Eye ulceration

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Menolly

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I've had the vet out today so treat a reoccuring ulceration on my horses eye.

At the moment its being treated with antibiotic cream and we've been advised that if there is no improvment by the weekend that they will need to stitch the eye closed to enable it to 'treat itself'

Due to his arthritus we cant keep him in for too long so the poor thing is out with a fly mask on!

I was hoping that someone else had experienced the same thing and if the eye had healed after being stitched.


Thanks in advance for your advice!
 
Have not had an eye stitched but did have a horse with a reoccurring corneal ulcer. When he was with me I made him a fly mask with half a diaper sewn over the eye. It made a good rounded, padded, light proof cover and seemed to do the trick. He went out in a small paddock he knew and was fine, although we did watch him and change the dressing after he rolled.

After he went home he got another ulcer and then, less than a year later, another. A very good and intrepid vet we had at the time made it her mission to figure out what was going on and eventually discovered he had a herpes virus IN his eye! Apparently very rare but treatable with an anti-viral drug. Horse was fine and, so far as I know, never had the problem again. (Interestingly, he also had other problems which may or may not have been related to a systemic herpes infection but I don't know if they also sorted out with treatment.)
 
Hi Julie - if you do a search on the Forum on eye ulcers you'll see several posts about neds with similar problems. I'm not a vet but my horse Sunny (see sig) went through something very similar and I got to be a bit of a lay expert through dealing with each stage and each horrendous development.

Sunny was finally diagnosed with superficial keratitis which sounds like what your horse has. The main presenting symptom is chronic ulceration of the cornea. Sunny had swabs taken to hunt for a bacterial, viral or fungal infection but they all came back negative, although viruses are notoriously difficult to culture in the lab. As TS says, the herpes virus is under suspicion at the moment. All corneal problems tend to be very difficult to clear as the cornea has no blood supply. Are your vets suggesting stitching the eyelids closed or using the membrane from inside the eyelid to "graft" across the cornea to bring it a blood supply? My specialist vets in the end decided this would not help Sunny as the root cause for the original problem was never ever identified and the suspicion was that it had by then developed into an autoimmune disease where the body starts attacking itself as it is convinced there is still something to fight.

My vets also considered slicing off a layer of the cornea in an attempt to get back to healthy tissue but all these things are (my understanding) nothing-left-to-lose solutions. We were actually making very very slow headway with Sunny but the yard staff managed to stab him in his bad eye with the sharp end of the very tube of ointment that was supposed to be healing him. They didn't tell me and all the ground we had regained, we lost in days. After a heroic 6-month battle, Sunny had had enough and we had to remove the eye to free him from the relentless pain.

I'm only telling you this to let you know that you face some difficult battles of your own ahead and to let you know that if you want to talk anything over, I'm happy to be here to help. There's another lady on the Forum whose ned has just gone through the same thing - he was being treated in the best horse hospital in the land but still lost his eye. I hope she will read your post and tell you her experiences too.

On a plus note, Sunny's eye op was 3 yrs ago now and he is his same wonderful, happy self and the safest horse on the yard and will hack out, pop a jump, do a dressage test, you name it. Just whatever you do, be ultra careful how you put ointment in your horse's eye!

I know that there is a special eye mask made in the US that you can buy that completely protects the horse's eyes from bright light so they can be safely turned out. Many ulcers also end up causing uveitis within the eye and the horse becomes intolerant of daylight. I didn't get one for Sunny so don't have the details but others on the Forum have bought them so can help.

