It was a long tough winter, we couldn't be happier that spring is here and our animals are doing well. That wasn't the case for several weeks this winter when we saw that Crockett (our first horse and reason for getting the farm) had scratched his eye.
It's a regular occurrence, Crockett usually scratches his eye as the St Louis humidity hibernates for the winter. Typically a warm compress, a few eye drops and he's all better but that was not the case this winter.
After warm compresses did little but alleviate some discomfort and eye drops didn't appear to do anything, we called the vet. The vet came out right away and prescribed multiple medications to be administered 4 times a day.
Crockett was a wonderful patient, possibly due to the extra servings of snacks each day, but his eye was not getting better. In fact, it got worse and week over week there were new scratches and/or the healing wasn't progressing as expected.
Crockett is a mature horse at 25 years but young at heart, it was so hard seeing him uncomfortable and it was exhausting bundling up 4 times a day to give him his medicine. Week after week the vet came and even performed two procedures onsite at the farm to help induce healing but week after week he wasn't improving.
On many occasions I questioned my administration of the medication, was I causing more harm than good? Am I prolonging his suffering? Should we consider having his eye removed? I shared my concerns with the vet but we weren't ready to give up yet. Crockett's eye was working, it just wasn't healing.
I am so glad to report that after several weeks, Crockett's eye is healed! We found an eye mask that he can't take off or use as a shovel that he will be wearing indefinitely. We do take the mask off a few times throughout the day so I can check on him and he's doing great!
We are so grateful for the patience and persistence of our vet and vet tech, they were wonderful and helped me as much as they helped Crockett.