OFF-the-shelf pain relief product Tri-Solfen is proving an effective treatment for sheep suffering nasty wounds after being attacked by wild dogs.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
or signup to continue reading
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 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, lignocane and bupivivaine, plus adrenalin to stop bleeding and an antiseptic to prevent infection.
Wild dogs are estimated to cost agriculture more than $90 million a year.
