What a great update, OP! Hope you get the chance for more school maters lessons. It is SO helpful.
I certainly plan to. A few monthly lessons on a schoolmaster would be a much better use of my limited money than a one-off clinic with a BNT for me. I know my horse would appreciate it
“School maters” oops. I agree, lessons on a schoolmaster (with a supportive trainer) are worth way more than one-off clinics. You will keep recording all kinds of helpful feel from these experiences.
Maybe my horse isn’t so appreciative after all He apparently has uveitis so not practicing my new skills at all right now
Oh too bad, uveitis is one of those periodic roadblocks. Hope he is back on track soon.
All good now, fingers crossed. This was his first bout and hoping it doesn’t become recurring
Can I ask how it was treated? How longer before he was right again? Did the vet say what he thought caused it? Only being inquistive for my own knowledge. Never had to deal with it.
No idea what caused it. He is prone to minor eye infections / itchy eyes in the spring and at first that’s what it looked like. We think perhaps he injured it trying to rub / scratch it but uveitis isn’t necessarily trauma related. His bloodwork is good so there’s no underlying infection.
Once the vet ruled out any scratches or ulcers, treatment was a combination antibiotic / steroid ointment in the eye, oral Banamine and Atropine drops to dilate the pupil. We kept him inside and out of turn right light for a few days until the pupil was close to normal size and all the swelling and tearing was gone. Got a Guardian UV mask and used it even in the indoor arena for a few days (it has a lot of windows) and he will always wear it now when turned out.
Took about 10 days and symptoms are now completely gone. Antibiotic / steroid ointment continues for two weeks, gradually reducing dose.
Thanks for that. Always something to learn in horses.
The main thing to learn - well I already knew it but this reinforced it - is to treat any eye issue as an emergency. My guy often gets minor infections due to itchy eyes and every time I’m tempted tonjust start medicating and skip the vet call. And every time I call the vet anyway because I always think “but what if it is something more serious?” This time it was more serious so hopefully treating it quickly helped avoid long-term damage