Corneal Ulcer with Amnion Graft

My horse has a corneal ulcer to his left eye. We had him on antibiotic ointments several times a day plus atropine. A recheck showed his eye had worsened so we placed a lavage in and began antibiotics plus antifungal every 2 hours. After 2 weeks, the blood vessels needed to heal the ulcer were still not quite where they needed to be so an amnion graft was placed to help speed healing.

We are currently at about 2 weeks since the graft was placed. He continues to receive antibiotics through the lavage, now 4 times a day.

Does anyone else have any experience with this? I would love to hear from someone who is (or was) in this situation.

Thank you!

AppyT has a horse that did something similar. Had a fungal issue, blind in that eye now. Hopefully she will catch this thread.

I am so afraid he will be completely blind in that eye. I have been very optimistic until today...I'm just exhausted running back and forth to the stables (16 miles away) day and night. I SO want to see some progress and I understand I need to be patient but we are going on 2 months now.

My kids learned to ride on this big boy and he took such good care of them. I would do anything to preserve his eye and as much sight as possible... just can't believe this is happening.

I guess I'm just tired and depressed today. I was looking for someone to give me a little encouragement.

If he does go completely blind in that eye...what then???

Hi Loric, I'm Appyt. It's been 2 years(or has it been 3?) since Cheno lost the vision in his "good" eye. Cheno has suffered from ERU for years and during one flareup he must have scratched his eye. He developed a fungal infection on top of the corneal ulcer. I don't recall the name of the medication, but we treated it with a topical antifungal that I had to apply several times a day. Unfortunately his eye ruptured. Cheno may be totally blind, I'm not sure on that. But he does fine. My granddaughters take rides on him occasionally. He's 29 btw.

I can tell you that losing the sight in that eye will not be the end of the world. If your horse is a solid calm sane horse then if he loses the sight in that eye he will be fine. Most horses can handle sight loss much better than we think. You just have to remember where the blind spots are and allow for it.

Don't fret too much about the possibility of blindness in the one eye. You are doing all you can, that's all you can do.

Btw, Barfoothooves also has a gelding who lost one of his eyes in an accident. He does great.

Thanks AppyT that is so nice to hear.

He is an ex show jumper and very sane. I love this big guy to pieces.

He did have some corneal melting during the week we were doing to antibiotic ointments but we stopped that very quickly once we put the lavage system in place. Now after the graft surgery, it's just weird seeing him with this amnion patched on to his eyeball. Currently he is on 3 antibiotics plus an antifungal 4x's a day and atropine once daily. I am VERY relieved to not be doing this every two hours any more.

The amnion is supposed to act as a bandaid and slough off as the cornea heals underneath. I wish there was someone out there who has had this done.

I am sorry to hear about your Cheno but very happy to hear he is doing well and is happy. I guess that's what I want most of all, is for him to be happy and adjusted.

I'm glad my post helped. Sorry I do not know anyone who has used the treatment your horse is getting. There is a blind horse board on Yahoo. Someone there may have info. PM me for the url, not sure if it's allowed to link another board thru the forum.

Hello All -
Just a followup.

Jazz had a checkup today. 2 weeks ago we started him on steroids to try to reduce some of the scaring that was occurring. His cornea is healed now...and he is totally blind in that eye.

He also has developed Uveitits, which explains the sudden increase in pain he has had the last several days.

Always in the interest of his wellbeing I have decided the best thing for him is to remove the eye. That will remove the source of any more pain and put him well on the road to recovery.

Thanks to everyone who replied and all the well wishes! I am heartbroken, but we're going to be ok!

Loric, I am so sorry to hear the treatment didn't save his sight in that eye. It is good you have been on top of this so he will be pain free. You have the opportunity of developing a very deep relationship with your horse during this transition.