I notice this morning that one of my doelings had weepy eyes she has what looks like sleep in her eyes white with a slight yellow tint to it. This afternoon she still has it but now I have three other kids with watery weepy eyes. Is this Pinkeye and if so how do I treat it. Can I get meds from a farm store or do I need to go to a vet? Help I want to get a handle on this before all the goats get it.
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Ok I have taken pictures after taking the pics I noticed that there are little black specks coming out of her eye in the white discharge so now I wonder if it may be something in the air. Take a look at pics and let me know what you think. This little doe is the worse of all of them the other 3 kids just seem to have weepy eyes and on further evalution one of them had a small piece of grass in her eye but now I have one mature doe with watery weepy eye also I wonder if there is something in the air because I have had another person come over today and the longer they were here at our farm the more there eyes become itchy. I still do not want to rule out pink eye yet
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Julia, I have squirt raw milk in my goats' eyes for minor irritations and it has helped a lot. I just applied the same concept that breast milk can help with eye irritations in babies and went with it. I didn't get vet approval for that one:-)
The goats eyes look nothing like the picture. But we did get Vetericyn spray I did not get vets advice but the owner of the farm store said that goat and cow people have used it successfully. Even though I do not belive now this is pink eye it may be some kind of allergy or possibbly dust. I am very allergic to grass pollen and we live in Linn County Oregon which is grass seed capital of the world not kidding. My eyes are itchy from allergys so I wonder if maybe it is just allergys to pollen? Some of the goats are using there back legs to scratch at their eyes they seem to be irritatied. Vetericyn is suppose to help with irritations, Discharge and Drainage. The inactive ingredients are: electolyzed water 99.837%, Sodium Phosphate .13%, Sodium Cloride .024% Active ingredients is: Hypochlorous Acid .009%. We have already used it on the goats based on the farm store owners advice. I guess we will wait and see if it helps or hinders. I will keep everyone posted.
I do things a bit differently because my goats' milk is used commercially for cheese, but I've looked at Vetericyn and the website says it can be used on all animals except for food or production animals such as dairy cattle (FAQs Can Vetericyn be used on all animals?). Because of this caveat I asked my vet about it and they knew of the product and would not recommend it to me, albeit for different reasons. Because they would not give me the okay I won't use it.
The website does say that the Vetericyn company does not believe it would cause any issues, they just haven't got the FDA approval for it. So it's pretty much just an individual's choice, but my situation is such that I won't use it on my goats.
I've heard that pinkeye in cows is caused by a different bacteria, so cow pinkeye meds don't work. I don't know anyone who has used it either.
Deborah, are you familiar with vetericyn for cows? don't know if it safe for goats, but if you call Jeffers and ask they could shed light on that part but the list on the label of things it WORKS on is pretty extensive, including pink eye in cows and about everything else you can think of to use it for.
Could it just be dust in their eyes? If you don't have a lot of flies, it's probably not pink eye. It spreads from goat to goat via flies. Pink eye in goats first makes the eye look cloudy then turns the eyes a bluish-white color. It looks really creepy. There is a powder at the farm store for it, and I used it on one goat, but it seemed really mean to me to be putting powder in a goat's eyes. Some people just using a regular antibiotic and squirting it in there -- like an oxytet -- which is what I did several years ago when we brought home pink eye from a show. There really does not seem to be a great method of treatment. It seems to take a week or two to resolve regardless of what you do.
I didn't read through the article, but there are photos. http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/U/UNP-0088/UNP-0088.pdf