Expert: Karin - 4/9/2011

Question
We have several calves one year old that came down with pink eye.  We used the puffer powder medicine in their eyes and the problem seemed to resolve.  One month later, we noticed their eyes swelling up and a blue haze starting, some had a white sore on the eye.  We extracted a barley head from two of the eyes.  What else, other than an irritant, could be causing this?  Can I treat with penicillin?  If so, how often?

Answer
Hi Linda,

With eye issues such as yours, it could be anything.  IBR (Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis) will cause cloudy eyes, as will foriegn objects, and, most commonly, IBK (Infectious Bovine Keratoconjuctivitis), which is what you have in your calves, from your descriptions.   Pink eye is one complicated malady that will need a diagnosis from a veterinarian that can come out and have a look at your calves.  I suggest this because I don't have any means of seeing your animals nor of properly diagnosing what's really causing their eyes to get that way.

Commonly, though, bacteria species called Moraxella bovis is the most common infectious agent involved in pink eye in cattle.  But that's not to say that other pathogens cannot be involved either.  With that, pink eye can easily go rampant in your herd and if not treated correctly, will recur with a vengeance.  

Those are not sores on the eye, I believe they are ulcers that have developed on the cornea surface of the eye.  After about 48 hours after you've seen tear-streaks down the face, the cornea becomes cloudy and the entire eye ball turns blue (just like you mentioned above).  This makes the animal temporarily blind. Or permanently, if the infection is severe enough to either rupture the eyeball or partially blind.

Now for the treatment you are asking about. Beware though to make sure it is IBK you're dealing with and not other maladies like IBR causing pink-eye.  Get your vet to help you diagnose this.

There are more than one types of treatments to consider, and some are better than others.  The treatment I like to use and I find more reliable is the the systemic injection that you just give in the neck via SubQ.  Some antibiotics that have worked with pink eye include LA-200, Biomycin (one injection is sufficient to clear up this infection), or Nuflor (requires two shots 24 hrs apart).  Excede is also another drug that has shown to be highly effective on pinkeye conditions.  

Penicillin will only work if you inject it under the conjuctiva (which is the membrane lining inside the eyelid), which means you have to restrain the animal in a squeeze chute with a head gate and have the animal's head tied to one side with the halter, and roll back the upper eyelid of the infected eye and insert the needle just under the surface of the membrane and into the inside of the eyeball, then inject the penicillin.  Often mixing penicillin with dexamethasone is used to help clear this condition up, and one injection is sufficient, though you can repeat the procedure a few days later. I wouldn't do this treatment because I can't trust an animal to suddenly start flinging its head around even if he's restrained with the halter.  If that happens, you could do damage to the eye and possibly make things worse!

Topical ointment will work too, but that means having to catch and restrain the animal every day to give it its medicine.  This will work fine for dairy cows that are being handled and worked with every day, but not beef cattle.

Your vet will most likely recommend to have the eyes protected to help the healing process in addition to the antibiotic treatment.  This means sewing the eyelids of the infected eye[s] together for several weeks to speed the healing process.

But, even though I gave you a bunch of information to consider, please see your vet about this as it could be something that is not really pink-eye per se.

-Karin