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  Discussion on Yearling Paint gelding with irritated blue eyes
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Posted on Monday, Aug 14, 2000 - 12:46 pm:

DrO, Nada (if your watching)and anyone else-
HELP! HELP! HELP! My Rio (17 mos. old Paint gelding) has been having trouble with his very blue eyes for some time now. I have read all your articles here and know there are several different possible problems. I have talked to three different vets about him and hauled him 200 miles to the last one for a check. That vet is supposed to be a very good equine vet, but all he did to Rio was draw blood and shine a light in his eye. The first vet didn't see him, but gave me a small tube (red/white) of anti-biotic ointment to treat his eyes with. That seemed to control it, but not cure it. The second vet said to wash his eyes out with saline solution and give him a combination of benedryl and buffered aspirin. (At this point, he was in bad shape, I'll get to that in a minute).
Now here are the symtoms, excessive tearing-green discharge build up (I call them eye boogers) and then one day he was very swollen in the lids and the whites of his eye were red. His symptoms fit perfectly for what I call "pink eye", can horses get that?! I've had it before and that's exactly what he looks like. It started out in his left eye and moved to the right. The left one seems fine now, only the right continues to be disturbed. He was on regular turn out with a fly mask on, but then the third vet told me to keep him indoors for 2 weeks and see if the eye clears up, if so then he wanted to treat him for allergies, if not then he wanted to see him. Well, it helped to keep him inside, but didn't cure anything. He would go out on a lounge line or free lounging or maybe just to romp around for an hour or so in the evening, then back to the barn.
Well, last Saturday, I turned him out after the sun had gone down and the round pen was shaded over. I went down to lounge him around an hour later and found his eye very swollen in the lids with the bottom one gaping open. He had alot of the green discharge and his face was soaked from tears, the white of his eye was also red. He was in obvious pain, he kept rubbing his eye. I brought him in and applied cold compresses, a dose of bute and washed his eyes out with clear eyes. A couple hours later, he was ok. That was when the second vet said to use saline solution to wash out his eyes and give him benedryl/buffered aspirin. She didn't see him, either. That was over the phone. So, I made the appointment for the third vet who actually looked at him. Rio stayed in the rest of the week until we could get him to that last vet and his eye cleared up, but for one small episode. Now that last vet determined that Rio was extremely glass eyed-had unusually light retinas. Therefore, he was sensitive to sunlight which was causing his eye trouble. He gave me 2 very small bottles of DrOps to use in his eye when necessary and recommended nighttime turn out. He didn't do any tests on him, nothing. He did all the talking and not much listening and the things he said didn't make sense for the problems Rio had. He shined a pen light in his eye and that was how he drew the conclusion of his being overly sensitive to sunlight. Well, if someone shined a light directly in my eye, I'd flinch, too. He gave him Rompun, nearly knocked him out and didn't do anything but draw blood. He said that his counts were good so it wasn't allergies, but wrote sensitive to allergies and sunlight on his receipt I got after I paid the bill.
Anyway, I'm not satisfied with the answers I got from him and would like to know what to do next. I asked him about all the things I read in your articles and he just said no, that isn't it. He didn't even test him for anything. I'm very frusterated. Especially, when his turn out time wasn't in direct sunlight, the sun had gone down. He didn't have the fly mask on that night, though. I have always thought that anytime a body produces green mucous of some sort, it's related to infection. This vet didn't check him for infection, small traumas (like from weeds) or anything. I'm sorry this is so long winded, I wanted to get as much of the history out as possible. I need to know if this vet's conclusion makes sense or not, it doesn't to me. What else can I do? I really would like to know what's wrong with his eyes so I can treat them and he can go back to being a baby again, going outside daily to play, etc.
Oh and I mentioned the fly mask because when this first started, if it was left off, his eye would look irritated. If it was on him all day, it would be fine. That hasn't seemed to help him lately though, even with the mask, he would get tears and green boogers in his eye, no swelling though. He's only been swollen that one time. His fly mask also had a UV protectant in it, and when it was helping him he was turned out daily- all day. The one time his eye swelled up so bad, his mask was off, but he was only out for an hour and the sun had set. It wasn't dark, just dusky. See why I'm so confused?! haha I hope someone can help me make some sense of this, I'm really worried about him and can't seem to get a vet around here to take this seriously.

