Uveitis

[Peggs]

Has anyone had much experience with uveitis and did anyone with experience of it find their horses immune systems were compromised prior or after diagnosis? Any successful and less successful stories all welcome!!

My horse was diagnosed about 2 months ago and steroid treatment finished a week before christmas, however within a few days of stopping the treatment he started to show symptoms again, I had enough meds (maxitrol) to see us over christmas and within 24hrs he was back to normal. I stopped after christmas and S&S reappeared so I got the vet out again after christmas and they are coming out again next week.

The vet has said other clients just manage it by themselves, but it cant surely be normal for symptoms to occur so quickly after stopping meds??

They have said about removing the eye and I'm getting concerned over the amount of insurance I will have if it is required as he had a couple of weeks in hospital for intensive treatment and there have been weekly visits the best part of november and december and its still going on into january and at nearly £100 a go I cant see my £5000 lasting much longer.

 

[Goldenstar]

It's a terrible condition and one I hope never to see again .
I PTS a horse because of it it's suffering through repeated bouts was awful in the end he could not be turned out or exercised outside .I spent a fortune .
I opted not to remove the eye because of the advice I received from the vets about the risk if it popping up in the other eye .
However in your situation while you have insurance I would consider getting the eye removed before your have maxed out the insurance ( I think I was told about £1500 a few years ago) then get your brain around the fact if it appears in the other eye you will PTS at once .
With hindsight I ought To have had the eye taken out at once .
However a friends mare suffered once at six and lead a long life and is in her twenties now and has never had another bout .
I feel for you it's a terrible thing to deal with .

 

[Britestar]

Are you making sure the eye is always covered when outside? I find this make a big difference.

Mine has uveitis and glaucoma, and she wears one of these all the time http://www.equinesunvisor.com/esvmaxx.aspx

It wasnt the cheapest to buy and get into the UK, but since she's had it on she's only had one flare up, which lasted less than 24hrs.

I chose the non nose net one, with ear and forelock open. She actually comes to me in the stable to get it put on. She does look daft on a day like today with howling gales and horizontal rain, but the Vet actually said to me that wind can agravate it too, and this cuts out the wind as well.

 

[Booster]

My Welsh A had uveitis 5 years ago took for ever to diagnose ( id kept saying it her eyes she's in pain!) 10 days hospital home and stabled think was for 2 weeks with drip thing through eyelid I had to give her drops every 4 hours ( including through the night) for 5 days slowly weaned off 1 st couple of summers I used UV mask now just normal fly mask on bright days ( touching wood ) has not reoccurred
No really advice just a happy ending
Best of look with yours

 

[Peggs]

Thanks for the replies!

Uveitis looking good on last vet visit, unfortunately ulcer has returned My vet is in talks with the specialist as we may attempt an implant, will hopefully will find out this week what we're going to do. Oh and he's also got a abscess in his hoof.... honestly horses!

 

[Luci07]

Have a look at my thread further down. So some questions for you. Is this the first time? Because if so, it seems a little premature to be talking about eye removal. Maxitrol primarily dilates the pupil, it is not a steroid, you need something like Pradforte for that and these drops need to be applied 4 or 5 times a day..so 1 app of Maxitrol won't heal it. In addition, your horse should be on pain/inflammatory relief such as bute. Mine is sporting an eye mask as well as caused further trauma to the eye by rubbing it. Vets are like GP's so I would suggest you ask your vet to refer you to a specialist. Mine sent me up to the Animal Health Trust all the way in Newmarket as they have eye specialists who do nothing else but animal eyes. It was felt that eyes are too much of a risk area to send mine to anything but a specialist. He had the same issues..nearly clearing up,and then as soon as he starting coming off the meds, infected again. Mine spent Christmas at the AHT and then I collected him a couple of days after. He is stabled as I can't risk him rolling so he on the walker and pessoed..walk only. Vet came back to do the checks the AHT wanted and will be back again next week. I can start to hack him at walk if he continues to be sensible. It is massively time consuming as I have to administer the prad forte X 4 t per day with 2 hour window between plus 1 X Maxitrol. The mask get cleaned with malaseb daily and I am working him for an hour between the walker and the school. I am also using up all my favours from fellow liveries and YO to ensure I can get the maximum number of treatments in. As of yesterday, the pain relief has started to be reduced slightly and the eye is looking good. Bloods were all good but I am going to start feeding Propell Plus as a pep as well. He is quite a calm horse which has helped.

 

[Peggs]

I did read about your guy, I hope he's starting to show improvement now?

It doesn't appear to be the first time as he has a small cataract formed in the same eye which is a sign he may have had it previously. We have done over 2 weeks in hospital in Cambridge and I have already paid several hundred to have one of the top specialists look at it. We have a face mask we use but the face mask will only help the uveitis, I would continue to try and manage the uveitis however there is issue of a continuation of the ulcers appearing in the eye which is my main concern at the moment.

Maxitrol is a corticosteriod and also delivers pain relief. Your horse is on pradforte - also a corticosteroid - but also is helping with the itchiness and redness that I think I remember reading about on your posts. My guy isnt showing any signs of it being uncomfortable or pain, and I dont use bute unless he is, but then bute will also mask as signs of pain of potential ulcers which you can't see so in someways he's better off it so I can manage each condition with the appropriate meds. He's back on the cholormyectin 3 times a day as well as oral steroids due to the ulcer.

There is also a difference in the fact that from what you say your horse's issue it due to trauma? If its trauma you would hope with continuation of treatment and patience it will resolve. My guy's is due to leptospirosis - something carried by rats and is pretty much everywhere in the environment and immunosuppression which means there is a high chance of it returning, possibly even in the other eye.
There's also the fact I've spent £3k on him already and eye removal is £2k and my insurance limit is £5k. I dont want to continue with something that is at the moment like a game of tennis, reach the £5k and then have to find £2k because its not working. I don't have £2k extra to spend.

