Should I call the vet out tomorrow?

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Horseantics

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My horse has had a weeping eye since the summer, I wanted to get a vet out and the other liveries and friends said to keep the eye clean and put eye drops in, today I inspected his eye further and he seemed to have a frilly lump, in the summer I noticed on bright days he snatched his head as if the light was hurting him. Again I discussed with very experienced horse owners if he could be a head shaker and they dismissed it. I should of trusted my instincts as when I got home I googled images and now think my beloved horse has sqaumous cell carcinoma, he also had nodules on his penis which I thought was smegma built up as they came off, now I am sat in tears believing he is riddled with cancer, I was going to wait till Tuesday to call my vet as I had asked my yard owner to get his vet to check but they haven't been yet.I want to get my vet out tomorrow (Sunday) am I being hysterical??he is grey and 17 in April. I don't think I can wait till Tuesday but I know it's not like he has colic or broken a leg! What should I do?
 
hi
if you feel you need a vet then call a vet hun.

try not to worry but follow your heart
he/she is your horse and well you must do what you feel is right

big hugs and hope you feel better and all is ok if you get the vet out
 
If the cost of having the vet isnt a problem for you, it being a Bank Holiday weekend, then give them a ring tomorrow if its bothering you so much. Bear in mind it will probably be a skeleton service and the horsey expert vet may not be available. Its obviously upsetting you so dont feel silly about ringing,, thats what they are there for.
 
Thank you for replying, I want my vet as I trust him, so may wait, I am going to take photos tomorrow and give him a thorough groom, I am insured but I would sell my left arm for him, so will give him a ring and see what he says, thank you so much for making me seem like I am not mental!
 
I would wait till tuesday, i dont think a couple more days will hurt him. And im sure its like with most human illnesses you can look on the internet and find out the worst and generally the wrong answers. try not to worry yourself and wait until you can get your trusted vet out.
 
May well be a melanoma or it might be something very very minor. I know of 2 ponies with intra-ocular melanomas at the moment - one is having the eye removed (and is currently still compting) the other is jut bing monitored and adapting well to the gradual loss of sight he is experiencing.
If I were you i would phone the on call vet for piece of mind (its not too late now or wait til the morning and most do not mind giving advice if they dont need to come out asap). then book in for a visit and probably ultrasound next week.
Dont assume the worst, your pony(horse?) is still quite young and hopefully it will just be something minor.
 
Never, EVER feel bad about phoning the duty vet (unless its 3 in the morning and you have just discovered that your vaccination went out of date last week - dont laugh, its happened!!) - its the reason they are there,to give you peace of mind and help you decide if you need a visit or not. If you are worried - thats good enough reason to ask for advice !!

Hope its ok
 
You absolutely can't mess about with eye disease/injury. What eye drops did you use? Over the counter drops will only soothe a tired eye at best. To tackle infectionsand other diseases you need POMs. Injuries or disease to the cornea especially can be awful to deal with because the cornea doesn't have a blood supply. Whatever you do, don't ever use drops or creams prescribed to another owner for another horse.

I wouldn't start panicking about being riddled with cancer just now. Has the horse lost weight, off his feed? Any other symptoms at all apart from the lumps on his sheath? Because he's grey, because he's 17, because he's had this eye problem for months and because there are other possibly suspicious symptoms I'd get the vet out asap x
 
Thanks for replies, my vet is away till tomorrow so have decided to wait and trying not to worry too much (failing miserably) other liveries have been great and pointed out that he is still eating and whooleying around the field so there can't be too much wrong, so only one more night to wait, will tell you what the vet thinks tomorrow , keep your fingers crossed
 
The vet has been and given me antibiotic eyedrops for 7 to 10 days to see if it improves, there is thickening of the third eyelid and growths but if it doesnt clear up he is going to sedate and do a biopsy and flush the tearduct down to the nose and also a biopsy on his man bits, he didnt want to do it today and said he could afford another week, so keeping everything crossed, thanks for all your advice and will keep you updated. Feel better now the vet has been :-)
 
Fingers crossed then. Just a thought, I doubt if flushing the tear duct will make the slightest bit of difference. Did the vet put flouroscene drops in your horse's eye? It's a glow-in-the-dark greeny orange dye that shows up injuries to the cornea but a useful side effect is that it dribbles down the tear ducts and comes out of the nose about 3 or 4 mins after it's been adminstered. If you see the same amount of dye come out of both nostrils at about the same time, the tear ducts are fine. If it doesn't come out of one (or both) nostrils then you've got a problem but I betcha it wouldn't be a simple blocked tear duct. You need to know which came first, ie some damage or problem in the eye caused the tear duct to block or has a blocked tear duct caused the problem. Obviously there's a huge difference in diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. The dye test is a lot cheaper than a try-it-and-see tear duct flush. PM me if it doesn't improve and the vet has to step things up and you need any more lay info x
 
Update: My vet has been out again and taken biopsies and swabs, it seems he may have injured his eye?? But the swabs etc have been sent to Liverpool and i should know by early next week but the vet has confirmed my worst fears now :-( He flushed the tear duct and that doesn't appear to be involved, phew. The gunk that came out from under his eyelid was vile and surprisingly it looks a lot better now that has been removed, i thought he would be so head shy having the cream put in daily but he is being a star patient. So it looks like the third eyelid is going to be removed, i have heard from lots of people that it isn't too bad, thanks to everyone for your advice x
 
Poor horse. They sound as if they'll have been in some discomfort for quite some time.

At least the vet has now seen him. Hope he recovers well and the eye can be saved.
 
Having looked after a livery horse that had uveitis (moon blindness) I would get a vet out as soon as I expected any problem with the eye.

Glad your horse is recovering.
 
when in doubt get the vet certainly with eyes as the longer you eave it the more damage gets done take it with some one who has horses with recurrent uvitus
 
diamond_light said:
when in doubt get the vet certainly with eyes as the longer you eave it the more damage gets done take it with some one who has horses with recurrent uvitus
Click to expand...

I think you will find, by reading the thread properly, that the OP had the vet visit at the beginning of January.
 
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