Horse eyeball scraped. Now changed colour

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KrujaaLass

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Vet put green dye in horses eye said that he had scraped it. Hie eye had changed colour to a bluey grey. Asked if he had gone blind and she didnt say. After 4 days of drops eye now partly open but still same colour and he does not seem to be able to see out of it. Would the blindness be temorary. does anyone know. Thanks
 
I can understand you're looking for reassurance on a Sunday night when you can't speak to your vet, but I hope you'll get the vet back out tomorrow. Eyes are too precious to take any chances at all.

I can tell you that after an eye injury my dog developed a post-traumatic cataract, although it took several months to develop. However, it might be what's happening here, and it won't be good news. But I'm not a vet and I'm not looking at your horse. You need professional advice without delay, and make sure they explain themselves better next time. Good luck.
 
Most likely its corneal oedema which gives a hazy grey/white colour to the eye. This can be part of the healing process. It may cover all or part of the eye. Bet to phone your vet first thing in the morning for advice. It is usually a good idea to get the vet to regularly recheck the horse during recovery. Often eyes start to look worse in the early stages of healing but it takes an experienced eye(pardon the pun!) to be sure things are going the right way.

ETA - as regards sight, corneal oedema does notcause them to be blind per se but does impede their sight (as thouh looking through a fog) - this is usually temporary.
 
thanks for replies. Vet did say he would start to look more comfortable today and he does. she did see the colouring of the eye and he needs the dye doing again on Thursday to see if it has decreased. Will speak to her tomorrow.
 
If you are given eye drops (fumathalmic.... something or other) read the leaflet very carefully - if its used for too long it can cause severe damage to the eye. I moved very quickly to an over the counter human eye ointment which cleared up the eye.
 
I would phone your vet for advise asap.

I had a horse who had a swollen eye and it ended up turning into a ulcer so had a large bit in the centre of the eye that was whitish/blue colour. It went on for months and the horse was nearly pts but he did eventually get better. This eye in the end abscessed once a contact lense was fitted and it then filled his eye with pus. Took ages to heal and he was a 4 months boxrest with no sunlight as it can damage the ulcer further.

So I never take chances with eyes and always contact a vet and give updates almost every day.
 
As others have already said needs very close monitoring by your vet, is it a large oedema / ulcer?

My tb filly threw herself out of my instructors arena backwards down a 6ft drop and smashed her eye up, she had a HUGE ulcer on her eyeball, she went to the vets for treatment and had serum from her blood put in her eye and chloramphenacol as well as drops to prevent uveitis (problems from sunlight) every 2 hours. It wasnt geting better and in the end she was sent to Leahurst at Liverpool Uni, they tested and scraped the ulcer back and pricked the eyeball to start the healing again and thankfully her ulcer has healed, but sadly she is blind.

Its about 4 months since her accident and her eye is ok but still has the blue grey colour to it where she bruised it, we dont know if it will fade or not. But at least she hasnt lost her eye.

Just make sure any change is reported immediately to your vet the are very sensitive things the eyes I had no idea how until this accident, good luck too xx
 
Thanks for reply Ha. Is an ulcer the same as a scrape. Only have to put the drops in twice a day. In contact with vet and can phone her anytime. So sorry to hear about your horse
 
Hope the eye heals and horse is back to normal soon.

not sure if this will help but when my last horse had a ulcer in his eye we took a pic of it everyday so we could monitor it and show vet any changes to save them coming out on almost daily basis.
 
Sorry for delayed reply, not been on here for a while.

How is your horses eye doing? Good I hope?

The trauma to the eyeball usually results in an ulcer and if the vets put stain into the horses eye it will stick to the ulcer and show how big the ulcer is, did the use any stain? It shows the extent of the trauma. Heidi's was at least 50% of the surface of her eyeball.

It also helps monitor the healing and was when we realised Heidi's eye wasn't healing as the stained area was growing, hence she went to Liverpool, it was a very nasty injury she had and the trauma has actually detached the optic nerve from the back of her eyeball hence the blindness. But our best way forward was to heal the ulcer so she could keep her eye for 'cosmetic reasons' and thank goodness it has all healed but some blue cloudyness still remains and probably will do forever.

And one more thing, E&L have now paid out in full without any problems to both my vet and the specialists in Liverpool.

Good luck x
 
sorry for delay in repsonding - my horse had a small ulcer on his eye, caused by the long grass he was grazing in (jumping fences at 30!). It cleared up but not with the medicine they gave me.
 
We never had that for Heidi but her eye was all bright blue and now is just a bit cloudy in places, I think its the best we can hope for unless it fades slowly over time, just glad she kept her eye.

Any changes or even tiny signs of worsening get the vet back out, good luck x
 
Yeah it wasnt an easy time, but she is actually a more trusting and manageable horse after it all.

She did this when we sent her away for backing, but since we've had her back on turnout we've worked with her and she is now lightly backed, we can walk around on her but we're taking it all very slowly. We've found lunging a bit difficult as she cant see us on one rein so its totally voice controlled which is not always easy with a stubborn horse, as she can be.

She's been out to an in hand youngstock show too a couple of weeks ago and apart from the odd rear she was excitable but not 'wild and out of control' however she is a 3 yr old tb so she does get rather giddy around new horses, bless her.

How is your horse getting on?
 
Hows your horse doing? Hopefully on the mend.

My horse had a ulcer in his eye which was caused by him escaping out a field. Jumped a 5ft stone wall and did a rotational on landing. It took 4 months of boxrest to heal and he wasnt allowed out in sunlight for the whole time. Was a nightmare and caused much more issues when we tried to reunite him with the world (due to him not having good sight in either eye after the accident)
We used the maxitrol drops but not when he had his ulcer but when his eye flaired up the following summer. I wasnt allowed to use the maxitrol on the ulcered eye because it can make the ulcer melt. So the following summer I was allowed to stain the eye myself so I could use the correct creams for the issue. He never had a ulcer again but was pts at christmas time for another health issue that was caused by the same accident but never reared its head properly until he came back into work.

hope your horse is on the mend I have pics of my horses ulcer if your interested in seeing them.
 
Hopefully is on the mend. We put green dye in today and there was no sign of the original scrape so we used the maxitrol drops. I'M desparately googling eye ulcers and green dye so any pictures you have (Oscarwild) I would be very grateful to see. Never had a horse with an eye problem so its all new to me. Vet said he could stay out. His eye is still misty though. Thanks again ha for your concern
 
Ah that sounds very promising. Hopefully he will be right as rain in no time.

Right there are a few pics of the ulcer from the start to the end. So I'll put a few up for you to have a look at.

This one is at the start.
OscarEye24-09-091.jpg

then the vet scraped the flappy bit off.
P1000693.jpg

Then contact lense was fitted.
P1000724.jpg

2 days after lense was fitted
Oscareye4-10-09.jpg

3 days after
Oscareye5-10-09.jpg

Eventually eye started to heal
Oscareye8-10-09.jpg

Oscareye11-10-09.jpg

OscarEye18-10-09.jpg

Oscareye23-10-09.jpg

Oscareye28-10-09.jpg

Oscareye31-10-09.jpg


I think the ones with the dye and how it ended up are on the other computer so will dig them out when I'm on it hopefully tomorrow.
 
Hi Oscarwild. I have tried to pm you but I appear to be doing something wrong. Thanks for taking the time to sort out the pictures. Its a lot clearer to me now. Decided to keep on with the antibiotic drops and redo the test. Also been googling like mad as never had to deal with eyes before. Bit scarey reading about burst eyes and things.
Thanks again for your help
 
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