Spooky horse / eye diagnostics

[gostelr]

looking for anyone who has been through this kind of thing or any ideas/suggestions.

9 year old gelding got very spooky out of his left eye, tense, anxious and extremely difficult to ride above a walk on the right rein fairly suddenly a couple of months ago. To me, he seems his usual self on the left rein. This is our second winter together.

I've worked through saddle fit, chiro, bodywork, pemf, accupuncture, red light therapy. No-one can find anything 'off'.
Had a stronger rider ride him to check if it was a rider issue (I've come off a couple of times in the last 2 months so am now likely riding pretty defensively for me) but saw the same pattern of behaviour. Easy enough on the left, hot mess on the right.

Had the vet out for full physical exam including teeth/eye exam last week. Horse sound. Back, legs,neck no obvious physical issues. Physical structure of eyes no issues noted.

We have started a month of ulcer treatment & then the plan is a bute trial & go from there.
I've been doing extra groundwork & he's his usual self on the ground & calm lunging at trot. Maybe wants to keep a bit closer in to me on the right rein on the lunge so more away from the arena walls than on the left.

It feels really eye specific to me because it is so much out of one eye & he's reactive to all sorts of different things. It's not like he's just picked one corner or a particular object to be spooky at. Random things seem to catch that left eye when he trots so to him i guess it looks like they are moving from in front to behind him on his left side when we add a little speed at a trot. Vet said no signs of damage/uveitis/cataracts to eye however his check was all performed in the barn. I'm thinking there must be some more in depth eye exam available.

What am I missing?

We are in an smallish indoor arena all winter (Canada) so I'm not ruling out barn sourness/attitude but it's pretty unlike him to have more than a one off bad day now and then & he's in regular but light workload (5/6 days a week walk trot only) from December to end of March.

 

[ycbm]

Horses have been shown to use their eyes differenty and evaluate danger from their left eye, which is one theory why we always handle from the left.

He's possibly just a normal spooky horse.
.

 

[AmyMay]

It might be worth a specialist eye vet looking at the horse.

 

[ycbm]

Newer study suggests they may have a preference for either eye, depending on the horse. Yours is left eye/ right brained.

Faced With Scary Objects, Is Your Horse Left- or Right-Brained?

Researchers studied which eye horses used to look at new objects. Their findings were unexpected.

thehorse.com

 

[gostelr]

Newer study suggests they may have a preference for either eye, depending on the horse. Yours is left eye/ right brained.

Faced With Scary Objects, Is Your Horse Left- or Right-Brained?

Researchers studied which eye horses used to look at new objects. Their findings were unexpected.

thehorse.com

would this come on so suddenly? His 'better' side was always on the right prior to this.

 

[gostelr]

It might be worth a specialist eye vet looking at the horse.

I think that's the route we will be going unless the ulcer treatment & bute trial give us more info. I'll need a referral from my regular vet so we are working through his recommended process of elimination right now. I am wondering what else is involved with a more in depth eye exam? Is it hard on the horse?

 

[ycbm]

would this come on so suddenly? His 'better' side was always on the right prior to this.

I'd look for something else going on, like ulcers making him more spooky overall. But then you have to worry about what caused the ulcers.

The eye is pretty straightforward to see if anything is out of the ordinary. I would doubt if an eye specialist will spot anything your vet hasn't, they are more often consulted when the vet has aready spotted something odd and doesn't know how serious it is. I'd be more suspicious of a brain tumour than actual eye issues, if it is resulting from the eye signals.

Did your vet do the standard finger poke test? Where you poke a finger at the eye but stop short of touching it, the horse should blink and do the same with both eyes. Does he pass that one?
.

 

[gostelr]

I'd look for something else going on, like ulcers making him more spooky overall. But then you have to worry about what caused the ulcers.

The eye is pretty straightforward to see if anything is out of the ordinary. I would doubt if an eye specialist will spot anything your vet hasn't, they are more often consulted when the vet has aready spotted something odd and doesn't know how serious it is. I'd be more suspicious of a brain tumour than actual eye issues, if it is resulting from the eye signals.

Did your vet do the standard finger poke test? Where you poke a finger at the eye but stop short of touching it, the horse should blink and do the same with both eyes. Does he pass that one?
.

OK that makes more sense that he didn't want to go with a referral straight away then. he kind of laughed when he did it & said definitely nothing wrong with his reactions to that one :/ but that it didn't rule out processing issues as you say.

 

[paddy555]

I think that's the route we will be going unless the ulcer treatment & bute trial give us more info. I'll need a referral from my regular vet so we are working through his recommended process of elimination right now. I am wondering what else is involved with a more in depth eye exam? Is it hard on the horse?

If nothing else works and you have to go down the eye route then an ophthalmologist examining the eye is not hard on the horse. The exam is done in a blacked out room.
The eye is stained which your vet may have done when examining it. Just a squirt of stain nothing terrible for the horse. The horse may be sedated (standing)

have you tried blacking out the suspect eye (black tape over a fly mask on one side) and seeing if there is any difference.

wind can cause a flare up (or initial start) of ERU. Had he been out riding etc in the wind? Sometimes it is also sub clinical and there is little to be seen and nothing makes sense. Uveitis is painful for the horse (even if you can't see it in the eye) so they do become tense and unhappy.

If you join the FB group "Equine recurrent uveitis forum" there are a lot of people on there from the US (as well as everywhere else) and hopefully Canada so someone may be able to suggest specialised help if you need it.

 

[gostelr]

If nothing else works and you have to go down the eye route then an ophthalmologist examining the eye is not hard on the horse. The exam is done in a blacked out room.
The eye is stained which your vet may have done when examining it. Just a squirt of stain nothing terrible for the horse. The horse may be sedated (standing)

have you tried blacking out the suspect eye (black tape over a fly mask on one side) and seeing if there is any difference.

wind can cause a flare up (or initial start) of ERU. Had he been out riding etc in the wind? Sometimes it is also sub clinical and there is little to be seen and nothing makes sense. Uveitis is painful for the horse (even if you can't see it in the eye) so they do become tense and unhappy.

If you join the FB group "Equine recurrent uveitis forum" there are a lot of people on there from the US (as well as everywhere else) and hopefully Canada so someone may be able to suggest specialised help if you need it.

thanks for the extra info. He is reacting a bit like a horse I rode for a while who was eventually 18 months later diagnosed with uveitis. I did try halter fuzzies to restrict his range of vision a bit but did not 100% cover the eye. That did not end so well.