Runny eye.

H

hairymolly

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My mare seems to have a constant runny eye, vet has looked at it twice and they just say keep it clean. I have to bath it every couple of days. It also sometimes looks a bit red. Mare not really bothered about it and has no issues with me cleaning it. Should I get the vet out again, I just grudge a £80 bill to get told to keep it clean again. It is worrying me though.
 
Eyes are so valuable and easy to go wrong. Speak to your vet about the redness, and ask if it needs any treatment. Tell him that you cannot afford another call out fee, Ask if he noticed anything that would cause the redness. Good luck
 
I think a blocked tear duct would run all the time. the vet can unblock it fairly simply. One of mine has a problem with his eyes - he is prone to conjunctivitis, and I have to use a mask all the time when he is turned out as flies/dust/wind can all set off an eye infection.
 
The vet suggested my horse had a blocked tear duct in one eye, this was tested by putting some dye in both eyes and checking to see if any came out of his nose half an hour later. One showed no sign of the dye which suggested a blocked tear duct. I was given antibiotics for a week for him, it still hasn't really cleared up but apparently there are other ways of unblocking it.
 
HM, there was a similar post in vets a few days ago. Having experienced the trauma of Sunny losing an eye to what started as watery eyes, intermittently chronically gungy, I'm paranoid about eyes. So I'm just repeating the info I gave before:

You're right to want to tackle this problem before it gets any worse. Eyes are very fragile and very precious. The cornea has no blood supply (obviously ha ha) so is very slow to heal and all sorts of problems, some minor, some not, can arise from a chronic condition that isn't successfully treated. Weepy eyes with an inflamed conjunctiva = conjunctivitis. Conjunctivitis that is NOT controlled is a recognised precursor to an autoimmune condition called superficial keratitis. Superficial keratitis is what cost Sunny his eye after a ghastly 6 month battle to save it, 3 lengthy stays in hospital and £4k+ in vet bills.

Please note that anything you can buy over the counter or can concoct at home will only SOOTHE sore eyes. They won't clear up an infection. If your ned has regular weepy eyes it may be that he has borderline/poor tear production or dodgy tear ducts. Sounds as if there's some predisposition there to begin with. To clear up conjunctivitis you need special antibiotic drops/ointments and you may have to treat repeat infections frequently. NB: the operation to clear blocked tear ducts is not always successful.

A word of warning - Sunny finally lost the battle to save his eye when the yard staff stabbed him right in the cornea of his bad eye with the tube of ointment that was supposed to be treating it. When you have to put anything in a horse's eye it is safer to apply it to the end of a clean finger and squish that into the eye instead. Blunt finger ends can't puncture an eyeball if the horse jerks, as eventually they will. You can also buy a no-prisoners face mask from America which completely protects the eyes from everything from flies to wind to sunlight and probably nuclear fallout too lol. Can't remember the name but someone on the Forum will know it.

If it was me and you struggle to keep your ned's eyes free from infection during the summer, I'd ask for a referral to a horse eye specialist to get to the bottom of it before it gets worse.
 
it could be the flies just borrowing her. give it a good clean with a herb called eye bright very good stuff but if not happy call vet for second opion. give a couple of sachets f bute my just help with an inflammation going on!
 
I would repeat that if the eye is sometimes inflamed, that means there is an infection in it and it's probably conjunctivitis. Conjunctivitus alone isn't too much of a big deal for horse or human. But, if it becomes a chronic condition, ie long term and impossible to permanently sort out, then conjunctivitis is a recognised precursor to other, much more sinister eye conditions. And anything you can buy over the counter or anything you can brew up in the kitchen will only SOOTHE sore eyes. Sometimes the horse's immune system is strong enought to clear up mild conjunctivitis on its own. But otherwise, please please get veterinary advice because the horse will need antibiotic drops/cream. And if you give bute without understanding the underlying condition, you can mask something serious.
 
As long as you are sure it isn't anything serious as listed by Box of Frogs I find tea bags are very very good for soothing sore eyes. I had an appy x who had warts on his lower eye lid and they irritated his eye as they rubbed on it. I was told the operation was risky and someone said to try tea bags as the tannin in them is very good for eyes (astringent). The wart eventually dropped off but his eyes were always a little weepy and this attracted the flies, fly nets and tea bags worked really well for him.
I also had a TB mare who was prone to getting a very swollen lower lid from flies and wind and I would treat her the same. the cheaper tea bags have a higher tannin level so are better.
All I used to do was boil some water and chuck a 3 or 4 tea bags in and let the water cool a lot and then press gently on the eye and let the tea run along and in.. obviously they shut their eyes so the wetter the tea bag the better as you stand more chance of gettin it in, some horse let you open their eye and squeeze it in...
This does work wonders for sore eyes but as above post states; make sure it isn't something underlying that is worse. The tea bags would make a marked improvement after 2 treatments for my horses so that may be a good indication
 
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