You may recall that when our mare Lilah poked her right eye out last week, we had noticed some changes in her left eye but weren't sure what they were. Our equine vet Dr. Erin Taylor -- who was attending an equine ophthalmology course last week in Florida when Lilah injured herself -- came out today to examine that other eye. That's vet tech Julia holding Lilah while Erin uses her new slit lamp on Lilah.
Erin noticed two things. First, Lilah has nuclear sclerosis, the cloudiness that occurs in the lens nucleus as a normal part of the aging process. We see this in old dogs a lot, too, and it doesn't affect vision. The other thing that Lilah has are vitreal floaters, in which some of the vitreous fluid in the eye begins condensing into particles that float around in the remaining fluid. This can also be an age-related change, though in some cases floaters develop as a result of equine recurrent uveitis. Lilah has congenital stationary night blindness but not uveitis, so most likely her vitreal floaters are an aging issue. They are generally considered to be benign.
All in all, a good report ... Lilah won't be joining the ranks of the blind horses any time soon. (Unless she pokes that left eye out!)
Poor girl-one day after my 52 birthday-floaters in both eyes. The exact same diagnosis.
Hang in there!
Posted by: Jennie | May 28, 2008 at 05:37 AM
So glad to read the good news about sweet Lilah! My greythound & the greythound that I had before, have the thing that you mentioned, where it looks like the iris is spreading out into the white part of the eye. (I'm not up on my medical terms as you are, Steve!)
Big hugs to all,
ginger, Tobias & Tlingit
Posted by: ginger & Tobias (the greythound) | May 28, 2008 at 03:08 AM
That IS good news - guard that remaining eye, Lilah!
Posted by: maggie | May 27, 2008 at 06:16 PM