[Blackbird]

Hello all, hope you're all keeping warm and well. I have an 8 month old Shetland ewe lamb with a mucky (greenish-yellowy matter) eye. The eye itself isn't pink or cloudy, but the eyelid is reddish. She had this a few weeks ago in the other eye. I sent the vet a photo and described the symptoms over the phone. Vet prescribed Alamycin injections x 3 which I gave her and it cleared up. Am mystified why it's come back.

The vet also gave me some Opticlox eye ointment and I'll try this to see if it clears it up. Definitely not pink eye, no other sheep affected and I don't think it's a butting injury. Has anyone else experienced this? I wonder if she's just prone to it? Thanks all.

[Marches Farmer]

I've used Opticlox on eye infections with great success in the past.  Any other symptoms - scouring, lethargy, inappetance?    Has she been wormed/fluked recently?  She may be what my Granny used to call "run down" to have come down with this problem again - this Autumn seems to have been a bad one for the more vulnerable lambs.  Perhaps a period of nights in the shed and a vitamin and mineral drench or a bit of hard feed might be worth considering.

[Blackbird]

Thanks Marches Farmer. I got her at the beginning of October, and we wormed her on arrival. She's a bonny lamb, playful and eating well - she gets a bit of hard feed with the other lamb I got at the same time (other lamb is a bit skinny so I'm feeding her up and the two are inseparable so get fed together). Vitamin and mineal drench sounds like a good idea - any recommendations? I've never use one before. I will try the Opticlox now and see how we get on.

[Marches Farmer]

Might be worth having a word with your vet.  Ours is often quite happy to give out one or two doses of something like that and knows all about deficiencies in the local soils.

[Anke]

Are they eating hay? Sometimes it can just be an irritation from that, or as others have said, her immune system is a bit down. A mineral drench sounds good in any case.