[tommytink]

Noticed this ewe’s eye to be bulging slightly. Her right side is how both eyes normally look. Behind her right eye is relatively flat towards her ear but the left side looks swollen. It would be the equivalent of where our temple is. No inflammation, pinkness, cloudiness. No weeping, pus, or staining. No trauma visible, she doesn’t look like she’s caught herself on anything. Her vision doesn’t seem impaired. She isn’t feeding from troughs or silage bales.
I caught her and examined it. Her bottom jawline is solid. The swelling is malleable, not solid (but I didn’t push around too much). I read about abscesses that can form in their mouths but she is eating ewe nuts and grazing. Her temp was 39.17 and I gave her a shot of combi AI/AB.
I’ve checked her today and it’s no better but no worse.
Any ideas on what this could be? Could she have taken a good knock (they do squabble and butt sometimes) and it’s swollen? Seems unlikely I guess but the jab hasn’t made any difference. I’m going to check her again tomorrow (they’re at winter grazing) and speak to the vet if no improvement.
If she was in a large flock I doubt anyone would notice.

[twizzel]

Hard to tell from the picture really. Probably worth getting the vet to look at her.

[shep53]

Vet

[tommytink]

So I spoke to the vet and gave her another shot of Hexasol on Friday but also booked her in for a visit today as although it hadn’t changed by Friday it looked more bulgy.

Vet’s looked at it today. Not an abscess or an haematoma as he stuck a needle in and nothing came out. He said maybe she could have taken a good knock clashing with another sheep. I asked if a swelling like that wouldn’t go down over time rather than get bigger and he said it depended on what got damaged as something like a lymph node would take longer to come out and get better.

He’s given her a metacam and I have two more shots to give her. We’ve brought her home with a lamb for company (which she isn’t impressed about!) so we can get hold of her easier. Obviously I’m hoping she’s in lamb and want as less stress as possible. That was the idea of having the vet out instead of taking her down but ended up moving her anyway

He said if no improvement it could be some sort of mass. I guess that means a tumour. It could keep growing and her eye could get worse. As long as she seems well otherwise not much else we can do but I’d be afraid her eye is going to fall out. As he said, without a scan there’s no way to tell for definite what it could be. So keeping fingers crossed that a miracle happens and the metacam works.