Blocked tear duct

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erg4862

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Hi, hope someone can help. It looks as if my mare has a blocked tear duct (eye weeping slightly and lump under the eye). Does anyone have any experience of this and be able to let me know the best course of treatment?
 
my vet put some dye in my horses eyes to see if it was blocked looked very strange did your vet do this ?
then told me unblocking a tear duct was like trying to find a needle in a haystack ! add to that the horse was 20 at the time so i dont think he wanted to attempt it.
3 years on . . other than a weepy eye (worse if it windy) its makes no difference to her.
i was given one tip though you might like to try. if you put a very thin film of vaseline under the eye it will stop the tears 'burning' the skin.
I use tea to wipe her eyes now and then.
 
erg - running around like blue-arsed fly on speed at the mo but will reply later. Been through similar with my ned. Load of threads on here eg weepy eyes. You'll see box of frogs posts on absolutely anything to do with eyes. I'm on a mission!!! x
 
Yep my old horse had them. First test was to put dye in their eyes and see if it comers out of the tear duct in the nostril. If it doesnt then most likely blocked tear duct. My horse went to Leahurst and had them flushed out ( small tube up nostril syringed saline through ) which unblocked them for about a month but they soon locked up again. Leahurst told me it wasnt a problem only cosmetic and as long as i cleaned his eyes every day he would be fine. They can operate to resolve it but my horse was elderly and as it wasnt causing a problem it wasnt worth the risk of an anaesthetic.

Your own vet should be to unblock them its just mine was at Leahurst for another matter
crazy.gif
 
One of mine had one a few weeks ago, same as above really, vet put some green dye in her eye to see if it ran out through her nostrils. When it didn't he squirted saline up her nostril and it unblocked
smile.gif
 
Mine had her tear ducts flushed yesterday. She had her eyes dyed first, and only a tiny amount came out in her nose, so the vet flushed them. It was done under sedation with local anasthetic on her nose and eyes.

Mine has had an eye infection we think, and her ducts were full of yucky green eye gunk. So we are now on onitment twice a day and fingers crossed it gets better.
 
Thanks for the great replies. Just got the mare a few weeks ago and apparently when one of the other liveries moved their horses to this yard they both seemed to have blocked ducts which went after a couple of weeks so maybe something at the yard. Will get the vet out though as want to make sure it doesn't cause her any problems.
 
Be careful with blocked tear ducts. Flushing them out isn't a guaranteed success and depending on the reason for it, can make the condition worse. Sometimes it's hard to know if blocked tear ducts are as a result of another infection (and if so, what is it) or if the blocked tear ducts themselves are the source of the infection. Also, blocked tear ducts can be caused or made worse by low tear production in which case, flushing them won't make any difference long term.
 
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