Well, Sugar, my 28 year old Appaloosa has gotten ANOTHER corneal abrasion (scratch on her eye). This is, what, the 4th time? Darned Appaloosa eyes. Oh well, poor girl. Corneal abrasions hurt (as I learned when I put in a contact that, unbeknownst to me, was concealing a piece of sawdust. It was a quite a sight, me hopping around the house muttering curses in German, while trying to pluck a contact out of a bloodshot, swollen eye.)
Anyways, it looks pretty gnarly. Very swollen and is almost totally red, so the vet's coming out today. Lets just hope she doesn't have to get an injection to the eye again. Did you know that horses have a very convenient little divet out of the bone right above the eyeball, which allows you to administer an injection to the back of the eye? Well, the vet tried that last year. It ended up like:
That illustration is actually pretty accurate. My (then 27) year old mare lifted my mother, the vet, and the vet's husband off the ground- while anesthetized. Let's just say I had a new realization of just how strong she was, and that I was glad I was just handing instruments to the vet.
They then decided twitching her would make their lives considerably easier, and what do you know? She was a perfect little angel then!
I'll post after the vet gets here how the patient did.
After Vet Visit:
Well, she did better than expected, I suppose! She didn't rear, at least. We still had to anesthetize her to get the dye in her eye to see if there was, in fact, an abrasion. The dye is actually pretty interesting. It's this strip of paper that the vet gently lays against the horse's eye. When they blink, they trap the paper and the ink in their eye. She leaves it there for a moment, then pulls it out. The dye (yellow, usually) comes off of the paper and fills in any abnormal dips or scratches in the cornea. It's non-toxic and all that, so it doesn't hurt the eye at all, though I bet it's pretty uncomfortable to have in your eye! It was interesting though. Anyways, it also turns out she has a bit of Uveitis in that eye, but it's not too serious. Once we get the abrasion treated, she'll be getting a steroid shot to hopefully counteract that. However, prognosis is promising, and treatment is a few drops of some antibiotics in that eye 4 times a day until next Tuesday, then we'll get the steroid shot.
Anyways, it looks pretty gnarly. Very swollen and is almost totally red, so the vet's coming out today. Lets just hope she doesn't have to get an injection to the eye again. Did you know that horses have a very convenient little divet out of the bone right above the eyeball, which allows you to administer an injection to the back of the eye? Well, the vet tried that last year. It ended up like:
They then decided twitching her would make their lives considerably easier, and what do you know? She was a perfect little angel then!
I'll post after the vet gets here how the patient did.
After Vet Visit:
Well, she did better than expected, I suppose! She didn't rear, at least. We still had to anesthetize her to get the dye in her eye to see if there was, in fact, an abrasion. The dye is actually pretty interesting. It's this strip of paper that the vet gently lays against the horse's eye. When they blink, they trap the paper and the ink in their eye. She leaves it there for a moment, then pulls it out. The dye (yellow, usually) comes off of the paper and fills in any abnormal dips or scratches in the cornea. It's non-toxic and all that, so it doesn't hurt the eye at all, though I bet it's pretty uncomfortable to have in your eye! It was interesting though. Anyways, it also turns out she has a bit of Uveitis in that eye, but it's not too serious. Once we get the abrasion treated, she'll be getting a steroid shot to hopefully counteract that. However, prognosis is promising, and treatment is a few drops of some antibiotics in that eye 4 times a day until next Tuesday, then we'll get the steroid shot.
No comments:
Post a Comment