Think my horse may need his eye removed

corrie153

corrie153

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took my horse to the dick vet yesterday to get his eye checked out as it has become cloudy and starting to look like the surface of it is breaking up. He has the vets totally bamboozled as there is no pain or discomfort. He is staying at the vets so they can work out what it is but the eye specialist was called and they think they may have to remove the eye.

Vet called today to say that I have 3 options.

option 1 - keep medicating the eye with steroids for a while and if no change take eye out.

option 2 - operate on the eye to remove damaged area (but only has a 10% sucess rate, if doesnt work, remove eye anyway.

option 3 - cut into the eye to administer some magical medicine but this will have to be repeated every 3 days for a month or so. but will leave bad scar tissue. not asked yet if that will affect his sight

what do you think i should do. My thoughts are that i would rather him be comfortable and at home with his friends sooner rather than later so medicate and if no change, take eye out.

What would you do??
 
Not easy decisions to make, but i would have a go at treating it first, especially if you are not sure what you are dealing with.

I have a pony who got a piece of blackthorn stuck in her eye. To cut a long story short, we treated it for 6 months but eventually ended up removing the eye for her comfort. I was there when the surgery was done, and took her home the same day. The first few days she had to adjust, but to be honest she has managed so well since I dont regret the decision.

Hope all goes well for your horse x
 
Personally I think I would do as much research as possible and get a second opinion before I would let them do anything. When you say the eye specialist was called does that mean they actually came out and looked at his eye or was it discussed by phone. I just don't think I would be comfortable letting them do anything that could risk his sight if they don't really know what is wrong.

On a slightly more 'positive' note, I know of several horses that have had to have an eye removed and have coped really well, even continuing to compete in one case. I really hope they manage to save his eye and full vision and that he is better soon.x
 
the visit yesterday was my second opinion. my vet said it was scar tissue and that it would be ok but i felt there was something more to it so took him to the equine hospital.They looked at his eye through some pretty scary machines - lol. Problem is that speciaist (who was sent pics of the eye but is visiting my boy tomorrow) thinks it could be one of two things. one is very rare and has only seen 2 cases in the past 20yrs and the other is something that thay havent ever seen before in horses.
i am just worried that I will put him through all the stress of ops and constant fiddling with the eye when in the end he may need eye taken out anyway. Such a dilema

horses eh, what a lovely christmas present he has given me, a nice vet bill
 
ah, right! Ok, so the specialist is coming to have a look, I suppose you will just have to wait and see what he says and then make a decision from there. It would depend on the odds of the outcome as to what I would decide to do, if the odds are very small on him keeping the eye, he is in pain, there is a lot for him to be put through, then I would probably make 'the' decision now and save him all that. Do you have insurance? If not then that may have to have a bearing on your decision, realistically, can you afford to pay for ongoing treatment if the likely outcome isn't good anyway. I don't envy you but when you know where you are at it will be easier to make your decision, the best for both you and your boy. I wish you both the best of luck and hope that you don't have to make the decision at all when the specialist has seen him. x
 
My veteran cob Sunny had his eye removed 5 yrs ago. He'd had chronic conjunctivitis for years and years and his previous owners had done nothing to treat it properly. Within 3 weeks of my buying him from the riding school (!) his eye clouded over and I started the 6 month battle to save the eye. The conjunctivitis had flipped over into superficial keratitis, an autoimmune disease where the horse's own body starts attacking the tissues of the eye. Be warned: a cloudy cornea is a damaged cornea and damaged corneas are a bitch to treat as they don't have a blood supply. Sunny's treatment was hourly eye drops, a mix of atropine, antibx and the dreaded Optimmune. Dreaded because a titchy tube about 2 inches long lasts about 5 days and costs over £50. Another problem you will face is when you bring your horse home and YOU have to put the eye drops in. The reason we lost the battle to save Sunny's eye is that a member of staff at my yard stabbed him in his bad eye with the pointy end of the tube of bloody Optimmune. Didn't bother to tell me what had happened either. Don't really blame them but wish they'd told me immediately - putting drops in a horse's eye can be tricky. Very tricky. Might have to have a line stitched down his mane to the corner of the eye to administer drops. Sunny never needed that but if he had, I doubt he could have been turned out. That was the beginning of the end. A question: how do they know your horse isn't in pain? Eye pain won't produce the same dramatic pain symptoms as eg colic or lameness but I can tell you Sunny was miserable an awful lot of the time. The hospital staff told me he skipped out of the recovery box back to his stable because he was at last out of pain. Imagine throwing a handful of grit into your own eye on a daily basis, tie your hands behind your back so you can't rub it, then have another think about pain.

Sunny made an amazingly swift recovery (he was 19 having the surgery done) and was home in 5 days. Eye healed without any problems and within a few weeks he was back being hacked out, jumping, doing dressage tests. You have to be the horse's "spare" eye for a few weeks while they adjust but they do cope remarkably well. I think the last straw for me was when the specialist vet told me that the entire eye was being damaged from within and there was a very real risk that the eye would have collapsed or begun to ooze fluid. We considered many alternative heroic options: slicing the top surface of the cornea away, pulling a "graft" membrane down from the inside of the eyelid. Can't remember any more. Vets discounted all of them because the trigger for the autoimmune disease was never identified so it was likely that the disease process would have relentlessly continued even as we were trying these other options.

