At least a few times a year, one of the horses comes in with an eye problem. The lids may be swollen, the horse might be squinting, there might be a discharge from the corner of the eye, a cut near the eye or the eye might be cloudy. Some horses have all of the above. We almost never know how it got that way.

Horses can injure their eyes horsing around with their pasture mates or by rubbing their face on fences or trees. Sometimes they get a bug or other foreign object in their eye, resulting in irritation, which makes them rub their eye on their leg, worsening the situation. Some horses develop uveitis, also known as moon blindness, which is a common cause of vision loss in horses that's serious and painful.

My now departed, dear old Draft Cross once had a slightly swollen, irritated eye that wouldn't clear up despite several veterinary visits and eye medication. It took a very expensive visit from an veterinary ophthalmologist to figure out that the horse had a tiny piece of a burr lodged inside his upper eyelid, which revealed itself when the upper lid was turned inside out for examination with the doctor's high-powered equipment. The ophthalmologist removed the burr by cutting out a small wedge of tissue. We surmised that the horse got the burr in his very long forelock, then rubbed a tiny piece of it into his eye by rubbing his eye on his leg. After that, I kept his forelock trimmed above eye level.

WARNING: EYE PROBLEMS CAN GO BAD FAST!

My best piece of advice regarding eye injuries is to contact your veterinarian right away, because eye problems can go bad fast, and you could end up with a horse that needs prolonged, expensive treatment, impaired vision or no vision in the injured eye. We contact our vet for any eye problem that isn't obviously minor in nature.

If the horse has dirt or other matter in the eye, your vet might advise rinsing the eye; you can use human sterile eye wash. It's easier to get in if you put the sterile solution into a clean syringe (with no needle of course) and gently squirt the fluid into the eye to rinse it off.

We keep ophthalmic antibiotic ointment that contains no steroid on hand, which is soothing and helps prevent infection until our vet can check the eye, and give a dose of bute to help reduce inflammation and relieve pain. It's also a good idea to keep the horse in a dark stall because light can be painful if there's an eye injury.

DON'T MAKE THIS MISTAKE

It is vitally important that you never, ever put ophthalmic ointment that contains a steroid into your horse's eye unless it's prescribed by your veterinarian after he or she has thoroughly examined the eye. If the horse has a corneal ulcer -- an abrasion to the cornea -- a steroid could do far more damage and might even result in loss of the eye.

Your veterinarian will examine the horse with an ophthalmoscope and stain the eye to help reveal any corneal ulcers. You may be required to administer more ophthalmic antibiotic ointment several times daily to prevent infection, as well as other eye medications, depending on the problem. In cold weather, the ointment can become difficult to squirt out; soften it by placing the tube in a glass of hot water before administration.

More bute will likely be prescribed, though we had a vet once that preferred Banamine to bute for eye problems.

MANAGING EYE INJURIES

ADMINISTRATION OF EYE MEDICATION

Administering eye medication can be quite a challenge. The large majority of horses will not stand still for treatment. Ideally, you can spread the eyelids apart with one hand and with the other hand, administer the eye ointment along the inside of the lower lid.

In some cases, you may have to put a dab of the ointment on a clean finger to get it in the eye if the horse balks at the tube coming close.

We had one horse that developed uveitis, went absolutely wild when we tried to treat the eye, and she had to be nose-twitched for each dose; it was the only way we or the vet could apply the medication.

We have another horse that seems to have a knack for injuring his eyes and violently tosses his head up when we try to medicate him. A nose twitch does absolutely no good, but he behaves (sort of) if both his ears are twitched by hand. It takes three of us to treat him. Now, we don't like to twitch a horse at all, but it's either twitch to treat or risk losing an eye for lack of treatment.

I suppose a horse could be tranquilized for eye medication, but since most eye problems require treatment at least three times daily, it's an option we haven't used.

In the worst cases, the vet may have to set up a lavage system; the horse is tranquilized and soft tubing is inserted through one of the eyelids, then liquid medication is injected into a catheter further down the tube, which is braided into the mane to keep it in place. The tubing carries the medication to the eye.

Ask your vet to work with you to find the best way to get the medication into the eye.

It's also wise to practice handling your horse's eyelids when there isn't an eye problem so that if there ever is, treatment is less of a hassle.