Saturday, June 1, 2013

Well Eye'll Be...

Remember way back when I first got Junior and I freaked out because I found a cyst in his eye?
No? Yeah I couldn't find a post about it either, but I've mentioned it in my posts about fly masks. 

It's a corpora nigra cyst. Feel free to google that. Not uncommon and most of them don't bother the horse. But the can obstruct vision, especially in bright light so there are potential complications with that. When I first noticed it and showed it to several vets, they all said the same thing: monitor it, keep it out of UV rays, and if it gets bigger it might be a problem. 

I've noticed lately he's been spookier and more reactive, especially from his right side. I even received a report from the BM of a big spook while being led in from turnout and she confirmed it was on his right side. Also, he's been giving me trouble staying on the rail to the left. I decided to take a comparison photo of his eye to see if perhaps there's been changes in the cyst since all these issues seem to point towards vision and his right side. 

I think the answer is yes. Darn it. First pic from 2008, second pic from May 2013. Both in barn light so i think we can assume the pupil would contract more outside in the sun, where his spooks have been occurring. 




What next? Next I make some phone calls to the different vets I've worked with and find out who's equipped to remove it and get estimates of the procedure. From what I've read it's not super complicated even though putting the words "laser" and "eye" in the same sentence is not comforting to me in any way. 

We are not in an emergency situation and I'm surprisingly calm considering my tendency to freak out about things. 

I'll keep you posted, of course. My barn is doing some schooling shows this summer and the first one is tomorrow. I'm going to be a rebel and do all the classes western. It looks like ill be the only one. It'll feel like a demo for all these hunter kids. :) 

3 comments:

  1. Good luck to Junior!!!! And yay for western riding!! It's totally the best! :) Make those Hunter's jealous! haha!
    Www.Sittinginthesaddle.blogspot.com

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  2. Well that sucks... it has definitely grown since the 2008 picture. It shouldn't surprise me that they can fix it, but that seems like a pretty invasive procedure. I'll have to do some Googling to find out more info.

    Good luck at the schooling show!!

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  3. My QH gelding had eye surgery, and it was scary because it WAS an emergency situation - but looking back not a huge deal. Everything went smoothly, and the biggest "if" was the recovery process and keeping fungus out of the eye but even that was no problem. He retained great site and worked for years and years more.

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