Shade punctured his cornea!

[moonrize]

Shade's eye was swollen Wed. nite, so I had vet out thurs. He said Shade had managed to puncture his cornea. Now we're worried about it abcessing. If it heals fine, there should be little to no sight loss - maybe just a speck. But if it abcesses... problems ahead. He's on oral antibiotics, stuff to put in his eye, and bute for pain.

Anyone have any corneal puncture stories to share. Say a little prayer for Shade that he doesn't have any permanent problems. He's my paso that never gets sick, so go figure... I really think it's because I didn't owe my vet any money right now. :roll:

[Pasogirlz]

Never had any eye problems w/the horses. (thank goodness). But sending prayers and support for a quick and full recovery.

[Edurne]

One of the horses at the barn (don't recall her name) had a horrible eye injury, and it was a pain to keep after with medication and such, and I am sure extremely painful, because there were days when she stood in the corner and didn't move her head. She was also coming back from racetrack injuries. She's as good as gold now. Hope your guy doesn't have any continuing problems and heals quickly.

[Blameitonbrio]

Poor Shade...good that he is on antibiotics. Prayers said, andI hope he heals up nicely.

[SandyMM]

Antares punctured his cornea when I was keeping him at a barn that had on-the-wall hay feeders. Treatment required a darkened stall, antibiotics, and pain meds. We have treated Bronce also for eye problems - basically the same treatment including the stuff that dilates the pupil so the meds can pass through to the inner eye better.

One thing to beware of is to only use steroids, especially when it involves eyes, on the advice of your vet.

Any horse who is in extreme pain - and eye injuries are very painful for them - can self-manufacture a steroid-like substance which can cause cataracts...

Good luck with his treatment... Antares recoverd fully. However, Bronce was apparently left untreated by previous owners 3-4 years ago at the time of the initial problem and nothing we could do when we got him could save his eyesight.... Thank goodness he is such a trooper! Ask anyone who has ridden in Dawson Forest! :smile:

[CarolU]

My father punctured his cornea, healed fine with no sight loss. Just be aggressive with the antibiotics and ointment and bute (keeps inflamation down (it's not just a pain reliever, it's also an anti-inflamatory).

Good luck Sally

[Mellifluous]

Ouch! That sounds painful.

I hope shade has a good recovery!

[Terry Wallace]

Moonrize.... check out www.blindhorses.org click on "eye diseases", and if you scroll down that page it will also cover corneal healing.

I recently went to a seminar that had 3 hours on horse's eyes...bottom line, stay on top of this..... keep it treated..... I'll be you are well aware of this, but I'll just say it anyway! ;-)

[moonrize]

THANKS for the support everybody :razz:

[Barbwire]

Oh, the poor guy. I have heard that eye injuries are one of the most painful types a horse can get. Here's wishing for a speedy recovery.

[PattiB]

We had a young gelding many years ago that I found in the pasture with his eye white. Turned out he puntured his cornea probably a couple of days before. We treated his eye aggressively and he recovered with just a small white spot.

Aviso got lepto from an eye injury that later caused his moonblindness and cataracts later on so keep up the meds. If you need darkness find someone with a eye cup hood to block the light out, since you don't have an enclosed barn. It's like the blinders used by saddlebreds but it it totally enclosed with just small holes for air. Don't let him rub the eye, get a hood.

[Jane Hurl]

David's old grinder horse had a corneal problem caused, I think, by the young sociopath (we were rehabilitating) throwing rocks at him and hitting his eye. When I discovered it, the eye was an oozing mess. The vet said his cornea was perforated. With medication (and nothing else), he recovered completely ... at the age of 30+.

Gotta stay on the meds though. Sometimes they aren't cooperative, but you GOTTA stay on it.

[motorgypsy]

For any eye problems we always keep a flymask on the horse 24/7 but check it frequently since you can't see inside the fly mask to see what's going on with the eye. The flymask also acts like sun glasses if you get one of the darker ones.

[GeorgeGuns]

OW OW OW!!!!!
I'd try to find an equine eye specialist and get the very best care possible. Often these horses need an eye catheter to get the meds in right, it sounds gross but its pretty effective. I sure hope you don't have to go that route though.
Prayin hard!

[Brigitte]

Ouch, hope he heals quickly

[Minouri]

I have an Appy that is blind in one eye from a severe old eye injury. We had heard to keep a flymask on him 24/7 to help maintain the integrity of his other eye. Several fly masks later and a few eye infections and the vet said that the mask was doing more harm than good. No matter what brand we bought he'd rub his head and irritate his eye. So just watch for rubbing if you do decide to keep a mask on them even in the winter. Or maybe someone could recommend the best brands for it.

We used the Crusader and several types we had bought from Stateline.

[pnalley]

I absolutly agree with Coreen, get him to an equine opthomologist!

Eye injuries can be very serious.

We had a wonderful App mare the scratched her cornea. we had conjuntaval flap surgery done, it failed so we had to have her eye removed. She wound up scratching the other eye a few times, it always healed till the last time. She had a small scratch, the type that had no reason not to heal. She was at Auburn for a month. She was not getting any better. We finally had to have her put down at 16 years old. That about killed us as she was an awesome horse.

Please, please take this very seriously and good luck!

[motorgypsy]

You do have to watch for rubbing. There is a really soft flymask made for riding that you can see through that might not be so annoying for some horses. We like the Farnam Supermasks the best because they stay far off the face and are stiff enough so they keep their shape. We leave masks on 24/7 in the summer because of the bugs so we've tried all different kinds. The Absorbine are good but make a dent in the nose from the elastic. The generic from Jeffers are good except for the really sensitive horses because the ears are stiff. We do get the ones with ears but the ears get torn so we have to do frequent "ear transplants" on them with the fabric ears that you can buy.

I forgot to mention - we can't put flymasks on the boys cause they yank on them and drag each other around by the mask. Can't have halters on either cause they take them off each other.