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  Discussion on Cyclosporine Implant
Author Message
Member:
Bmckinne

Posted on Friday, Feb 14, 2003 - 9:29 am:

Sally, my horse, was diagnosed with ERU last summer. She has remained on a topical steroid since the original diagnosis. This worked for a few months, but then she started having flare-ups monthly. Sally’s last flare-up took us over 3 weeks to get under control. She had a bunch of things going on in her eye. After many examinations and tests, the final diagnosis was keratouveitis. Sally’s ophthalmologist suggested the cyclosporine implant. We talked about the implant during previous visits as a last resort. Sally had the implant put in on Tuesday. The surgery went good. She appears to be doing well. Sally will be on topical eye medication for two weeks. We will then try to wean her off all topical medications if her post op visit looks good.

Since Sally’s diagnosis, I have been researching the disease. I visit this site monthly to see if anyone is having similar problems or found an amazing fix – I can still hope. I thought I would let people know about my (Sally’s) experience with the implant. I find it helpful to read about “real” people in addition to the test data. I will keep you posted on Sally’s progress.
Member:
Dkbarger

Posted on Saturday, Feb 15, 2003 - 2:07 pm:

Hi Brittany:

I had a horse (he died a few years ago) that had ERU. It started when he was about 16 yrs. old. Before his death in 2000 when he was 22 yrs. old, he was totally blind in his left eye. I got him when he was 18 and he was a free lease. His owner didn't want to have the eye taken out when he first started showing signs of the illness. She was a vet on her internship at UC Davis and didn't want him anymore or to have to spend money on him.

She did inject his eye with some drugs(an experimental procedure that they were doing at Davis) that seemed to relieve his pain and the symptoms for a brief period of time but his eye hurt him until the time of his demise. ERU is a horrible disease. I think you did the right thing having the implant done. My horse was too old for this.

There is a network of horse owners who have horses with ERU. They are gathering info and send out periodic newsletters on the research going on plus the data they collect on horses with this disease. Their email address is eru@erunetwork.com You might contact them and get them to send you their newsletter. They were very kind and helpful when I was dealing with this problem.

Torhuter died of ColitisX not ERU but I felt that his immume system was compromisd and that all of his health problems (he had many by the time he died) were all tied in including the ERU. I did buy him a Guardian mask which helped because he developed head shaking at one point. I believe the sunlight made his eye hurt worse. Guardian's phone number is 760-360-3544 and they also have a web sit. I believe it is www.guardianmask.com

I hope this helps some.

Mary
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