Hanging Out Today!

RV is doing great today.  He had his eye looked ay yesterday and we are still continuing to see progress :) He is hanging out waiting for his pen to be fixed before he goes back out.  I am hoping he can go out by the end of this week! I am going to lounge him when I get home today and spend some quality time with my horse :)

This weekend

RV is back to his old self! His eye is back to where it was and he is in great spirits! He had his feet trimmed today and was a good boy.  I also lunged him and took him around our property.  It makes me feel better that he is feeling better...phew.

Back to Normal-Almost!

RV got his super immune booster and vitamin C in the mail today.  I think I am going to have to keep him on the immune support all summer because uveitis is in its peek now. He is pretty much back to normal, just want to make sure we got it all!

A little better....

RV had his eye looked at yesterday and there is improvement.  He is still very depressed which is expected, but I am trying my best to get him through it.  I have to keep him in right now because he can't see at all and he is not good out in his pen. He actually leaned against the fence hard this morning and broke it. Trying to keep my head up and keeping the mentality that I can do this!!!! I am supposd to go down the shore tomorrow and friday......trying to get home early to take care of him.

Vet Call today

Hi Everyone,

RV didn't look good to me this morning. He is doing the head tilt which he hasn't done in a very long time.  I called my vet, and he suggested I put him on steriods for a few days just to calm down the eye.  This is not something I want to do, however I want to get back to where we were with just using the herbs.  I am planning to order the herbal bute and get some aloe from the health food store to have on hand for next time.  RV's immune booster was shipped yesterday, hoping that arrives soon!  Please keep your fingers crossed this heals!

Jessica

Tips for managing uveitis

• Put your horse out with a fly mask at all times and all year round
• Never blow or sweep the aisle when the horse or pony is in the stall-the dust can irritate their eyes and cause inflammation
• Always treat the eyes even if they are quiet-keep maintenance medication on hand that you can use once of twice a week to minimize the amount of flare-ups (your vet can give you something, RV was on diclocenac)
• Keep your horse in on windy days
• Always treat the uveitis for a few days after the eye is looking better-just because it looks fine does not mean its all cleared up-have your vet check it one more time
• Don't stress your horse out, this can cause flare-ups
• Keep some banamine on hand-time is not on your side with this disease, an hour matters
• Consider using the herbs, if your horse has a history of uveitis you may want to try them-the disease only gets worse- I get all of RV's herbs from Equine Science-www.herbs4horses.com
• BE PATIENT WITH YOUR HORSE- you will get through it, but you need to do it as a team!

Please feel free to e-mail me with any quesitons you may have.

SMALL flare-up

RV has been on immune support for a few months. Since he was doing so well, I dropped him off of it. Needless to say he had a small flare-up over the weekend. There was no tearing or swelling, but he had a small scrape at the top of his eye. I am so in tune to his eyes that I can tell when he blinks differently! I just had a gut feeling that he was having some discomfort. My dad took a look at his eye with a flashlight and noticed that it was a little cloudier than normal, so I went ahead and treated it.

Herbs 4 Horses makes an herbal bute, but I did not have any on hand. I am using topical ointments and banamine for this time, but plan to switch to herbs in the future. He doesn't seem to be in any pain, but New Boltn was right! Dr. Utter had told me 6 months seemed to be the time between flare-ups for horses that had the implants, and it's been 5 since his last flare-up! The vet is coming out the end of this week to look at his eye to make sure it is healing and in the meantime I went ahead and ordered the immune support. He is out today and is not showing any signs of pain or discomfort. I am a little dissapointed because we were on such a winning streak, however I did expect there to be some bumps in his recovery. I am still optimistic that this will heal! When I look back I still cannot believe how far we have come together! When you put your mind to something you can really make it happen. I have given him a chance at life again, and he is healing :) Keep you posted throughout the week!

Jessica

Herbs continued......

We'll here we are, RV has been on herbs since May and he has been doing great! The vet was actually out to see him a few weeks ago and noticed the uvieits was starting to thin. He still could not see his retina, but he felt RV was seeing a little better. When I got this news from my vet, I remember getting teary eyed, this was the best news I had heard in a long time!
To date he is going out in our round pen everyday with a pasture mate. He is very smart and is aware of the fencing and his surroundings. I rode him for the first time a week ago and he did awesome! I can only walk and trot, as he is very out of shape eventhough we were lounging! He was trying and listening to my leg. I can also put him on cross ties and in the washstall with no problem! We have come a very long way from the horse who wouldn't leave his stall and depended on me for everything. He has gained some of his confidence back and seems to be coping with his eyes very well. I am very optimistic in that I know he will regain his sight back eventually, it will just take time. Did I mention he has had no flare-ups in 5 months???? Yes, that is right 5 months with no flare-ups!!! He is a happy horse and has his life back!  I am in the position to say that if you put your mind to something you can do anything!

Herbs!

Many sites I had looked at were very expensive to talk to someone about RV's case, and I just couldn't afford it at this point. I was still paying off all of his medical bills from the first time he went to New Bolton.

