what kind of cattle?

I am not trying to argue but not everyone has easy access to a vet. I was reading in Acres USA (Farming magazine) about somebody that had to get out of raising sheep. This sheep farmer could not get a vet to come out to treat his sheep. There's a shortage of large animal vets that treat farm animals in certain areas of the USA.

I vaccinate for pink eye, yearlings, flytag eartags, oilers on the salt feeder and mow the tall grass. Haven't lost an eye in 3 years with 60 head on pasture. knock on wood.

We treated our sheep with pink eye ...with straight penicillin in the eye...think eye drops

Angus cross.



Thanks everyone for the advice thus far.

White face or bronco faced?
Need color and pigment around the eyes

White face or bronco faced?
Need color and pigment around the eyes

Please don't treat with salt. Call your vet. There is a vaccine available. Crumbles and feed antibiotics require a VFD not a prescription.

Same thing in this part of the world

And anyone who calls the vet over pinkeye is a hobby farmer or amateur

We AI for club calves, so we have all kinds of markings.

What does bronco faced mean?

We've been raising cattle for over 40 years and not had this kind of trouble. We keep Purina mineral out free choice. We've done nothing different. We had a rough, muddy, wet winter. The pasture they have been in the last few weeks has high grass, but nothing unusual from what we normally do. Typically we will get a couple cases a year out of 40 calves. This year is being rough.

Bronco faced is spotted faced not soild white like old time herfords. We wont keep any heifer with pink skin around the eyes. It seems to help, id get a vet out and see if its bacterial or viral or environmental.

Yeah, you're right. Probably best to just to ask on the internet instead of call your vet who will help you with the problem and help you prevent it in the future. Good advise.

So for everyone on here recommending throwing salt in the eye, have you ever thrown salt in your eye before? It hurts like you know what, only thing it does for the animal is make them even more uncomfortable then they already are. If you have animals you should have a vet they are just as important as any other individual in your farming operation. A patient client relationship is a must and it means in times like these you can pick up the phone with them and they will give you the recommendation or prescription to treat the case. Your vet shouldnt be coming out to the farm for every little case, you can't afford it and if your vets any good they don't have the time to treat a small case of pinkeye. But if you don't have an established relationship with them they aren't going to just give a recommendation over the phone. So that means getting them out to the farm for preg checks or making sure to get your vaccines and other supplies from them so they know what your day to day operation is. If you are using antibiotics and haven't spoken to the vet, go word for word off the bottle as to what the dose is. First off it's the law and second while some of these recommended methods on here of coating the eye or giving shots in the eye are can be beneficial if done correctly with the right combinations of drugs it can be a train wreck if done wrong. Those methods are also off label and require a vet prescription to be done legally. The train wreck comes from people using the wrong classes of antibiotics or underdosing and creating resistant strains of bacteria. Antibiotic resistance with pinkeye is more common the you might think. So the moral of the story is find a good vet and get to know them on a first name basis.

I live in a area where pinkeye is very prevalent. Use to be a very bad problem due to all the flies, standing water, creeks, etc. Well anyway long story but I feed diatomaceous earth has a way of controlling internal parasites in my sheep herd. And I haven't had a case of pinkeye since. And I have noticed alot less flies. I do know it dries out manure alot faster and I don't even notice any flies in the barn or yard anymore. The cattle in the next property over has several every year during the grazing period. Idk if it's the diatomaceous earth or not. But I have to assume it is helping cause I haven't treated that in over 8 years. I also cover a lil on the cows and don't see em covered with flies. Not trying to push a product but it's helped me alot

We very seldom have pinkeye here but in 2013 after the drought the sunflowers were thick we had 160 pairs in one pasture and had a bad out break now whether it was the sunflowers the flys or all the neighbors sick and pinkeye infested junk across the fence who knows not sure exactly which strain it was since theres 37 different strains of it but LA200 and a patch with 5cc squirted in the eye cleared it up quick . Out of the 160 pairs we doctored 130 head and only lost two eyes and that was the only bunch that got it the rest went all summer with no issues and havent had a problem since . Good Luck

Baby calves a lot of times will get it first, ma's tail whips them in the eye while they are eating. Next in line many times are male calves that are following cows in heat. I think flies are the main problem with full size cows. Once you get it you will have it again, but I think maybe most or all of them carry the bacteria but may never get an infection. Once a cow gets it once guys will tell you she won't get it again, that's baloney. Seven different strains, that's part of the problem with vaccines they don't cover every strain.

Calves that get it and get bad enough to lose vision, many times will go backwards or go forward slowly. My best advice is to treat it with best available method, that gives quickest and best results. It gets worse in a hurry, a watery eye or a little haze is much much easier to handle than the same eye a week later is going to be.

Spoker get a vet to show you how to give eyelid injection, better still if he leaves you enough medicine to keep doing them yourself. Big difference between that method and just a blast of la200 in the neck. If you can handle them you could use other topicals, but the injection works continually for multiple days which is why it works so well.

The salt cure is based on salt being an antibiotic which it is, but there are multiple drugs you can use topical that are way better.

Yeah, you're right. Probably best to just to ask on the internet instead of call your vet who will help you with the problem and help you prevent it in the future. Good advise.[/quote]
Its probably the cheapest and easiest thing to treat your cattle will get. I've treated more myself than a lot of vets will treat in there life time. LA 200 and it's that easy. My bosses brother is a Vet and they tried everything they could to both figure out what was causing and to stop it from happening. Went as far as have their own vaccine made. Even tried giving three different vaccines at the same. Accept it and treat with LA 200 and go on is what they got out of 2 years of trying. I had 3 years in a row I've treated over 100 a year. So u bet it's good advise.

Well thank you for calling me a hobby farming amateur... We milk over 700 head on a rotational grazing system and recently called the vet for pinkeye. It was not responding to penicillin in the eye lid or LA200. Its not always "that easy". They sent samples to Cornell for analysis as the Vet is at a loss also.

If you are at a loss as to what to do call a vet if needed and don't worry about what Yes sir says.

Over the years I have treated thousands of bad eyes. Currently we use LA200 or any long lasting Oxy product in the muscle, and 1cc of Resflor gold in the eye. Pen or LA in the eye is good, but the Resflor gold has a anti-inflammatory in it that really helps. Keeping a Chlorotetracycline product in their feed or mineral really helps. They changed all the FDA rules a few years ago on feeding it so ask your vet on that one. Good luck.