[Alicenz]

that made me laugh, yes friends are fab for recovery!  she will be pleased to have others to follow, Alice (my blind girl) will approve! 

Good luck eh.

[Roxy]

Really hope this clears up quickly - having to do the affected sheep is obviously more work for you .....sending you yet more hugs

[Alicenz]

How are the eyes going?  Imagine your just busy enough.. hope all is going ok.

[Pedwardine]

Got four more affected sheep, two of whom are being collected by their new mum and dad a week Sunday(sorry Mairi!). One has a definate cloudy eye    Been observing them today and wonder if it's the hedgerow that has caused it as they really get stuck in  . There are lots of scratchy bits in there with part of being being hawthorn, Blackthorn, rose and some bramble. Any could have kicked off an infection if tender eyes got too close.
Fala, the completely blind one is much more amenable (though not happy) about being treated. She knows she gts tasty treats afterwards now!

[Brucklay]

We've got it too in some of the shetlands - when I was picking up stuff for them at the vet the other day vet said there was a lot of it about - think it's a sheep conspiracy - last of my ewe's lambed the other day so that job over - now pink eye in one group to deal with and orf in a couple in the late group - they obvious don't like me sitting on my backside!!

[Pedwardine]

Yep, guess we were having too easy a time of it 

[Bfsoay]

My advice would be to inject the whole flock with long-acting Oxytetracycline - eye ointments are labour-intensive, time-consuming and generally ineffective. Orbenin will not cure pinkeye in sheep and Aureomycin ointment (which IS effective) is no longer available.

[Caleb]

Hi Pedwardine,

Managed to get pinkeye from bought in sheep a few years ago and spread to rest of flock fields away by flies. Generally has ten day incubation so it kept going round and round. In the end Orbenin treatment to all not just the ones you can see infection in, with repeat treatment in 10 days sorted it. Also fab in horse and dog eye infections.
Good luck.

[Pedwardine]

The Oxytetracycline injections do appear to be doing some good. Fala's whiteness in her eyes is reverting back to where it started, in the centre and she seems to be looking at us when we speak to her more accurately. WE have now got six yearlings and an older wether affected in varying degrees but    are getting on top of it as a whole. Still using the Orbenin. May help, may not, may as well 

[ZaktheLad]

There's some terramycin eye ointment you can purchase too - might be an alternative to the spray.  I always a a couple of tubes of the terramycin eye ointment in my lambing box as it works wonders on any eye infections.

[smudger]

I now have serious outbreak of pink eye. It was very windy end of last week and ground is like dust, but the outbreak seems to be primarily the first batch of ewe/lambs, so hope its contained.


I looked at the Nadis website (http://www.nadis.org.uk/bulletins/eye-diseases-in-sheep.aspx and it says the eye can explode if the pus build up is extensive. I injected alamycin immediately to first 4 ewes then spoke to the vet who said whole flock treatment may be required to stop the outbreak in its tracks but if early enough it should be enough to contain it.

When I realised 24hrs later it had spread to another 10 ewes and some lambs, I got the vet out who injected antibiotic / steroid  into the eye area  (only for vets to do this) and then sprayed Chlorsol solution diluted onto eye membranes (to be done daily for 5 days). Also doing this as a preventative to those not showing signs and flock is now split into 3 (which is a pain as cant bring them back till fortnight after last 'case' and no paddock rotation).

I obviously missed the early signs of infection but it was within a 24 hour window that we went from normal eyes to cloudy / swollen eyes, so once its there it can spread quickly.



I would not ignore it, speak to your vet.

[Pedwardine]

Jeez there are some challenges with owning sheep! All my sympathies with Remy's endurance test last year.

[Pedwardine]

It's back again! Two of the older sheep have it and a newly affected yearling. Thought we'd got on top of it. Everyone else has come through. Arrrgh 

[Roxy]

Oh  no.  Just when you thought it had gone.  Hope this is the last of it.  We have dry stone walls, and sheep fencing, so hopefully they will not get it here .....she says with crossed fingers.