Swollen eyes

Slave2Magic

Slave2Magic

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Does anyone else's horses have swollen eyes at the moment? I can't decide if it is flies or buttercups. Treating with eye drops and that brings them down. Not a fan of face masks. What does everyone else use in this situation?
 
My horse once had what I presumed to be hayfever with really swollen sore weepy eyes, I treated him with eyedrops and put a facemask on to keep flies off his eyes, after a few days they had healed.
 
unicorndreams said:
Swollen eyes can also be an early warning sign of laminitis which seems to be worse this year with our warm wet spring and lush grass growth.
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Really? Ive never heard of this. I have heard if the hole above the eye socket is filled, this can mean a metabolic disorder and therefore possibly lami
 
One of mine has had puffy/weepy eyes lately, have bathed with saline solution and kept fly mask on. No buttercups where he is grazing so assume it is fly related.
 
My mare has never worn one and everyone I know who uses them is usually hunting round the field for them every day. I have also heard of flies getting trapped under them. They are a relatively new contraption so what did we do before fly marks for horses with swollen eyes?
 
I have this at the moment too, and theres no buttercups on the grazing. I have put it down to flies. Am putting a fly mask on one pony, the other I haven't as of yet, just wiping his face with fly repellent each day. The one with the fly mask has improved over 2 days with the mask on. I am going to get a smaller fly mask for the other pony. It stays put and doesn't move and never found a fly to get underneath it.
 
Bestdogdash said:
Everyone else uses facemasks - they are v effective.
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not everyone.

i hate them and have seen 2 horses who rub their faces excessively when wearing them that went on to lose an eye due to ulceration from the material scratching the eye.
just to add my vet and his wife do not use them for the above reason.

I leave forelocks long where possible, bathe the eyes when needed and bring in during the day and apply vaseline around the eye
 
Just a warning - my mare had swollen eyes yesterday I called the vet as she has had ulcers in the past I thought it could be the pollen but he diagnosed uveitis :( . Be careful with eyes they can go downhill v quickly
 
Also beware of using flyspray, even if you don't get it near their faces remember they rub eyes/faces on legs, mine had weepy eye tonight and this morning was first time had used flyspray (they go in field shelter when fly's are bad so often don't bother with spray) it had quite a wide spray which is great for coverage but suspect I got some inadvertantly on his leg!
 
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