Cloudy eye, im so worried

Kayfm

Kayfm

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I recently noticed when out in the sun plaiting, that my horse has a partially cloudy eye. It is not that obvious until you really look. I got the vet straight away who said he is worried and it may be quite serious. The green dye showed no signs of damage or ulcer etc. Moon blindness was mentioned however he is not conviced as the horse is not showing any signs of inflamation to the inner/outer eye, tears, squinting/pain and the pupil is reacting nicely. The horse is competing and riding/acting normally etc. The horse is very playful in the field. I was wondering if he has taken a real knock at some point. Im so worried and upset about my beautiful horse. I cant stand the though that he could go blind. Any one else had eye problems with their horse ? Vibes needed by the million please.
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My horse had uveitis/moon blindness and I'm sorry to tell you but he showed no signs of inflammation, tears, pain etc (and you would not know he had an eye problem unless you looked closely at it) until he scratched his eye and it caused it to flare up and become painful.
He ended up with a luxated lens which had to be removed - he has now got the all clear and his eye no longer bothers him.
I would recommend being referred to an ophthalmologist for a full exam if both you and the vet are worried - the Animal Health Trust in Newmarket were brilliant with my horse

Huge vibes heading your way
 
Hi Kayfm. First off, try to stop worrying - your ned will pick up your vibes and get anxious himself. Let me say this right now and get it out of the way: even if the worst ever comes to the worst, and that's IF, then a horse can manage fine on one eye.

Have the vets ruled out a "simple" cataract? I expect they have but worth mentioning it.

A cloudy cornea is a sign of damage, as you will know by now. External damage (knock, foreign object, etc) would show ulceration on the cornea, at least in the early stages. Internal damage such as uveitis won't show ulceration on the cornea because the damage is occurring inside the eye but the cornea could be deteriorating because of the changes in the structure inside the eye. All corneal damage is difficult to heal because the cornea has no blood supply.

Here's what happened to Sunny. His previous owners never bothered to properly treat a simple conjunctivitis in both eyes. I bought him and was trying to get it cleared up when (3 weeks later) bang, Sunny came in from the field with a cloudy cornea in his right eye. Local vets tried for a week but couldn't get to grips with it and Sunny was then rushed to a specialist hospital as there were fears he would lose the eye if something wasn't done fast. Long story cut short. The chronic conjunctivitis had flipped over into an autoimmune disease called superficial keratitis. The vets never knew what the original trigger was but chronic conjunctivitis is a recognised pre-cursor. His own body was now trying to destroy parts of his eye. He was put on immuno-suppressants and we were starting to see the cloudy patch shrink. He came back home and one of the yard staff then stabbed him in his bad eye with the sharp end of the tube that contained the ointment that was helping heal the cornea. That was the beginning of the end. Back to hospital again and we managed to sort of balance it on a tightrope. But a month or so later, zippo, the cornea clouded totally over and I knew Sunny had had enough. Back to hospital and the eye was removed. He danced back out of the recovery box, so relieved to have his unrelenting pain fixed. Never looked back and is the safest horse on our yard and he STILL wins me local dressage comps and gives the safest hack in the universe.

If any of this story fits with parts of your ned's story hun, hope it helps. PM if you need more info or just to talk. Major messages to take on board: one eye isn't the end, honestly. And if you do ever need to put creams into your ned's eye, be very very careful as one jerk from a worried horse and you can scrape or even puncture the cornea with the end of the tube. Get your vet to show you how to do it safely but with thick creams the absolute safest way is to put the cream on the end of your clean finger and squish your safe, blunt finger into the eye.

Got everything crossed that this will be one of those mysteries that clear up on their own but if not, be strong for your ned and NEVER feel sorry for him, whatever happens. Just deal with it and love him all the more. If it was me, I'd ask for an immediate referral to a specialist centre that has a resident horse opthalmologist xxx
 
my 4 yr old developed a cloudy eye i was also very worried like you..had the vet green dye and all of that no damage to the surface etc ..the vet gave me some drops of which i couldnt get near her eye!! her eyes are very black and in the light her right eye appeared a milky blue and seemed to get worse over time...We came to the conclusion she had banged it as she was also very playful...and witin a month it had completley gone!! and now its back to normal! try not to worry sounds very similar to my horses xx
 
Hi, As everyone has said try not to worry, and I know that is so easier said than done!
My lad was out for his end of year break ( around this time last year) when we noticed that one of his eyes had gone a cloudy green colour...cue panic! We got the vet out and he did the dye test and found no scratches on the surface of the eye so prescribed some drops which we were to give around 4 to 6 times a day ( the more often the better we were told) I cant remember how long we did it for with the vet coming out every few days to moniter...anyway it didnt seem to be getting any better so we were booked into Dublin Uni to the eye specialist there ( on xmas eve!!) he had a good look at it and still wasn't sure what the problem was ( but thought he'd had a blunt bang to the eye) but we were to continue giving the drops. We did and slowly the eye got better. In all the time it was cloudy there was no sign that Ads was in any pain, it didnt swell up, go red or weep.
We brought him back into work and everything was fine. Then out of the blue it happened again ( around July time) started to go cloudy but still no other signs /redness/weeping/swelling. We've been looking out for it so got the vet straight away and he came and looked and gave us the drops again to be put in 4 to 6 times a day. It seemed to clear up a lot quicker this time. As it had returned the thinking is that he has moonblindness.

I did some searching on the internet and did find this website... guardianmasks. They are special sunglasses/masks that filter out 95% ( I think) of uv rays as sunlight can be one of the triggers to an episode. My lad wears his mask when ever he is outside and when he travels in the lorry ( as I thought maybe the wind in his eye wouldn't help either.)
Over the past 2 months he has won 3 x 1.50 grand prixs and his first international gp, so I guess what Im trying to say is dont panic!!!! My lad has had an eye problem, but we got it treated as soon as possible and it hasn't stopped him competeing or living normally.

Lots of vibes and I hope you get it sorted xx
 
Star wears a Guardian Mask and they are brilliant.
She had a Squamous Cell Carcinoma on her eyeball and had thissucessfully removed following radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Now however, the eye must be protected from strong wind and strong light or else the surface of the eye goes cloudy. After keeping her out of the wind, the cloudyness disappears in a day or so.
 
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