Is my filly blind?

[Zelda]

I remember a post earlier this year about a foal that had excessive blinking when turned out. I was trying to find that post to talk to that person or maybe someone else can help me. My foal too experienced that situation at birth-- she is now almost two months old. I think she is now blind. I have no experience with this and really don't know what to look for as far as eye changes. Her eyes look perfectly normal to me, they are not cloudy nor are they red or show any kind if infection. I have shined a flash light into her eyes and see nothing out of the ordinary. I am not sure what I am looking for anyway. She never leaves her mothers side and is content to stay with her. I have flashed my hand in front of her eyes and she does not flinch but we put a new water bucket in the pasture and she shied away from it. Before I make a fool of my self and call the vet out, does anyone have any thoughts on this. What does a "cloudy" eye look like, is there anything else that I can do to check. Thank you

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

It seems unlikely she is totally blind if she shied away from the water bucket. If you can get your vet out he/she will certainly be able to tell if your filly has a vision deficit. If she does she will manage well as Diane says but she may be more limited in what she can do. For example she may not be suitable as a driving horse and I believe AMHA has a rule against showing horses who are blind in halter classes. I'm not sure if either of those things apply to your interests. She can still be a lovely pet and even totally blind mares can, sometimes with certain management adjustments, raise healthy happy foals. Try to get your vet out to look at her tho, I'd want to know if this was a congenital thing since she showed a vision problem at birth. Might want to reconsider her mothers/fathers/her value as breeding stock and only your vet can answer that.

 

[ohmt]

Hi Zelda! I believe the earlier post you referred to was possibly mine. I had an almost all white filly born who had a very rough time with the sun as her eyes are very light blue and the pink skin didn't help either.

When you tested your filly was it outside and what time of day was it? Have you noticed her being more active at night or when it's a cloudy day by chance? My filly is still having a bit of trouble seeing when it is bright out (thoughbshe is making progress). She sleeps most of the day and then plays hard at night. She is not blind, just sensitive to light-maybe that's what is going on with your filly? Just a thought to throw out there. I would test her at various time of the day to see what happens.

Good luck!

 

[Miniv]

If it does prove to be sensitivity to the bright sunlight, a fly mask may help. You can buy them through various mini tack businesses who advertise through Lil Beginnings.

 

[targetsmom]

Hope you can figure it out. Here is a "cloudy" eye from an injury. This was several months ago and this mare is better now but the eye is still a bit cloudy. She can see fine and even jumps and drives.

ETA: Actually this mare had 2 separate injuries - one where she tried to rip her eyelid off. That was sutured twice.

Good luck with your filly!

 

[Riverrose28]

I don't know if it will help or not, but my vet told me a little trick, take your mare and filly in the barn where the light is dim. This takes two people by the way and either a pen light or small flash light. htave the person with the light shine it directly into the off eye, you look at the eye nearest you, see if the pupil responds to the light on your side, change sides and repeat, if the pupils dialate in the dim light and constrict in the light, at least the horse is responding to light and darkness. I have noticed that some of my blue eyed minis have trouble with bright sunlight and I've had the vet our before just to confince me my horses can indeed see. On another not I have three horses that are blind in one eye, and make out just fine. Good luck.

 

[rvcsherman]

Blind horses don't always have cloudy eyes. I bought a yearling colt years ago that had runny eyes. When they did not clear up after a week I called the vet out & was told that he was blind. I was surprised because his eyes looked completely normal & he got around his new surroundings just fine. Good luck with your filly.

 

[JAX]

I figured out one night by accident that one of my mares had lost her vision in one eye. I was feeding later in the evening and so had a flashlight with me. As they were coming in to be fed I noticed that all the girls eyes were reflecting back at me as normal. Then the oldest mare came up and only one eye was reflecting back. Next day ran up to vets and sure enough even though her eye was not cloudy she had lost her vision in that eye.

 

[drmatthewtaylor]

Unusual to have a 2 month old that you question the eye sight on. By now there should be no question she sees well.

Most congenital anomalies have obvious signs a Vet could pick up. Have her examined.

Dr Taylor

 

[Zelda]

I am going to go ahead and have the vet out. Her eyes are dark colored and look very normal. I am going to try some of the things suggested but it is strange that the lightness and darkness may be on to something. Last night we put up hay and I didn't get into the barn until later after dark. The filly was bucking around in her stall and seemed like she could see my fingers coming at her eyes. I have always played with her during the daylight. She doesn't blink when first put outside like she did the first few times she went outside. I have noticed that when she plays outside, she is content to only run around her mother in a circle and it is always clockwise leaving me with the impression she may have some vision in her right eye. This was a much anticipated filly, I don't post very often but maybe you regular members may recall my post about the yearling colt we had gelded and it went very wrong-- his intestines came out of the incisions and we lost him-- that was last spring. This filly is his full sibling. We had such high hopes for her and she is stunning like her brother. If it is not meant to be-- we will deal with it. She will have a forever home with us. I do worry about how to best care for her-- she will have to be weaned at some point and that somewhat scares me a bit. Maybe some of you in this situation can drop me a pm and let me know how you handled this. I do thank everyone for their suggestions. Hopefully my vet will be able to give me some answers.