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Pink eye in cattle and sheep is now a major problem. Even now in winter when we didn't used to see it. In sheep it is not the same disease nor the same bacteria but it looks and behaves almost the same.
The good news first...a vaccine has been developed for cattle pink eye and is now for sale at stock and station agents. It's called 'Piliguard..... but it's not a lot of use if you have the disease going through the mob already and I've not heard just how effective it is yet. It costs about $4.00 a dose and needs to be given before the worst time of usual spread, every year. Although the pack says only one dose before pink-eye time, I'd not be surprised if it worked better with two doses 6 weeks apart with the second dose just before the summer. At least in the first year.
In cattle it seemed to get a lot worse in Tasmania about the time that a lot of young drought stock were coming from the mainland. They came from dusty places with a lot of flies, yarded together and fed with hay for days. All the things needed to make it spread like bushfire in a wind. Many were affected on arrival and raised the bacterial challenge to all other stock in Tasmania. Don't blame the mainlanders, after all we were the buyers and agisters taking advantage and allowing affected stock into Tasmania.
This is important:
If you had it last year you will get it again this year. (Sheep or cattle).
In only three days, one or both eyes can go from slight watery discharge to total loss of the eye. Some don't go that fast or get that bad but some do.
It is always in many more of your stock than you think it is.
It is you who will provide the best conditions for spread. Any of the following will work to make it bad: Yarding and feeding, dusty. seedy feed, dusty paddocks, feeding fodder attractive to flies (eg vegies and vinegar flies).
First sign is a watery eye and a bit of blinking, then often by the end of the day a patch of white opacity on the face of the eye then the whole eye goes white. There will probably be an ulcer on it if you looked closely because the bacteria that cause it use eyeball dissolving chemicals. That much can take as little as a day. The ulcer will often go right through and the eyeball will collapse. By the time you see the pink scar, often where once there was an eye (giving the disease its name) you've been asleep for at least a week. The eye is already healing with scar tissue and the animal is blind. Your 400 kg beast is now 350 kg because the severe pain stops grazing. Multiply that by the others affected and you have lost $1000.00 in a week for every ten animals affected.
Treatment is better NOT done with the sprays sold for the purpose, Sprays are almost useless unless used several times a day. However they can change a slightly watering eye for the better and give the beast a better chance to overcome. Longer acting ointments containing cloxacillin are more effective especially if combined with a long acting shot of penicillin. If using cloxacillin ointment then penicillin is used but if using a tetracycline drug in the eye then a tetracycline injection is better...ie use the same drug in the eye as well as in the animal.
Consider treating the whole mob if possible and certainly separating the affected ones, but not into yards because it will spread faster in confined conditions. Obviously feed lot operators have it difficult here and really should consider vaccine. The vaccine may leave a lump so watch where you put it.
Badly affected ones which have a lot of scar tissue can be treated by the vet injecting under the eyelid with a combination of a long acting cortisone and tetracycline. That needs a proper facility (head bale) and a set of nose grips and a halter. I have taught a few operators to do it themselves but it's not all that easy without training.
Eye patches also help the pain from bright light and are sold by some vets including us.