Yearling Filly with eye problem

[LisaB Ozark]

I have a yearling filly who damaged her eyelid (no injury to the eye itself - we had it checked at that time) about 2 months ago and had a skin tag on it when it healed. The vet had thought it would heal fine but then it was to late. Anyway - she has had no problems with the eye itself then last weekend her eye began to water (a lot). Her eye was clear with no signs of inflamation or infection - it just was very watery. We took her to the vet first thing monday. The vet and I originally thought the problem must be the skin tag so they did surgery on her eyelid. They also stained her eye for problems and flushed her tear ducts - nothing has stopped the watering. Today they tested her for Gloucoma - high for a horse should be around 28 (that was what I was told). Her eye ranged from 33 to 35.

Has anyone else had a similiar problem and what was the results and treatment.

Thanks for any and all input.

Lisa - Ozark

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

Wow, wish I had something useful to offer you. Hope the vets can give you a successful treatment.

 

[wildoak]

Gee, haven't had that one come up before. I'm treating an ongoing eye problem too but it was from something in the lower part of the eye. Seems like the excessive watering is a reaction to pain in the eye perhaps - is she getting banamine or anything for pain? Might run that past the vet if not and see if it makes a difference. Curious - how do they test a horse for Glaucoma? Isn't that the air puff test they give humans?

Jan

 

[LisaB Ozark]

She is on low doses of banamine for pain and also a steroid ointment on the eye. I honestly do not know how they test - my vet told me she was going to do it but I was not there. My vet is going to call a Dr Miller who is suppose to be one of the best equine eye vets in the USA. I am suppose to have news tomorrow. It was actually my vet who suggested I ask around with other mini owners to see if anyone has ever had the similiar problem.

Thanks, Lisa

 

[Gini]

Lisa

Yes I had a problem with Emmy CMHR's rescue. Her eye was watering horribly!

The vet couldn't see the ulcer in the eye even with the stain. It took a vet that specialized in equine eye problems to find it. We treated it for 4 weeks and eventually took the eye.

I am now having to treat Tag another CMHR rescue that was kicked and has a small ulcer.The vet is having me give.

gentamicin sulfate 3 x day

another ointment that has

polymyxinb, Neomycin, Sulfates and Bacitracin Zinc as the ingredients 2x per day

and the bigger one is only given 1x per day every 3 days at night

Atropine Sulfate Opthalmic Ointment due to the dialation of the eye only to be given at night.

Tags eye is healing very nicely now.

I am sure if we had gotten Emmy sooner we would have been able to save her eye.

Hope this helps. Please run these meds past your vet this may give he or she an idea.

 

[LisaB Ozark]

Gini - thanks !!! Of course she is my show filly that went fifth at AMHR nationals last year in her weanling class. I had hoped for her to be a show mare. I will give the information to my vet - she is awesome and listens to everything !! Do you know the vets name that finally figured it out - she will call him if she could get a name and number.

I am thinking that there must have been damage when the eyelid was hurt and it just did not show - and now it is showing with the watering. I seriously think that eyes can be the easiest thing to heal but the hardest to diagnose.

Thanks again !!!

Lisa

 

[Gini]

Lisa you have a pm

 

[Minimor]

Lisa, if there is any possibility that there is a tiny ulcer that the vet isn't seeing--as in the case Gini describes--the steroid ointment would be the worst possible thing to be using on the eye.

however, since your filly has tested high on the glaucoma test, it would seem likely that your vet is on the right track with that

I'd actually never heard of glaucoma in horses, or at least have never come across it. I just checked my Equine Research vet book, and it does say that glaucoma is rare, but one of the causes is trauma. It states that signs usually displayed in horses with glaucoma are dilation of the pupil, edema of the cornea, gengestion of the covering of the white coat of the eye, mild muscle spasms of the eyelid and a pale, slightly cupped optic disc. The pupil responds poorly, or not at all, to light and the whole eyeball feels hard. If pressure within the eyeball is very high corneal edema will make the eye look hazy, even opaque. It doesn't say how they do the test on horses.

Good luck; I hope the vets can get this figured out and get your filly fixed up.

 

[LisaB Ozark]

Thanks to everyone. I have cut and pasted all the information that you have all passed on and am faxing it to my vet this morning. I will keep you posted.

Lisa

 

[LisaB Ozark]

Latest update. Spoke with my vet and a Dr Miller (eye specialist). Both seem very sure that it is glaucoma due to the high levels in her eye plus she has several of the other signs of glaucoma. They both said that if it was an ulcer the pressures would be decreased - not increased. Also we have had her on steroids for 4 days and if it was an ulcer her eye would have been a mess by now. Dr Miller is in Memphis (which is quite a distance) so we have decided to try her on the glaucoma medicine for 1 week and then retest her pressures. If there is no change then off to Memphis we go. If it is Glaucoma then she will have to have drops in her eye twice a day for the rest of her life - oh what fun that is going to be.

I keep praying that everything will be fine but it does not look like that is going to happen.

Lisa

 

[CheyAut]

So sorry! My friend's mini had glaucoma. I say had because he got his eye removed a few years ago (could barely (if at all?) see out of it and it just caused him problems). If you'd like to talk to her I can give you her email.

 

[Gini]

Liz is there any word on your filly's eye yet? Hoping for the best.

 

[shorthorsemom]

Did they stain the eye to check for a clogged tear duct? Really common in youngsters. On my boy they put in flourecein (can't spell that) dye and checked to see if it came out his nose after we stained the eye. It didn't, we treated awhile and it finally went away when he was closer to 2 years old. I hope it turns out to be something treatable, eyes can be so tricky. Flys or no flys we put on a fly mask to keep dust out, that helped too.

 

[The Simple Life Farm]

I work for an Ophthalmology group, and glaucoma can be tested for using a tonopen. It is a portable devise that reads the inter ocular pressure. There is traumatic glaucoma. What type of medication is she receiving? I maybe able to help you with samples if they are using a human version. I will show this post to my doctors on Monday to see if they can offer any insight.

 

[tagalong]

LisaB - your filly wouldn't be silver dapple, would she?