I think I've mentioned once or twice now that this summer is kicking Mort's butt in terms of heat/itchy/bug/allergy/whatever. He's been having on and off minor eye swelling and drainage. It starts; we treat it; it gets better; it comes back. This has been happening for a good month now. This week his right eye had some cloudiness in it and I decided to go ahead and call the vet.*
She came out the next day and at least helped put my mind mostly at ease. She agrees that it's most likely something in Mort's new environment that he's allergic to. She hooked me up with some non-steroidal pain relief drops and told me to continue to treat him as I have been. His eye is happier and hopefully we can kick it with some cooler weather soon.
I do not like to work a horse when they've got sad eyes. I can only imagine it being distracting (a best case scenario) and an overall painful experience. I see no reason to mar our training by stacking the deck against a good ride before we've even left the stall. Needless to say, Mort had about 4 days off this week. Yesterday his eye was clear again so I tossed him on the lunge. Boy was full of energy cantering around like he had pogo sticks for legs. Luckily by the end he was calmer and stretching nicely over his topline. Hopefully his eye is still happy today and I can hop back on him.
*I use dye strips to make sure that there aren't ulcers. I'm not just treating him blindly (pun intended). I also use non-steroidal antibiotic ointment either way.
No comments:
Post a Comment