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| DaVinci wearing fence paint |
So my heart dropped a bit when I saw melanomas developing on his eye lids. His right eye has a pea sized one that causes a gap between his eye and lid. Already he has rubbed it the wrong way and had blood come streaming out and he has gotten dirt down inside to irritate his eye. We keep a fly mask on him 24/7 to help keep irritants away.
Not long ago he managed to roll in the mud and get dirt in the gap. Then he rubbed the hell out of his eye causing an abscess. I flushed it with saline and put some antibiotic ointment in the night he did it. The next day the vet came to confirm. He had a fair size abscess on his eye. We all worried the melanoma caused it, but hoped it was just the dirt. The vet made a serum from his own blood right at the barn. 3x a day he needed antibiotic ointment and the serum.
We had to make sure his eye stayed dilated. She wanted him on stall rest during the sunny times, but that only lasted a day. DaVinci is not one to be kept in a stall. After he did not drink or eat much the first full day in, we double fly masked him and let him out. Better he had a sore eye than colic.
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| Looking good now! |
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| The problem gap |
The vet rechecked him a week later and was happy with his recovery. We can breathe easy for now. Later he may still lose the eye. That will be a scary time. DaVinci did not handle going to the hospital well the last time. Finger's crossed everyone that it will be awhile before he needs that surgery.
Keep posting your foal guesses! So far this year Ember has a new nephew and a new half brother, who is bay. I asked Ember why is he not bay! Ah well maybe someday we will get a bay.
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| A grey boy cross stitch to go with my post |
Fingers crossed that Da Vinci's eye heals up quickly!
ReplyDeleteVal just had his melanomas looked at last week. My vet is of the watchful waiting + remove if they get obstructively large school. I prefer to be proactive if possible. I went crazy (again) researching over the winter, and came across something interesting re turmeric. There is no study yet, but Dr. Eleanor Kellon has seen good anecdotal results of controlling growth and spread with oral turmeric. I give Val 2 oz daily in his evening mash. He had no problem eating it after the first meal where he picked around. It's affordable ($4 per lb = .50 per dose) at Bulkfoods.com.
Interesting, I will have to see if he will eat it. Barry was on Nublada's Formula and a few fell off. He had one that blew up to grapefruit size in just months. It would have cost him his tail if he had not died. We have been lucky with DaVinci overall.
DeleteI hope DaVinci is nice to his eye so he can keep it longer yet
ReplyDelete