Moon Blindness

[PaulandRuth]

One of the young mares (4 years old) has moon blindness in one eye.
Do any of you know of any effect treatment to help relieve the discomfort or have any advice I can pass on to the owner please.


Thanks

Paul

[Wally]

We had a horse with it in both eyes, it is worrying that this horse is so young.

We found that a UV fly veil all the time helped stop it flaring up.

Keeping down on dust and not putting hay in nets and rack stops bits getting in their eyes which can cause irritation.

Regular use of drops from the vet is the only thing which will keep it in check.

Sadly this horse went completely blind and we had to have him put down. He was an old man though, maybe 20.

[ros]

What exactly is Moon Blindness? I've never heard of it.

[Wally]

Sometimes known as periodic opthalmia or recurrent uveitis. It is an inflamed and painful eye condition.

It comes and goes, often responding to treatment only to flare up again a few weeks later. After each attack the horse may loose a bit more sight.

They eye can look cloudy on the cornea, and sometimes the lense can become distorted. It is never cured, but can be controlled with regular swift treatment.

Not sure of the cause, bit of a mystery.

[ponyvet]

once recurrent uveitis starts there is only the option of treating the horse as soon as possible each time it flares up. There are lots of things anecdotally which help (like uv nets) but since the cause is unknown but may be one or more things, what works for one horse may not work for another.

You will need to use eye drops from the vet and since this is such a painful condition, if you know she suffers from it, it's important that you contact the vet ASAP if you think she's having an attack. You will probably have to give her bute as well as the drops to make her more comfortable.

Overall she will not recover the sight in the affected eye - even if she can see a bit now - it will get worse.

Horrible though it sounds, removal of the eye is an option, and most (if not all) of the horses I know that have only one eye do brilliantly well. They can still jump and may be a little more spooky than before, but they can still lead a good (pain-free) life. It's worth thinking about. Especially in this case where only one eye is affected. At her age she will need treatment for life, and will probably need the eye removed eventually anyway so I'd suggest they thought about it sooner rather than later.

[Wally]

A friend has a horse whose eye needed to be removed, she does as well as any two eyed nag.

Having seen what our horse went through I'd seriously talk to the vet about her condition, only with a thorough examination between bouts can you truly come to decision.

Tyler was affected in both eyes, but was rideable for ages, even with bad eyesight. It did eventually fail him completely.