Broken Horses Healing Broken Kids in Colorado

Sometimes we have to make tough decisions regarding the welfare of our horses.  We make the best decision with the information we have to keep our horses as healthy as possible.

Last summer, Ella had an eye issue which caused concern.  We spent weeks treating it with medications and ointments to try to clear up what was diagonsed as an ulcer.  It would seemingly get better, then get worse again.  We knew she was in pain and we gave her pain meds to keep her comfortable while we waited for her eye to heal.  Unfortunately, the treatments did not work, she developed glaucoma and lost the sight in her eye.  The vets told us that although they don't know if glaucoma causes pain in horses, humans say that it feels like a severe migraine.  So we assumed that Ella would continue to be in pain even if we treated it 2-3 times a day with a variety of drops and ointments for the rest of her life.

We made the decision to have her eye removed.  She would no longer be in pain, she had lost the signt and would never recover it, so with the vet's guidance, we decided that would be the best course of treatment.   The surgery was at Colorado State Univeristy Veterinary Hospital and was performed while she was standing.  We took her in at 7 am and she was home by 3 pm.  We could already see that she would be much happier.  Horses adapt well with only one eye and learn to compensate for the loss.

4 months later, Ella is a happy, normal horse.  She runs in the field, loves to be groomed and greets everyone who enters the barn.  Although it was hard to take something away from her, we gave her back her health and happiness.