Pink eye in sheep

Re: Pink eye in sheep

mariette asselbergs — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 16:24:31 GMT

Years ago I read good studies on pink eye in South Africa (I think published in the Journal of the South African Veterinary Association or maybe in the Onderstepoort Journal) and there was no difference between treated groups (oxytetracyclin systemic and/or topical) and untreated groups.

Unfortunately, you can never convince farmers of this.

But it made us feel a lot better when there was no medication available in the bush.

Mariette

Re: Pink eye in sheep

Michael Woodhouse — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 11:31:56 GMT

Went off the market 5+ year ago.

Re: Pink eye in sheep

Virginia Campbell — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 11:15:13 GMT

[quote user="Evelyn Barbour-Hill"]there are no tetracycline topical preparations[/quote]

What happened to those wee green tubes of Aureomycin? (been a long time since I was in LA practice)

Re: Pink eye in sheep

Julian Earl — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 19:17:15 GMT

Treatment of choice is systemic oxytetracycline but the cure rate, although higher than for topical oxytet, is still only about 30% the remainder relapsing. Topical treatment has something like a 90% recurrence rate. These were figures from a comparative study years ago at SVS.

It may well be that later antibioitics like fluoroquinolones or tilmicosin are more successful but always warn the client of the high risk of recurrence and carrier sheep.

HTH.

Re: Pink eye in sheep

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 19:10:39 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]Topical antibiotic therapy cannot always be accomplished every day for 3-4 days under farm conditions[/quote]

It cannot be accomplished ever, under any conditions, because there are no tetracycline topical preparations (that I know of). I guess that's what I'm saying.

Try Optixcare if you can.

Re: Pink eye in sheep

Michael Woodhouse — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 19:00:11 GMT

[quote user="Evelyn Barbour-Hill"]The same goes for any intramammary preparation. (I know intramammaries are frequently used for this purpose but I am unhappy at the idea: the vehicle is not an ophthalmic one and it may be irritant. I remember a disciplinary case some years ago in which the accused was struck off for, among other things, using Streptopen in sheep eyes. Yes, really). [/quote]

Interesting. To be honest I always put the efficacy of the intramammaries down to the steroid content and the availability on farm. If I inject eyes then I use oxytet plus a little Voren.

I've had Tetra Delta in my eye once and it was fine.

I'd be quite happy justifying my choice of product IF the licensed treatment had failed. A mammary gland is a fairly delicate location. If the farmer decided of his own accord to use an intramammary there's not much I can do about it.

From the NADIS site:

Treatment

Affected sheep should be housed with ready access to food and water. A single intramuscular injection of long-acting oxytetracycline is economically justifiable and very effective in sheep. Topical antibiotic therapy cannot always be accomplished every day for 3-4 days under farm conditions. Immunity following infection is poor, and lesions may recur.

Re: Pink eye in sheep

David Shepherd — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 18:49:00 GMT

I agree with Michael; jab everything all at the same time with LA oxytet; might even be worth jabbing them all again 2-3 days later. Or you could try Zuprevo (off licence blah blah)

David

Re: Pink eye in sheep

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 18:40:17 GMT

Being neither a proper sheep vet nor a proper eye vet, I feel nervous about piping up, but I offer from hard experience my comments, which you may tear to pieces if you wish.

I have several times used mass treatment, injecting every sheep in the flock with i/m LA oxytetracycline; a few times combining it with subconjunctival injection of oxytet in every single affected eye. Even this does not always stop the disease in its tracks although generally it seems to decline from that point on. Sometimes even then it busts out again a few weeks later (generally one can make a good guess at the contact factors encouraging this) and one might then do the mass treatment again. Even so, it takes its time disappearing.

There will then be a couple of years with a low incidence, and then it will bust out explosively the next year.

The only antibiotic effective against the causative organism is a tetracycline, and there are now no topical ophthalmic preparations containing a tetracycline. Opticlox or Orbenin Opthalmic are only serving as a lubricant which may be soothing. (In fact both my flockmasters reported that Orbenin seemed to make the eyes worse). The same goes for any intramammary preparation. (I know intramammaries are frequently used for this purpose but I am unhappy at the idea: the vehicle is not an ophthalmic one and it may be irritant. I remember a disciplinary case some years ago in which the accused was struck off for, among other things, using Streptopen in sheep eyes. Yes, really).

So you might as well use something (cheaper) that is just lubricant, soothing and irrigant and may promote healing: Optixcare seems perfect for the purpose.

Subconjunctival injection I am beginning to think is usually just a placebo for the veterinary surgeon. My strategy lately has been mass oxytet LA combined with lavish use of Optixcare, combined with elimination of predisposing factors if possible. Crowding and clustering of heads around feeders is one obvious factor. Wensleydales have wool that curls into the eyes, and that is another.

Re: Pink eye in sheep

Virginia Campbell — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 17:49:59 GMT

I had one such case and referred it to the local VLA vets who were great. As far as I remember the farmer ended up learning to do the subconjunctival injections himself and got very handy at it! The problem resolved in the end but took a long time I think

Re: Pink eye in sheep

Virginia Campbell — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 17:49:54 GMT

Re: Pink eye in sheep

Alan Tevendale — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 16:56:49 GMT

I would second Michaels comments here. In this case I believe there is a strong argument for group therapy as you appear to have cycling reinfection. Intramammary tubes do also seem to have good action in these cases (again as Michael has already stated).

Re: Pink eye in sheep

Michael Woodhouse — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 12:30:14 GMT

You need to treat them all at once. I'm not convinced there is much local immunity and you are chasing it around the group.Reinfection seems common.

I've battled with such cases before and I now jump to group treatment early as I use less antibiotic overall.

Re: Pink eye in sheep

Fable — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 12:18:43 GMT

All the sheep in this group of 12 have been injected, some several times. Do you mean, all at exactly the same time to stop it cycling? It just seems odd that they will go clear for a week and then it breaks out again. Will this not continue to happen even if they're all treated at once?

Re: Pink eye in sheep

Michael Woodhouse — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 12:06:37 GMT

You need to inject all the sheep with long acting Oxytet LA. Sometimes it is the only way to stop these things cycling amongst the sheep.

I would also fill any affected eyes with Opticlox for good measure (or your favourite milking cow tube if your first line treatment hasn't worked )

That will solve your problem.