What To Check For If Your Horse Squints Excessively
Like our human eyes, a horse’s eyes seem to have a mind of their own. They just know when they need protection from something bright. So they squint. But if you find your horse squinting even when there’s no apparent reason to, he may have picked up a foreign object in his eye. If this happens, do you know what to do?
What Severe Squinting May Mean
Severe squinting is what we call blepharospasm (you can just call it squinting; I always do unless I’m around vets). And if your horse does it, it probably means some irritant has made its way into his eye - probably between the inner eyelid and the cornea.
Because his eyes are so reflex-driven, he only knows they hurt. The problem is the edges of his eyelids are rough; when he closes them, the lids rub against the eyeball itself, causing even more pain.
Your horse knows his eyes hurt, but he’s not smart enough to know why. So he closes them tightly like the horse you see in the picture below…
This horse is eating with his eyes closed. That’s rare.
Horses in the wild eat with their eyes open. Because of the position of their eyes in their head, they can’t see what they eat. So they “keep an eye out” for predators while grazing (yes, that’s where that saying came from).
If your horse is closing his eyes with a lot of force, his eye muscles will eventually spasm, and that means even more pain yet. So it pays to find out what’s in his eyes so you can remove it for him.
There’s No Magic In The Answer To This Problem
You’ll have to gently hold his eyelids open so you can see what it is. And depending on how your horse feels about your probing around his painful eyes, it may require two people.
Once you see where the foreign object is, you may be able to purse your lips and blow it out with a quick breath of air, but your horse may not cooperate with you for this. So if that doesn’t work and you have some equine eye drops, you can probably wash out the offending matter that way.
If your horse just happens to be due for a routine exam by your equine vet, tell him about the problem ahead of time. He’ll most likely have some topical eye anesthetic he can apply on the spot. That should go a long way to relieving your horse’s pain.
But It Only Works For This Type Of Eye Injury…
I want to emphasize that this technique only works for surface irritants. It’s possible your horse may have a real inner eye issue that requires an equine vet who can prescribe some medication. So if you can open his eyes yourself and are convinced there’s no foreign body causing the problem, I’d call your vet.
Squinting may be nothing more than a foreign object that found it’s way between your horse’s eyelid and eyeball. But when you know how to recognize the problem, you can act as your horse’s advocate and remove the irritant. Your horse will be a lot happier when you do.
Yours For Better Horse Health,
Sierra Lynch
horse horse eyes horse health squintingTags: Horse Injuries, Horse Health
One of my twin foals last year was born with a small ulcer on her eye. I had never seen anything like it before. In the beginning, I noticed her eye was tearing a lot but couldn’t see anything in it or on it. It took a couple of days for the ulcer to get large enough for me to see. It took an opthamalic ointment that must have stung because she dated it, but it sure cleared the ulcer up quickly.
Intersting post, as usual!