# Conjunctivitus



## Deefa (26 June 2008)

I was asked by a freind to ask this lol
Her daughter has had conjunctivitus and she still has some of the cream left and the pony now has it! would she be able to treat the pony with the same cream or should she get the vet out and have the 'horsey' version? 
I personaly think she may need the horse version as i wouldn't of thought, even if it was the same thing the concentrations would be the same?

Thanks in advance


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## angiebaby (26 June 2008)

I used to give my old pony with conjunctivitis optrex for infected eyes; works a treat and you can get from all good chemists and supermarkets. Don't think I would try the cream tho just in case


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## chestnut cob (26 June 2008)

I bought some Golden Eye(s) from the chemist in Sainsburys the other day.  She asked what it was for, I said my horse had conjunctivitis, she gave me the tube and just said "I didn't hear the horse bit..."  
	
	
		
		
	


	





It's cleared it up withing 24 hours, briliant.


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## jazyju (26 June 2008)

i had the vet out and he diagnosed my pony with conjunctivitus and prescribed 3 tubes of the horsey stuff and it hasn't made any difference. : 
	
	
		
		
	


	




Might give the golden eye a go


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## Halfstep (26 June 2008)

Golden eye does work but for god's sake don't use an old tube.  Once they are opened they are no longer sterile and can spread conjunctivitis.  Throw the tube away once the conjunctivitis is gone, this goes for horses as well as humans.  You can spread it between species as well.


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## Box_Of_Frogs (26 June 2008)

I've posted before about the dangers of untreated conjunctivitis in horses because I've got first hand experience of what can go wrong. After a 6 month battle with chronic conjunctivitis that his previous owners couldn't be bothered to clear up, my ned had to have an eye removed. It's traumatic, tragic and hideously expensive. Also, the horse no longer has any "spare" eyes so if anything happens to the remaining eye, you're in deep trouble. Sorry to bang on but the golden rule with ANY drugs - for human or horse or whatever - is ONLY use it for the person/animal it was prescribed for. And as Halfstep says, throw opened medication away as soon as it is no longer needed as it can itself get contaminated and if you then apply that to treat a condition, you could be introducing MORE and NASTIER bugs into the problem. Remember too that any time you go to put something into a horse's eye you could end up with a medical emergency. Most eye ointment tubes have sharp, pointy ends. One jerk from a worried horse and the end of the tube can injure or even penetrate the eye. Eye problems in horses = vet, pronto. No question.


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## Dressagebabe (26 June 2008)

Can you tell me exactly what cream it is? I will check for you but usually same strength as Veterinary one.  Horses suffer more this time of year with eye infections due to spread of bugs from the flies that hang around their eyes, its always a good thing to bathe the eye area with cold strong black tea in the evening once the horses have come in, it helps prevent it spreading to conjunctivitis.


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## flyingfeet (26 June 2008)

Most vets prescribe chloramphenicol for the first outbreak. Our vets actually gave us human cream, as the instructions were for humans

I do tend to keep the tube (rather than throw away), but I use a sterile glove and apply cream to that and never stick the tube in the eye. Quite a few horses have lost eyes through being stabbed with the tube. So for ease of use, safety and keeping the tube sterile use gloves!!!

I never thought about it until I went on here, but its good advice!


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## pocket (27 June 2008)

As soon as Ralphs eyes get sore, I bathe them in cold tea (no milk).  Make a fairly strong cuppa and leave to cool and then bathe the eyes, use a different piece of gauze or cotton wool for each eye so that you do not pass on the infection from one eye to the other.

If it is really bad, you should get some Chloramphenicol ointment from your vet.


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## chestnut cob (27 June 2008)

[ QUOTE ]
 Eye problems in horses = vet, pronto. No question. 

[/ QUOTE ]

I understand what you're saying but if you call the vet for conjunctivitis, the vet will give you eye drops.  Are you suggesting the vet comes out to administer them every time?  You have to be able to put drops into your horses' eyes yourself.  And I've have meds prescribed by the vet and over the counter stuff for eye probs, none have ever come in a metal tube.  Always plastic.

Maybe I'm a bad owner and neglect my horses, but I don't see the need for such a panic?  Try the horse with something like Golden Eye for a couple of days, if no improvement get the vet out.  My pony had conjunctivitis a while ago, vet prescibed Maxitrol which was £20 a tube and didn't work.  Golden Eye is £4 and always works!


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## flyingfeet (27 June 2008)

I'd agree with that - one of my youngsters has conjuctivitis at the moment and I won't be calling the vet out

I am bathing with salt water and using chloramphenicol ointment as his eyes were pretty sore. Nearly cleared up now. 

I have a new tube of golden eye ready to go on standby, but will use up my chloramphenicol first. Interestingly my golden eye has a different active ingredient.

