Question for the cattle men

Had an odd happening I need help with. It's a first for me.

I have the fall heifers I'm keeping here at the home place in the bull pen while the boys are out working. They are between 5-600 pounds. Hand raised. Nice heifers.

Two days ago I was up at the other farm a mile away when a freak storm hit. An inch of rain in just minutes and more hail than I've seen in decades. It was drifted. Up to quarter size but mostly nickel. It threshed the wheat right out of the heads.

After the storm I had to run back over to the home place to get something and one of the heifers was on the wrong side of the fence in the yard. They aren't bucket trained yet so I was preparing for a rodeo. What puzzled me was that I had to kill the hot wire on the inside of the barbed wire as it was still hot. As I approached her I realized she was completely blind. Both eyes were white with the lens blown forward out the front of the ruptured eye. Keep in mind I had feed them every night so she was like this just within the last 18'hours. She had just bumbled through the fence.

I was able to get her into a trailer and into a barn stall. She has spent two days bumbling around and hitting all four walls. Absolutely no sight at all and no chance of saving the eyes. My money is on lightening striking next to her and blowing them out. It wasn't a hit because she has no burned flesh but has stiffened a bit in her walk. There's no other explanation. All of the others are fine, all had all of their shots (including pink eye) and are well. There aren't any hazards in the pen which is really like a 10 acre pasture.

I happen to have a butcher date for a steer on Tuesday so I'll swap them and take her then. I'd feed her out a little but she's extremely dangerous just because she's not accustomed to blindness. You can walk up and scratch her but if she doesn't hear you she will walk right into you. She wouldn't get mean but could take me out trying to load her if she startled. So she's going as hamburger.

My questions are this: has anyone had a similar experience, and do you think the meat would be tainted from the endorphins of the situation. Slaughter usually causes them to wild up a little but she's completely out of her element so she's on high alert all of the time. I guess the only saving grace is that she is so little that she hadn't started to cycle yet. Those hormones weren't dumped into her system for some reason. I don't want to keep her past Tuesday in cause those eyes start to get infected and she would need antibiotics but I also hate to waste the meat by just shooting her. Thoughts?

I have not seen lightening damage in a "Live" calf. I have seen eyes similar to what your describing in dead calves that where hit by lightening. So I would say your correct in what you think happened.

I've never seen lightening leave a live calf but it can do some strange stuff. So your assumption may be right.

Put a companion animal with her she will calm down wih a buddy imagine yourself it would be easier on you if you lost your sight to have someone around. I've had a lot of weird things happen with lightning now I've heard another its probably what i call a cold shot it doesn't kill but does cause damage.

Seems to me if lightning did this , there would be blind cattle all over the country.I think more likely to be an infection carried by a bug. What do you do for fly control ?

Maybe the flash was so bright that it blinded her?

Of course if this was the Twilight Zone,we'd find out that you were the one that got hit and all this was a figment of our imaginations.

I seriously doubt lightning. I would lean real hard towards a fast acting Pinkeye. Personally I would load her up on LA-200, and leave her in a smaller pen with buddies. Very likely she will come out of most of it. If you have many flies around, they transmit it.

I do pyrethrin spray in a Hudson sprayer every couple of days and Wind and Rain mineral with fly control. No face flies at all (mineral feeder with face fly strips). I just find it hard to believe that she could have gotten pinkeye that fast with me seeing all of those heifers individually each night and having been nnalert for it a month ago. I've had them lose eyes from pinkeye many times before but it usually has been unchecked for a couple of days. This was literally overnight. Last year pinkeye was rampant in the area. I have three (mostly) blind mice (steers) from last year I am feeding out now. They go gradual enough that they kind of acclimate to it and aren't so surprised by it. They also kept their eyes and can see shadows. This heifer is still running into the four walls of the stall two days later. It was so fast that she is still trying to process what happened. There is no chance that those eyes will even stay. If I was going to feed her out completely I would take them out and stitch them shut. Infection will set in before long but she will be hamburger before that.

Are the eyes watering or showing signs of watering?

If so I would say pink eye.

Load her up with meds and take a old pair of denim jeans and cut big patches and glue them over her eyes. Keep those eyes in the dark. Leave her in a small pen with another calf and let those eyes heal if it is a pink eye. The glue can be bought at vetenary supplies store. Patch will fall off eventually.

Get her in a stall with plenty of feed and water. Go to your co op or vet and get some 'Shuteye patches for Pinkeye' and glue, and some puffer for pinkeye- I think it's a sulfa drug- for the eye and puff them good, then glue the patches on. They keep the light out and flies off, and will fall off in a couple of weeks. If she has a bad case of pinkeye, she may have a lens spot when she heals, band will not see well, but will be able to see in shades and blurs, and will get along on her own devices....