Blog
"Zombie" Eye Enucleation
- By Stephanie R. Shen, DVM
- •
- 15 Jan, 2025
Managing Chronic Conditions for Optimal Health and Comfort
The farm's namesake is Barney, a 23-year-old plain bay gelding of dubious breeding. Barney is a kind and easygoing horse who has taught many kids to ride and has been with Jenna on and off throughout the years. Unfortunately, last year, Barney's teaching career ended due to an intractable knee injury that was only minimally responsive to treatment, making surgery no longer a viable option. However, he remains perfectly comfortable eating lots of food all day and policing the paddock.
Once Barney was home and settled, there was at least one empty stall that clearly needed to be filled. Jenna and Dr. Cory met Flash when asked to examine him for his declining performance in a lesson program. Flash was reported by his current owners to be approximately 18 years old, with an entirely gray right eye, headshaking, and a myriad of musculoskeletal issues. Upon examination by Dr. Cory, it was noted that Flash was more likely around 30 years old and no longer fit for work. Thus began his cushy life at Barney's Home for Broken Animals.
On a frigid day a few weeks before Christmas, Dr. Shen and Dr. Cory teamed up to remove Flash's eye at Jenna's farm. Flash was sedated, given pain medication, and the tissue surrounding the eye and the area behind the eyeball were numbed with local anesthetic (similar to Novocaine). Dr. Shen removed the eyeball and closed the overlying tissue, and Flash did exceptionally well, given his age. In the following weeks, Jenna noted that Flash's headshaking improved dramatically, and his neurotic behavior decreased.
Flash has been doing very well, and Jenna is very happy. Now, we just need to work on getting his 16 bad teeth dealt with!
Recent Posts
Pasture Management for Springtime Grass
After months of barren ground or snow covered fields, we are slowly starting to see the gorgeous signs of spring in New England once again. The horses are shedding and eagerly awaiting any chance they have to nibble some delicious green grass. Below we provide very helpful guidelines for the slow controlled introduction to keep our horses safe and healthy.
Horses that always live outside have the benefit of mother nature's slow introduction to grass as it grows through the first weeks of spring. Horses living in stalls with only partial day turnout have to be more strictly controlled in their introduction to pasture to prevent the serious trouble that can occur with too much fresh grass too quickly. Over indulgence in grass can result in gas colic and laminitis. So what can you do to protect your horse from the potential hazards of too much grass too quickly?
Here are guidelines to assist you in coming up with a pasture introduction plan:
Horses on 2-12 hours a day of pasture:
If you have limited pasture but still want your horse to reap the benefits of daily turnout you probably fall into this category. Most horses in a boarding situation with access to grass will be in this group. Take care to closely follow a pre-determined time scale of introduction for these horses. We recommend the following graduated schedule:
Days 1-3: 20 min/day
Days 4-6: 1hr/day
Days 6-9: 2 hrs/day
Days 10-12: 3 hrs/day
Day 13 and beyond: unlimited in horses who are not overweight or sensitive.
You can also use a grazing muzzle (see below) if you need to introduce pasture more rapidly. With a grazing muzzle you can add 20 min per day of turnout until on full turnout. Once on full turn out keep muzzle on for about a week then alternate every other day for a week then it should be safe to remove the grazing muzzle.