PM me if I can help any more - got everything crossed for you and your ned xxx
 
My horse had ulcers on his cornea a couple of years and looks like the creature from the black lagoon! He became basically blind through the amount of sweling that occurred - the cause of this was a fly mask(was washed at least once a week,checked daily etc) .Corneal staining showed up as about 80% of the eye was covered in ulcers. My horse spent three weeks in complete darkness turned out over night from 10pm till 4am and was in a stable with top door shut (not fun trying to keep a 17.3hh confined) he was treated with iv antibiotics,bute and cholrophenicol(prob not right speeling sorry!) one eye was worse than the other and was eventually sewn shut for five days. Result was that eventually the swelling went down and the eyes returned to normal size and he can now be turned out as normal (stil careful in v strong sunlight) he has corneal scarring over both eyes but vet estimated it to e approx 15% so his vision is impaired to some extent but he can still hack out,jump etc is just a bit more spooky than normal. Good lck with the treatment and although sewn shut eyes can be a bit gruesome to look at they can do alot of good
 
My horse went through a lot of problems with his cornea in the last few months (I'm the person Box_of_Frogs mentions in her post). He was diagnosed with keratitis and was in hospital for nine weeks but in the end they could not save his eye. The vets tried a lot of different things for him but not stitching his eye up so I dont' have any experience of that; but am wishing you all the best as I know how distressing it is when the eye won't heal.
And would just like to mention that B_o_F is a fantastic source of information and support, she really helped me through such a difficult time.
 
Interestingly, anecdotal evidence suggests horses struggle more with reduced vision than total blindness/loss of the eye. Not too surprising considering how their vision works I guess. It might be something to weigh in though, if the question is to save the eye at any cost or remove it. I at least half a dozen horses with one eye, a couple still jumping competitively.

All that said, the OP isn't there yet. Do what you can to save the eye obviously, but don't assume a tragic outcome even if treatment doesn't work as you'd hope.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Interestingly, anecdotal evidence suggests horses struggle more with reduced vision than total blindness/loss of the eye.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can vouch for this; my horse came to me with partial vision in her right eye caused by an injury as a youngster. We didn't get her until many years later and so I'm afraid I'm not sure of the technical terms and treaments involved, only to say that she has some form of scar tissue in the eye that partially obstructed her vision. She had a tendency to spook at objects both known and unknown, and it actually made her a very difficult ride for quite some time.

Many years later a vet commented offhand that she now seemed totally blind in the affected eye - the pupil is now completely covered by scar tissue (it has a slight blueish cast, easy to see in the dark by torchlight but not really visible in daylight). She is infinitely easier to do now she is totally blind in it, it has never caused her any pain or difficulty and she is still actively competing including jumping.
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I have no idea why she progressively lost the sight; the vet was baffled too. It does not seem to have advanced any further for some time and there is nothing apparent in the other eye. Very bizarre but worked out for the best!
 
My horse has a history of corneal ulcers, and although she never had her eye sewn shut, she DID have to wear a contact lens to help it heal. Sort of a 'blister plaster' for the eyeball.

I am currently looking for something for her to wear which keeps the wind off her eye. Fly masks do the job sort of, but are not brilliant.
 
Janette - you could try the Guardian eye mask, its designed for horses with uveitis to block the light but as the mesh is a lot thicker over the eye it might be useful for you.
 
Thank you all so much for your advice and Thank you Box of Frogs for your offer of support. will let you know how it goes! xx
 
Hi

Over the years I have had 2 with ulcers that required surgery anbd stitching shut - the first had a conjunctivitis that ulcerated despite prompt treatment and had his eye stitched shut and by the time the stitches were out it had healed a huge amount and topical treatment did the rest.

The 2nd, a 5 week old foal, had a slightly watery eye which deteriorated into a melting corneal ulcer (despite prompt and immediate treatment on day one) and in an attempt to save his eye and vision my vets carried out a conjunctival skin graft and stitched his eye shut for 10 days. This colt has a darker scarred area on his eye about the size of a 5p piece I guess and retained both his good looks and his eyesight.

In both cases a lavage system was stitched in under the eyelid and a tube stitched along the mane so that you can administer the antibiotic drops both whilst eye is shut and afterwards more effectively. Both of mine healed whilst shut and neither was difficult to treat whilst they were being treated.

In my opinion, in both cases it was well worth the cost as it almost definitely saved their vision and hours of painful topical treatment which lets face it is hard on both them and you. Good luck with yours - based on my experience I can certainly recommend the eye stitched shut route! You can email me on taracostud@hotmail.com if you would like to know more.
Tara
 
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