Allergies...swollen eye, cold compress?

My girl has allergies now, ragweed to be exact. Another boarder called the vet, as this is common in the herd right now, and was told that everyone should be using Trihist and cold compresses.

The store only had Antihist, it's really all the same thing. She is on the max dose according to the label, which is 1 tablespoon every 12 hours. I should have started this weeks ago so it could build up in her system. But anyway how do I do a cold compress on the eye?

They are both red and the left eye is a bit swollen. I gave her 1gm of bute last night to help with the swelling and any pain she might have.

Any help is appreciated. She will tolerate anything I do to her so nothing will be a problem. Pictures below show both eyes. Her left is watering bad but I had taken a wet paper towel and held it over her eye to get some relief and clean it a bit.

One of my horses will get puffy eyes on the lower eye lid but not watery. A fly mask prevents it. Mine seems to react more to wind & sun.
My mare is grey too & I think her big eyes & white eye lashes that point up are the main cause of the irritation as they don't protect her eyes very well.

A gentle saline eye wash will make your mare feel much better too.

This was after having her fly mask on :( and it was cleaned before it was put on her.

Can I use the saline eye wash for humans or do I need to get a special one for horses?

Wow, she sure does have some allergies. Maybe a prescription for hydroxyzine is needed. It's an antihistamine.
All saline is the same.

Okey well I will pick up some saline wash today.

If it doesn't get better in a few days I will call the vet out. I would like the current allergy medicine to build up in her system a bit first to make sure that that alone wont help. I'm not entirely convinced that someone didn't bring a cold back or something from a show.

I will probably call the vet today anyway just to talk and see what he thinks. I'm thinking they should be on speed dial or something for as much as I call them.

Please keep in mind that one of the side effects of Trihist is the horse can stop sweating.

Oh really? If I notice that, what do I do besides stopping the medication immediately?

Takes up to 5 days for the horse to get back to normal.

Found that out the hard way.

Well I will be watching for that. I know where and when she should sweat for what she's doing and the temperature outside.

How do I do this cold compress thing?

I can sure relate to having the vet on speed dial. I told my vet if he ever gets big enough to "go public and sell stock", I had better be in the top five of the first people he informs

Back in the early 80's my Morab had ragweed allergies. Thankfully I could keep his pasture clean but back then all I could do was keep his eyes clean and not do any trail riding until ragweed season was over. I couldn't even do much road-diding because some fields by the roads were polluted with rag weed.

Fast forward to today's world:

After we moved/retired to the Tennessee Valley, my now 18 yr old TWH developed dust/mold/pollen allergies to add to his oat/corn/soy intolerance - ain't it great?

I had him on TriHist for three seasons. It did help some but it seemed to amp him up and make a nut case out of him more than it helped his allergies.

Then I discovered Equine Science herbs4horses "allergy herbal blend".

Equine Allergy Herbal Blend: stronger immune system for horses Herbal Remedies for Horses including Natural Equine Supplements for Laminitis and Founder in Horses- Herbs For Horses

This is the fourth summer Rusty has been on this stuff. Not only does it work miracles but it really mellows him out. He still itches because I don't think anything's going to be 100% given that we live in The Basin, a/k/a allergy purgatory BUT his problems have been reduced by 95%.

We're in the height of allergery pollution so, right now he's on 1-1/2 doses. Don, the owner of Equine Science, said it's ok to up him to a double dose if I have to. He is 16/1H and weighs around 1,150.

This stuff's expensive because it's pure. I also buy the Chastetree for my metabolic horses from this company, and I buy other stuff too - lol lol

They are honest, ethical, trustworthy and 99.9% of the time, I get my products practically before I hang the phone up. They're in Memphis, I'm several hours east below Nashville.

I use Bausch & Laumb saline solution for the horses, or just plain B&L eye water.

Vetericyn now makes an eye wash as well.

If your mare would wear one of those Guardian Fly Masks, and you could afford one, you might consider one of those until ragweed season passes.

Even though regular fly masks have a certain amount of UV protection, the Guardian is made specifically for that and for eye protection due to health issues. Meaning this type of mask would help keep the strain off her eyes

Guardian Mask - Uveitis, Glaucoma, Cataracts, Eye Cancer & Eye Injuries

I am so wore out from all the health issues this weather has heaped upon us, metabolic issues, arthritis issues, all of which are exacerbated by the heat/humidity. Unless we get the Siberian winter of winters, I will be ecstatic for winter to get here. I've just about had IT - lol lol lol

I had thought winning the Big Fat Lottery and "summering" some place cooler like MN or VT would be the answer but I see the OP lives in MN so there goes that theory down the terlet