredient "oxytetracyclene" would in theory work.

To lost covey . . . . Im definatly not an english teacher anyways and agree with your opinion on steroids. Should have pointed out i generally look at eye first to see if ulcer present. As regards the injection technique i do genuinly feel it is a simple procedure most farmers could carry out by themselves. Biggest danger is head moving and piercing the eye but that could happen to me too. As regards listeria, yet again you are 100% correct but you failed to get my point in being crude to create awareness. I doubt most people here understood the words you used.

Farmer Pudsey

Bodacious may have been a bit harsh or he might be right.

The other senario is that Last Covey is a vet in farmers clothes one of the obes that want to be the only one to stick a needle in an animal and get 50 euro's for it.

If that happens the fee would be 70 or 80 euro's in a few months. A cousin had a vet that charged him less than a couple neighbours as he knew the cousin was more likly to do certain procedures himself.

reilig

[Thread closed for the time being.

No veterinary advice allowed on this forum.

If you are a vet and want to be allowed to give advice, diagnose and offer critical analysis on this forum, please contact the boards.ie management in order to become a verified representative for your company and to arrange to pay the appropriate fee. ]

Reilig
Mod