If I was going to ring the vet, I'd say it has conjunctivitis and they'd just give me the chloramphenicol. 

The only other thing I do is bonnet up the rest of the horses to make sure the flies don't spread it. However not quite sure how you get rid of the conjunctivitis from the fly population - we never had it until one of our liveries brought it back from camp 2 years ago.


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## CazD (27 June 2008)

Sorry to ask a stupid question - but how would you know is it conjunctivitis and not something else?  What are the symptoms of conjunctivis in horses?


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## flyingfeet (27 June 2008)

Its very easy to spot - usually comes on very quickly and you will see thick yellow gunk in the eyes. If you pull down a lid (if they will let you!), its red and looks sore. 

In my youngsters case, he had extremely puffed up eyes where he had rubbed them too. 

I tried to find a picture online for you - also worth noting that it should clear up quickly, so mine is looking tons better after 3 days. If it was not responding, I would then be getting the vet out!


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## chestnut cob (27 June 2008)

Mine started off with a slightly red eye, which I bathed in cold tea to see if that helped.  By next morning, it was swollen like she'd whacked it on something and really yucky and gunky.  I put the golden eye drops in 4 times a day and by the third application it was looking much better.  This is day three of the drops and it's more or less gone, but have left yard with instructions to continue til sunday while I'm away just to make sure.


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## Box_Of_Frogs (27 June 2008)

No - didn't mean the vet has to apply eye drops! I just explained how easy it is to stab a horse in its eye with the sharp pointy end of the tube that eye ointments usually come in. Never seen a metal tube - doesn't need to be metal! If you look at the applicator end of the plastic tubes you'll see how pointy they are. Try this experiment. Pretend the palm of your hand is your horse's eye. Hold the plastic applicator about an inch away. Now ram the end of the tube with your hand as hard as you can. This is what can happen with horses only a hundred times worse coz its their eye, not the palm of your hand. One jerk as you go to put the ointment in and you can scrape the cornea or even puncture the eyeball. My horse was making a VERY slow recovery from untreated conjunctivitis (untreated for years by previous owners who just occasional bathed it in cold tea when it got embarrassingly gungy - he used to be a riding school ned) when the yard staff stabbed him in the eye with the tube without telling me. The specialist vets let me look through their opthalmoscope at the damage to the cornea and there was a massive zigzag rip right across the eyeball. He was already being treated for superficial keratitis, linked to the  untreated conjunctivitis. This is a very nasty autoimmune disease where his own body was trying to destroy his own eye tissue coz it thought it was "foreign". To control this, he had to have a special immunosuppressant cream applied 3 times a day that damped down his body's response to an imagined attack. This works well until the body (eye) REALLY suffers an attack, like having a massive rip gouged across it! Because the yard staff didn't tell me immediately it happened, we kept on stopping his body from dealing with injury. So the injury took over and about 3 weeks later the eye was such a mess of deep ulcers, aborted neovascularisation, uveitis and gods knows what else, that poor Sunny had to have the eye removed. I post all this ONLY to try to save other horses and owners from going through what me and Sunny went through. Please, please, please treat any eye disease with great respect and if you do have to put creams in your ned's eye, apply the cream to the tip of your nice, safe, squashy finger THEN into the horse's eye...much, much, much safer.


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## smokeyjo (27 June 2008)

Agree with everyone else about how serious eye conditions can become if not taken seriously and treated promptly.

Smokey had a couple of bouts of conjunctivitis, but has never had any since wearing a fly mask.  He had his episodes quite a few years ago when fly masks weren't really very common, but the vet recommended getting one and said to keep it on - even overnight - when the flies were bad.  I try to use the fly-mask only when flies are bad, but sometimes he has it on for days on end; never any problems.  Hope this helps.    Jo. X


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## flyingfeet (27 June 2008)

That's why from reading the forum the pointy tube never goes near the eye - instead of my dodgy fingernails, its a sterile glove all the way!!

Also its a alo easier to put on your finger than apply with the tube anyway. 

I have been chucking the gloves away - but if i washed, do you think its bad to keep them for cleaning jobs in the house???? (Loos and puppy poo....)


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## Box_Of_Frogs (27 June 2008)

Lol CotswoldSJ - loos and puppy poo be fine for your used gloves as long as it's a one way journey! If you could train puppy to poo in the loo you would HALVE your workload overnight!! xxx


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## Janette (28 June 2008)

Please get the eye checked by the Vet!  Star's conjunctivitis was diagnosed as a tumour growing across the surface of the eye, ulcerating the cornea as it went.  Previously, it had been thought to be 'scar tissue'.

If you are the 'Deefa' I suspect, you know how this story is going to end.  Star is going to have her eye removed because the tumour is regrowing, depite chemo, radiotherapy and surgery.  

Please get the eye checked.


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