 

[Luci07]

No..the inflammation/infection happened first and then the trauma was due to him rubbing his eye some weeks later. Your later reply makes much more sense..I thought from your first post that you were only just starting this process. I am also on a 5k limit so wish you every luck. Please keep updating this post..it is really helpful.

 

[vanrim]

Maxitrol is steroid and antibiotic. Pred 40 is steroid only. My horse has had recurrent uveitis in both eyes for about 6 years and I have used both depending on the severity. Yes it can be normal for it to flare up again straight away if you stop the medication too soon. My horse was prescribed flunixin (anti inflammatory) and having done my own research on the internet I realised I had to keep him on the Flunixin for at least a month after the eye was back to normal or it would just flare up again straight away.My horse gets it in both eyes so removing an eye was never an option for me. My horse had cyclosporin implants done in both eyes at Leahurst Equine Hospital (cost £650 per eye) and this has drastically reduced the number and severity of attacks - in the end he was getting them every couple of months and each attack was lasting several months.

Have a look at my thread further down. So some questions for you. Is this the first time? Because if so, it seems a little premature to be talking about eye removal. Maxitrol primarily dilates the pupil, it is not a steroid, you need something like Pradforte for that and these drops need to be applied 4 or 5 times a day..so 1 app of Maxitrol won't heal it. In addition, your horse should be on pain/inflammatory relief such as bute. Mine is sporting an eye mask as well as caused further trauma to the eye by rubbing it. Vets are like GP's so I would suggest you ask your vet to refer you to a specialist. Mine sent me up to the Animal Health Trust all the way in Newmarket as they have eye specialists who do nothing else but animal eyes. It was felt that eyes are too much of a risk area to send mine to anything but a specialist. He had the same issues..nearly clearing up,and then as soon as he starting coming off the meds, infected again. Mine spent Christmas at the AHT and then I collected him a couple of days after. He is stabled as I can't risk him rolling so he on the walker and pessoed..walk only. Vet came back to do the checks the AHT wanted and will be back again next week. I can start to hack him at walk if he continues to be sensible. It is massively time consuming as I have to administer the prad forte X 4 t per day with 2 hour window between plus 1 X Maxitrol. The mask get cleaned with malaseb daily and I am working him for an hour between the walker and the school. I am also using up all my favours from fellow liveries and YO to ensure I can get the maximum number of treatments in. As of yesterday, the pain relief has started to be reduced slightly and the eye is looking good. Bloods were all good but I am going to start feeding Propell Plus as a pep as well. He is quite a calm horse which has helped.

 

[TheLea-Rig]

Sounds a similar story to me!

My horse was diagnosed with uveitis in november, prescribed maxitrol drops 3 times a day, bit of a hassle getting it in. I hear that a lavage system is the best way to ensure drops are getting in properly over a long term period but it maybe expensive; unsure!

I was told to discontinue with drops if my horses eye stopped watering and if the white film over his eye went away which it did. However a few days later it mysteriously reappeared over night so I continued with drops. One afternoon I put drops in and the white film floated under his eye, very strange!
I persevered and eventually took my horse to the vet school where he was diagnosed with a luxating lens which is very uncommon in horses. They do not know if the uveitis caused then lens to detatch or vice versa.
I was given the option to have his eye removed, however I felt he was too highly strung and so I had to say goodbye to him on Christmas eve. I miss him dearly.

If you are considering having your horses eye removed I would really urge you to take into account your horses temperament! You have to think about what might happen with other horses in the field regarding kicks etc if your horse has no vision on one side. Or if your horse got loose and couldn't see a car coming toward him on one side. The vets told me it would be quite dangerous to hack out alone and risky in a group so you may be limited to what you can do.They also said I'd have to be really careful approaching him in his stable and that I'd have to make sure anyone handling him would have to be instructed to do the same. You should take your horses age into consideration too and also the risk of him getting uveitis in the other eye; My friend had an old family pony who had one eye and went blind in the other, it was moved fields and got stressed and ripped itself to shreds so had to be shot.

So many people said to me how there were one eyed horses everywhere, even winning the derby! They obviously can manage if they have the right temperament.

As to prices we had insurance but my dad always taught me that you should never spend more on vet bills than the animals worth.
Uveitis is scary so I feel for you.
You will know your horse better than anyone so go with your gut! Good luck.

 

[Peggs]

I'm really sorry about your boy. It's a horrible decision to have to make.

I'm hoping if it comes to eye removal he should hopefully cope ok, he's pretty laid back as far as tbs go, he's been wearing a mask blanked out on one side and hasn't shown to be anymore reactive. Although probably not completely re-enacting an eye removal I guess it's the closest thing to seeing how he might cope.

It's funny how different vets opinions can be as mine haven't really given any sort of warning over behaviour changes and were even saying he might lose a bit of depth perception if we were jumping so it sounded like they expected him to carry on in a normal life, as long as he doesn't break anymore! He's falling to pieces bit by bit at the moment

 

[TheLea-Rig]

The only reason the vet warned me of such changes to my horses behaviour was because he was really sensitive to change, and he was quite highly strung because of his breeding. They didn't really warn me of any of this until after his overnight stay in the vet hospital where he got pretty flustered and had to be sedated. I trusted the advice seeing as they're some of the best in Scotland.
If your horse is a laid back sort you'll be luckier than I was, and you are right about the mask, that's an added bonus so he will be used to limited vision. It's a really horrid time for you I can totally appreciate how you are feeling! Got my fingers crossed for you!