Blindness

[racingdemon]

has anyone any experiance/info about equine blindness (but not caused by infection/trauma etc) can't seem to find much info on sudden onset eye problems

 

[Alibear]

I know a little about cateracts , they can be treated in various ways now depending on their size etc. Any help? Sorry I don't know about any other causes.

 

[racingdemon]

thanks, will have a look at the symptoms,
am thinking of sudden total/partial loss of sight, but finding causes seems to be tricky

 

[H's mum]

Hi RD - The only blindness that I've come across was when our bestman had a foal which he bought from the sales - it went blind over night (aged about 9months I think) - The vet thought that it had received trauma to the head perhaps playing with his other foals - It was very sad though

Kate x

 

[racingdemon]

thanks, i'm just thinking out load atm, but have some concerns, i think if it is blindness it may have been gradual over the last 18months/2 years, but seems suddenly worse in the last couple of months, is difficult to know and i need to get the vet involved, but want to make sure i'm looking down the right road before i start, hopefully its nothing at all to do with eyesight and something else instead, but behaviour is making me think it could well be something to do with vision, which is frustrating, esp as its getting worse.

 

[Equibeau]

I once had a horse who had retinal atrophy. it only showed up on the vetting when I was selling him, but the vet said it could stay the same, or deteriorate, and he couldn't really give me much more information. That was about 8 years ago, he is still ridden and only hesitates at times going from light into dark etc. What sort of symptoms does the horse have?

 

[emma69]

Oh dear. One possible cause could be a brain tumour that is pressing on the optic nerve but I really really hope it's something less serious.

 

[racingdemon]

symptoms are excessive spooking at things, not just a 'oh whats that' but an OMG i can't walk past/over that leaf on the floor, and definatly not naughtiness becasue he'll walk past/over through the same thing in a different light/place
very reluctnat to go into a darker area (wood/stable)
panic if something moves near him i.e. if you throw a rug over him he'll leap away,
things behind/beside him he'll panic and move sideways/forwards
and most recently, if another horse jumping brushes through a hedge in front of him, he totally looses it,
and in general he looks terrified, ears ridgid, eyes on stalks, cocks his head on one side to 'look' at things, snorts etc,

All in all very strange, but progressively worse in the last few months, and i'm totally stumped as to what it might be

 

[Equibeau]

It does sound a bit similar. The vet could see "black floaty things" in the eye (sorry, this was a long time ago) and I did take him to a specialist eye person in Manchester, same diagnosis. Might be worth having him looked at, just to rule it out. Poor horse, best of luck RD.