My 17 year old Appy has uveitis in one eye. It has been seen and treated by vet, etc., and he is getting medication 2x a day.
Over time, his eye has almost completely clouded over.
He does not seem to be in pain. No squinting, maybe a bit of tearing but actually less than in the past. But I read of so many people talking about it being painful and removing the eye. Is there a chance he could be being extremely stoic? Do other people have horses with a cloudy eye that are not in pain?
I have seen several horses with cloudy eyes that did not appear to be in pain. My friend’s mare had one and the eye eventually died and shrunk. However, my first horse developed multiple eye issues late in life and the ophthalmologist said many times it is a pain like a migraine, so they feel more of a headache which is why they don’t appear painful. Is he acting normal otherwise?
I’ve never seen an episode of uvietis that was not extremely painful, but it is periodic condition, not a permanent state. I’m assuming the cloudiness is the result of long term damage done by those periodic flare ups, not uvietis itself.
My TB had uveitis. The opth vet said the pressure in his eye was low, so it wasn’t painful. The eye was cloudy and a bit shrunken. (Some people thought he had a blue eye.)
The cloudy issue you are seeing is ( i think?? )(I could be wrong ) a result of some trauma that happened not the Uveitis when it flares. Some horses eyes may become cloudy due to it, but our mare never has.
Our mare has bouts of Uveitis and they are always painful for her. Her eyes have never been cloudy because of it.
I had a mule who did something to his eye and it was cloudy for a while but he never acted like it was painful.
In my experience, no. Which is why it took so long for me to understand my horse even had uveitis.
That said, the signs of pain can be subtle. Eyelashes turned downward being one of them that I wasn’t previously aware of.
Not sure about uveitis being painful but I believe the cloudiness is from the corneal edema that can be associated with the occurrence. My horse also had glaucoma, which was painful and was complicated by the edema. Or at least that is what I gleaned from the conversations with the ophthalmologist and vet. She has happily been a pirate for over two years now 
Widget that is what I was advised re: the cloudiness too.
Did you horse have the eye removed? If so, can I ask what the recovery for that was like? Was it something you could manage at home?
Yes, I opted to have her eye removed. Recovery was simpler that I expected. She spent the night following the surgery at the vet but I stopped to see her and she was fine the evening after. She came home with sutures and bandage spray. She wasn’t supposed to graze or eat with her head down for a week (might have been less). The stalls are set up with the turn-in feeders and her hay was netted / hung. She was sent home with oral meds and went back 2 weeks later for suture removal.
I board and my BO is fantastic but there wasn’t much change in her routine other than netting the hay and adding the meds to her food.
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