Be careful to make your decision based on what is best for your horse rather than what may be technically possible. Sunny's 6 month battle cost over £4,000. Today I reckon it would be a lot more than this. Thank god for insurance. PM me if I can help further x
 
Sounds like a very tricky situation.

Difficult to say what's for the best but hopefully the specialist can give some better guidance.

Would echo what others have said about eye drops being a bugger to put in. A slightly headshy pony of mine was treated in Liphook for an eye injury and needed 3 hourly drops / eye washed out etc.

After the first time of doing it we couldn't get near her head so she went back to Liphook to have a tube stitched into her eye lid. They tied narrow tubing up her mane, over her poll and then made 2 holes in her upper eye lid to thread the tube through. The tube had little holes in it where in went into the eye lid to allow the stuff to drip through into her eye.

It meant her eye could be washed from the safety of her shoulder but made for quite expensive treatment as she ended up staying there for a while!!

I also know several horses who have had sucussful careers and adapted well to only having one eye. I'm facing the same prospect with my current NF pony. He has a sarcoid on his eyelid. It's currently ok and on vet's advise we are not treating it. Vet has said it'll be v hard to treat cos of where it is and will also be difficult to remove if it gets problematic. The likelihood is that he will need to have the eye removed if it gets worse.
 
Very strange coincidence. My pony is at the vets atm having an op to remove an abscess from his eye. He will then have a corneal graft and the whole thing will be stitched up. I'm waiting for the call to say he is OK - and feeling a bit worried!
 
got the call from the vet today and i have told them to carry on with the medicated drops and then if that doesnt work, his eye will be removed.
He currently has one of these tubes that goes from his mane to his eye as he keeps his head down but clamps his eye shut when thay try and medicate - silly horse. he is staying in for another few days then he is coming home and i will continue to put eye drops in, hopfully the tube will still be in.
the pain issue seems to totally have the vets baffled. Apart from looking at his eye you wouldnt think anything is wrong. he is his usual happy playfull self and does not mind people touching his eye. Vet said he SHOULD be withdrawn and a bit headshy if it was sore but hes not. Anyhow, I shall keep you all posted on what is happening and how he is getting on.
Visiting him today - makes me laugh that there are visiting hours! shall try and get pic of the eye so you can see whats going on.

Thank you for all the thoughts and information.

Hope you all have a good new year
 
pepperpots said:
Very strange coincidence. My pony is at the vets atm having an op to remove an abscess from his eye. He will then have a corneal graft and the whole thing will be stitched up. I'm waiting for the call to say he is OK - and feeling a bit worried!
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fingers crossed that all goes well
 
I have no advice with regards to whether to treat the eye - you need to wait for the specialist's opinion. However, I would like to reassure you that horses cope very well with only one eye and that if your horse is in pain, then it is far better to have the eye removed. My boy evented with one eye until he retired to pure dressage and now in his old age he is mostly a happy hacker.

Only you know what is best for your horse, keep us updated and best of luck. Sending lots of vibes.
 
Have his good eye thoroughly checked out before you make any decisions. If it's showing no signs of deterioration, then I would have the bad eye removed. I wouldn't put a horse through painful treatments unless there was a very good (80% plus) chance of success. Medicating a painful eye can lead to a headshy horse and who could blame him!

You will be astonished at how quickly he adapts to having one eye and hopefully, he'll be almost as good as he was before the trouble began.
 
the dick vets are one of the best vets in the uk. and probably the best in scotland. i hope the medication works give it time. and should you have to have the eye removed make sure they have thoroughly checked the other eye as well. horses adjust well to only having one eye, and you will quickly learn to adjust to it as well. Best of luck, and the good thing about him not being in pain, and happy and cheerful is that at least you can take a little time to decide the best route for him.
 
My old boy had his eye removed due to recurring Uveigtus (prior to that he had to be kept indoors due to the medication etc) which made him very misrable. Taking his eye out was the best thing for him he competed for many years afterwards SJ and Dressage very successfully :)
 
suzi

One of my Arabs had a sarcoid on the corner of her eye I treated it with Thuja tablets and painted it with Bergamot essential oil

It took about 3 months but it had gone.

She had it when she was 9 an she is now 20 an not a sign of it.

I also have any other one that is blind in one eye and he has no trouble competing.
 
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If you haven't done so already please get an opinion from Andy Mathews at McKenzie, Bryson and Marshall in Kilmarnock. He is an internationally recongnised expert on equine eyes and takes referrals from all over. Horses usually cope surprisingly well with only one eye if it comes to that! Best of luck.
 
cm2581 said:
If you haven't done so already please get an opinion from Andy Mathews at McKenzie, Bryson and Marshall in Kilmarnock. He is an internationally recongnised expert on equine eyes and takes referrals from all over. Horses usually cope surprisingly well with only one eye if it comes to that! Best of luck.
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Yeah he was the specialist that came over and looked at his eye. Visited my boy this morn and eye looking better so thats good. will keep you posted
 
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