Outbreak of blindness in sheep

brownswiss

Have any of you had an outbreak of blindness where no silage or hay was being fed? The ewes were on rough rushy ground.

Yesterday I started feeding a ration to them so I presume the blindness will spread at the troughs.

I have heard about it happening with mouldy bales but have also heard of two cases, one in June and other in October where no source of infection was found.

I will try and swab some of them tomorrow if the local lab will run a test

wrangler

brownswiss wrote: »

Have any of you had an outbreak of blindness where no silage or hay was being fed? The ewes were on rough rushy ground.

Yesterday I started feeding a ration to them so I presume the blindness will spread at the troughs.

I have heard about it happening with mouldy bales but have also heard of two cases, one in June and other in October where no source of infection was found.

I will try and swab some of them tomorrow if the local lab will run a test

Rushes can irritate eyes too if they graze close, ie if they're short of grass

ganmo

or thistles basically anything that'll poke them in the eye

a bit of penicillin dropped into the eye would be start

tomwaterford

Fog blindness???...I'm assuming it can get foggy about the rushy area


Can't help on what technically causes it...but wed get it time to time and just use opticolx on it



You'd always see a mark on eyes....but had rams live for several years afterwards....seem affect some regularly and others never

orm0nd

Blue Alamycin spray into the eye with eyelids held open daily,

had an out break a couple of years affecting over 50% of the flock, they all came good 100% but some took longer than others,

farming93

I bought hoggets in July, after this a load of my ewes started getting runny eyes then the eyes went cloudy followed by temporary blindness I did absolutely nothing and it healed itself I'm not sure how long it took but I reckon it was about a month before they came good again. Goes to show the importance of segregation when buying in though

brownswiss

Thanks for the feedback. I will try the spray in the eyes. I will have some work even getting them out of the field. I do not think the rushes or thistles are actually damaging the eyes but I do think the rushes are playing a part in the problem. Is it possible that rushes cut in early summer could be still there and have gone mouldy. In the search for grass the ewes could be coming into contact with the mould. With all the wet weather I would not have thought it possible .

davidk1394

Happened here when feeding silage on the ground to large numbers of sheep. We use dry cow tubes. Half a tube into each eye for 3 days and they should be fully recovered unless really bad. May need a shot of alamycin LA if that's the case

Hagimalone

2 here today, practically no rushes or thistles, not feeding bales & plenty of grass, sprayed with alamican & isolated, hope there'll be no more

FarmerDougal

Had it here this autumn with hoggets all bought in. All cleared up but took 3weeks or more. 30-40% affected. Injected with alamycin and 2ml in each eye. Only one with long term damage.

razor8

Had a good few ewes take it 2 weeks ago all of a sudden on winter grazing with no rushes, thistles or nettles & on different farms. Must be something in the air imo

Not sure what caused it but these were completely blind & had one run through a hedge with no idea where she was going. Had two go missing & one arrived back at house after 2 weeks and it was obvious she had recovered as her eye lids were all scum

Injected others with betamox and alamycin spray into eyes & in 3 days were perfect again

brownswiss

razor8 wrote: »

Had a good few ewes take it 2 weeks ago all of a sudden on winter grazing with no rushes, thistles or nettles & on different farms. Must be something in the air imo

Not sure what caused it but these were completely blind & had one run through a hedge with no idea where she was going. Had two go missing & one arrived back at house after 2 weeks and it was obvious she had recovered as her eye lids were all scum

Injected others with betamox and alamycin spray into eyes & in 3 days were perfect again

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Was Betamox recommended ?. Most info I have found points to Oxytet but you seem to have gotten a very rapid response. Others are saying it takes about 4 weeks to clear

razor8

brownswiss wrote: »

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Was Betamox recommended ?. Most info I have found points to Oxytet but you seem to have gotten a very rapid response. Others are saying it takes about 4 weeks to clear

its a different strain that i have seen before in that it clears up very quickly, in the past I've had to repeat several treatments