Equine Eye Ulcer

D

DougalJ

Well-Known Member
Joined
27 April 2008
Messages
603
Location
South
Visit site
I am posting on here for a friend who has her horse at out yard with a horrible eye ulcer. Both eyes have been weeping for a few weeks now and the first vet visit prescribed an anti-biotic eye cream which has been all used now for a week. Yesterday I noticed that the eye was not improving and then this morning the poor horse looked like he had been in the ring with Mike Tyson.... Big swelling around one eye.
Vet out again this afternoon as diagnosed an eye ulcer. He is making up a solution to put into the eye which now waiting for. Just seeing if anyone has had any experience with an eye ulcer with their horse and the outcome. I've looked up that this can clear or can be very serious too!
 
DougalJ, do a search on my posts, everything to do with Sunny and eyes. Sunny had had years of untreated conjunctivitis before I bought him - don't ask!!! Within a few weeks of me owning him, and a week or so after I got the local vet to check his eyes for me (he said nothing to worry about. Yeah, right) the conjunctivitis in his right eye suddenly flipped over into something a lot, lot worse. It presented as a nasty corneal ulcer and it didn't respond to standard local treatment. Sunny was referred to Dursley Equine Hospital (they're superb) and it was identified as an autoimmune disease called superficial keratitis. Chronic conjunctivitis is a well known precursor for this, although clearly the local vet (who I now wouldn't allow to treat a stick insect) didn't know this. With superficial keratitis, the horse's own body begins to attack the tissues of the eye, with devastating results. It causes a huge corneal ulcer as well as changes within the eye itself, which can include uveitis and the collapse of the carefully aligned internal cells that allow light to pass through the cornea so the horse can see. Sunny was on a cocktail of antibiotics, Optimmune (an immunosuppressant) and steroids, applied every 2 hours throughout the day. The vets were able to stabilise this dreadful condition and he came home still needing the various creams and drops applied at least 4 times a day. Long, distressing and tragically unnecessary story but I battled for 6 months to save the eye but in the end it was too much for Sunny to bear and we had to have the eye removed (this hardly slowed him down at all!)

The important thing here is to act immediately - corneas are buggers to heal because of the lack of a blood supply. If the horse was mine I'd get an IMMEDIATE referral to a specialst centre where they have an expert eye person. Specialist centres will have dealt with this before whereas local vets probably won't have. Good luck to your friend and do let me know if I can help further.
 
My mare had an eye ulcer that was treated with a cream.....cant for the life of me remember what it was called. Will look at my old records and let you know....
I do remember the vet saying the more times you can get meds into the eye the quicker it will improve.....i think i did five or six times a day for the first few days and then about four until it had cleared up.
 
We had this quite a few years ago. My vet prescribed serum drops. He took some blood from my horse, it went to their lab to extract the serum which came back and had to be put into the horses eye every 2 hrs. It worked brilliantly.

It is imortant to act quickly though.
 
My mare has Uveiitis and gets an eye ulcer prior.

SHE GETS AN EYE ULCER EVERY 5 WEEKS.

If as it is an eye ulcer YOU MUST NOT USE STEROIDS

YOU WILL USE ATROPHINE- THEN CHLOROMECYTIN AND OPTIMUNE


I learnt to catch it now in time. by doing this she still has 99% vision in her eye

She shakes her head allot when its starting,

this is a great help for me to act quick
i then put the atrophine in which dilates the pupil. ( an important thing to do ). i then put it in again at lunch time and eve til eye dilates. then i switch to the choromycetin.

I keep a guardian mask on her when its hot and cashel one the rest of the time.

This was i can manage it almost on my own. With the vet coming on the free call out day to check things. The last one 3 weeks ago i cleared on my own with vet just checking.

my vet has told me not to put drops in untill the flare up so she doesnt become imune.

Check out this website

http://equinecare-and-control.weebly.com/u.html
.
.
.
.
.
 
Last edited:
Big thanks to all of you with your help and advice - it is much appreciated. Flick is so much better this morning after the regular treatment that he was given late in to the night and very early this morning. The drugs being given now are in Leviathan's post.The swelling has gone down and treatment hourly all day too. I've had experience of other horse ailments but this is a first for me.
We will have to keep a very watchful eye (excuse the pun) in the future with his eyes.
 
Thats the secret , if its recurrent ulcer the treatment will be the same, tho if Flick gives you a warning like shakes his head like he has a fly on his face or other warning get the vet. If your vet is like mine and knows i am sensible and know how to put the atropine in first , they might let you have some it did take a few attacks before vet let me do it . Its important to do it on first sign.

i do atropine in 1st sign then the next lunchtime eve then morn then change to one of the others i just used chloromycetin after that till it cleared. If your prepared to keep on top of it and treat asap, there is no reason why any sight loss should occur.
I keep her eye drops and atropine in one of the sealed plastic Tupperware type box outside stable so always to hand:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top