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HorseAdvice.com » Diseases of Horses » Eye Diseases » Anterior Uveitis, Recurrent Uveitis, Periodic Opthalmia, and Moonblindness »
  Discussion on Info Please on Handling of Periodic Ophthalmia "Moon Blindness"
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Posted on Friday, Jun 9, 2000 - 10:56 am:

I have an 11 yr old app mare who is away being bred. She's been there for 3 weeks and just yesterday was diagnosed with her first case of periodic ophthalmia or "moon blindness". The vet said she is contagious during the outbreak and should be isolated. I have read that the leptospira bacteria (the vet said this is probably the culprit) is carried forever in the kidneys and spread through urine. I have a small breeding farm with a few boarders and I want to make sure I do the right thing before I bring her home in a month. Does she need to always be isolated? Is she contagious during the outbreak? Should I vaccinate my healthy stock with the leptospira vaccine? Any information someone with experience could give me would be helpful. Also, is it likely she contracted it here, and carried it there, or, did she pick it up there? Any thoughts? I have no idea about incubation periods. Thank you all very much! Linda

Posted on Friday, Jun 9, 2000 - 4:22 pm:

Dear Dr. O,

I have just located the article on her condition and found it very helpful! I assume that it means my horse is not contagious, that it's an autoimmune disorder.

This mare coliced at 3 yrs, had surgery (high twist, non-necrotic) she did not need sectioning. She crashed several times post-surgery and ended up positive for salmonella. She spent several months in a quarantine barn before she could come home. She turned completely white, her mane & tail fell out and she's had dry brittle hooves ever since.

Other than that she's been extremely healthy since this one problem. Could this somehow be a factor in developing this eye condition? Thank you.

Posted on Saturday, Jun 10, 2000 - 12:46 pm:

Well yes RU is a autoimmune disorder but the activation of the immune system may frequently be Lepto infection. In one study 10% of the horses with RU could have Lepto organisms cultured from the eye (see the scientific studies in the article). However, the shedding rate on horses with RU has not been studied and is currently unknown. I personally do not consider it a big problem because I do not see outbreaks of RU, if fact ths diseases seems to be much less common than just 10 years ago.
DrO
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