Nasty lycra hoods

Magicmillbrook

Magicmillbrook

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Having a coloured mare I often use a lycra hood the night before a competion, and have never had a problem (used one for 6 years) However this weekend, between the 11pm pyjama run saturday night and 7am feed, the hood had slipped or been rubbed over the ponies eye ball. Her eyes had swollen up so that the fabric of the hood was actualy inside her eyes. My daughter had grabbed the scissors and cut the hood so she could extract it - thought that was probably the best thing to do and irrigated the eyes with a bottle of sterile wound wash - we thought at least it might help the swelling before the vet came out.

So an early sunday morning call out, sedation, pain killing injection, eye stain, anti-inflammatory injection in each eye, antibiotic injection later, (yikes - dont even want to think about that bill) poor pony had very swollen eyes, one was completely closed and an ulcer on each eye ball. The vet said this is a common injury, the last horse he saw with it had an ulcer that covered the whole surface of one eye!

Poor girl is on bute twice a day, eye drop 3 times a day and eye ointment 3 times a day but 15 minutes after the drops. Yesteday she was so poorly, she hardly ate all day. Good news is she is loads better this morning (monday), eating voraciously with both eyes open.

Lycra hood is in the bin never, ever to be replaced, I would rather spend an extra hour washing off stable stains than go through that again!
 
The exact same thing happened to my boy in May! Torn cornea, bute, eye ointment, two weeks off and 4 weeks light hacking till it healed. He had restricted vision for the first few weeks but its healed up well and he's back to his normal cheeky self. Keep telling myself it could have been a lot worse!
I assume she's stabled at the moment but when you do get round to turning her out can I recommend a fly mask as it filters the light slightly? This might help reduce the risk of further damage.
Hope she feels better soon.
 
Thank you for posting this. We have just started useing a hood, day after a show noticed horse had a sore eye, bathed it ect, day after was closed and had some clouding, called vet he was busy so we rushed horse down to the surgery, upshot of this was that she had conjunctivitis, , antibiotic cream and bute for a few days, its now looking a lot better, had wondered how it happed now i know, thanks again, another hood going in the bin.
 
Oh how awful
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I hope she gets better soon. Darn lycra hoods
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Gosh, how awful for your poor wee mare!
I never knew this could happen with hoods. I used one years ago with my old grey mare, but would think twice now about using one again.
Thanks for sharing your awful experience.
 
I got one for my horse a while ago. On the first (and only) night it was used I carefully zipped, velcro-ed and clipped him in only to find him the next morning with it dangling around his legs and his head in much more of a mess than it would have been hoodless. He must've spent all night trying to get out of it and I shudder at the thought of him losing an eye in the process or getting it wrapped around a tendon in the night.

NEVER to be used again!
 
same happened to a friends show pony days before a championship show.

My dun connie likes to rub it off too.

What i do (and it may be frowened upon) is cut the hood so it just comes over the ears and make splits for a headcollar to go through it. Stops the hood going in eyes and almost impossible for horse to get off
 
We use them on the western horses because correct turnout is a very flat sleek mane, especially if it has been 'banded'.

The best ones come from the USA and are made more precisely to the horse's size - not just pony, cob or full. They also have very big, hemmed eye and ear holes and fleece around the nose.

My advice would probably be to borrow one and make sure your horse is comfortable in it and it fits really well while you're around the yard. If they rub like mad or the hood slips, you probably need to forget using one. you can get 'headless' ones if you want to protect plaits or keep a white neck clean, but I've not used one and can't comment on their fit.
 
I used a lycra hood on my boy once, despite being secured it slipped and covered his eyes - but he didnt panic, UNTIL they tried to take it off and discovered that it had become static, so every time she went to pul it off he was getting shocks, which made him go a bit mental.

I would never use a lycra one again!! A well secured fleece one with no face - yes!
 
This one has huge eye holes, I guess she must just have snagged it on something. I am just so releived it wasnt much worse. I am going to try using an opened up leg of tights elastic banded over plaits next time and just stick to a full necked rug.

A friend at work had a scare with a snuggy hoods sweet itch rug, her mare got the hood caught and it pulled over her head, poor mare went through 3 or 4 fences in panic and was a dreadful mess the next day.
 
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