Cruiser's Injured His Eye

[Happy Valley]

My stallion Cruiser, who has the prettiest blue eyes, has injured one and I can't get ahold of a vet and it's a long weekend. Are there any home remedies or first aid options to prevent infection until I can see a vet, or do I need to start looking for emergency care?

His eye looks cloudy, but the cloudy part is isolated to the back part of his eye. Viewing it from the front, instead of the cornea being nice and smooth and glassy it has a bulge about the size of a skittle (candy) or m&m cut in half. He appears to be able to see some out of it, but not well. The sclera is pink, but not bright red. It is tearing some. I looked and couldn't find any grass seeds or anything in it that might have caused it to ulcerate, but he wouldn't let me mess with it much, and I didn't notice it looking odd yesterday. I can't tell if it's punctured or ulcerated. I don't want him to lose his eye.

Stacye

 

[Kim]

Sorry to hear about your horse! Eye injuries are nothing to take lightly - you really need to find a vet immediately so that you can begin treatment as soon as possible. Do not wait until the weekend is over. Good luck!

 

[Jill]

I think Kim is right. Eye injuries can often look worse than they are but the flip side is that they can get real bad, real fast if not properly treated. I'd really try to get a vet out, even if I had to haul him some place or get a vet other than my regular one to look at him.

Good luck!

 

[chandab]

My stallion Cruiser, who has the prettiest blue eyes, has injured one and I can't get ahold of a vet and it's a long weekend. Are there any home remedies or first aid options to prevent infection until I can see a vet, or do I need to start looking for emergency care?

His eye looks cloudy, but the cloudy part is isolated to the back part of his eye. Viewing it from the front, instead of the cornea being nice and smooth and glassy it has a bulge about the size of a skittle (candy) or m&m cut in half. He appears to be able to see some out of it, but not well. The sclera is pink, but not bright red. It is tearing some. I looked and couldn't find any grass seeds or anything in it that might have caused it to ulcerate, but he wouldn't let me mess with it much, and I didn't notice it looking odd yesterday. I can't tell if it's punctured or ulcerated. I don't want him to lose his eye.

Stacye

Their eyes are nothing to mess with, without professional help. Call the emergency vet on call, don't wait; his sight could depend on it. Don't want to scare you, but the eye is just to delicate to leave to chance or home remedy.

 

[Happy Valley]

I've been trying to get the emergency vet on the phone and the line is busy! I have to disconnect again and keep trying, and I'll let you all know how it works out. Thanks for confirming my gut feelings!

Stacye

 

[Aubrey715]

It sounds like he might have punctured or scratched his eye. We had a filly puncture her all the way through 1 or 2 months ago and the vet said that she would lose the eye. But guess what miracles do happen and it has healed and she is fine now. He said when they puncture their eyes most of the time the eye will rupture but hers didn't. It is really rare for it heal when they puncture it all the way through the vet said. He gave us 2 types of oitment for her eye, one was Atropine Sulfate Ophthalmic ointment USP 1%(that is for infection), and the other ointment was Neomycin and Polymyxin B Sulfates and Bacitracin Zinc Ophthalmic Ointment USP(for pain). He also put her on sulfur pills for infection. It sounds like your horse's eye looks just like our little fillys eye. Our filly couldn't see out of her for a while but now her vision has came back and she is fine. I hope that your horses eye isn't punctured and if it is i hope that a miracle will happen for you too. But as soon as you can you need to get a vet to look at it.

 

[Jill]

Just in case you are going to doctor on his eye any yourself, make sure you do not use neosporin or other "regular" triple antibiotic ointments. The kind for eyes is different. If you use the wrong kind, it can actually cause vision impairing scars to form on the eye.

I hope you get in touch with a vet. I've had one actual eye ball injury over the years. It looked horrific and the horse (one of my biggies) eye swolled up like one of those bubble eye gold fish! But the vet worked on him and he looked much better within hours. He had to be confined to a stall in daylight for a week or so and got two kinds of medicine in his eye for some of that time.

Again, good luck getting a vet out.

 

[Becky]

Eye injuries are not something to take lightly!! They are an emergency and can progress rapidly into vision loss if not treated early and aggressively. A cloudy eye could mean a corneal ulcer and I wouldn't wait to have it treated.

 

[Vicky Texas]

Any update on your horse's eye? Please do get him to a Vet. Like the others said

it is not something I would take light. We had one get injured, she scratched it. When

I found her in her stall, her eye was melting out. This is beyond gross. I rushed her to

the Vet, we had the Best Vet. He told us, she would lose the eye, I told him NO. To try

to save it. They brought in a specaialist. He gave a certain eye drops, they put this in

anytime any one by her stall, it cost. But we saved her eye. They told me she be blind.

On the day we pick her up, she was great, and she had full eye sight in that eye. God

gave me a miracle. So hang in there, but I would so get him to a Vet. You don't want

to take chaces, it could be minor, but it could infected. Please get him to a Vet.

Best Wishes

Vicky

 

[Cheerio Girl]

I would say keep it clean, don't let any dirt get in it, and get him to a vet ASAP.

 

[Happy Valley]

I talked to two vets. Both said the same thing, use triple antibiotic opthalmic ointment and atropine. I had some antibiotic ointment, but have to go out in search of more today. I'm going to try again to get in touch with MY vet after he has time to get awake this morning.

The vets I talked to said it may heal up just fine with the antibiotics, it's just wait and see unless I want to take him to the university for a conjunctival flap, and neither recommended that at this point.

Keep your fingers crossed, and thank you all for your replies and your happy thoughts.

Stacye

 

[ChrystalPaths]

Remember NO STERIODAL ointments for this type of eye injury. Keep a fly mask on but he really should be seen by a vet.

 

[Kim]

Did you talk to the vets over the phone, or did they come out and actually examine the eye? I am concerned that they indicated that it's a "wait and see" situation. The cloudiness would indicate to me that there's a high chance that there is a corneal ulcer, which can only be determined by a vet actually examining the eye in person (not talking to you over the phone!) and staining the cornea. If not treated appropriately and promptly, corneal ulcers can quickly turn into melting ulcers, and then your chance of saving the eye is slim. There's also the chance of severe bacterial or fungal infection occurring. The horse also may need anti-inflamatories in addition to antibiotics. Only a vet who physically examines the horse can say for sure.

If this was my horse, I would be finding a vet who could see the horse NOW, and I wouldn't hesitate to haul him a few hours to a clinic if that was the only option. I have had two horses with corneal ulcers, one lost his eye after extensive treatment and the involvement of multiple vet clinics and universities, one healed fine with full sight, but at one point we were giving him drops every 15 minutes around the clock.

Hopefully you are able to reach your vet who can come out and actually see the horse. Also, if the vets didn't mention it, he should be kept out of direct sunlight.

 

[Happy Valley]

For those of you kind enough to be concerned, I did finally get my vet and he looked at Cruiser's eye, and said it was a puncture wound, no doubt. The triple antibiotic ointment I had been using was gone and not doing a very good job, so he gave me a broad-spectrum and told me to keep him out of the sun.

He is improving very much. It looks a great deal better, not perfect by any means, but better. We'll go back and see the doctor in a couple of days for a re-evaluation. Dr. Don thinks the eye will be fine and that he will be able to see out of it, and that there will be just a small scar.

Sorry for the delay in the update. It's been busy around here.

Thanks for thinking of him, keep your fingers crossed!

Stacye

 

[Kim]

Glad to hear that it's going to be okay. That's great news!