Posted on Tuesday, Aug 15, 2000 - 1:31 pm:

Hello everyone-
I am sincerely sorry for that long post, won't someone please respond? Thanks...

Posted on Tuesday, Aug 15, 2000 - 2:40 pm:

Hello Stephany,
What you need is a good diagnosis. Unfortunately any cause of inflammation of the eye and its surroundings structures will look the same. So though you describe the inflammation in great detail it does not give us the reason. I too believe it is very likely that your horse suffers from photic uveitis (sunlight) and that you are too impatient with the management. This is a very common problem in horses with little pigmentation around the eyes.

If it is a problem of long standing it does not go away overnight when removed from the light. Your setback while in does not rule it out and may even represent trauma while stalled. Damage has been done that must repair and some horses seem to have so much damage that the problem becomes permanant and will persist through the winter months.

Besides antibiotic ointments if infection is not present corticosteroid containing antibiotic ointments and oral phenylbutazone will speed recovery.
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Aug 15, 2000 - 3:40 pm:

DrO-
I don't know if this is important or not, I forgot to mention it, but he has dark pigment around his eyes. It looks like he's wearing make-up. So, I should just be patient and wait it out, continue what I'm doing and give it a chance to clear up?

Posted on Wednesday, Aug 16, 2000 - 6:53 am:

No, you need to seek a diagnosis and treatment plan you are comfortable with. I am pointing out that photic uveitis of long standing duration does not resolve quickly and you should not use the time frame you describe to throw out this possiblility. Also, I have pointed out it could be treated more aggressivley than you indicated you have in your earlier post.
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Aug 16, 2000 - 8:35 am:

DrO-
Thanks alot!!!! Much appreciated. I'll keep you posted on what I find out.

Posted on Friday, Mar 9, 2001 - 1:07 pm:

Dear DrO-
My horse is also a bald faced paint with one blue/glass eye and the other is nearly black. Unfortunately...both eye sockets are non-pigmented. I am VERY concerned about melanoma or cancer or blindness. Should I keep a face mask on him year round? He does some tearing that makes him look like conjunctivitis...but I think it's just "gookey-eye." What do you suggest? My vet thinks I'm just overly concerned. (This is my first horse and I just bought him last week. I knew he may have eye problems...but I love him anyway.) Any suggestions will help. Thanks.

Posted on Friday, Mar 9, 2001 - 3:48 pm:

Hey you guys - have you heard of the Guardian Mask? They're horsey sunglasses!

www.guardianmask.com

The website isn't working too well so you might want to call Sid directly (858) 794-4942 to order one.

They cost $39.95 plus $19.95 for the UV blocking inserts (+S&H) but the claims are that >95% of the UV rays are blocked.

I just bought one but haven't used it enough to say whether it's working or not. If you read the testimonials, it sounds really good.

Your horse will look like an alien and complain that all the other horses are laughing at him but it's worth it if it keeps him from going blind.

Posted on Friday, Mar 9, 2001 - 4:43 pm:

Dr O -

Can you provide us with a synopsis of photic uveitis symptoms? Swelling of the eyelid, redness of the sclera, conjunctivitis, tearing, painful blinking...?

Typical treatment is antibiotics/atropine? Worst case scenario is eventual blindness?

You also allude to the fact that recovery can take a long time. Recovery is measured by a decreasing incidence rate?

Recovery is measured in weeks, months, seasons, years?

Thanks

Posted on Saturday, Mar 10, 2001 - 8:11 am:

Joanie and 3rsatsmf,
Most of the information you ask for is in the article associated with this forum, back up one and study it carefully. Atropine and antibiotics are not effective for this condition and blindness is not usual. Recovery will depend on the aggressiveness of the primary treatment of avoiding sunlight, sensitivity of the horse, and amount of damage done: some (many?) of these horses always have runny irritated eyes.
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