Answer: Eye ailments, such as "moon blindness"!"Moon blindness" is a good example. Not only is it painful and progressive, but it can interfere with horse training. Sometimes training fails to progress because a seemingly timid horse really is a horse with an eye disease As many veterinarians know, eye ailments can have a nasty way of getting out of control quickly. Dr. Amber Labelle, DVM told the audience at Equine Affair in Champaign, IL that a call concerning an eye injury or ailment was sure to get her immediate attention. She talked about a most insidious ailment most commonly known as “moon blindness” (equine recurring uveitis). Veterinarians now understand that this disease is an autoimmune disease. The horse’s own immune system begins to attack the eye as though it were something foreign. Unchecked, it can cause retinal detachment, cataracts, and blindness. For this reason, checking your horse's eyes is of crucial importance to providing quality horse care. The telltale signs of uveitis are a constricted pupil with a “dirty water” appearance, squinting, tearing, and cloudiness. The good news is that the UI Veterinary Hospital has been successfully treating horses with this ailment using a technique developed at the University of North Carolina called suprachoroidal cyclosporine implants. These small implants are inserted into the membranes of the eye and do their work by suppressing the eye’s immune system. Although their inventors assumed they would last about 3 years, Dr. Labelle said clinical experience indicates a 10 year lifetime.
Moon blindness is just one disease that can interfere with horse training. Read about more.
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