My horse has spring allergies and is rubbing her eyes a lot. Does anyone recommend anything for a horse’s itchy eyes?
Fly masks help my guy
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Yes, she wears a fly mask to keep the flies away from her eyes, but the pollen in the air is making them itch.
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I’m having some success with cetirizine (I think it’s Zyrtec in the U.s. Reactin in Canada) to reduce itchiness.
There is at least one thread in this forum that discusses it in good detail.
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Have you ruled out uveitis as a cause of the eye rubbing?
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My older pony mare has been on Zyrtec for years. She gets 8 AM & 8 PM on top of her feed. You can find a generic cheap on Amazon or one of the big box stores; I usually pay around $15 for 300+ tablets. This spring has been awful and I’ve increased to 10 tabs twice/day and wash her face with a cool wet cloth often to take the dust and pollen away from her eyes (also seems to feel good). She wears a mask in the field as well.
I sometimes take her off of it in the winter but whatever she’s allergic to seems to show up in a batch of hay sometimes so back to the Zyrtec she goes.
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That must be uncomfortable for her. Poor dear.
TBH I’m a weenie about administering meds to my horses without vet directions. So if my horse had itchy eyes that weren’t clearing up with basic management (fly mask, braid forelock, remove any round bale hay etc) I’d probably call the vet and do whatever he told me to do. Some people are more comfortable administering meds to their horses w out a vet being involved. That’s cool, but just not me.
Best wishes for a quick resolution for your girl!
Yes
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I tried to call our vet, but he is out of town for the holiday weekend. I’m going to call him again when he gets back. I was just seeing if anyone had a short term solution I could use over the weekend. I am continually washing off her face with cool water and cleaning out her eyes with saline solution which is helping some.
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One of our mares has Uveitis as well as seasonal allergy issues but instead of giving her allergy meds I just put some eye ointment in when she is weepy, watery or itchy and it seems to clear that right up.
What eye ointment do you use?
I’d try some antihistamines until you can get ahold of your vet.