I e-mailed Shari, who works for herbs4horses and she was very helpful. She sent me an article of herbs that could be used for uveitis, and was able to reccomend products she would use for her horses. She was not a vet, but sure knew a lot about the disease! The one thing I had read in many places was that RV needed to detox because he had been on so much medication that he had a very low immune system. After talking to Shari, I decided to try the herbs.

I started him on a kidney flush that would get rid of all the toxins in his kidney's. After flushing the kidney's, I had already noticed he was looking healthier! I then flushed his liver with milk seed thistle and got him on an eye support and cipex. The cipex is used for circulation, which is one of the things that horses with uveitis struggle with. They tend to lose a lot of circulation to their eyes, which doesn't help heal and can do damage. The eye support helps protect the eyes from inflammation, weeping, and ulcers.

I also started him on a super immune booster and vitamin b12, as b12 seems to a deficiency in horses with uveitis. I ordered RV natural wormer, since he wasn't wormed for 2 years. Worming a horse with uveitis can cause flare-ups. He also cannot get vaccinated!

From walking to lounging......

As time went on, RV started to adjust to his blindness. He depended on me to be his eyes when we took our walks. I had him out for about an hour or two everyday to keep his muscles working.

He was starting to come out of his stall easier, it went down to two people getting him out,  down to just me. He trusts me enough to lead him out where he isn't going to hit anything. I started lounging him everyday again, eventhough he had a really hard time in the beginning. He lounged very well to the right because he could see light and shadows, however the other way was impossible! He would try to make a circle but just come in to where he was tripping.

At this point, I started to do some research on herbs to see if there was anything I could use for uveitis and I came across herbs4horses.com

On the way to recovery

I remember thinking I had just spent 3 grand on the implants and they didn't get a chance to work before he got a bad enough flare-up that we couldn't get rid of. RV had been on so much medication over the last few years and nothing was working anymore.

Dr. Utter had informed that his implants could eventually get rid of the uveitis but I would need to give them a chance to work. At this point RV was in his stall for over a month, and both vets told me I needed to get him out and walk him around. I had a really hard time with this in the beginning, it was very upsetting for me, especially because he is my baby and I was helpless at this point. I had gone through a ton of money, and was even doing fundraisers because I couldn't pay for the bills anymore.

We did get him out of his stall, it took 3 people. My dad was leading him, my mom had a carrot to coax him out, and I was pushing and guiding him from behind. This was a terrible sight, as this was a horse who loved to be outside and here he was afraid to come out of his stall because he couldn't see!

The first day I took him out we walked around the property for an hour and he was tripping and could barely walk up hills. I felt terrible because he was always in good shape and here he was having a hard time keeping up with me! I thank god for all my friends and family who were supporting me through this. Most people told me to put him down at this point, but I refused to accept this and let this disease win, him and I were going to get through this!

Maintenance

After RV had come home from New Bolton Center I was very broke. His bill was over 2 grand and before that the vet was out almost once a week. I could not afford to do the implants at that time, but was planning on getting them put in in the near future.  My mentality always was that RV had taken care of me for many years, and it was my turn to take care of him!

I continued with the maintenance of his eyes for 2 months. He seemed to be doing quite well, he was back into work and going out everyday. I don't know if I mentioned before, but horses with uveitis must go out with a fly mask everyday even if there are no flies. This helps to protect their eyes from the bright sun, bugs, winter, dust, etc. It is also a good idea to make sure that aisles are swept and blown when the horse or pony is not in the stall- dust irritates their eyes and can cause inflammation!

I had called Dr. Utter in late January to get some information on the implants. Just a few days after I spoke with her RV had yet another flare-up in his good eye. She advised that as soon as his eyes became quite we should go ahead with surgery. RV had him implant surgery in mid February of this year. I was told that the implants would take 6-8 weeks to start working and would need to continue the maintenance medication up until then.

RV's surgery went well, he was in and out in 3 days. When RV came home, he didn't want to eat and was really not himself. The vet concluded he had had a virus that was going around. Unfortunetly horses that have uveitis when their immune system goes down, the eyes are always affected. Sure enough RV had another flare-up in the good eye! We worked at treating this uveitis for weeks with the topical ointments and the internal steriods, Unfortunetly the vet told me there was nothing more he could do and to take him off of everything and let the implants do their job. The problem was that the uveitis was blocking the retina so he could not see anything but light and shadows. I now had a blind horse on my hands.......

The Ulcer!

The vet had concluded that not only did RV now have uveitis in his right eye, he also had an ulcer. Because of the ulcer, he was also not able to see out of his right eye. He put him on his topical ointments except for the steriods, (it can blind him with the ulcer), banamine, and some oral steriods. He was coming back in 3 days to see his progress.

When the vet came to see if RV was getting any better, he concluded that he could do nothing for him. I got on the phone and made an appointment at New Bolton Center for the next morning. This was in November of 2009 right before RV was supposed to go on a hunter pace the next weekend.

