Conjunctivitis

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George123

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Hi,

Can anyone who's horse has had this tell me how long it lasts.....

My horse started with swollen eyelids 2 weeks ago now.....I have had 5 emergency vet visits...

The 1st visit they thought she'd banged the eye....no treatment, it got worse so another vet 2 days later....who said, the inside of the eyelids were very swollen and gave me steroid drops...said conjunctivits....the eye is very watery/teary but no mucus....she was also on bute....

It looked better for a day or 2, I stopped the bute.....carried on with the eyedrops and she rubbed it and caused an ulcer! So, vet again....very very small pinprick size ulcer...put me onto eye gel (same ingredients as golden eye) and bute.....after a couple of days, there wasnt any real improvement, so I upped the bute to 4 a day....big improvement, swelling down, eye open looks good, though still teary....I gradually reduce the bute and carry on with the eye gel (vets instructions)...eye is dyed again, ulcer has gone....eye looks good, so I reduce the bute....down to one a day...

Today, straight back to stage one! swollen eyelids....So I up the bute again and start the steroid drops....there wasnt any sign of uvitis....she doesnt appear or be sensitive to the light as she opens it more outside....But as soon as I reduce the bute, it comes back...

2 weeks now, is this normal for conjunctivits....there is now a little (but not much) mucus inthe corner of her eye.....there wasnt before, just tears....

Vet again tomorrow!

Has anyone else experienced this?
 
Be careful of using steroid drops in an eye that has very recently had an ulcer. Definitely best to discuss what to do next with the vet anday be worth getting a specialist to have a look. Something to discuss with your vet. Tomes vale would be very short for an ulcer to heal however.
 
If she was mine, I'd get a referral to a specialist eye centre asap. I'm assuming that at some point your vets have put dye into the eye to check for ulcers? The issue you now have is that basic treatment has not cured the problem so you need to ask yourself whether it is a simple problem or not. A bump or cold wind or scratch from a bramble should be on the road to recovery at least. The problem shouldn't keep returning every time you reduce or remove the drug support. Because of this I'd start suspecting that there was something still in the eye OR it's NOT conjunctivitis in which case I'd suspect uveitis (moon blindness) or worse. I'm paranoid about eyes as they are so very precious and eye injuries are notoriously difficult to heal since the cornea has no blood supply. Take care with a long standing conjunctivitis as it is a well known pre-cursor to a far nastier disease called superficial keratitis. Get specialist help before this gets out of hand and very expensive x
 
Seems very unlikely that the ulcer will of gone after 2 days, usually they can take a week before they start to look better, few weeks to clear then you are left with scar tissue which can take another couple of months, also depends on the type of bacteria which has caused the ulcer, some treatments won't shift them but will like you say appear to help for the first few days, is she rubbing the area? sounds like she's either got something in or a deeper infection, having said that I of thought the vet would have carried on with an oral treatment for longer than that.

Hope you get her sorted.
 
My boy had severe conjunctivitus a couple of years ago, it just continued to get worse and worse. Both eyes were very red and swollen with yellow discharge which ran down his face (pretty yucky poor boy). I got the vet out and he prescribed strong steroid drops for both eyes and it cleared up in about 5 days.

From my experience of conjunctivitus I don't think this is what you are dealing with - hope you get to the bottom of it soon.
 
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