Original article by Mark Phelps of Queensland Country Life
OFF-the-shelf pain relief product Tri-Solfen® is proving an effective treatment for sheep suffering nasty wounds after being attacked by wild dogs.
Josh Olsson, Royal Oak, Goulburn, recently used the distinctive blue gel to treat ugly, septic dog bites on a 13 badly damaged crossbred ewes.
“Tri-Solfen® made a big difference, particularly in promoting the healing of what were pretty nasty wounds,” Mr Olsson said.
“It clearly reduced the swelling and the wounds scabbed up pretty quick. Best of all, every one of the ewes that had been bitten, recovered.”
A local vet provided a script allowing Tri-Solfen® to be used to treat the wounds.
A total of seven ewes valued at about $350/head were killed in the attack. Royal Oak was also baited as a control measure.
Tri-Solfen® was initially developed by Medical Ethics PTY as a pain relief product for the sheep industry, most notably mulesing, but has also been widely adopted in the cattle industry.
The blue gel administered using an applicator gun. It contained two local anaesthetics, and an adrenalin to stop bleeding and an antiseptic to prevent infection.
Wild dogs are estimated to cost agriculture more than $90 million a year.