Conjunctivitis

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My young gelding has had a REALLY gunky (yellow gungy gunk) eye since saturday. I have been bathing it in Tea twice a day since but it's not looking better. I'm starting to think antibiotics are in order. Any other ideas?
 
Someone on this DG suggested Golden Eye eyedrops or ointment. I had always used tea which worked, but it didn;t this time. I bought the Golden Eye drops and they cured my horse's eyes. I used the whole bottle, at first I was putting them in 3 times a day in both eyes but putting in a good squirt, gently.

The antibiotics from the vet is only about £10 a tube, but I suppose it depends on whether the vet will give it you, or they will want to do a visit first.
 
my uncles foal had really really bad. vet said go in to chemist and buy what you would use for yourself if you had it. put along inside on eye, each eye twice a day, was all gone next day, but do this for 3 days as will keep it away. this was from a vet and it worked wonders cant remember what you call what we used, but just buy small tube for humans and use on him.
goodluck
 
You can buy anti biotic eyedrops from the chemist, they are the same as what you would get from the vet only half the price. Do not tell chemist they are for a horse though! Say you wake up with sticky eyes!!
 
Take great care with any and all eye infections. Home made or across the counter stuff is fine for soothing eyes but won't cure an infection unless they contain an appropriate level of antibiotic. And be aware that conjunctivits can be caused by a ton of things that over the counter stuff won't help - indeed, you could be making things worse if only because you're delaying getting the vet. Gungy eyes can also be caused by foreign bodies damaging the cornea, foreign bodies still IN the cornea, fungal infections, viral infections, uveitis, and a ton of other more serious problems. If it's "just" conjunctivitis, you need to think how/why it was caused to avoid it being a regular occurrence. Chronic conjunctivitis is a precursor for superficial keratitis which is a very nasty auto immune disease that can lead to the eye having to be removed. In addition, you need to be certain that what you are putting in the eye is sterile and safe. Please get the vet out hun. My horse Sunny had to have an eye removed after a 6 month battle with superficial keratitis, caused by chronic conjunctivitis that his previous owners (who should have known better) didn't bother to get treated properly. And a last plea to take the utmost care when putting anything in a horse's eye. Most drops/creams have sharp, pointy plastic ends and one jerk from an anxious horse as you hold the tube etc a millimetre from the eye and you've turned the original problem into a veterinary emergency.
 
My horse has also had a yellow goo next to one of his eyes for the past few days. I have been cleaning it and putting his fly mask on but it hasn't got any better (but hasn't got worse either).

I am going to start bathing it with salt water as I have heard this can help, but I also wanted to get him some antibiotics for it before calling the vet out (I will do if not better by the weekend). I have heard that Golden Eye can help, but would rather use antibiotic drops meant for horses - will I be able to find this sort of thing at a feed store or is it a case of calling the vet to get some drops?
 
Another vote for Golden eye. It's an old, old remedy and effectve.

I always keep it in as well as things like bonjella, baby rash cream and pig oil etc. I see no point in leaving an animal feeling uncomortable while I decide wether I ought to call the vet or not?

More often than not, if you get in quick, any minor problems don't worsen and go onto something more worrying.
 
Box_Of_Frogs said:
Take great care with any and all eye infections. Home made or across the counter stuff is fine for soothing eyes but won't cure an infection unless they contain an appropriate level of antibiotic. And be aware that conjunctivits can be caused by a ton of things that over the counter stuff won't help - indeed, you could be making things worse if only because you're delaying getting the vet. Gungy eyes can also be caused by foreign bodies damaging the cornea, foreign bodies still IN the cornea, fungal infections, viral infections, uveitis, and a ton of other more serious problems. If it's "just" conjunctivitis, you need to think how/why it was caused to avoid it being a regular occurrence. Chronic conjunctivitis is a precursor for superficial keratitis which is a very nasty auto immune disease that can lead to the eye having to be removed. In addition, you need to be certain that what you are putting in the eye is sterile and safe. Please get the vet out hun. My horse Sunny had to have an eye removed after a 6 month battle with superficial keratitis, caused by chronic conjunctivitis that his previous owners (who should have known better) didn't bother to get treated properly. And a last plea to take the utmost care when putting anything in a horse's eye. Most drops/creams have sharp, pointy plastic ends and one jerk from an anxious horse as you hold the tube etc a millimetre from the eye and you've turned the original problem into a veterinary emergency.
Click to expand...

^^^ that

Thing is how do you know its conjuctivitis.

Just get the vet for safe measure, eyes can go down hill very fast with out the correct treatment.....experianced that myself.

Hope it's nothing too bad and gets sorted out quickly though. :)
 
I have to agree with Box_Of_Frogs and Kenzo. You can't be too careful with eyes. My mare had the same 2 weeks ago and I did call the vet, who gave her a very thorough exam and left me an antibiotic cream to put in. Cleared up in about 5 days.
 
Kenzo said:
^^^ that

Thing is how do you know its conjuctivitis.

Just get the vet for safe measure, eyes can go down hill very fast with out the correct treatment.....experianced that myself.

Hope it's nothing too bad and gets sorted out quickly though. :)
Click to expand...

just to point out, when I say exerianced that myself, I meant with my own eyes, not any of my horses by the way! :D

hence why my view is you can never be too careful.
 
One more alert - if you wait til you have a very sore eye and then bathe it in salt water you may realise this is NOT the soothing cure that you think it is! It will sting big time and may cause further damage. Please hun, vet vet vet x
 
There do seem to be a lot of sticky eyes around at the moment. One of our team turned up at the Tet Champs with one, we used Optrex drops to help soothe as they were in my hand bag with the view that she would get her vet out when she got home but it was ok two days later. Then got home and two horses on the yard had it, one was just bathing with warm water and the other used Golden Eye and it cleared up in 48 hours. Not heard of Golden Eye myself until then as I tend to use Brolene but it seemed to work.
 
It may only be conjunctivitis, but if it has been yucky for 2 days, Vet is essential. GoldenEye is great but only if you use it straight away at first signs. From the sound of it its too late for that. Have you had conjunctivitis? It itches and itches. Just imagine having an itchy eye, you just can't stop rubbing it. So horse rubs and rubs and then the cornea gets scratched - now you have a Vet emergency.
 
How is the eye doing?

Again I have to agree with some of the others and would contact the vet. My horse is prone to eye problems and I nearly lost him last year due to one that flared up and ended up on boxrest for 4 months.
He has had keratitis this year in his other eye and we caught it early enough due to getting the vet out straight away. I hope you got the vet out to check hun :)
 
I am someone who gets the vet in straight away regardless. When my horse had a swollen eye (could hardly open it, don't know what she'd done), I called the vet at once. She checked for foreign bodies etc but it looked like she'd just bashed it. However madam wouldn't have the eye ointment anywhere near her eye, so the vet said you're liable to poke her in the eye so forget it ( horse being 17.2 and me being 5'1"!!!!). What she 'prescribed' was dried white camomile flowers, made into a tisane with hot water then allowed to cool, and liberally applied over and around the eye, treating the outside and trickling into the eye too. By the next day it was 90% better, and another couple of treatments cleared it up. I have just used the same tisane on a friends horse who had a swollen eye yesterday Sunday and is again 90% better today.
 
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