Corneal Ulcer

[RedWagon]

My mare has a corneal ulcer. She was at the vet's Friday and he gave us ointments to use. We have been regularly putting in the triple antibiotic and the pain reliever. She had a check up today (Tuesday) and he thinks she is healing too slow and that one spot may have gotten deeper. He's sending her to an opthalmalogist. We should get an appointment there Thursday or Friday.

I've never dealt with a corneal ulcer so any info or stories, good or bad, would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[wendi leigh]

My vet treated one for two weeks and it just didn't heal. The opthamologist completely changed the drugs and we saw improvement within days. If you are given the drug to dialate the eye, you'll need to tape over a fly mask to shield the eye from the light or keep the horse in a dark stall because the eye will be very light sensitive. My vet forgot to mention this when they first gave me that ointment/drops. I can check the drug names and pm you tomorrow. I'm sure everything will heal nicely once you see the eye doctor. Keep us posted on her progress.

 

[Sunny]

I've had two horses with corneal ulcers. The first was an older mare a number of years ago, and she was treated with the ointment as you're describing. It wasn't really helping, so the vet gave her another drug (probably like the one mentioned above that dilates the pupil), and sewed her eye shut for a couple of weeks. Of course she wore a fly mask when turned out, etc. Anyway, when he came to remove the stitches, the eye was almost completely healed, and there was only the tiniest of scars left that you could barely find even if you knew where to look.

The other case was not so good. We had a colt born here a couple of years ago that injured his eye at one week of age. It didn't look bad at first, and actually appeared to be above his eye where the skin was scraped up a bit. I cleaned it and all that, and felt sure it would be okay. By the next day, an ulcer had developed and I called the vet immediately. We started him on ointment and eye drops, but it wasn't doing much to help. He changed the drops after a few days, but that didn't help either, as it had developed into a "melting corneal ulcer". (The name of it still just about makes me gag.) Anyway, we weren't able to save the eye, and it was surgically removed at two weeks of age. The good news is that he lives a perfectly normal life with just one eye. The bad news is that we can't show him in AMHR shows with just one eye.

I sincerely hope the outcome will be much better for your mare, Julie. My best wishes are with you.

 

[HGFarm]

Any eye injury can become easily infected- and create an even worse mess. I had one myself just over a week ago and am still recovering from that and on antibiotic eye drops.

Our vet also sewed the eye shut for a while- the ends are left open to be able to apply medicine, but it keeps it cleaner AND the big thing- out of the sun!!! If the eye is not sewn shut, you need to make a 'patch' with a fly mask and cover that side. The sun creates scar tissue and also hurts like h*%# on a damaged eye.

We had one big colt many years ago that went through this, and with the eye sewn shut and the medication, he actually healed with no blemish at all!! The neighbors just had a mini filly that got an eye injury- a baby, and she has healed up quite well also.

As long as it has immediate attention, and gets the right meds and kept out of the sun til thoroughly healed, there is a chance of a great recovery.

 

[MtnShadowsFarm]

At the equine hospital where I work, we treat corneal ulcers by placing a catheter that allows meds to be administered directly into the affected eye. Usually, the catheter line and injection port are braided into the mane for easier access. We alternate between a Gentocin fortified opthamalmic solution, and serum from the horses own blood, every 2 hrs. The horse also wears and "eye saver" which is a mask with a solid, but breathable cup type covering, to protect the eye and the catheter. We've had good success treating horses this way.

Good luck!

 

[disneyhorse]

I had a mare get an ulcerated cornea a while back... she had a "flap" torn right there (eww).

The ophthalmologist said we could either sew the third eyelid shut (apparently there is no blood supply to the eye for a while, it has to grow little veins to the injury to heal the tissue there or something... so the third eyelid over it would help it heal and protect) OR we could treat it with regular drugs.

Since the eyelid thing bothered me and seemed more expensive, we opted for the drugs. HOWEVER we had to put the ointment in EVERY TWO HOURS. No kidding. ROUND THE CLOCK.

We brought the mare home (I board my horses, no horse property) and set up a dog run on the patio. My mom and I took turns at night so we could sleep four consecutive hours.

Every two hours was the BNP (poly bactarin neosulfate or something like that that the three letters stand for) ointment and a couple times a day was Atropine (the dilating ointment).

It is important to remember that the atropine dilates the eye and the horse needs to be kept inside (ours was in on the patio) or at least a flymask. Dilating the eye allows the resulting scar to be smaller, as the scar will be the largest while the eye is dilated out, and then it dilates in to be very small.

With a couple MONTHS of every-two-hour (although I think after four or five weeks we dropped down to every four hours) treatment, our mare's scar was very, very small considering. It healed very well.

That was my experience, hope it helps any.

Andrea

 

[RedWagon]

Thank you all for your posts. Hubby's on the phone trying to get the appt. scheduled now. She does have on a fly mask and after reading your posts today I put tape on the left side to keep the sun out. I'm hoping the opthalmologist will just change up her meds and she will heal fine. Fingers crossed.

Thanks again!

We will be going to see the eye dr. on Friday. He just got back from taking care of someone's practice in Texas but will squeeze us in.

 

[The Simple Life Farm]

I work for human ophthalmologists. A corneal ulcer is a very painful and serious condition. The dilating drops (atropine) helps with pain. The horse does need to stay in a very dark area, cause I don't think it will keep the sunglasses on :bgrin

It can leave a scar, and take a long time to heal. Make sure you follow med directions very carefully, you don't want an infection to start. Hopefully all will work out fine. Sending prayers your way.

Kelly