Silage Eye

[Colin]

I seem to be getting a spate of 'silage eye' this winter. I feed large round bales of haylage in a ring feeder. They love to get their heads right into the bale. I've not had it before, but I've had less animals in previous winters. Any suggestions for minimising the risk ?

Regards,

Colin

[Broomcroft]

Same here Colin. Didn't even know what it was till this year, now had three since they came in. I assume that is what it is. Badly weeping eye.

With the first two, I just put ointment from the vet under the eye-lid and it cleared up quickly, but the last one I had to give antibiotic injection and ointment, and it has now cleared up. Her eyes glazed over not just wept, now its clear again.

According to wikipedia, it can cause problems in humans, so need to wear gloves etc.

Nothing has changed here in years except my silage is later cut and stiffer/more woody than usual, and maybe a bit more mould around than usual as well.



Edited By Broomcroft on 1263318341

[Penny]

To my knowledge it is more likely to happen if there is soil in the silage, and wetness too. If you have very stalky bales, it could be that the cattle are getting corneal abrasions ( scratches) which are painful, causes the eye to weep, and can lead to cloudiness of the eye. These generally will repair themselves in a few days but benefit from ointment. If there is quite a bit of discharge, more likely to be silage eye.

[wagra dexters]

Our silage is oaten so we have the problem of seeds in the eyes, but only in those cows who bury their heads. The same ones over & over.

Silage eye? Does that look a bit like pink eye (New Forest)? We treat that with pink eye ointment, have to get them in anyway to check that the affected cow hasn't got an oat seed.

The only time we beat it was when we rolled the bales out, but that is not feasible if you don't have enough hungry cattle to eat it in a hurry, and it won't work in snow. We have torn slabs of silage off bales sometimes. That works OK. We found that if the whole bale is to be rolled out, it is best along an electric fence line. They aren't so inclined to use it for bedding or toilet then

Margaret.

[Duncan MacIntyre]

Silage eye in UK usually refers to an infection caused by Listeria Monocytogenes causing corneal opacity and ulceration. It can affect one or both eyes, can be mild with just some opacity and occular discharge, or it can be sever enough to cause deep corneal ulceration with permanent loss of sight or even rupture of the eye. It looks very similar to New Forest Eye which is usually caused by Moraxella Bovis, usually occurs in summer and spread by flies. Other bactera can cause similar infections.

Usuallyantibiotic ointment is used to treat, and the specifically designed ones such as Opticlox are formuilated to last a long time in the eye, whereas the older things such as Aureomycin powder tend to be washed out in 20minutes. It is possible to inject a small quantity of antibiotics under the conjuctival membrane inside the eyelid, but is a skilled job and only a vet should attempt unless your vet has carefully trained you in doing it. It gives very good results and can make a vet visit worth while if you have large numbers affected. Injecting enough to treat the whole animal with an intramiuscular injection may well give a good result but seems wasteful of antibiotic to me.

Duncan

[Louise Badcock]

Some of my sheep have this type of thing---snow blindness we call it. Nothing to do with silage here as they were on hay. Hard to catch the semiblind sheep as they will not follow the others. I put the ointment in and there has been improvement but not clearance.
Louise

[LISA]

We had "silage eye" within a large number of animals in our herd about 15 years ago. They had it so badly that the whole eye swelled up like an ulcer and looked as though it would burst. Our vet confirmed it as Listeria from the silage. The cattle did not respond to eye cream at all,the vet had to inject them under the eyelid as Duncan has mentioned. After this thier eyes cleared up very quickly and were clear again within a few days. We also had some cattle abort due to the listeria.
If you can catch the symptoms very early,i.e the eye streaming and slightly closed an injection of long acting terramycin seemed to prevent the condition worsening and cleared it up.
HOWEVER since that winter of hell, and HUGE vet bills (sorry Duncan!) we have got our silage contractor to add an innoculant to the silage (when it is baled) and this has (touch wood) prevented any further cases. This costs about £1 per quadrant bale but has worked out much cheaper than lots of vet bills and lost calves. Apparantly the Listeria is more common in silage which has soil in it,either from being cut too low or from molehills. Mouldy/badly wrapped silage,or cut in poor weather conditions and finally dog feaces (think of how many dogs poo in silage fields!)
Obviously there are lots of eye conditions that look like "silage eye",but I would highly reccomend the silage innoculant,you will see a noticable differance in the quality of it too. Money well spent.

[Colin]

Lisa,

Be interested in further information on the innoculent i.e. what is it and where do you get it from ? Also, how does it get added to each bale ? Ours are the large, round, wrapped ones.

Regards,

Colin

[strawberriesclint]

Hi All

we have been very lucky this winter (touch wood) we have only had one case of silage eye unlike the winter before when the quality of the silage was not good and contained a lot of mould so we had quite a few with eye problems. But this winter with the food being a much better quality we have really seen the differance. Apparently round feeders as well dont help because the animal pushes their head right in and spikes their eye. We have put in feed barriers which seem to help reduce the eye problems as well because the cow has got the feed beneath her and does not have to push her head into the feed.

cyndy

[Broomcroft]

Be interested in further information on the innoculent i.e. what is it and where do you get it from ? Also, how does it get added to each bale ? Ours are the large, round, wrapped ones.

You have to fit a container and dispensing system to the baler. It can be manual or can be set up to work with a moisture reader. The professional forage makers we have used that have the kit do this and if it comes across a high moisture patch it starts spraying additive onto the forage as it goes through the baler. The only year we did forage with this equipment the weather was fantastic and the system didn't add anything, so we don't whether it would have worked or not. That in itself I suppose tells you that if the weather is good, it's not needed.

Here's a link to a farming forum where people who make forage professionally are talking about it. Some think it's a waste of time, others can't imagine being without it!!! Our main contractor won't use it but I would if I could and my grassman swears by it.

Here's the Profitable Farming Company, which is a complete contradiction in terms, but nevertheless they do the stuff I think.



Edited By Broomcroft on 1263573547

[Broomcroft]

Sorry, forgot the farming forum link and now lost it! Anyhow, what I said, i.e. some think it's brill, others a waste of time about sums it up.

[LISA]

Dear Colin,
The silage innoculant we have used for the past several years with very good results is from a company called BIOTAL.
This arrives in a powder form which the contractor mixes with water in his micro applicator on the tractor/baler. This sprays the innoculant onto the grass swath as it enters the baler, therefore ALL the silage is treated. Some contractors may not have this facility on thier baler, which is why they might not want to reccomend the treatment. There are lots of innoculants available for different types of silage and end uses, e.g dairy/suckler herds or fattening.
Most innoculants aid silage fermentation, helping the breakdown of starches into sugars making a more appetising valuable feed. And most relevant to this topic of 'silage eye' contain mould inhibitors. Good quality wrap to the correct thickness also makes a huge difference to silage quality.
You are very dependant (and trusting!) of your contractor to put the innoculant on correctly/or at all (and lie that it has been added!) We are very fortunate to have an excellent contractor, possibly some of the people who have had poor results had it applied by a CONtractor!
Best Wishes Lisa Bell.

[Colin]

Lisa/Clive many thanks for the information. I'll check with the farmer who does our haylage to see if he can add this.

Regards,

Colin

[Broomcroft]

If the farmer says he won't fit it because the additive rots the machinery, apparently it used to years ago, but now it doesn't (I am told...by the people selling it!).

[Broomcroft]

Got 2 more cases of silage eye or whatever it is this week. One in a 6 month old calf for the first time; one eye just starting to cloud over. It's a real nuisance having to move whole groups every day to the crush to treat them.