Horse with sensitive eyes driving me crazy! D:

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SilverFilly

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Hi all!

So, my eldest is very sensitive to flies, they drive her crazy and really effect her skin. She has a fly mask on during the warmer days but i take it off when its throwing it down with rain otherwise it just goes horrible and leaves marks on her (shes light grey so EVERYTHING shows). Her eyes are constantly streaming and a bit gunky. I've tried bathing it and using optrex on the recommendation from my vet but its not worked at all!
Can anyone recommend anything to help?

TIA
 
Not sure when mare is out/in but if she comes in at night would you be able to swap that to during the day just to get her away from the worst of the flies?

As far as I know Optrex won't have more than a momentary calming effect. She needs something to keep the flies away... be that better fly spray (search old threads) a second fly mask (so you can wash one/she doesn't get rubbed in the same places) etc
 
I have a shires field durable fly mask on a light grey and have absolutely no issues with it leaving any marks on him even when it rains and it goes in the washing machine on a low temp too. One of my wee chaps had a spell of watery eyes and gunky and the vet was out for something else and she just advised to bath in cold tea and that worked amazingly well and cleared it up really quckly.
 
Worth checking it isn't anything more serious - my boy had the odd streamy eye and it turned out to be subclinical uveitis :( If it's just the flies, can you line the mask with something like sheepskin? I sympathise with the marks - my boy looks like Harry Potter when his mask leaves round circles round his eyes!
 
tatty_v said:
Worth checking it isn't anything more serious - my boy had the odd streamy eye and it turned out to be subclinical uveitis :( If it's just the flies, can you line the mask with something like sheepskin? I sympathise with the marks - my boy looks like Harry Potter when his mask leaves round circles round his eyes!
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She's had the vet out to look at the eye and he says it's just a reaction to the flies. Her fly mask is lined around the poll and nose area but like you said, it's the Harry Potter markings around her eyes that I hate 😫
 
GirlFriday said:
Not sure when mare is out/in but if she comes in at night would you be able to swap that to during the day just to get her away from the worst of the flies?

As far as I know Optrex won't have more than a momentary calming effect. She needs something to keep the flies away... be that better fly spray (search old threads) a second fly mask (so you can wash one/she doesn't get rubbed in the same places) etc
Click to expand...

She's out 24/7 except in harsh weather at the moment as she is arthritic so like to keep her out as much as I can to keep her moving. Plus I work shifts in a hotel so can't supervise her during the day and sometimes can't get down early enough in the morning to turn her out (I'm on a small private yard and the yard owner wants stables mucked out and beds put up when the horses aren't in there and with starting work at 8am I don't have time in the mornings :(( )

I use NAF deet fly spray and it doesn't work very well haha, struggling to find one that does!
 
Tinytots said:
I have a shires field durable fly mask on a light grey and have absolutely no issues with it leaving any marks on him even when it rains and it goes in the washing machine on a low temp too. One of my wee chaps had a spell of watery eyes and gunky and the vet was out for something else and she just advised to bath in cold tea and that worked amazingly well and cleared it up really quckly.
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Will look at the shires! Thanks :D cold tea...I can do that haha, have more than enough tea bags around my yard!
 
SilverFilly said:
Will look at the shires! Thanks :D cold tea...I can do that haha, have more than enough tea bags around my yard!
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Second the tea bags, a vet came out to check one of mine and whilst there I asked her about eyes of another, I was washing with boiled salty water, she said that is good but try tea bags, only made one mistake when I put my finger through the tea bag and he had tea leaves over his face (He looked as if he had freckles for a few minutes haha!)
 
Have you tried one of those pull on lycra masks? Might leave less marks than a traditional flymask, if you just google 'horse lycra flymask', plenty will come up. SnuggyHoods do their version of these, but you can buy a version with a zip underneath the jaw to make putting it on easier if yours won't tolerate something being pulled over her head.

I didn't get on with them personally, both the lycra and the snuggy masks, as my girls love to roll and one likes itching her head on everything, so they turned them around too easily and ended up not being able to see until the masks were righted lol. But worth a try!
 
Check with your vet, but assuming it is just fly reaction then I'd apply goldeneye ointment daily. I had a horse who just would not keep a mask on and would get swollen and weepy eyes, goldeneye kept on top of it
 
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