Any tips for keeping a horse from rubbing its eye…

[Tatonkas Dream]

I’ve got a ‘talented’ 18 mth old colt that decided to rip off about 2/3 of his upper eye lid on Friday. So off to the vet we go, stitched him up, eye itself was good no abrasion (yeah)

1st we get home and he does not want to be stalled alone – even with a friend next door apparently he’s decided being stalled is bad. Literally trying to climb over the door.... great.... He was stalled on and off as a suckling and weanling but has spent most this year with a run in shelter with my sr stallion where its his choice about coming and going.

Vet said it was ok for him to be outside but no direct buddies – so then we try stall door open and barn yard to yourself… this is alittle better – we are ok for a bit and then pacing and hollering for a while. We’ve had rain in the area so if I had it my way he would be stalled but I figure free to come and go and much calmer is better than additional injury to himself from trying to keep him locked up.

Any tips for the above issue would be great but my reason for posting is now he’s starting to rip out his sutures… as of this morning before leaving for work I would say he had 2 stitches out – so a couple calls to the vets and hes not seeing him but is just stating probably nothing can be done / won’t take a 2nd suturing and tissue probably already dying. His suggestion was that I cross tie him 24/7 to keep him away from anything he could rub on and take out remaining ones… ummm no I don’t like that idea for a lot of reasons.

The only thing I could come up with is can we lightly sedate him for a few days to help keep the edge off him / calm him alittle and maybe that will make him less apt to take any more out.

ANY other ideas, thoughts???

And fly mask – vendors out there that make mini sizes – like small med large. I’m thinking of ordering the supermask mini size (or trying TSC etc) but I’m not sure that will fit a yearling…

 

[targetsmom]

This sounds just like a situation I had with one of our young mares. She ripped off half her eyelid, got it stitched up, and then rubbed out the stitches!! What I did was covered the eye with a mini horse "jowl" sweat (from either Ozark or Star Lake) and then taped in some plastic stuff with holes in it I bought and shaped by heating so it would protect the eye. You need something fairly stiff to protect the eye, not just something to keep out light. When I was done with it I sent it to another forum member, so if anyone knows where it is, maybe they can send it to you!

The good news is that the eye healed fine after the second stitching. There is a section of her lid missing but it doesn't seem to affect her at all.

Good luck!

 

[Horse Feathers]

Would a fly mask work?

 

[Tatonkas Dream]

Sorry - clairication - fly mask is for long term - if he continues to rip them all out he's going to need a fly mask on most the time. He's already a Perlino that squints half the time - which is may be how/why he did this.

Vet's thinking was that he hit a wall just right on the corner of his eye to do this almost like a boxer gets the cut above there eye in a fight if hit just right.

I've also considered a dog E collar but not sure that would work either... could he eat/drink with it on, freak him out... etc etc etc

...all in all I need to find a new vet but that is another subject all together.

Thanks Targetsmom - I may be trying to figure out how to do that.

OH another thought - do they make the racing mask thingie for minis (for roadster look) that have the hard cup to them... oh thanks Targetsmom I didn't think of that one til now... search engine time

 

[targetsmom]

I did my "Googling" on this a few years ago and thought of the race horse-thing too but I don't think they came small enough. I also tried cutting a tennis ball in half (dangerous!) but couldn't figure out how to hold the half in place. Maybe some type of metal cone that you could hold in place over the eye? A really stiff bra cup???

 

[LittleRibbie]

The bra cup works!! Is it the left or right eye as I have a fly mask that I sewed w/bra cup. Be more than happy to send it to you. I also did one w/a thick soft small face cloth stitched on 1/2 the mask.

Heidi

 

[Just Us N Texas]

Our very first mini foal did this no less than twice! Our vet said take an old pair of panty hose, cut the toe out of one leg (Of course you only need one leg!), and pull it over the horses head. The toe area is small and will hold it on the nose really well. Pull the hose up till about half way up the muzzle, pull the rest over his ears, a knife or sharp scissors will make a real quick slit that will go over the ears. Cut a slit for the good eye, and put a gauze pad over the torn eyelid eye, and don't make an eye opening for that eye. Pull the stocking part way down the neck and cut off excess. It holds the cotton in place, and if they do rub, they have a lot less chance of rubbing at the eye with the gauze pad over it, held by the stocking leg. It works, and is about one of the cheapest home remedies that really works that I know of. The boy's eyelid grew back, and to this day, you would never know it had been injured. Wasn't he a smart vet?

Oh by the way, put the gauze pad next to the eye, and under the hose.

 

[tea cup]

I have a solution. I am battling the same issue with a weanling - she has been sutured up 3 times now, and has torn it again - but has an underlying infection behind her eyeball and we are waiting on it to clear before suturing again - at which time will be considered cosmetic surgery by the vet -

in the meen time,after many trials and much input from everyone i could to give me ideas -we bought a racing goggle mask for race horses at the local feedstore - it has two half moon type solid plastic molds that fit over the top/side of the race horses eye - but they are sewn into fabric, sooo we took a foal flymask - cut the cup out of the racing mask- leaving fabric around it- and sewed it into the flymask - makes a great hard cover for the eye - the soft covers - bra cup, flymaks, etc. didn't help much - she rubbed hard enough to continue to do damage. i can send you a pic if you e-mail me - [email protected]

Good luck

 

[Maple Hollow Farm]

we had a colt do this exact thing a couple wks ago, we had to use a fly mask (we only had full grown mini size) and we put some temporary stitches in the flymask to make it fit him and then we cut the bottom out of a small bowl that would be a good distance away from the eye but still fit around it properly and sewed that in place. It worked wonders but sometimes they rub it off and we had to keep a halter on over it to keep him from taking it off.

 

[Tatonkas Dream]

Thanks for all the tips guys - I'm going to go home and be playing with some of these options

littleribbie its his right eye - if yours will work please let me know.

As of this morning no more has been ripped out but he's def rubbing it as the eye had more swelling in it than last night.

I swear some of the stuff they do

 

[victoriapuppy]

Hello,

I'm new but hopefully this can help... Holly had a very similar injury to what you describe... all her stitches held thanks to a special ophthalmologic mask( sorry I KNOW I spelled that one wrong!

). The mask is called "eye saver". It is expensive but for us it was worth it. We bought ours at the nearest vet hospital, but online you find cheaper. The mask has a sturdy plastic cup that prevents the horse from rubbing and getting the injury worse and it sure prevented her from rubbing her stitches off. ...I'm attaching a picture... Hope it helps...

This is another site on these masks

http://www.horse-report.com/eye-saver.html