Horse got a clod of mud in his eye. ( horse in front threw it ) Found a small scratch after staining the eye. I’ve a little dropper bottle of eye drops from the vet. The problem is the drops don’t fall in his eye and he won’t look up :winkgrin:
I’ve thought of using a syringe (without needle) to squirt it in his eye
Have to do this three times a day for a week :eek:
Thoughts or Suggestions ?
Pull the lower lid out and drop into the little “cup” that’s created 
A quick twitch might make the process a whole lot easier.
If the horse is really naughty about it, the vet can install a cannula that goes through the eyelid. Here’s an article about it.
Once you realize that you really need 3 hands, 2 to spread the eye lids and one to squeeze the drops into the eye, you either get a friend to help out, or you struggle on your own. You waste a lot of eye drops by doing it yourself, but take one hand and get that upper lid up, and then put drops in the inner edge of the eye with the bottle inverted above the eye. Don’t have the bottle level with or below the eye ever… Or try pulling down the lower lid and putting the drops in it. Either way, you do not squirt as you say. You put the bottle close to the eye and squeeze a few drops into the eye. Bottle should be facing downward so you get some drops in the eye.
Best is to have a 2nd person hold the upper lid up and lower lid down while you put the dropper close to inner corner and drop in a few drops. Every 4 hours usually. You do not need for horse to hold head/eye up.
Best is a salve you can smear on your clean hand to just smear into the inner eye. Otherwise buy 2x as many bottles of eyedrops as you think you’ll need to handle the amt that will miss the eye when horse moves head.
I’ve only been doing this for decades!
Buy a box of 1cc syringes. Squirt a couple drops into the bottle cap and suck up with the syringe. This allows you to use a clean, sterile syringe each day and avoid touching the medicine bottle to contaminated surfaces (dirty horse faces). I have a client’s horse that requires eye lubricant every day, and he’s become very easy to do.
My technique: with the horse’s halter on, in a safe, quiet location (stall), I slip my left hand under the cheekpiece of the halter to the horse’s eye. This allows my arm/wrist to somewhat pull his head in my direction if he wants to turn away. I use my thumb and index finger to peel open the eyelid, using my thumb to pull down the lower lid and make a “pocket” to deposit the meds with my right hand. If you do this consistently and quietly, most horses really don’t mind it. Having control of the head is important, to avoid poking him in the eye and causing aversion to future treatment. I find it much easier to do this by myself, without someone holding the horse for me, because I can feel when the horse is jerking away and coordinate my movements effectively.
Another way is to use a sterile red top blood tube. Take the rubber stopper off and put it upside down on the counter so you don’t dirty the part that will go back in the tube. Then you can squirt the contents of the bottle into the tube and re-cap with the stopper (might have to use a needle and syringe to suck the air out to create a vacuum to firmly re-seat the stopper). Now you can use a 1cc syringe with a needle on it to draw up .2cc through the stopper, take off the needle, and use the syringe to squirt the med into the eye. Much easier than having to put the bottle at just the right angle to get the drops in the eye. And you are only exposing the medicine to air/dirt once, when you put it in the tube, rather than every time you take the cap off.
Along with all the good advice in the above posts, try to tip the horse nose towards you as you give the drops, it will angle the eye slightly so it is not so vertical and that will make the eye easier to hit with the drops. It is difficult to descibe, but helps once you get the hang of it.
This thread makes me thankful for my horse who I never realized was making my life easy.
He gets drops and a cream 2x per day - I use one hand to pull the lids apart and the other to simply squeeze a drop in or put the cream in.
I have found the dropper bottles require a little bit of a squeeze to get the drops out so it does not require a tilted head.
Edit to add link to video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3K4d3HWKos
the vet taught me to get a small gauge needle (25). Use that with 1cc syringe. fill syringe as needed. then break off the needle by twisting it in a circle. you will have a smaller opening than the syringe and it will squirt into their eye. it may be slightly pointy, but they told me since the horse flinches away, it is safe. I had to do this for about 4 weeks, no issues.
alternatively ask if they have the ointment version of the eye meds which is much easier!
And no one’s even mentioned the horses that do their best giraffe imitation the second they see you coming with the drops. It took exactly two applications of eye drops for my mare to wise up and decide no amount of “lower your head” cues were worth having Ms. Fumble-Fingers poking and pulling at her sore eye (and cursing—so much cursing) three times a day. :lol:
Here’s my method…
Hold one hand flat and place it over his eye, with the lids meeting between your pointer and middle fingers. Press in ever so slightly and spread your fingers apart a half inch or so. This should pull the lids away from the eye enough to expose some pink mucus membrane and create a little cup without letting the horse see. Quickly put your drops in the cup of the lower lid and let go. Your horse will blink and distribute them around the eye. Give horse a treat for behaving.
@joiedevie99 that is how I do it too. You described it so well, far better than I could ever do.
The treat at the end is very important.
Wow, great advice. I always dread having to put eye drops in any of my pets. It always goes everywhere but where it should.
Thanks to all who responded to my call for help. :applause:
The bottle is finished. I got most of the contents on myself and his face. A bit went into his eye. The hand on eye lid over the orbit seemed to work the best. His eye lashes were the biggest problem. Maxi Lash would be proud to have him as a user/model. When he felt anything brush the lashes, he did the Giraffe imitation. :dead:
The eye seems to be healing and there isn’t any problem so far.
The treat before and after our mutual ordeal kept him co-operative and coming back for more each time. 
Thank you all again for the support and advice :encouragement:.
No matter how you go about it, treating eye infections with drops or salve is a royal b**ch!!!
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
