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  Discussion on Human drug to treat ulcer ???????
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Posted on Saturday, Aug 25, 2001 - 12:07 am:

Dear Dr. O,
You may remember talking to me back in sept of 1999, when my paint mare lost her left eye to Fungal Keratitis. Well my nightmare has returned. After 3 days of light tearing in her right eye I called the vet, he came out & flushed out her tear duct, however it did not improve. I took her to a specialist today, he found a small ulcer and has prescibed Silver Sulfadiazine which is a human drug, when I filled the prescription the pharmacist almost refused to fill it when I told him it was for my horses eye, he was horrifed that I was going to use this drug in an eye. the enclosed information sheet on the drug states " may cause burning,stinging,or redness when first applied to the skin" so I am concerned what it may do to an eye. I went through months of trying to save her other eye including two surgerys, I am terrified that this will turn into fungal keratits and I am almost afraid to trust any of the medications since the main reason we could not save the first eye was due to the application of corticosteroids. I still think if I had been more educated my horse would have both of her eyes right now. I really need some sound advice before I administer any prescibed medications.
thanks in advance
ps how can I keep her from rubbing the eye ? other than a fly mask ?

Posted on Saturday, Aug 25, 2001 - 8:05 am:

Hello Sabrina,
I do not have any personal experience with silver sulfadiazine for the treatment of eye problems. However, it has broad antibacterial and antifungal properties. As a 1% cream it has been used successfully in both humans and horses as a treatment for mycotic keratitis. I cannot find any large studies with its use however.

If a fly mask works USE IT. Frequently it does not. First try antiinflammatory drugs to see if you can get the eye comfortable enough. In severe cases horses have been had to be kept cross tied to prevent recurring injury to the eye.

Do not beat yourself up over the use of the corticosteroid. Many primary conditions of the eye require you use steroids for their successful treatment and if the cornea is damaged you run the risk that this will induce a fungal keratitis. You do not have much choice in some cases.
DrO

Posted on Monday, Aug 27, 2001 - 5:49 pm:

Sabrina,
Don't have any advice as far as your horse's injury, but my TB gelding managed to tear his eyelid almost nearly off once (it was hanging by about a 1/2 inch of skin in the corner of his eye). Once it was sewn back on we needed a way to keep him from rubbing it, and you know what did the trick? Those blinder hoods that racehorses wear! They have a hard plastic cup right over the eye. The trick is just to get one fitted tightly enough so the hood cannot be moved even if your horse tries to rub against the plastic cups.

My tack store actually rents the hoods for eye injuries (however in my case we had to buy the hood as we needed it for so long the rental was more expensive than the hood). I think the hood was around $25-40.

Anyway, you might give a hood a try, hope this was helpful.
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