Entropion
A Common Health Concern for Lambs
After experiencing this problem for the first time, even though it is our third lambing season, we feel much better prepared for this if or when this recurs. We let this go WAY too long, because we just didn’t know to look for this or notice right away.
Sunny was the first one born this season and had entropion, a condition where the lamb’s eyelid curves inward, causing their lashes to scratch their eyeball. We didn’t figure out until we brought her and Barrel to the vet over a week later.
These were the signs we missed, and you can see them in her photos above. Due to the irritation, she had a weepy eye and her wool under the effected eye was wet and goopy. She kept her eye closed often due to the pain. And the irritation to the eye became so bad that she developed an ulcer on her cornea. If we didn’t catch it, she could eventually become permanently blind!
This is Barrel on the day I first noticed that something was wrong. I honestly thought he had conjunctivitis. He is bottle fed, so I get up and close with him more often than the others. But I examined every one of them after seeing this. In this zoomed in photo you can see the lower lid curved in ( I didn’t realize until the vet pointed it out).
That day at the vet was busy, but I learned a lot and got these two lambs better. It was expensive, because they had to be sedated to have surgery. Barrel had a little cut done and it was glued to keep the lid pulled tight. It looks a lot better! The first photo shows him that same day and the second was after almost two weeks of healing.
Here is Sunny after her procedure, she had stitches to pull the lid down and prevent it from curling in again. The first photo shows day 1 and the second is not quite two weeks later. Look how wonderfully it healed and that terrible ulcer is complete gone!
Here are our pure Southdown twins from mom Dolly. Their names are Kittery (female) and Kokadjo (male) born on March first. I continued to stay on alert for entropion and found that I had missed Kittery when I got home from the vet that same day. We’ve now found THREE lambs of this year’s season with this problem and all from different mothers. Upon researching this, it is suspected of being genetic and up to 80% of a flock can be effected.
Right now the clues are pointing to our ram Lambert. None of his offspring had it last Spring. Considering the cost, we were wondering if we would need to replace him, but further research into what other farmers do helped us come up with a plan. It is such a common and treatable problem, farmers do not breed it out. So what about the cost?!?
Well, we tried the inexpensive method we found online from farming websites and it worked just as well with the alligator clip at 1% of the cost! We left the clip on for about three days, which immediately pulls the lid away from the eye to stop the irritation. But it also causes inflammation and that is what permanently fixes this problem. We may also purchase Michel clips , that work similarly and fall off on their own.
You can see the lid has healed correctly. It’s been two weeks since this picture and her ulcer is almost complete resolved. Just below is the picture of her almost completely healed.
I’ve sanitized the clip and it will be stored until next lambing season.
Our goal is to monitor for this more carefully next year and minimize the risk of ulcer formation from the start!
And treat this at the farm instead of the vet to avoid the cost.
