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You need to be very aggressive in treating this.  The "between" times, when you didn't notice your horse squinting, he likely still had uveitis.  It comes and goes in terms of flareups.  Your vet can see by examining the eye with his scope.  We have a Paso gelding who had it.  We treated him 2-3 times a day with an ointment with steroid (can't remember the name, I'm not at home now.  It took a good month after *all* visible signs disappeared for our vet to declare him 90% clear when examined with his scope.  One of the big causes of uveitis is infection with lepto.  Early on, our vet withdrew fluid directly from the eye to test for it, and Twigs was positive.  A few months later, after the above-described treatment, he injected antibiotics (I beleive it was gentamycin) directly into the back of the eye.  That was last fall, and there's been no recurrence of the uveitis.  Prior to the antibiotic injection, he would have flareups every month or 6 weeks, which we'd have to treat.  This disease can blind a horse.

 

Dawn Carrie, Texas

 

On 4/8/08, ladurgin@xxxxxxx <ladurgin@xxxxxxx> wrote:

  We have Uveitis. I noticed Rascal  (arab, bay ,15) squinting with a bit of  swelling over his left eye  a couple of times  in the last 5 or 6 weeks. I'd had corneal tears  in  a horse or two before, but it didn't look like that. Not much tearing and  it has been windy and rainy here in that time frame, and as it  seemed to only last  a day or two, I thought he bumped it, or  got  something in it  (hay bale),or  gnats and flies are  starting to hatch... I replaced the 2 big buckets because years ago he would bump his eye on the bucket side  handle when he ate--because of the length of the bucket.  I switched pastures, noticing  he was rubbing on trees because he is shedding. I  then put warpaint under their eyes because of  the bugs..( the 3rd time I was  worried) 
   The fourth time I called the new younger farm vet , who seems pretty knowledgeable for a young vet .(but he didn't  know what MSN was!). For a complete eye check. he said it sounded like Uveitis, but to call while it was inflamed. Well I got him out today.(Everyone gets hurt or dies on a weekend). He dilated and  blocked and checked everything. Good news is no retinal detachment. He has a hazy posterior chamber,anterior synchiae?(and I  though my handwriting was bad)  and  reddened upper conjunctiva. He said there are some  bars  he can see, (typical for this)
 I said I noticed he would stop and not come all the way to the barn when I called, which was odd, until I walked closer and  talked to him more ,as if he couldn't see well on that side. I connected the behavior to when he  was squinting the  4 times this had  come up , sure enough he'd be squinting. 
    I don't like what I am reading about this. We have the swampy stagnant water  in an area of our turnout, we have deer that jump in the pasture, we cows in front,  bugs everywhere from the cows and  chicken manure spread on the neighbors  hay fields.
     Champ died from complications of a puncture wound in  3 days....I have had two staph infections from fly bites that blew up  overnight last  year.
     So we probably have a breeding ground for the  bacteria, lepto....,staph, etc. 
 
      I also had been looking at  some kind of  vit./min supplement because he is on a grass hay diet,(which is now about  6-8 month old hay) just a bit of  grass/weeds now in  small pastures But everyone is too fat , so I was going to rope off the round bale  half the day.... no one needs any feed--- so I wasn't giving the  feed supplement with  calories, was looking for something to fill in  deficiencies of hay /pasture, or boast immune system.
      He only has been getting a  bit of flax (used to have" itchiness" ) gave up whole BOSS gave him diarrhea. I had been giving  him SOURCE this winter, but ran out and hadn't replaced it.... 
      I did put a fly mask on him for comfort and he was hanging in the  open barn  away from  the  sun.... but got a rub on his chin, probably because Scout was  trying to remove it , and it is one of those  double velcro....  So I removed it...>sigh<
      Vet said something about  a drip levage if I didn't want to medicate 2-3 times a day, I said ,  the other horse would take it off thru the dutch door or I'd have to isolate him  from the other horses, and he rubs things too, (I find mud in his ears and  around his eyes and in his forelock) I'd give him, Scout or the donkey  about 30 minutes to take it off.
 
     So , anybody got helpful info/experience with this? He  lives here  so I have  freedom to  do what I want ... We are in the SE, and  it has been rainy every few days for  the last month or two. ( boot sucking mud in some places)but they can get away from it into the pasture)
    Immune boosting, supplements, management, environmental management-- A eye mask all the time ?(if Scout will stop trying to remove it, course he is supposed to go to the new trainer in May).
      I wormed with Quest in FEb.--before that I had lengthen out my worming (concern for overworming?) from  my usual  2 month regiment to  4 months when it was so  dry the last year...gee I hope that  didn't cause.....
     Or  any new info. Some of the stuff I read is over 10 years old. And my vet is a farm vet not just a horse vet.
      He wants me to  give  Bute for a couple days, 1 gm. then off a couple  for a  month or so (cause I asked if MSN would be helpful or enough instead of later , did I mention he didn't know what MSN is? And Atropine, and Prednisolone  2-3 times a day (or one is 2X a day and other is 2-3 times a day(the directions are at the barn.) He wants to check him in  2 weeks or so again.
 
    
 
   

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