Corneal ulcer

[Janette]

Does anybody have any experience of corneal ulcers on their horse's eye?

Star gets recurrent conjunctivitis, but this time she has put her heart and soul into it and has also developed an ulcer..........

The vet came last week on a 2nd visit, and left us with more chloramphenicol eyedrops, but the swelling has not improved much since the initial visit.....

The sun and wind aggravates it so she can't be turned out (I tried at the weekend because it was looking so much better). Now she's just stood with her head down and only marginally interested in her feed. (That's unheard of).

Anyway, the vet is coming again tomorrow morning, and I was wondering what experience's people have of this eye condition?

 

[merlinsquest]

Merlin had a very tiny ulcer in his offside eye a couple of years ago... initially diagnosed as uveitis!!!! No flourescent was seen, and it wasnt till i was ready to go home that i spotted the ulcer... vet didnt see it (but it was tiny).

Anyway treated and healed no problems.

 

[zulu705]

My mare had an ulcer a couple of years ago. Quite a big one, about the size of 5p and around 1-2mm deep. 10 days in vet school getting drops every 2 hours for a couple of days then reducing gradually. She got secondary uveitis too. It all healed up fine, slight grey area on eye, doesn't affect vision. She always wears a black fly mask but she did anyway for sunburn and flys. Think it healed so well because of aggressive treatment. I had to put drops in for first day till she got to vet school and its quite difficult. At vet school she eventually got fed up of getting the drops that they had to run small tube through her eyelid (sounds much worse than it looks!) and down her neck so they could inject the drops from there. Back riding in around 2 weeks but you could see it healing for a good few months afterwards.

 

[ticobay831]

My youngster had a eye ulcer last year, he got a thorn in his eye, he had to be kept in for about 6 weeks, he had to have two different sorts of eye drops which had to be put in three times a day , which was an absolute nightmare.
One lot of drops dilated the pupil, cant remember the name of them now. Thats why he had to stay in for so long because of the light etc, it took ages for the pupils to go back to normal.
I had to turn him out in a mask to protect his eyes from the sun and the wind for another couple of months, it was a gaurdian mask quite expensive but it was brilliant, its used for uvetis, heres the link if your interested, http://www.horsemask.com/Main.html
Im sure your horse will be alright
best of luck
Debs x

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Oh Janette - hope things go well for you. My boy Sunny tragically had to have an eye removed a year and a half ago - a corneal ulcer developed 3 weeks after I'd bought him from the riding school and 2 weeks after the local vet said chronic conjunctivitis wasn't anything to worry about!!!. He'd had conjunctivitis for years and the riding school just hadn't treated it properly. He suddenly developed a corneal ulcer that couldn't be controlled locally so he went as an emergency to Bushy Equine Hospital, 100 miles away. They were brilliant. The diagnosis was eventually superficial keratitis with secondary uveitis. It became an auto-immune problem with his own body trying to fight an imaginery infection but really just fighting itself. We battled it with immuno suppressants and had started to make progress. Sunny came home but the yard staff managed to stab him in the eye with the end of the tube of ointment so badly injured his eye. The ointment was to stop his body fighting infections so when he developed a REAL infection, he was sunk. The staff didn't tell me they had stabbed him so the first thing I knew about it was when his eye clouded over again totally and he was straight back to Bushy. He was there 3 weeks but the eye never really recovered and although he came home, after another 6 weeks of daily applications and battles and fly problems and misery and unexplained swelling and emergency bute injections, we lost the battle and he had the eye removed. He has done BRILLIANTLY with just one eye though its so sad that the riding school never bothered to sort it in the first place all those years ago, and maybe he wouldn't have ever developed corneal ulcers. I've got everything crossed for you. If you want to pm me to know anything else - coz sadly you get to be a bit of an "expert owner" when this stuff happens - please do. But remember that Sunny is happy and well and the safest horse at our yard and loved by everyone. Thinking of you xxxxxxxx

 

[ticobay831]

I persevered putting the eye drops in, i was offered the tube thing in the eylid, as i was having problems getting the eye drops in to start with, but i didnt like the sound of it, once youve found a techneque with allot of patience it can be done.
I stood on a bucket and rested his head on my shoulder then gently parted his eye lid with one hand, had the eye drops ready in the ohter and just quietly dropped then in to the eye.
He was so good bless him it took a while to start with but once id got the hang of it and he wasnt worried it took seconds

By the way it completely cleared up not a mark there at all now

 

[Janette]

So glad to hear of good results from this. Strangely enough, Star was in a riding school when she started with this.......

She used to let me put drops in brilliantly, but now is becoming quite difficult about it. Not sure how we'll manage if the vet wants put ointment in.

Vet coming today, will keep you updated.

Btw - those 'sunglasses for horses' look really good (Odd, but good) - do you order by telephone?

 

[AmyMay]

You may want to ask the vet about keeping her in a darkend environment - as the any daylight will certainly not help the problem.

If you can't get the environment dark enough you could have the eye lids stiched closed.

Good luck - horrid and painful thing for the poor love to have.

 

[Bess]

Sorry to read about your horse, I have had a corneal ulcer and it was the most incredibly painful thing, so I do feel for you and the horse.

 

[Ferdinase514]

Finni had one a couple of years ago, after some eye trauma. It lasted 6 weeks and did not repond to Chlorophenicol, so we swapped to fusidic acid drops instead. It didn't seem to heal at all and I was about to take him to the vet for scrappings, then it suddenly started to reduce.

My advice is to keep speaking to the vet, try a couple of different drops and protect the eye as much as possible (the sunglasses sound good!) How about a fly mask? Does that help?

 

[ticobay831]

Hi, yes i just rang up and orderd it. they were very helpfull

and arrived in no time. The eye pieces are removable, which enables you to just cover the bad eye.
I had to sow a small peice of sheepskin on the in a couple of places as it rubbed slight;y but besides thay it was a god send, and he never got it off either, which was a worry to me with a normal fly mask

Debs x

 

[faerie666]

Yes I have recent experience with them I'm afraid. My boy came in from the field a few months ago with one of his eyes almost closed. After inspecting it and seeing what looked like a small hole in the cornea got vet out who stained it, it was about 5mm across. I had to keep him in as he was very sensitive to light, give bute, put eyedrops in 4 times a day, which was fun. Not! Looked like it cleared up, started riding again, 2 weeks later the ulcer was back!
Same thing again, but this time vet took sample, which was a waste of time as nothing was found. Cleared up again, but came back again 5 weeks later, different eyedrops this time, and I had to keep putting them in for 2 weeks after the eye stained clear.
Touch wood, been OK now for 3 months, but vet said that once they had ulcers they're quite likely to get them again.
Have you had a scrape done yet?
Sometimes the organism causing the ulcer doesn't respond to certain types of antibiotics, so finding out what's causing it and treating with a more specific antibiotic is the only way to sort it.
My advice is to do what I did last time and keep putting eyedrops in for quite a while after the ulcer cleared up.
Best of luck with yours,
sending good vibes your way,

Jasmin.

 

[Janette]

The vet came today, and the ulcer has reduced in size, but not by much. she's considering fitting Star with a contact lens to protect the eye.

She's upped the antibiotics - powders in the feed as well as the chloramphenicol eyedrops, and we're back on the anti inflammatory/painkiller powders.
She's on box rest for 10 days at least, as the box is at the end of a row, away from the main barn doors......

fingers crossed....