Another Eye Post

Because what else do I have going on in my life right now?

Without the halter, this was gone in 30 seconds. 

Leo's pain levels have yet to reach a level that the vet considers 'manageable.' He is extremely sensitive to light, is still tearing, and is still squinting whenever his eye protection is removed.  Thankfully, Leah (Confessions of a Dressage Barbie), was able to loan me a couple of items that will hopefully provide the poor guy with some relief!  Leah is, by the way, one of the most amazing humans on the planet and I am so, so grateful that she lives relatively nearby!

I call this the 'extreme bug eye' look

She loaned me a racing hood with a protective bubble that is about 1000x better than the fly mask - for one thing, it's protected if Leo starts rubbing his eye to try and itch it, and for another he actually seems to find it pretty comfortable to wear; he kept it on all day without any issue!

And really, he looks quite dashing in a racing hood. 

She also loaned me the world's fanciest fly mask for when Leo goes out at night.  It provides significant levels of UV protection, so we will hopefully be able to start turning him out a little earlier in the day; right now he's stuck inside until the early evening, well after all of his buddies have gone out, and it's driving him crazy.

not quite as thrilled with this option. baling twine was trimmed before his release.

Jury's out on whether or not he'll keep the fly mask on over night, especially since Leah accidentally gave me the wrong one...fingers crossed that the baling twine repair job holds up.  ((sorry Leah, it was just too hilarious to not share))

boom. 

To cap this all off, the vet was out again tonight, and did another stain of the problem eye to check on the healing.  I was convinced that it wasn't healing because he hasn't shown any improvement, but it is actually SIGNIFICANTLY smaller today than it was on Monday.

It's the tiny green dot in the bottom center of his eye.

I asked the vet why he was still so squinty/teary/painful if the ulcer had healed so well, and she explained that she puts the pain from an ulcer like this on the same level as the pain from a broken bone.  So.  That put things into perspective.  Poor dude.  We are upping his bute to try and get him to a point of non-squintyness and continuing with his ointments - one is 3-4x a day and the other is 1x a day, and she is suggesting adding a third but didn't have any on hand.

I'm ready for my poor guy to have both of his eyes back, now.  <3  I miss my horse.