As we went to load him in the trailor, I noticed he was having a hard time judging how to get up the ramp, and I knew it was because he couldn't see, which of course always got me really upset.  It took a lot of patience and guidance and he did go in.  I took him to New Bolton Center and he was there for about 10 days before we got to pick him up. I worked with Dr. Mary Utter who is the opthamologist up there and is wonderful! She comforted me, letting me know he was going to be ok it would just take time. They put a cathedar through his mane and into the top of his eye. This device helped to get the medication deep into the eye and also helped RV feel a little more comfortable becuase he no longer had to deal with people constantly putting medication in his eye.

Dr. Utter also suggested that I look into getting cyclosporine implants put into RV's eyes. She explained that the implants get inserted under the bone on top of his eyes. They release medicine every so often to control flare-ups and are good for 5 years. She gave an example of a mare that had come in with uvieits and her flare-ups went down to once every 6 months with the implants. I remember thinking that I would do anything just to have a flare-up every 6 months, as he was up to about once a week by this time. I took the paperwork home to do some research and think about it.

RV came home with the cathedar in and I had to leave him in for a few weeks. I lounged him everyday to give him excercise and keep him in shape. RV is a thoroughbred, where he is not hot, he does have energy, so this was helpful during this time. After about a month, the cathedar came out and the eye had healed. Dr. Utter had given me a lot of information on uveitis, letting me know that it can be very hard to control, and RV's case was aggressive. She suggested doing what's called "maintenance medication." She gave me dyclocenac, which was safe to use all the time. I started putting the topical ointment in both eyes twice a day everyday to help prevent/control future flare-ups, with the mentality that we could eventually ween him off the ointment and go down to a couple of times a week.

Jessica

It was getting worse!

As I said in the last blog entry, RV's flare-ups were starting to get more frequent. It would be the same old routine of calling the vet and treating it. It was really starting to interrupt RV's lifestyle, becasue he was used to being ridden and going out everyday. When he was on medication, the vet had reccomended I not ride him, as he is in a lot of pain, and the topical ointments dialate his eyes, therefore he might be spooky. He also stopped going out when it was windy or rainy, as his eyes were very sensitive during this time. I learned that when a horse has uveitis it is very important to pay attention to the weather, as stress and bad conditions can cause flare-ups.  I started to feel like RV was living in a bubble!

At this point, the uveitis was still affecting just his left eye. One day he had come in with his right eye all swollen and tearing. I immediately called the vet and he came out on an emergency call. After his exam he concluded that RV now had uveitis in his right eye. If that wasn't enough, he examined his left eye and alerted me that he had developed a cataract very quickly and was now blind. I remember crying hysterically, because by this time we had been through so much and I felt this disease was winning, and I couldn't bear to let that happen!  I did find out that uveitis can cause cataracts to form very quickly, and RV's was covering his entire eye.  RV's cataract is a yellow color, and it can be seen with a flashlight.

Jessica

First Signs RV had Uveitis

RV is a 21 year old thoroughbred, and I have had him since the age of 13. We were successfully showing the hunters when he had his first flare-up. I remember his eye being swollen, and when it didn't go down in a couple days I had called the vet. I don't exactly remember what the vet perscribed him at the time, but I remember it being "no big deal." We treated the eye and were hopeful it wouldn't come back.

Little did I know at the time, this was only the beginning of this horrible disease. RV wasn't diagnosed with uveitis right away until he started getting flare-ups frequently. When he first started with the disease, his flare-ups were once or twice a year, and were easy to maintain. He was on topical ointments (Atropine, Diclocenac, and Neopolybac w/Dex Opthth ointment) along with an internal steroid (Prednissolone) and Banamine (inflammatory) that would help heal the eye. Also, when he first started with uveitis it was only attacking his left eye, again little did I know it would soon work its way to the other eye!

As his flare ups started becoming more frequent, he would come in with swollen bottom lids and a lot of tears. I started getting in the habit of calling the vet as soon as I saw this. The one thing I have learned with this disease is that time is not on your side, it needs to be treated right away or it only gets worse and is harder to treat. The vet had explained that before we could treat the eye he had to check to make sure there was no ulcer or we could not use steriods becuase it could permanently blind him. This is when I started really researching the disease, and found that there was really no cure for it, and vets are not sure where it comes from. I remember thinking to myself that this was going to be a battle since his flare-ups were occuring once every couple of months by this point. It was very upsetting for me to see him suffer.  At first I had a really hard time dealing with it, but I knew for his sake I had to be strong!

Jessica

Welcome Message

Hi Everyone,

My name is Jessica and I am starting this blog to tell you my story. I have a horse by the name of RV who has been battling chronic reccurent uveitis for a couple of years. Equine reccurent uveitis is recurring inflammation of the vascular layers of the eye, i.e., iris, ciliary body, and choroid. The uvea provides nutrition to other parts of the eye, i.e., retina, cornea, and lens. This will get inflammed with uveitis, which can then in turn affect the retina, cornea, and lens.

RV's uveitis is very aggressive, and we have tried many methods and perscriptions to get it under control. I am using this blog to tell my story and help other horse owners with the same problems. Please feel free to e-mail me with any questions you may have.

Jessica