Blind horse-help required!

[tremorfa]

Sorry but this post has, of necessity, to be a bit long.
Daughter bought a horse from a riding school and paid for 5* vetting. Vet passes horse but points out an old injury to one eye. Writes in a report that this should cause no problems. Daughter buys said horse. Moves horse to new livery yard. People there notice strange habits-horse always stands sideways in stable with nearside to door, tends to walk into things on its offside-jumps if approached from offside etc. After four weeks, the horse's eye starts to weep. Suspecting a blocked tear duct, new vet is called. She immediately suspects something is wrong and takes horse into dark stable. Tests reveal horse is totally blind in the offside eye!!!!! Daughter watches this vet and realises that the original vet did none of these eye tests, even though she noticed something was wrong in that eye. To cut the story short, we are taking the original practice to the small claims court to recoup money paid for the horse, so he can be put on loan to vetted (no pun intended) home and daughter can buy a horse which can do what she wants. So, to the point of this post. We need anecdotal evidence from anyone who has owned or had the care of a horse which has gone blind suddenly. (Not through hereditary causes) What behaviour did it display? The vet's defence is that the horse has gone blind since my daughter bought him! We do not require your identity and you can pm me if you would prefer. We just need to be able to explain to the court the sort of behaviour you could expect from a high-spirited horse suddenly faced with going blind in one eye. If caused through trauma- what kind of injury? How long did it take to heal etc? Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Sorry I have not been on for a while, busy selling up and planning move to smaller home. Clyde went back home and, without being led, went straight into his old field, kissed the mare he used to be with and put his head down to graze! He has fully settled in again, bless him.

 

[Maesfen]

What a nightmare for you all.
I started at a yard the day after a mare had an operation to have her offside eye removed due to an injury with a tree while at grass; this was in '65 so don't know if treatment/rehabilitation would be any different now. She was kept in a darkened box, her eye socket was dressed daily and kept covered until healed and then her eyelid was sewn down to close the wound completely; it took nearly all of the winter for it to be healed over. A fortnight after the op' she was able to be led out, the saddler had made a blinker especially for her, mainly to keep dust and grit out but also not to offend other people! She had been a pointer, a cracking hunter too. Once she had been acclimatized to just one eye, it wasn't really a problem, she went back to being a good hunter except you had to warn people to come up on her good side and also keep talking to her the whole time dealing with her so she knew where you were and wasn't taken by surprise when she really did jump, so everyone had to be aware of it (something that might prove difficult if on a livery yard?) Back then, most people rode on the right hand side of the road so facing traffic which helped in her case, she wasn't able to see 'frighteners' in the hedge but it might be more difficult with the amount of traffic today! This mare made a full recovery and went back to her day job, you just had to be aware to give her far more room on the right side as her 'feel' instead of sight on that side became more developed, she'd say she couldn't go through a narrow gap unless you were able to swing her head over to see 'the boundary' if that makes sense.
Hope that has helped a bit.

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Tremorfa - when you say blind, is he blind in just one eye or totally blind? My horse came from a riding school and when I bought him I asked if he was sound and they said yes except he always has gungy eyes, but you'll enjoy fussing with them. Hmmm. Got vet to check him over, especially x2 gungy eyes (not proper vetting as 19yrs old) and vet said bit of conjunctivitis, nothing to worry about. THREE WEEKS later, OH and me on a Xmas/New Year cruise to the Canaries and horsey-o has some sort of event on 28th Dec. Yard staff notice eye streaming and clouded over. Local vets treated with assorted drops for 5 days but it was getting worse. Horsey-o despatched pdq to fabulous horse hospital. I get back from relaxing cruise and horsey in hospital in Gloucester in deep trouble. That'll teach me! Anyway, final diagnosis was superficial keratitis which is inflammation in the surface of the eyeball. No sign of bacterial, viral or fungal infection so this was now an autoimmune disease. Back home with tons of expensive immuno-suppressant creams to go in the eye regularly. Then, without letting me know, the yard staff stabbed horsey-o in the eye with the sharp end of the ointment tube! We are now cheerfully PREVENTING horsey-o's body from dealing with an infection so it succumbs to infection. Recovering eye clouds over again completely. Back to Gloucester. Horse can now never recover - balancing act between immuno-suppressants and antibiotics. Spring comes...horsey-o out in the field...impossible to keep him pain free. Eye now clouded over a bright creamy blue. Back to Gloucester. Enough is enough. Eye removed. It's called enucleation. Easy recovery. Home after 6 days and first time allowed out of the stable for a run around in the school he loose schooled himself over 2 jumps, TWICE, just for fun! He's absolutely fine now though you do need to let him know where you are on his blind side. Hacks, pops a jump, does some competition dressage...hard to lunge on his blind side is about the only issue. My point is that - as far as I know - for your horse to have lost the sight in one eye there would have been a build up to it of presenting symptoms and conditions. A thought though - did the 5* vet mean that the old injury had left the horse blind but it should not be a problem? Can't this horse still be used for whatever he was originally bought for? They usually cope magnificently! Hope you find a solution anyway. x

