Would you buy horse with a cataract?

Tangaroo

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Im interested to know whether you would buy a horse who failed a vetting on a cataract? If you have done, has it led to any problems further down the line?
 

vmac66

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Depends what has caused the cataract.
My last horse had cataracts in both eyes caused by posterior uvietis. He was pts as was nearly totally blind.
 

Shay

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Depends on what you want the horse for. You'll never sell on again so it has to be your horse for life. Slowly developing cataracts withough other pathology are not an issue to a retired horse. They usually learn to cope really well. My daughter's first pony is blind on one side now as a result of cataracts and has no problems at all. But he is partially retired and everyone knows not to startle him. Obviously if you want a top quality event horse it would not be ideal.
 

Gift Horse

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It would depend what I wanted to do with the horse and the purchase price.
My horse has a small cateract it was described by the vet as “likely to be a developmental defect” when I bought him as a 5yr old.
He is 12 now and (touch wood)it hasn’t caused any problems.
He was relatively cheap to buy and bought as an all rounder - hacking, fun riding, low level competition.
 

DressageCob

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I'm going through an eye saga with my horse at the moment and whilst it is a completely different issue, I would never knowingly buy an eye problem after this. Whatever the eye problem is. it's now an absolute no for me.

If it got worse and needed treatment, you wouldn't be covered on insurance and I have learnt that eye treatment is blooming expensive.

Where I went with my horse last week, called Veterinary Visions in Penrith does do cataract surgery though. They also do pre-purchase examinations so I assume they could tell you how bad a cataract it is, whether it is a candidate for surgery etc.
 

mini-eventer

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Nope, i had my heart set on one which failed the vet for this. I was gutted and it was really hard to walk away.

Horse ended up put to sleep for unrelated joint issues 2 years later so i think i had a lucky escape
 

Pearlsasinger

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I can never understand why any-one would pay for a vetting and then ignore the vet's advice and buy the horse anyway. No horse is perfect but a major issue like a cataract, which could potentially cause a serious problem would definitely put me off buying. It would be different if a horse in your ownership developed a cataract, you could probably find a way to deal with it but why knowingly buy trouble?
 

flying_high

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Depends, if the horse was a 20 year old pony for lead rein, maybe.

If the horse was a 15 year old eventing teenager pony, that was amazing, maybe.

If the vet thought was going to get worse, and horse was young, then no.
 

Follysmum

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30odd yrs ago a friend of mine bought a horse which had failed the vet with this. She went ahead and bought him and took a chance she would have a few yrs with him . She had about 3yrs of riding when unfortunately his eyes deteriorated quite badly and she retired him from riding, vet was astonished in the end that she was still able to ride him as he was nearly totally blind and he had been jumping.
 

SpringArising

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I'd buy a horse with one eye (had one of those before and she was amazing), but I wouldn't buy one with a cataract where the vision is potentially blurred, as that will cause problems.
 
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Seen a horse with a small cataract in her eye. She had it since she was 2 and never grown or effected her. She is now 9. Proceed to buy or an absolute no! I'm wanting to jump! Any advice?
 

Minny

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Pony I wanted passed a vetting with an advisory that small cataract (think speck of dust on windscreen) existed in one eye. Pony was perfect in every way otherwise. Seller took pony to ophthalmologist to get diagnosis. Was told it could have been birth defect but two points of a graph are required to know for sure. I bought pony but agreed to get same opthamologist to re-examine 6 months later and if change occurred, pony returned with money back. Reexamination came, no change. Diagnosis: defect from birth, pony fit for competing. 4 years on, no issues at all. I learnt a great deal about cataracts: some harmless, some not. If pony is expensive, get ophthalmologist to check first.
 

Cortez

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Yes, I have bought a horse with a cataract. He was young and we had him for some years with no problems. The only downside is when selling on as it will obviously be picked up on any vetting and some vets will "fail", and some buyers won't buy on that basis (even though obviously it was disclosed up front). He was sold on as a hunter and did a great job for his new owner.
 

ycbm

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Probably not.

But in humans, cataract surgery takes less than 15 minutes including anaesthetic time and is really simple. Anyone know why it isn't done routinely in horses?
 

poiuytrewq

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Depends what has caused the cataract.
My last horse had cataracts in both eyes caused by posterior uvietis. He was pts as was nearly totally blind.
Very much this. We lost a dearly loved pony who was only a youngster and had such massive potential to blindness which in turn left him terrified. It wasn’t nice :(
 

Annagain

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My boy (23 yrs old) has a small cateract. We only identified it as his eye was sore and weeping. The vet thought it was a new thing, he wasn't quite used to the altered vision and was sticking his head where he shouldn't as a result, but we obviously don't really know whether it was or not as we've never had cause to look in his eyes before. He might have had it for years and it not caused a problem. The eye looked very healthy otherwise and a couple of days of drops later, he was back to normal.

About a month later the same thing happened. This time we ran bloods to make sure there was nothing underlying causing infections and they all came back slap bang in the middle of every healthy range so vet was convinced it's something new, he's adjusting and making the odd mistake. The good news is it hadn't grown in that time.

3/4 months on we've had no repeat occurrences (touch wood) which suggests he is getting used to it and adapting to his new perception. His behaviour hasn't changed at all in this time (he's still a grumpy old git!) and he's still pretty much bombproof out hacking, even though it's his right eye (so closest to the traffic). He's having jabs next week so we'll have another look then.

Would I buy one with a cateract? Not unless there was a fairly long history of horse having it and it not deteriorating / causing problems.
Would I worry if a horse I owned developed a cateract? No more than any other potentially progressive issue. I'm considerably less worried now than I was in October. He's also riddled with melanomas which I expected to do for him long before now so we treat every healthy day as a bonus! Considering he's 23 year old big lump with gammy feet, too much skin and not enough vision he does pretty well!
 

blitznbobs

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Probably not.

But in humans, cataract surgery takes less than 15 minutes including anaesthetic time and is really simple. Anyone know why it isn't done routinely in horses?
I asked my vet this once she said that because they have to ga and paralyse to get them still enough the risks were high (in humans they’re done under local)
 

JanetGeorge

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I'd have to ask if you KNOW the vet would be able to differentiate between a cataract and a 'normal' variation of the crystalline lenses. Because some vets - even equine vets - wouldn't have a clue. I won't name the one here that caused one of my mares to fail the vetting at Inspection for a supposed cataract - so she couldn't be Graded (just Class 3 - unfit to breed from.) Took a trip to a specialist vet to get it confirmed it wasn't a ruddy cataract, and her eyesight was 100%. I of course screamed blue murder at the IDHS(GB) and they've been VERY careful about getting super vets ever since. Of course, she went back to the next Gradings, passed the vet and got Class 1. But that bloody vet could have cost me thousands if I'd taken his word for it. When I sold her I had told both the buyer and the vet coming about the eye 'problem' that wasn't a problem, and had the report there for the vet to see. He read it out of interest and was slightly flabbergasted when he found out it was a vet he knew that made that mistake.
 

Ossy2

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I bought my current horse which “failed” on a cataract. I had the horse on lwvtb at the time and the owner agreed to extend this to give us time to investigate more on owners insurance. Turned out to be a cyst out with the pupil dilution extent and likely to have had it since birth. I still have it checked once every couple of years but hasn’t changed at all that was 8 years ago. So it wouldn’t be a no out right but I’d want to know more.
 
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