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  Discussion on Stallion's eye biten by a mare
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New Member:
Dlmyers1

Posted on Saturday, Jan 25, 2003 - 11:56 pm:

Hi Dr. O.

I have a 6 year old blind TWH stallion. He has detached retinas in both eyes due to blunt trauma. He was diagnosed by vets at an equine hospital. He has been blind for about 2 years prior to my owning him. Both eyes are cloudy. However, I show him at halter and he has never placed lower than second place. (There is a reason for mentioning this.) I also ride him in some pleasure classes.

In September, my husband led him past a mare's stall door. She lunged at him over the door and she bit him in the eye. He had a scrape in his eyelid from the mare.

Our vet treated him with bute and an opthalmic oinment with dexamethasone. She tested for a corneal abrasion on two different occasions. Both times there were no abrasions. The bute and ointment provided immediate relief for the pain, swelling and tearing. Right after the incident, I could see red in his eye, which I assumed was blood.

My vet examined him about 6 weeks after the accident and recommended having his eye removed.

I told her I would like to try aspirin to see if that would help. He was on Anaprin for a couple of weeks before I switched to buffered aspirin then to bute again. While he was on the aspirin, the blood in his eye seemed to dissolve. All that is left now is a rust color. He seemed to do much better on the aspirin - that is, less pain, swelling and tearing. With bute, he had some swelling and tearing.

I am worried about keeping him on aspirin too long. I would like to see if his eye will heal in due course before I have it removed. Once it is removed, his show ring career is ended. Odd as this may sound, this guy loves to go to shows.

I was wondering about trying him on naproxen. I read your article about naproxen and it seemed it might be worth a try. The human OTC form comes in 220 mg tablets. What do you think about this idea? Would the naproxen bother his stomach?

Is there any hope that his eye will ever quit being painful, swollen and teary?

Thanks for any ideas you have that might be better.

Donna
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Sunday, Jan 26, 2003 - 10:16 am:

Hello Donna,
Whether the eye can return to a non-painful state depends on the disease processes going on. I cannot make that determination from here. There are some infections of the eye that are very difficult to treat that commonly result in loss of the eye but that is not the only reason.

The proteins of the inner eye are actually immunogenic: they stimulate inflammation if they come into direct contact with the white blood cells. This might happen following trauma and result in a eye that gradually goes down hill, in spite of agressive treatment, and eventualy needs to be removed.

What I know about naproxen is in the article and I have little to add, but I don't see why it might not be worth a try. Whether your horse will react differently than those discussed in the article I cannot predict. This drug is not approved for use in horses so you try it at your own risk and you should only do so with the supervision of your veterinarian.
DrO
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