Bad eye

[tsondra]

My mare Sadie has a bad eye, its her left eye that bothers her, she wants to constantley rub it and she once in awile gets cuts and scrapes on her eye brow. She cant really see out of it, I had the vet look at it and he says its not a caterac and he does not really know what it is, I does not really bothers her and I am ok with it, and its ok if its that way but if anybody had any ideas please reply
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[Rebecca B]

Could she have uveitis? It's very painful and
leads to blindness. Did the veterinarian rule
that out?

Nice mare; great shoulder and withers, and
nice, short cannon bones. She looks like
she'd have a nice disposition, too.

[Inyureye]

Sounds like uveitis, doesn't it. If its running at all, or if you find a tear dripping or dried, it is another sign. Its a virus, and once they have it it will appear periodically, much like a cold sore canker, and needs immediate treatment (which your vet can help you get started) as soon as it flares up. The problem is, that during the inflamation the interior of the eye begins to produce multiple blood vessels (you can see the collection of these in the iris) which then harden and obstruct vision once the inflamation period is over, by freezing the iris from contracting and expanding with light because of the overgrowth of blood vessels inside. The iris is "frozen" shut or halfway shut, until the next inflamation, when it happens again and gets worse. The treatment can prevent permanent blindness, but this is up to your vet to inform you about and give you the meds so you can apply them right away. There is no cure, as there is no cure for herpes, its a virus which resides on the nerves and periodically become active. If this is it, you need to get your vet on board, and if he doesn't think this is it, read up about it and if you think it is, get a second opinion.

Its painful. My gelding needed a nerve block during the actute start up inflamation stage, there was an ointment given I forget why, probably anti-viral, and I was given atropine to put drops into his eye immediately the inflamation occurred. This opened the iris (its the stuff the eye doctor uses on us to open the iris of our eyes so he can do an eye exam) and told to keep the horse in the shade or barn. The idea behind this was, when the blood vessels formed, at least the iris would be frozen open and he could still possibly see after it was all over, versus having the vessels close the iris and loose his vision for good.

Good luck, hope this isn't the problem!

[Rebecca B]

The Merck manual says that "prompt, aggressive,
sustained treatment" is important. With a favorite
gelding I had, I put the drugs (atropine, antibiotic
and cortisone eye ointments and Banamine) in a box,
with notes to myself as to what to do when there
was a flare up.

You have to stain the eye first to make SURE there
is no scratch or injury, and not use the cortisone
ointment if there is.

It's not always a virus. One of the causes is
leptospirosis. We tested this horse for it after
I saw the paragraph about it in the Merck and
guess what? Positive titers to several of the
types. He went on some basic antibiotic
(streptomycin?) for ten days and there was
never another recurrence.

Somewhere there is a group of people with
horses w/ uveitis that share info. I'll try to
dredge it up and share it. It's a terribly painful
and horrible disease that needs immediate
and aggressive care from a vet.

[Inyureye]

Rebeca, that is wonderful helpful information about the leptospirosis. I didn't know that, and hadn't heard it (word of mouth, you know) and my vets hadn't mentioned that, but its great to know about, because you do come across this condition not infrequently, actually. Thanks for that info. (I only discovered the merck online veternary manual the other day - need to update everything!)

[Rebecca B]

This is a cool thing - this gal, Mary Nelson, had a horse
with uveitis about ten years ago. Because it's so awful,
and because she must be a thorough and responsible
sort of person, she started this database, not even on
a computer at the time. She got all sorts of owners of
horses w/ uveitis to record their experiences and put
it all together. It's led to new research on a vaccine
for the lepto type and increased attention to the disease
by other researchers. Plus lots of useful info for horse
owners. Here's the link:
http://www.igs.net/~vkirkwoodhp/eru.htm

[tsondra]

Thanks Guys for all this help, come to find out it was in her genes her son has a bad eye too. Its all genetic. As she gets older the eye just turns more blind, Dont worry she is ok
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[Rebecca B]

Tsondra, what genetic condition would that be? A vet
can be sure that she isn't in pain, she's too nice a mare
to let suffer. If the son has an eye condition as well,
it does not rule out a treatable disease.

[tsondra]

Well thats the thing, its not hurting her, its just itchie once in a great while and she lets me touch around her eye and her eye lid so its not as bad as it sounds
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[Inyureye]

I've never heard of anything genetic that acts that way, and if its itchy, it probably is not a genetic condition that "just happens". Can you tell us what the genetic condition is? Uveitis is contagious, so they can get it from other horses without it being "genetic". It doesn't sound like you know alot about the eye and its condition, which is why you wrote about it, I'd guess, but those of us who have had experience with horse blindness are not writing glibly, and its disturbing to hear you dismiss this information out of hand. The eye doesn't always have to be in pain, the condition waxes and wanes, as you ahve noticed with your mare, so please let us know what your second opinion from another vet has led to! Unless you're just going to let her go blind...

[tsondra]

Well the thing is its not that virus or he would have noticed it, Sadie had this all her life, ever sense she was born, and its nots spreading around to the other horses so its very hard to say, and its not getting worse tho
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[paige]

A friend of mine has a batch of horse that have uveitis...one just underwent an experimental procedure to stop it.

In her case, her horses are turning up positive for lepto...she also has a batch of raccoons around her place...I mean a lot of them. They carry lepto, so they are on their way out.

It has devestated them. They have super nice horses and have sought treatment in all corners..hopefully things will look up soon for them

Paige

[Inyureye]

Wow, paige, I'm sorry to hear about your friend, that's a devestating event for them, I hope they can arrest it and salvage their operation and horses healths to the best degree. If they are seeking treatements, they probably are at least able to catch the outbreaks and forestall the damage they can cause to vision, but its hard on the animals to have this, again, I am sorry to hear.

I had not heard of Lepto, from the 'coons, can you give a quick synopsis? Course, I could (once again!) look in the merk vet onlinne manual, is "lepto" short for anything else?
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[dctrainingandlessons]

tsondra.. I really think you should be taking this seriously! Around here we have a lot of irresponsible horse owners, I/E One lady was gonna have someone shoot her horses because they're hooves had never been trimmed and they were very lame. (I trimmed them for her for free, seems how the money was soo important to her) Anyway, getting back on subject, a friend of mine had a situation very similar to yours. Her mare had this recuring eye problem discribed like what you are saying, she also passed this on to 4 of her foals, but no other horses in the pasture got it from her. They were led to believe that because these foals were inbred mother-son crosses that they were a geneticly passed down thing. At the time I was young and didn't know much about dieases yet, but did look at a equine health book and found uveitis, thought it matched up with her symptoms. I suggested it to her mom and dad, that they should get a vet out, and that would cost money of course, so no. The mare went blind and was so dangerous as a blind horse that they shot her before she was 15 yo. I bought a little inbred filly from them with the eye condition, thought I would use her as my first horse to train, had the vet out and found out that it was uveitis, I only had about 4 times that it came back, and then she hasn't gotten it since from what I've heard. Turned into a real nice little cow pony for a rancher's son. You really should check into this! Some horses are doomed when they go blind. If you for some reason had to sell her as a partially blind horse, the chances of her going down the road to a bad bad place are pretty likely.

[dctrainingandlessons]

This is beside the point, but your mare really looks nice! If I could suggest though, in a couple of the pics her halter is maybe a notch or two too loose for framing her face. Just want to give you a quick tip! Otherwise, she's awesome, and your website is nice, too!