Got a mare with eye problems. Had the vet up and he said she needed to be on a steroidal eye ointment for the next 5 days. I showed him what I had but said I need to get some more from him before he left. Well, he gave me the dexamethasone eye ointment. What I had on hand was hydrocortisone eye ointment. I have dosed the mare today with the hydrocortisone ointment. Is one of these better than the other and would it be safe to do a couple of days of the hydrocortisone one and switch to the other, or even alternate treatments (hydrocortisone in the AM dexamethasone in the PM)??? Just curious since Iāve only had experience with the hydrocortisone one.
I work at the barn I board my horse at. Whenever we have a horse come in with a really swollen eye (one pony iespecially) we put Dex. in it per BOās instruction.
The āone ponyā has had allergy trouble and actullay ripped half of his upper eyelid off last summer, so while that was healing he got Dex. 3-4 times per day put in his eye. And everynow and then it will swell and the dex. helps.
Thatās all the experience I have with the eye meds, but Iām interested in other peopleās experiences.
Iād suggest you call the vet and see if there was a specific reason he Rxed the dex vs. the hydrocort.
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Any kind of corticosteroid in eyes can be dangerous, without first being sure there are no scratches or ulcerations.
Since your vet already looked, I would call and ask what to use.
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IME they donāt give steroids to horses that might have pre-existing condition/damage to the eye. It will only make things a lot worse and potentially damage the eye permanently.
āUlceration is the most common corneal problem and frequently poses a substantial threat to vision, because subsequent infection can rapidly lead to devastating and painful ocular disease. The cited article gives an excellent summary with impressive clinical slides about corneal diseases.ā
http://www.vetcontact.com/en/art.php?a=307&t
Dex will reduce the pressure/inflamation of the eye without the risks of hurting your horseās ocular integrity. It really depends on what the vet thinks your horseās eye issues are.
I would call your vet to be sure. 
Ask your vet. Iām 2 months into the eye injury of (hopefully) my lifetime with my good QH and no despite knowing now 40000% more about eyeballs and eyeball drugs than I did in Novemberā¦LOL, thereās no way in the world I would chime in with useful information, more thanā¦
Ask Your Vet
[QUOTE=Bluey;3809991]
Any kind of corticosteroid in eyes can be dangerous, without first being sure there are no scratches or ulcerations.
Since your vet already looked, I would call and ask what to use.[/QUOTE]
Please Please Please call the VEt before administering any steroid ointment to a horseās eye. The potential Fungal Infection that could result could be so serious that the horse will lose the eye. If my BO told the barn staff to use steroid meds in the eye without checking with me or my Vet first, Iād leave the barn-that serious.
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He knew you had hydrocortisone, but gave you dexamethasone, so stop second guessing him on the BB.
Perhaps he knew it workerd better.
The other thing is you want to be really careful what you put in the eye (more so than on the skin or something). If what you had was open, the vet may have wanted you to use a new tube to be sure that the open one wasnāt contaminatedā¦
good point.
I advise owners to toss any unused medication when finished treating a given problem.
solves the contamination problem as well as the temptation to try what might be an inappropriate medication before calling the vet if a new problem surfaces.
Saw a serious object lesson on that in schoolāa very nice very $$$$ hunter came in for an enucleation because there had been a corneal ulcer which the barn staff had treated with some leftover steroid containing oinment, and the globe ruptured secondary to a melting ulcer.
(and this was back when you could not compete a one eyed horse in the huntersā¦)
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Good GRIEF, I know all about steroids in the eyes and what happens if they are used without a vetās advice/if thereās a cut to the eye/etc., etc., etc. The vet came and did a full exam and stain which I thought would kinda be apparent from my post saying āhad the vet up andā¦ā. No scratch, no cut, no ulceration. The mare has had conjunctivitis/irritation for a long time so I decided to do worming for onchocerca <sp?> since I have learned I have been underworming the mare. Wormed her with a full dose of ivermectin. 36 hours later her eyes are flared. I call the vet. I guess I should have given more info so people didnāt freak out about the horrid side effects of steroids. I just wanted to know the difference in them. Geez. Why did he give this instead of hydrocortisone??? Because itās what he had on the truck. He didnāt have hydrocortisone eye ointment on the truck. So Iām not second guessing him, Iām asking a legitimate question about the difference in steroids. Iāve got a call into the vet but am waiting for him to call me back, so I thought I would ask here.
And for the record, I NEVER, EVER, EVER use a steroidal opthalmic ointment without having a vet exam FIRST. This aināt my first rodeo.
EDITTED TO ADD: I just found my answer. The Dex is a LOT more potent than the hydrocortisone.
Just got off the phone with the vet and he says I should be fine to start her on the Dex ointment tomorrow. So, there ya go. She wonāt get any until about 8am tomorrow so Iām going to assume the hydro will be well flushed out of her eye by then anyway (she got it at 3:30 this afternoon).
Good, looks like you have everything under control there.
The warnings on steroids and eyes are for the general public, not just for you.
Some people may not know about this and the only way to warn them is thru endless repetition, so those that donāt know yet will learn.:yes:
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[QUOTE=Bluey;3810600]
Good, looks like you have everything under control there.
The warnings on steroids and eyes are for the general public, not just for you.
Some people may not know about this and the only way to warn them is thru endless repetition, so those that donāt know yet will learn.:yes:[/QUOTE]
You know what? You are exactly right.:yes: I apologize if I got snippy or offended anyone. I just didnāt want anyone to think I personally was throwing stuff in a horseās eye all willy nilly without a thorough vet exam. But yes, you are right. Folks doing searches can find this thread and read all the warnings before they get to my defensive post where I took it all a bit too personally. Sorry gang! Thank you all for taking the time out to post. I did some more research waiting on the vet to call and found some more info to ask him about. I guess I didnāt realize there were different types of steroid eye ointment on the market since Iāve only been given the hydrocortisone ointment in the past.
Actually I think this is a good thread. I have a horse with Uveitis - a whole another ballgame, I recently got eye ointment with Dex in it also, and I know of another lady who is using it on a Uveitis case, per the University of Iowa Vet school. I didnāt know there was different types of ointment either !!!