 

[Tia]

This wont help your case any, but it may be of use to the people who end up loaning PR's horse. Generally when they are blind in one eye, they take a short while to get used to it. After this initial period most horses go back to being absolutely fine and just how they were beforehand. You have to be considerate to them and remember not to just appear, and to allow them to look at things with the eye which works, but apart from that there are usually no problems whatsoever.

Over here you wouldn't believe the amount of horses who only have one eye, or are blind in one eye - something to do with the slinging of headcollars at the young racehorses.....

 

[SAL66]

i went to try a horse that was blind in one eye who damaged his eye during hunting , you couldn't tell he was amazing, obviously a horse needs to adjust and I'm not sure how long this takes but once adjusted they are fine, incidently this horse was an ex eventer and still with one eye was jumping competitvely and was a fantastic dressage horse.My main concern would be not that the horse has lost his sight but why?. It depend what you intend to do with the horse and willinging to wait for the adjustment to take place.Don'yt give up hope, but good luck in whatever you decide.

 

[jumpthemoon]

I used to have a LR pony that was blind in one eye (she was blind when we got her). The only way you could tell was if you went to poke her in the eye, or wave your hand at her eye (not ACTUALLY poke in eye) she would not even flinch or blink. Apart from that she was fine - never spooky, 100% in traffic, popped over little jumps - super little pony

 

[Bounty]

Hello you!
I was wondering about how you and Nick were just this morning, was going to drop you a PM as I hadn't 'seen' you for ages. Vicki has been quiet too?

Hope all's as well as it can be, sorry no advice on your post. X

 

[Worried1]

I bought a an unhandled 3-y-o who was given the once over by the vet who noted nothing more than a slight heart murmur due to being very poor.
A year later he went out on loan with a view to buy to a home I vetted before allowing him to go. I also had a loan contract drawn up and both parties signed. To cut a long story short, while on holiday she had him vetted without my permission and the vet diagnosed uvietis in his right eye and he needed an operation as he was blind.
Now I had no problem with the horse being vetted but as far as I was concerned he was on loan for 12 months with a view to buy at the end.
She rang me while I was in Barbados to say I had to collect the horse immediately! She also cancelled her insurance policy which left me with an uninsured horse! Luckily I sent a friend who picked him up while my vet dealt with him till I got back.
I ended up taking her to the small claims court for expenses occurred as she was liable for routine vets treatment incurred in her care. We could not pinpoint when the uvietis first occurred but my vet was happy to write a statement saying that he had known the horse for 12 months and had never treated him for any eye problems in that time nor was he aware of any exsiting eye problem.
He was not blind as the other vet said, he had full menace reflexes and at that time he only had a small cataract which would only have affected his full sight minimally. It turned out that the loaner had totally twisted what the vet had actaully reported. This went against her in my claim. Basically she wanted shot of him and when she realised he might not be 100% she couldn't be bothered.
We managed his eye for around 2 years until he had several attacks and in discussion with the vet we removed the eye. In the run up to his op his eyesight deteriorated and he became a little more jumpy especially on that side. Once his eye was removed he was totally fine and coped amazingly well. As the sight worsened I think he was frightened by the shapes.
He contined to hack and jump and was even better than before, totally non-spooky and very happy. He was gifted to an HHO member who has had him since 2003 and who does all RC stuff with him.
It might not be the end, they take a little time to adjust but once they do they are fine.

 

[tremorfa]

Thanks, guys, keep on with the info. I especially need to know how the horse reacts to suddenly being blind. Vet stated that there was an old injury to the eye, but that should not be a problem. I accept that, once the horse gets used to having one eye, it copes well. I am asking what a blinded horse was like after 4 weeks maximum from being blinded in one eye. Was the injury still obvious, was the horse jumpy and was the problem immediately obvious. Thanks everyone for your help.

 

[luckilotti]

I'm going to try and dig out the number of an old livery of mine for you. she had a horse who was blind in one eye - (he used to hack out, go jumping etc etc) i'm not sure the cause or when he went blind but she will know a lot as she is a vet!
can you also maybe get someone who helps/works on the riding school to write a statement or something stating that he has these gungy eyes??