Recovery after having an eye removed

[daisybe33]

How quickly do horses recover from a trauma related removal. Has anyone come across any complications after the operation?

Stacey

 

[AmyMay]

bump

 

[china]

my friends horse has just had an eye removed and he is fine and has carryed on being broken in. i cant remember exactly what was wrong with him but he couldnt be in bright light without a fly mask on and his eye used to swell and go red and orange.

 

[Maesfen]

They usually recover quite quickly but some will take longer to acclimatise than others.

You must always remember to give them plenty of warning that you are on their bad side so talking to them is very good; don't just pat it without it knowing you are there else it could jump a mile or squash you flat!

Also always give it plenty of room on the bad side, it might not like other horses riding close or behind on their bad side so warn everyone who comes near.

The mare I rode just after her op' had a special blinker made for her bridle to give the eye some protection until it had healed right over completely.

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

My horse Sunny (see sig) had an eye removed after a 6-month battle to save it. It wasn't through trauma - although the battle was certainly traumatic - but due to superficial keratitis, an autoimmune disease. Sunny was admitted the day before the surgery and his eye was removed the next day. He stayed in the hospital for 5 days before returning home to a short period of box rest. I visited every day and right from the day after surgery, I walked him in hand for grass. A couple of days after he come home, I turned him into the outdoor school to stretch his legs and he thundered round like a lunatic, bucking and farting and loose schooling himself over a couple of jumps left in the school. I had to be his "spare eye" for a few weeks: you learn not to put feed bowls close to walls and you have to train anyone who handles him (vets, farriers, etc) to talk to him when on his blind side and rest a hand gently on his shoulder to let him know you're there. The first few hacks out, Sunny needed to turn his whole body to see things on his blind side but he adapted very very fast. He's now pretty much the safest hack on my yard and does a mean walk and trot dressage test! He's as happy as a pig in whatsit.

Straight after the surgery, Sunny had a pressure pad stitched on over the eye to stop any accumulation of blood etc. This was removed without the need for sedation after a few days. The eyelids are stitched shut (the stitches fall out on their own after a week or two) except for a tiny hole. The cavity where the eye was will be packed with gauze at first and this is withdrawn from the socket through the tiny gap left in the eyelids. Some horses have the gauze withdrawn a little at a time but Sunny had his all taken out at once. Initially the empty eye socket is convex because of the post-surgery swelling but over a few months, as the swelling subsides, the socket becomes concave. Sunny had no setbacks and made a full and uneventful recovery.

Let me know if you need any more info x

 

[Eye_Spy]

My mare had her right eye removed nearly two years ago now, and honestly most days I forget she can't see on the right.

We think she poked it on a twig in the field and she spent 8 weeks at the vets while they tried to save it with 'eye drips' stitched through her mane and into the bottom of the eye and a special contact lense. Unfortunately uvitis kept reoccuring and they assessed that she had little response to light anyway so for comfort it would be best removed.

After removal she travelled home brilliantly and adapted to home life very easily. We didn't really make any alterations to her daily life as she was used to being fed in a certain place etc. She was given her own paddock as shes a typical moody chestnut mare anyway and didn't want her becoming upset with the other mares coming up on her blind side.

While recovering from the op she apparently fractured her knee so had to have her leg in a full leg cast and managed to cope fine travelling 3 hours to RVC time and time again.

I really wouldn't worry- after recovery we were back to schooling and jumping- but have never risked hacking due it being the right eye she has lost.

Long, but hope it helps somewhat!

 

[Brummyrat]

I can't help with recovery advice but years ago I lived in Sydney and used to ride a horse regularly that only had one eye and he was brilliant, I'd often go with one other girl on dawn rides before work and in the gloom we'd canter along paths jumping small jumps that had been built along the way and he loved it, just before I came home I went on a beach ride on him, utterly fabulous, he was a lovely whizzy little thing, quite sharp but not at all spooky, wish you loads of luck xxx

 

[My_chestnut_mare]

My first pony sonny(sunny) had a horse box accident where an other horse attacked him and bit his eye split his aye and lost his lens(not very nice)

. The vets said there was nothing they could do but to stitch his eye together. But my mum and dad were not going to accept this as he was a show jumping pony. so the vet booked him in to the dick vet and we traveled down to Edinburgh from aberdeenshire and he got an operation there and then stayed for 14 days then back home for a month stable rest. I was told he would never be able to jump again well i proved them all wrong and on our first outing to a competition my boy got 2 firsts

we were on the front of the local papers ha was a star loved him so much he passed away 9 years ago. the only thing he did different was the carriage of his head so he could compensate for the loss of his eye.

i know this is an old post but im new and just came accross it.