What would you do?

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Alphamare

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Found one of the horses tonight with a bit of gunk in both eyes, and some tears. The gunk was normal whitish but more than i would normally clean away occasionally. Anyway the thing that got me was one of his lower eye lids was swollen. Not swollen enough that the eye was closed or anything. Just swollen.

I had a look and the eye itself is fine, he is a bit of a hedge monkey but the eyelid itself is clean of all cuts or anything. I was wondering if there was anything in the eye and i had a bit of a look and i thought twice i saw a hair. I have flushed the eye a few times with plain water. The swelling has seemed to have subsided a little already.

My OH has suggested that we leave him tonight and call the vet tomorrow if its not getting any better or looking worse. I am inclined to agree with him.

What do you guys think?
 
I don't think you should flush with water - try it in your own eye, it can be uncomfortable. Use contact lens saline solution if you wear them yourself, or put a little bit of salt in warm water until you can just taste it.

I'd leave him tonight, it doesn't sound like an emergency, more like sommat in his eye or a fly irritation.
 
Thank you for the reassurance. I am fairly sure it was just something in his eye that was still in there thats why i flushed it. I didnt know about saline in the eyes, i was worried that salt water would be too harsh which is why i just used water. I know for next time thanks! 20 years of dealing with horses and ive never (very luckily) had to deal with any eye related problems.

If its still swollen tomorrow would that be the time to get the vet out or wait until monday?

I would be more worried if the swelling was greater or if the eye was more leaky or gunky.
 
If it's swollen tommorrow AND seems to be painful, then yes I would call the vet tommorrow. They can discuss on phone and decide if is emergency.

Otherwise, leave til Monday and see what's like then - probably like the other poster said, is a fly irritation. (Have you got a flymask you can put on?)
 
Eyes are a tricky thing. I have horse eye medication on hand because it's the same fucithalmic as I am given to keep for a cat that has one eye smaller than the other due to flu as a kitten. It weeps all the time and gets infected easily, so the vet gets us to keep it all the time. I have only needed it once for a horse, thankfully.

If you are absolutely sure tomorrow that the cornea (sorry about sucking eggs, but in case you don't know it's the clear skin over the eyeball) is not scratched or broken or ulcerated, and the gunge and swelling are less than today, I would leave well alone. If the welling and gunk are the same, I would flush with my contact lens saline morning and evening and wait until Monday. (If you can get to Tesco tomorrow they sell little tabs of saline for contact lens wearers there) If it's any worse at all, call a vet.

Hope that helps.
 
I will definitely ring them tomorrow if there is no improvement. If they dont think its worth coming out for until monday or urgent ill follow their direction. :)

Ive checked the cornea in the sunlight and couldnt see any scratches or anything, i will double check it again tomorrow thanks for the advice. Ill take some weak, warm salty water with me to flush it with.

I have a fly fringe i can pop in him would that be ok? Oh actually i also have one of those face fly masks would that be better?

Thanks for the advice both!
 
If the eye itself is clear/not cloudy then that's good. If he is sensitive to the light and keeping his eye closed or blinking a lot, then ring the vet straight away. You really have to be very careful with eyes, they can deteriorate quickly. Cold tea is good to bathe them with.
 
Thats why i was worried. Am worried. I didnt want to make the wrong call, its not something i have had experience with until now. I would definitely rather err on the side of caution but also didnt want to get the vet out if its really nothing and gone tomorrow.

Its definitely clear and he didnt have it closed and i didnt notice any abnormal blinking so thats good. He must have quite sensitive eyes though as if its flies none of the others have reacted like this.

I will be checking him again first thing in the morning and will probably put in the saline even if the swelling has gone down. Just incase.
 
As you suspect, he's probably stabbed himself in his lower eyelid with a bit of hedge. Hopefully he'll be fine Sunday. The thing is though, he could also have stabbed his cornea. As long as he's ok to let you do it, flushing with absolutely plain water, boiled and cooled will dilute any problems. Nothing else. Don't put salt in it. Don't put anything in it. Another worry is that he may STILL have a foreign body in the eye - if so, it needs to come out before further damage is done. If he doesn't like you flushing it then take great care because it is so incredibly easy to turn a minor scrape into a medical emergency by the horse jerking at the exact moment you have a pointy-ended tube of something a millimetre from the cornea and bingo, you've scored a deep scratch across it. You wouldn't necessarily see a corneal injury in the first few days after it occurred. The vet would put a special dye into the eye that shows up scratches. You need to know NOW whether the cornea is damaged. Corneas do NOT heal well since, obviously, they have no blood supply. If it was me, I'd check again carefully on Sunday and if in any doubt whatsoever or if still swollen, get the vet out. Eyes are too precious to mess about with. Cold tea, Optrex etc etc can only at best soothe tired eyes. But if an injury is already there you don't want to put any unsterilised products in or anything that may contain a chemical that will either sting or will make matters worse. Fingers crossed.
 
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