Acute uveitis - experiences please

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Supertrooper

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My friends horse is now having his second attack of uveitis since she's owned him. Last one was over a year ago but although treatment has been the same this time and it initially improved it has now deteriorated again. Vet is involved and is coming out but just wanted peoples experiences really, is it likely they will suggest removing eye and if so are they done under sedation and what is long term prognosis ie is it likely to happen in other eye?
 
my old boy suffered with uveitis attacks and we tried to control it eventually he was getting a attack every few weeks we chose to have his eye removed since there was no sight in it i can honestly say hes like a different horse so full of energy happy to run round just a different horse we gather the eye was causing a lot of pain :( he was sedated when he had it done and spent 2days at the vets and then came home and was in for 2 weeks with lots of walking it was strange to look at at first as it was just stitched up when it sunk into his socket it wasn't as strange haha jack had check up on his other eye and but its absolutely fine we have to be careful if other horses have eye infections conjunctivitis ect ect but all in all hes been brilliant :D
 
Hi, we struggled to control it for about 3 years. At first attacks were over quickly and few and far between. Towards the end they were constant. Sun, wind,rain snow anything and everything set it off. The horse became dangerous to ride (when not having an attack obviously) and it was all a complete nightmare.
In January we had it removed. By this point much of the sight had been lost anyway. The vets say he had no sight at all but I'm pretty certain he had a bit as after the operation he started crashing into things and hitting his head.
It was however the best decision ever made and we finally have our beautiful boy back.
Ours cost £500 ish. I already owed the vets a bit for his last lot of drops. The actual removal was £140 but it's drugs on top- a huge amount of drugs in fact!
He stayed in the vets for 3 days and on box rest for not long after. It was snowing at the time so actually he was able to be turned out pretty quickly as there was no dirt!
Recovery wise it was all very easy. I had to clean his face for a few days and apply Vaseline to his cheek as a drainage hole is left (sounds gross but it's really not that bad)
It's something I'd have done far sooner had I been more informed and knew what a massive difference it would make to his life.
 
Thanks for the replies, vet came out again today and even with treatment ie Atropine/Steroid drops and bute his pupil is still very constricted and sensitive to light. The initial aim is to get him over this attack and then it's likely that the decision will be made to remove it. Vet said they prefer if possible that they rant having an episode when it's removed.

His eye isn't very responsive to treatment so on discussion it seems fairer to just remove it as the attacks are so painful :-( vet said she's had uveitis and it felt like her head was going to explode!
 
One if my lads had it when in training. We did all the drops, kept him in a dark stable, rode him out in either a uv fly mask or blacked out eyesheild. It slowly got better but because he had itched it he had scratched the eye it took a while. He had a coloured contact lens fitted to A. Give him protection from the sun and B. To provide a smooth surface to stop the eyelid harrasing the scratch. He looked cool! One eye was normal the other was completely blue - one half of a pair of sunglasses!

He has never had a bother with his eye ever since.
 
My old horse had chronic recurring uveitis. He battled it for 8 months, I thought he had beaten it when it came back even worse. He spent 6 weeks in Newmarket, I did everything I could.

Unfortunately, he was a very difficult/ dangerous horse at the best of times. My vet (who knew him from a 3 yr old, then 11) said that he would be signing my death warrant if he removed the eye and I brought him back into work. I couldn't afford a field ornament and he wouldn't live out, so I decided to PTS.

Even if you remove he eye, there is a chance it will eventually spread to the other eye.

Most horses however do very well with one eye, so it is not all doom and gloom.
 
Friend asked vet about other eye, currently it's fine. She said there is a risk that he could get uveitis in that eye also but it's less likely as he's never had an episode in it that we know of.
 
I PTS a horse with Uveitis it was a terrible experiance his attacks where repeated and and awful for him.
Any breeze could set him off so he sent amost his whole time stabled he was depressed and bad tempered .
When his last attack happened I had left him in the paddock on a completely still day popped to the local town came out of a shop noticed a slight breeze rushed home but it was to late and it flared up again .
The vet said we needed to remove the eye they quoted me £ 1300 plus follow up and said there was every chance his other would would become affected I was not prepared to do the surgery .
My vet offered him to a friend who is a vet who takes on horses with problems he turned him down because he felt the risk of the other eye being affected was too great.
I hope I never come across this ghastly thing again.
On the other hand a friend had a horse who had a bout as a 4 yo she was PTS at 19 for another problem.
 
£1300?!? What the hell was all that for? That's mad. Our poor boy would have had to be pts if it cost that.
The other eye is a worry, my vets have said his remaining eye is no more likely to be effected than any other horses eyes. Our horse is 6 now and has never *touch wood* had a problem with his other eye.
It did become slightly sore in summer one day with flies- que, my massive panic and emergency vet call out!
I've chilled out a bit about things now I now consider him a normal horse with one eye as opposed to a huge problem.
 
Z
poiuytrewq said:
£1300?!? What the hell was all that for? That's mad. Our poor boy would have had to be pts if it cost that.
The other eye is a worry, my vets have said his remaining eye is no more likely to be effected than any other horses eyes. Our horse is 6 now and has never *touch wood* had a problem with his other eye.
It did become slightly sore in summer one day with flies- que, my massive panic and emergency vet call out!
I've chilled out a bit about things now I now consider him a normal horse with one eye as opposed to a huge problem.
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The other eye is more likely to be affected than the eye of a horse who has no predisposition to the condition because the horse has already proved it is predisposed to get the condition.
The quote included the cost of the GA which was needed thats why it's so much.
The horse was 13
Not brilliant at his job with us .
The uveitis had made him very grumpy to handle ( he had no life poor fellow it was not surprising )
And thought of having to handle him blind during a flare up in the other eye filled me with horror even it was just to PTS .
My horse had six flare ups in eight weeks at the end we where applying three types of specially made eye drops ( made at a human eye hospital in London ) ten minutes apart every two hours it was draining for us and so painful for him the eyedrops stung so he resisted having them in its a nightmare.
He had to live in in the dark I worked him in the half light first thing in the morning if there was no breeze if there was wind he had to stand in .
But as I said he was unlucky my friends never suffered again.
 
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