Site Menu:
This is an archived Horseadvice.com Discussion. The parent article and menus are available on the navigation menu below: |
HorseAdvice.com » Diseases of Horses » Eye Diseases » Topics on Eye Diseases Not Covered Above » |
Discussion on Cloudy eye on leopard Appaloosa | |
Author | Message |
Member: Heidim |
Posted on Tuesday, Jan 17, 2006 - 4:15 pm: I am considering buying a 15-year-old Leopard Appaloosa. He has one cloudy eye that the owner says developed later in his life. She does consider him blind in that eye (due to the cloudiness only), although she says it never bothered him, physically or performance-wise, so she never bothered to call a vet. She even barrel raced him and say he did fine. I had a one-eyed pony before, and he ran into trees and became almost spastic in a parade once trying to take in his surroundings. I'm reluctant to consider this horse unless it's possible that he has at least partial vision in it. Is there any way to tell? This horse is a good distance from my house, so I'd like to be able to ask the owner some telling questions before paying a visit. |
Member: Gafarm |
Posted on Tuesday, Jan 17, 2006 - 4:57 pm: This doesn't exactly answer your question but I had to tell you this. As an owner of two blind in one eye horses and moderator/owner of the "BlindHorses" group at www.smartgroups.com I thought you should know that it is much more scary for a horse to see only shadows than it is to not see out of one eye at all. I can't begin to tell you how many times my mare side stepped and caught my knee on trees and stuff while she was loosing vision in her eye. I never had a problem with her once that eye was completely blind. You can check with the group members and they will all tell the same thing. We have over 300 members now. I would be more concerned about weather or not the cause of this horse's blindness is something that will eventually spread to the other eye making him totally blind.JMHO |
Member: Heidim |
Posted on Tuesday, Jan 17, 2006 - 5:15 pm: Thanks for the insight, Donald. My former pony's eye was quite shrunken compared to the other and so I guessed him to be completely blind in his bad eye. Or is it possible, Dr. O, that that was not the case? Could he have been able to see shadows out of that eye? He was injured as a young horse, and so I was surprised he had so much trouble.As for the other horse, the owners says it is the same size as the other eye, but cloudy and blue. Does that give you any clues? And, like Donald points out, might it indicate something that could spread to the other eye? |
Member: Rasmith4 |
Posted on Tuesday, Jan 17, 2006 - 6:53 pm: As an owner of an appaloosa that was blind in one eye when I bought her, I have to say that I don"t think it is a good idea. My mare is now blind in both eyes for the most part and it was caused by uveitis which is very common in appaloosas. I spent hundreds of dollars trying to save the other eye to no avail.My mare spooked one day before she was blind in both eyes and stepped over the edge of a bridge and we both went over. When she tried to get up, she stood on my leg and caused an injury that I needed surgery for. Therefor I do not recommend blind horses. I still have her, but my husband won't let me ride her any more. I tried once after the accident and once again she spooked. Now all she does is hang out with the rest of my horses. I still love her but I won't even breed her because of the uveitis and she is a beautiful horse and only 12 years old. If it is uveitis that is causing the cloudiness, it can spread to the other eye. When I checked on it before I bought my mare, I was told that just because it was in one eye, it didn't mean it would go to the other, but it did. My vet believes she is 99% blind in both eyes. I hate to see you get into a situation where it is very costly and heart breaking when you can no longer ride him. This is just my opinion from experience. Hope it helps. |
Moderator: DrO |
Posted on Tuesday, Jan 17, 2006 - 7:22 pm: Once the globe begins to shrink Heidi, vision is always gone in my experience. But different horses are going to react different to the same circumstances, after all there are some horses out there with perfectly good sight jumping at shadows.If blind in one eye is acceptable to your goals I am not sure what other questions to ask. One consideration however should be if this is Recurrent Uveitis this condition will sometimes become bilateral. See the article on RU for more on how this might be determined. Otherwise you really need to ride the horse under the conditions you plan to expose this horse to every day. DrO |
Member: Heidim |
Posted on Tuesday, Jan 17, 2006 - 9:38 pm: Thanks again for all the information. I've decided not to pursue this purchase. It just doesn't seem worth the risk, especially when I'm in no hurry to buy. I very much appreciate the time and gas money saved. Again, this is a great site to run these kind of issues by. |
Member: Heidim |
Posted on Tuesday, Jan 17, 2006 - 9:39 pm: Dr. O, I went to your page on RU and was unable to link to any topics in the Table of Contents. Maybe you can ask your Web master to check it out. |
Moderator: DrO |
Posted on Monday, Jan 23, 2006 - 9:49 am: Heidi,I went to the page and the links work for me... ummm...though not actually a pop up perhaps that is the way your browser sees such an intra-document link in a iframe? If you have a popup blocker turned on try turning it off. DrO |