desperate for eye specialists to avoid eye removal

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monstermunch

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Please could any one reccomend a top notch ophthamologist for my horse. I have had a hurrendous time and to cut a long story short within a week her eye is totally white. I have been told she will not regain sight and consideration should therefore be given to having the eye out.
Originally they thought it was traumatic uveitis but when it recrred 4 weeks later unexpectedly they are not really sure. None of my vets are specialists in this field and I feel I cannot make the decision to remove her eye until I have exhausted all options.
I would also like to note that she is not in pain otherwise I would not be putting her through second opinions.
She is a talented show jumper.
Any reccomendations for eye specialists would be great. I have googled it but it's a bit of a mine field.
Thanks
 
There is a vet that travels around the country specialising in eyes and he is very highly regarded, I cannot remember his name but if you have no luck on here I will contact my vet for contact details for you it may not be until Monday though, does your vet not have someone to recommend.
 
They do, but often they refer you to the closest place not necesarily the best person in the country. I am determined to try and avoid eye removal so I really want the best possible person as this is so distressing
 
Hi,

I have used Rob Lowe of optivet, he's an eye specialist and top notch. http://www.optivet.com

Has seen a few of ours re vettings and always knows the score and will say what needs to be done and how much vision they have. Well worth a phone call!
 
Whereabouts are you located? I can personally vouch for Brian Patterson, who sees horses at the B&W Equine Group Hospital which is located in Breadstone, Gloucestershire, having referred several cases to him. In my experience he is very thorough and spares no effort, has a good manner with horses and owners and gives an honest and accurate prognosis rather than just telling you what you want to hear. Just to be clear so there is no accusation of conflict of interests, I work for B&W but Brian is independent of us, he merely helps us out with our complicated cases and uses our facilities as and when necessary to examine horses.
 
My mare who badly damaged her eye was referred to Leahurst - Liverpool Equine Hospital and University.

She is blind in one eye after an accident but we didnt actually know what damage she had done when she was referred there. She had a huge corneal ulcer covering the surface of her whole eye which wouldnt heal.

They treated her in one day, sent us home with the right treatment plan, despite knowing the optic nerve had become detached from her eyeball during the accident and she would never see in it again they wanted us to heal the eye ulcer and for her to keep her eye. and she has. Its blue from bruising over a year later but other than that you wouldnt know.

The vet who treated her was excellent, he's called Fernando Malalala, their website is http://www.liv.ac.uk/equine/staff/

My vets rung them and made the referral, only took a couple of days to get her seen and i took her there, was present during all the treatment, had everything explained to me and then took her home. was a bit of a tow for us but well worth it. Good luck.
 
OP - stay calm. The absolute worst that can happen is that your horse will have to have her eye removed. My veteran cob Sunny developed a condition called superficial keratitis which is a recognised development from chronic severe untreated conjunctivitis (his previous owners did nothing to clear the conjunctivitis up). I took him to Dursley where he had the best care possible. Sadly, after 6 months we were unable to fully stabilise the eye and Sunny was in such constant pain that the only solution was to remove it. He came back from the knock down box (at aged 19) bouncing with delight at finally being out of pain. Took him just a couple of weeks to get back to his old self. After just 2 days back at the yard he was allowed into the school for a bit of a leg stretch and he took off like a bat out of hell bucking and farting, thundered round the school a few times then loose schooled himself over the jumps that were set up from the previous rider! For a few weeks you have to be the horse's "second eye" and you learn to talk to him when you approach and the farrier, vet etc lays a hand on him to show him that they are there. Apart from that, everything back to normal. Up until his retirement a few months back he remained the safest horse on the yard and took me hacking and winning dressage competitions.

If the eye has to be removed, the one thing I would say is don't be tempted to consider a glass eye. My vet said they are for the owner not the horse. They cause constant infections and irritation. The horse is fine and dandy just to be out of pain. You do need to gently but firmly clean the eye socket out regularly and watch the other eye like a hawk as the horse has no more "spares". PM me if it comes to it and you need more info x
 
I have nothing particularly helpful to say but thought I'd mention the one eyed TB I saw winning a local hunter trials a few weekends ago :) he was more game than any of the others and seemed to cope wonderfully with only one eye. I hope you get your neddy sorted, fingers crossed for you xxx
 
I would definately recommend getting in touch with Leahurst Equine hospital, as well as Fernando as mentioned earlier, Derek Knottenbelt is based there and has horses refferred for eye problems from all over the country
 
I can recommendn David Donaldson at AHT - Newmarket. He treated my mare who had a severe eye laceration. She had 2 operations as the eye ulcerated during healing after the first op. She was at AHT for 3 weeks. He saved her eye and only her extreme periphery vision may have been affected slightly as a result of the trauma.

David Donaldson BVSc (Hons) CertVOphthal DipECVO MRCVS

European Specialist in Veterinary Ophthalmology
Head of the Comparative Ophthalmology Unit

After qualifying from the University of Sydney in 1989, David Donaldson spent 10 years in small and large animal practice in both Australia and the United Kingdom. Whilst in general practice, David obtained his RCVS Certificate in Veterinary Ophthalmology in 2000. In 2002 David was appointed to a Residency in Veterinary Ophthalmology at the AHT and following this subsequently continued to work at the AHT as a senior clinician in ophthalmology. In 2007 David successfully completed his ECVO examinations.
 
monstermunch, have they cultured for virus, bacteria, fungus? Did your lad have recurrent conjunctivitis at all before this started? Herpes virus can be involved so think sarcoids too. There's an operation that can be done to slice off the top layer of the cornea if they think it's not too deep and can be controlled afterwards. Another operation uses the membrane from underneath the top/bottom eyelids as a graft - it brings a blood supply to the damaged cornea and can often clear it up, even though the horse's vision is partly obscured afterwards. My horse developed a condition called superficial keratitis - chronic conjunctivitis is a recognised precursor for this although it happened so suddenly that I suspect an injury on top of the conjunctivitis. Superficial keratitis is an auto immune disease and if your horse has something similar your vets need to have been trying an immunosupressant drug - Sunny was on Optimmune. It was doing the trick slowly but surely and the damaged, white area of the cornea was slowly shrinking. But he got stabbed in his bad eye by the end of the bloody tube and of course an immunosupressant only works to stop the body reacting to something that isn't actually a danger. When there really IS a danger (infection from the tube end) then the body isn't able to respond and the infection gets massive very fast. At that point we lost the battle but if it hadn't happened Sunny's eye would have 95% recovered. Might have been a small white dot left on the cornea and we might always have had him on a maintenance dose of Optimmune but his eye would have been saved. So there's lots that can still be done. I'd recommend the vets in Dursley as they were brilliant with Sunny's eye but if others know specialists I'd go with that.

HOWEVER!!!!!!!!!!!! Even if the worst comes to the worst, your horse will learn within about 3 weeks to cope fine without it, with you to act as his "spare eye" during that time. Don't be drawn into getting a prosthesis as I was advised they cause horrendous infection problems and they are for the owner anyway, not the horse! My Sunny continued to be (and still is) the safest horse on the yard and he hacked, popped a jump and competed in dressage competitions just the same. So even if the worst happens, you'll still have the same happy, pain free horse you always had so please please don't panic, stay calm round your boy and be strong for him. If he has to have his eye removed don't let ANYONE feel sorry for him or pity him. He'd be the same lad as always. PM me if you need to talk or need to know anything xxx
 
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