Eye injury

[Barbie]

[SIZE=12pt]Hi all-[/SIZE]

I returned home from TN last night to see that my stallion had ripped his lower eyelid. I called the vet out and she put a couple of stitches in.

Went out to the barn a little bit ago and he has ripped the stitches out. Any suggestions as to a way to keep him from doing that again.

I'm waiting on the vet again to re-stitch it. Help - if you have any ideas.

Thanks,

Barbie

 

[miniwhinny]

Not sure if it's possible but maybe you'll have to put an eye patch and then maybe a fly mask on top of that just to keep the stitches in 'til the skin heals. Ask your vet maybe they would have a suggestion.

Edited to say...the eye patch may bug him but it may be better ripping out the stitches.

 

[Jetiki]

Do you have a fly mask on him? Try a regular fly mask and if that doesn't work or it makes him too itchy look for the Guardian mask, they are supposed to be for eye injuries. I had a mare I had to cross tie in her stall for 2 weeks due to an eye injury.

Good Luck with him.

Karen

 

[Barbie]

[SIZE=12pt]Thanks for the suggestions. My vet was here and put a couple of new sutures in. She had gone by her clinic and picked up some smaller ones as they should hold better. She was able to get a better stitch in as a lot of the swelling from Friday was gone.[/SIZE]

I just checked him and so far so good. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I don't have any fly masks, so will be ordering one and hoping he'll be good until I get it.

Barbie

 

[Marnie]

For a fly mask, you must have a farm store someplace around, if you go buy one for a regular "foal", that will usually fit a mini, unless he's possibly below 30 inches, than it may be to big.

 

[Jill]

Hi, Barbie --

I'm happy he's doing good this morning.

Over the years, at the former trainer's and once here, we've had several torn eyelids. It's always been the top of the eyelid with our horses. Some of them "looked" really bad but ALL of them healed to where you would not ever know now that anything happened.

The last time we had a torn eyelid was DunIT, and knock on wood, we've had horses here since 1999 and that was our only injury to date! The vet stitched him and told me that it was a smaller suture (sp?) that is specific for minis and ponies, so sounds like it could be what your boy has in right now. They worked just fine for DunIT

I don't know that this could cause the lower eyelid to tear, but when it happened at my trainers once in the stall, we were baffled what could have caused it. My husband and I went through the stall with a fine tooth comb and could find nothing. When it happened at her place in the paddock, we did find what caused it. When DunIT did it here, we finally figured it out. DunIT did it in his stall and we are sure now he did it on his feed bucket. It is a flat back bucket and the rubber stopper had come off one end. I think he rubbed on it and got his eyelid caught, pulled back, and tore it.

Not sure this can happen for the lower eyelid but worth sharing in case it could and for those who don't realize the danger. One way to fix buckets w/ missing stoppers is red neck chrome (duct tape wrapped on the handle).

Jill

 

[AppyLover2]

My little mare ripped her upper lid. Had to have it stitched 3 times before it held. She's had no use for men since then, and no tolerance for shots either. Now you have to look very closely to see any sign of it. Good luck with your little one.

 

[Barbie]

[SIZE=12pt]So far so good today. I just went out and washed his face around his eye and applied some more SWAT to help keep the flies and gnats away. He is such a good patient.[/SIZE]

I still haven't found where it happened, but will keep looking. In the mean time I'm not putting anyone in the paddock he was in.

Tara (my vet) said it would have been a lot easier if it was the top lid - oh well, we wouldn't want it to be easy. She did a nerve block yesterday when she re-stitched it so he was really good. She was done in a very short time.

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions.

Barbie