The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: piggy on September 08, 2010, 04:35:08 pm
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Just been to check on my sheep and found one with the eye gone white,OH is a gp and he said looks like she has had a scratch on the cornea and now the eye is damaged and wont come back,have brought her in and she is eating and drinking ok.Have any of you had this before and do you think she will cope with one eye.
Thanks
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Hi! It could be something called 'pink eye' which is often caused by the sheep brushing against other sheep (at the feed trough for example) or against foliage, long grass etc. The eye itself goes white and cloudy whilst around the eye is pink (hence the name). The eye can be runny and looks sore. It is treated with antibiotics and the eye can return to normal in a few weeks. Oddly enough I have just had a call from a friend with a Welsh Mountain Ewe whom he is convinced is going blind at only 2 years old - I have told him to check for the same problem. Let me know how you get on with her and good luck.
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we got a ram and we had to cut his horn off as it got to his eye and he now lost it but is still fine and healthy it took a few days to adjust but is fine now with 1 eye
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It is most likely to be Pink Eye which is highly infectious. Give your sheep a Terramycin injection and get something like Orbenin from the vet to apply topically to the eyes a couple of times a day. Watch out for it in the rest of the flock as it is likely to run through the lot.
If it is not that, then a sheep can easily get used to having just one eye, after the initial tendency to walk into things.
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Have taken a picture,what do you think.
(http://i823.photobucket.com/albums/zz152/northcove/sheep1004.jpg)
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AWWW looks like a horror movie, KIller sheep !!!
Ive never seen that before
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I would say infectious conjunctivitis (pink eye) and it needs to be treated soon as the longer you leave it the longer it takes to heal. It is a painful condition and as I said before can run through the whole flock. You could take the pic to your vet for their opinion.
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Yep! I agreed with Fleecewife - looks very like 'pink eye' to me.
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Hi, I had one of my ewes with (one) pink eye, did the orbenin eye ointment for a couple of days. No other ewe/lamb got it. The ewe still has a cloudy eye, but is fine, and still as bossy as ever. Not sure she can see with that eye, but if not it is not bothering her. My vet did not recommend antibiotics, just the ointment.
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If it's not too bad then just the Orbenin is fine - use it until the eye is clear, but that eye looks as if it is quite bad, totally opaque, so if it was mine I would use IM Terramycin too. Yes we need to be careful when using antibiotics to minimise the risk of resistant bugs, but I think they should be used when fully justified. We have had pink eye run through our whole flock twice now - not all get it and some don't get it badly, but for the few who do get a persistant case then we have found the only way to clear it right up is with IM antiBs. We thought that one ewe would actually lose an eye, but after many months it eventually healed without a scar. No fun.
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Am waiting for the vet to phone me back,i have her seperated from the others and just been to check them and they all seem ok,she is a new sheep to me only had her about 3 weeks.
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Could be that your flock have previously had infectious conjunctivitis, or have been vaccinated against it, so when your new ewe arrived she was exposed to the agent. Hopefully this would mean that the rest of the flock will not get it. The vet should have the answers :) Let us know what he/she says.
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I have found that often if a case is to crop up its after a move the stress levels rise and immunity dips this is as far as i can see an infection which takes advantage when a sheep is a little low or has poor immunity. a/b's certainly help
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Vet has just been and given her a shot of betamox and carprieve to be repeated on monday and opticlox for each eye once a day,hes not sure if it is pink eye,he said she could have sratched it but yet the other eye is a little cloudy,he said that by tuesday we should know as the treatment would have shown inprovement by then,if no sign of improvement then the eye might need to be removed.
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fingers crossed for you
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Ouch! Hope that won't be necessary.
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fingers crossed hope she improves quickly for you
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Hey Piggy, hows the sheep with the poorly eye?
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We have one ewe with one eye and she was the most attentive mum out the whole flock. Lucky she only had one lamby last year, if she had two we were contemplating adopting the second lamb as its obviously a disadvantage having only one eye.
I hope its all OK.
Ta
Baz
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Is there any improvement?
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Only a slight improvement not as much as i would have hoped, vet is coming back tomorrow so will see what he says,although now i have had to treat the orphan lams as well,she got out of her pen and has been running with them all day so on the safe side they are all in being treated,to be fair to the ewe i dont blame her for escaping as i knew she was lonely.
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well they are in good hands by the way you speak, hope she improves for you