The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Bramley belle on February 10, 2014, 12:20:07 pm
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Hi We have a flock of shetland sheep 29 currently in total consisting of 9 rams, 14 ewes and 6 ewe lambs. We started 3 years ago with 7 ewes and limbed for the first time last year. We have had a trouble free time until now when some of our ewes have contracted pink eye and after using cream, intramuscular injection and finally conjunctival injection (into the eyelid) we are still plated with it does anyone have any advice they can give me. X
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We've had the same issue with our Shetlands this year with pinkeye. Managed to get rid of it eventually with eyelid injections (poor things) as the creams didn't clear it. However a couple persisted even after the eyelid injections. They got it from a borrowed ram.
Interestingly we only managed to clear it once the ram was sent back to the owners, I believe not only did he bring it in but also was re infecting the ewes each time they got clear. As soon as he went, the treatments worked very quickly. So it might be worth splitting up the flock into a couple of groups so that you can see if one group them stays clear and gradually narrowing down if you have a persistent re injector of the rest?
It does seem as if it wil never go! I know!
The other thing is to try to avoid using hay racks etc although I know that's tricky at this time of year, if you do use them make sure there's plenty of space so the sheep aren't right up against one another when feeding. It's so infectious that this can be a source of spreading.
Good luck x
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Thank you. The eyelid injection hasn't worked for us and we haven't had any visiting sheep this year, but a good idea to split the flock, will give it a go. I feel so sorry for them, poor things.We are based in Kent and the weather has been so wet and windy that our vet thinks that could be a contributing factor.
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I feel for you too, I've had groups get this before. To be honest I was never convinced that any of the treatments made any difference, it eventually went away but at the time, yes, it seemed like it would never end. The creams are soothing, I think, so worth using if you have any looking uncomfortable and can catch and treat them without stressing them too much.
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Mine all had pink-eye a month or so ago and it cleared up on its own. Perhaps I was lucky but I was told that doctors no longer treat conjunctivitis as it gets better on its own.
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Thank you we are going to give it a go and see if it clears on it own, we have tried all the treatment available and none have worked. Will let you know how we go.