Re: Periodic Opthalmia

[dluehosh@juno.com (Gwen Dluehosh)]

I also had a horse with moon blindness with a high Leptospirosis titer
(we co-tested several horses in the field) which did not clear up with
teh usual armaments of steroids plus antibiotics and atropine and bute .
Well, it seems there is some research going on in Kentucky (I think at
Gluck) and possibly at Cornell (though I don't know all the details) and
at Virginia Tech whereby some horses were having the actual Leptospira
organisms isolated from the anterior chamber from the eye and who have
been treated with antibiotics. At any rate, our stallion was well on his
way to losing his eye, even had decreased eye pressure and was starting
to have retinal detachment. 

Not willing to accept this I tried him on IV antibiotics to combat the
Lepto at Virginia Tech- we put him on KPen and Gentocin- for 10 days,
plus all the normal eye drugs listed above. His eye cleared up and has
been fine ever since. There are caveats with those drugs, horse needs to
be in decent shape otherwise...Now, I don't have proof that the Lepto
causes all uveitis, in fact there are probably a lot of things that cause
it, but in light of his high titer, and his response to treatment, I feel
that the usual treatment is not justified any more. We are going to let
the Ophthalmologist continue to monitor the eye, and we have pulled blood
for titer testing again... 
As for the cyclosporine working in your case, I think that that makes a
lot of sense. THere is a condition in dogs that responds to cyclosporine
too, and I have personally witnessed one other horse that was doing the
same as yours who also responded to Cyclo. 
Anyway, just my two cents on this hot topic. I hope it helps some horses
out there. It won't be a cure all for moon blindness, but it may give
some options. Talk to your vets about it! 
Gwen Dluehosh DVM
and the once almost blind Alpha Sharade, who is very happy to see!

On Sun, 11 Oct 1998 20:43:05 EDT Leigh331@aol.com writes:
>OK, I'm not a vet, but everyone needs to file this away in their 
>mental data
>files....a boarder had a horse with severe Uveitis. After many months 
>and many
>hours and tears, the North Carolina Vet School told her to remove the 
>eye. The
>owner didn't want to give up, she wanted to try everything possible. 
>The
>equine ophamologist at NCSU Vet School tried an experimental drug 
>that
>honestly worked wonders almost overnight! The "wonder drug" was 
>cyclosporin
>opthalmic ointment! The horse, after 3 years, is symptom free! The 
>horse still
>is using cyclosporin twice weekly and should continue this for the 
>rest of his
>life, but he has his eyes, and his sight! When the drug was first 
>used, the
>pupil was completely constricted and he had no sight in the eye, no 
>hope of
>sight either. After 2 years of cyclosporin, he was re-evaluated and 
>the pupil
>works normally. He has normal sight except for the corneal scarring 
>that
>obstructs only the upper outsight corner of his vision area. Consult 
>your vet
>regarding this, it may be your answer. Any insights....Heidi?
>
>Leigh Preddy SE
>
>

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