older horse vision degeneration

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smellsofhorse

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My 18/20 year old horse has arthritis and now we have found he has cateracts.
Currently he is happy and healthy and hacks out.
But i had his eyes checked as there were suspicions about his sight due to spooking and almost walking in to things.
He used to be bomb proof
Im hoping he will continue to be happy and healthy for a long time, even when retired but i will not let him suffer.

Does anyone else have experienced with older horse vision problems?
How quicky did they get worse?
 
Not quite the same but with a good friends. At first it was as though her blind spots had expanded & then went blind in one side completely. Was a 25yr old tb tho that was old for its years if that makes sense, so doesn't mean yours will be the same. We found the fact she was very friendly with mine helped, as mine became her eyes for the blind side. She was a nervy horse anyway & we quickly discovered she was settled led with mine or turned out with mine, but if mine was out of field the other was only calm in her stable. They were turned out in a herd but as mine was alpha mare she looked out for her pal. Only advice I can give is try & pal yours up with another one or two now while he isn't vulnerable.
 
He is very good friends with my other gelding.
Which is good as it had turned grom being "grandad" looking after the youngster to the grown up youngster looking after grandad!

He must have had the cateracts and floaters a while bit its degenerated, im hoping it will be slow but how long is average befor ehe will go blind?

If your friends horse was 25 do we have about 5 years?
But i will depend on the indevidula and the circimstances.
 
My 26 year old has bilateral cataracts.

I took him into the vet's for dental work in Jan 2011 and the vet happened to mention, "Did you know about his cataracts?" when I went to pick him up....
eh.gif


So I freaked out nicely for a good six months....and have had him checked (teeth and eyes) every six months since....but there has been no change.

Vet reckons the mistiness has come on over years, so he doesn't know any different now.

Fortunately, horses are imbued with excellent hearing and an excellent sense of smell (even better than dogs, so I have read).
The fences are electric and they click and if it came to it, I can put little bells in my other horse's mane, so Obi knows where he is to follow.
And he could hack with a companion wearing rhythm beads.
 
blucanoo1990 said:
He must have had the cateracts and floaters a while bit its degenerated, im hoping it will be slow but how long is average befor ehe will go blind?

If your friends horse was 25 do we have about 5 years?
But i will depend on the indevidula and the circimstances.
Click to expand...

The vets tell me it's impossible to tell how fast or slow that will happen.

It's just a case of keeping getting them checked out (as you would with teeth anyway) and hope for the best.

I did add Eyebright to his feeds...if only to make me feel better
whaat.gif

http://www.cotsherb.co.uk/botanical-herbs/herbs/eyebright/prod_215.html
http://www.equinatural.co.uk/epages/BT3755.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/BT3755/Categories/Eye_Health

And if the worst came to the worst....
https://news.liv.ac.uk/2006/02/14/unique-equine-cataract-surgery-offered-on-a-routine-basis/
 
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Oberons beat me too it, we got told the same by the vets about there being no way to tell how fast or slow it will go. Don't assume the worst from what I've said, my friends horse was more like a horse 10 yrs older in lots of ways, lots of missing teeth, had to be retired at 20, lots of grey etc. If she hadn't had pics of it with her as a youngster I wouldn't have believed it was only 25, so a lot of its eye trouble just went hand in hand with its body shutting down like a horse in its late 30's might be expected too. Should have made that clearer as its not a similar case to your horse.
 
Thank you.

yes my vet did say its a case of we dont know how fast it will degenerate.
I just wondered about other peoples experiences and any "average" length of time.

I would not put him through surgery, it is not common or routrine and it wouldnt be fair, combined with his ostioarthrits and ringbone.
 
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Old bag has degenerating vision we think. She likes to stand very close to wall in stable, doesn't notice things and trips more. Not bumping into things but she's very very clever so possibly making out shapes and being smart. Still drag me to field if sunny and drag me in from field if wet. Seems to tell her friends apart ok and happy as the proverbial pig so I ignore it. If she's not stressed by it why should I be? :-D I do leave her whiskers long though so she can 'feel' the walls in the dark. :$
 
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