With summer arriving, treating pinkeye is an issue many cattle producers will face. As things get drier, it means more dust which means an increase in eye irritants.
However, there are things that you can do when this bacteria makes its appearance on your ranch. Treating the pinkeye infection early in your cattle is crucial. The longer you take to treat it, the higher the possibility that it will permanently damage your cattle. Visible damage to your cattle’s eye will mean severe discounts come sale time.
Since treating as early as possible is the key, the earliest treatment possible is prevention. Prevention is the better option of the two options because pinkeye is very contagious. Once it shows up in your herd, it would take little for it to spread to the rest of your cattle.
What causes pinkeye in cattle?
Pinkeye, otherwise known as infectious bovine keratoconjunctivitis, is a common disease in cattle. It causes redness and ulcers in the eye. It can be very painful to your cattle as well as cause economic losses. As I mentioned earlier, the financial loss is due to lower cattle value and reduced weaning weights.
Moraxella bovis is the primary cause of pinkeye in cattle, but other bacteria and viruses can also cause this disease. These bacteria can infect the eye but won’t necessarily cause pinkeye to occur unless there is an irritant to the eye. Problems with the immune system of the cattle can also cause the bacteria to cause this disease.
Some common irritants that can cause pinkeye in cattle:
- Ultraviolet (UV) light, also known as sunlight
- Flies, most commonly the face fly
- Tallgrass, the seed head of these tall grasses, can scratch the eyes of cattle
- Dust and sand (goes without saying)
This disease has been known to occur anytime throughout the year, but it happens predominately during the summer months. It occurs mainly in summer, most likely due to the increase in irritants like the ones listed above. Also, while it has infected all breeds of cattle, it hits the breeds with a lack of pigmentation around the eyes. Breeds such as Herefords are really prone to this.
Excessive tearing and squinting of the affected eye are two of the most common signs that your cattle have pinkeye. Once they show this, they need to be treated. If you wait too long, the eye will become cloudy, and an ulcer will begin to form. If you are interested, I go into more detail about the symptoms and signs of pinkeye in a previous article, “How to treat cattle pinkeye”.
Ways to treat and prevent cattle pinkeye
While it may be near impossible to nail down an exact cause of this disease, there are ways that you can do to prevent it from happening in the first place.
Step #1: Maintain good overall herd health
Following good nutrition and vaccination protocols to maintain good herd health will go a long way in preventing this disease from happening. A compromised immune system is one of the causes listed above that causes this to happen.
Now the knee-jerk response to this is to think that feeding your cattle a large number of minerals, especially the ones that support eye health, is the way to go. But that is not the case. The research that I have done, as well as those done by various institutions, shows no evidence that feeding excessive levels of any vitamins or minerals does anything.
Step #2: Control flies
Preventing face flies is the best way that you pinkeye from happening. If you are looking for ways to control flies, check out my previous article, “How do you control flies on cattle?”.
The pest known as face flies is a double whammy when it comes to pinkeye with cattle. They are irritants, but once they feed on the secretions from an infected cow, they can spread the disease to other cattle. Spreading the disease and the fact that they can negatively affect weaning weights themselves is enough incentive to get these pests under control.
Step# 3: Keep the cattle’s environment as irritant-free as possible
Now this alone may seem near impossible, but it is far easier than you may think. Keeping the environment irritant-free can include something as simple as following suitable housekeeping measures around your operation. Another step you can take is to mow down any overly tall grasses in your pasture.
Providing some shade for your cattle can go a long way as well. Providing shade is a good idea because overexposure to bright sunlight can cause pinkeye to occur. Now understand that this does not mean you have to build many shelters in your place. Just making sure that there are enough shade trees around is more than sufficient to meet your needs.
Step #4: Minimize the impact of the exposure
Minimizing the impact can be accomplished through early detection of the disease in your herd. Once you have identified the infected cows, you will need to separate them from the rest of the herd to prevent them from spreading.
Following these steps, you’ll need to treat infected animals with a suitable antibiotic. Long-acting antibiotics like those in the tetracycline family have been shown in countless studies like those done by Virginia Tech to treat pinkeye effectively.
There have been some statements going around that aureomycin can treat this. However, I have found no evidence of this. Even the product listing on Zoetis’s website doesn’t show that it can treat pinkeye.
Step #5: Consider vaccinating cattle for pinkeye
When it comes to vaccines, there are a couple of different routes that you can take. There are both commercial and autogenous vaccines that are available. Like any treatment, there are pros and cons to going with either option.
Going with a full disclaimer, it can be hard to find a vaccine that effectively prevents pinkeye from occurring in the first place. The nature of Moraxella Bovis and the other bacteria makes it difficult to make a vaccine that will work from ranch to ranch.
Due to this nature, it is always best to consult your local veterinarian to develop any prevention and treatment plan that will work for your operation.
