Help! My Horses’ Eye is Swollen, Watery, or Goopy.

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Do you notice swelling above or below your horse’s eye? Is the inside corner inflamed and pink, or is the eye constantly tearing up? Maybe there’s a weird discharge? These are telltale signs of equine uveitis, or, more simply said, inflammation of the eye.

If your vet has diagnosed your horse with uveitis, you might be offered traditional treatments like prescription eye medication or surgery. But don’t let this diagnosis make you feel helpless! With our simple, hands-on horse bodywork techniques, you can learn to prevent and improve this condition yourself. Not only will you be helping your beloved horse, but you’ll also save lots of money on repeated vet visits!

Remember, the best thing you can do is to try. The worst thing you can do is nothing!

Understanding Equine Uveitis

Equine uveitis is an inflammatory menace that targets the uvea, the middle layer of your horse’s eye. Left untreated, it can cause severe discomfort, poor vision, and even complete vision loss. As a horse owner, understanding the causes, symptoms, strategies for prevention, and treatment options is essential to safeguarding your horse’s vision and health.

Symptoms of Equine Uveitis

Equine uveitis can present a range of symptoms, from mild discomfort to severe vision impairment. Keep an eye out for these telltale signs:

• Eye Pain: Look for signs of discomfort, such as squinting, tearing, excessive blinking, or attempting to rub the eye.

• Redness and Swelling: Inflammation in the affected eye can cause the conjunctiva’s redness and eyelids’ swelling.

• Discharge: Eye discharge can vary in color and consistency. Sometimes, it may be thick and sticky, causing the eyelids to stick together.

• Cloudiness: The cornea or the inside of the eye may appear cloudy due to inflammation.

• Sensitivity to Light: Your horse may react to or avoid bright light, indicating photophobia.

• Vision Changes: In severe cases, you might notice impaired vision or even signs of blindness.

Here’s something else to watch out for: If your horse has uveitis, they may start rubbing their head on their foreleg to scratch the eye and relieve irritation or discomfort. But as your horse rubs their eye, they may get fly spray or other chemicals in it, leading to even more inflammation and pain. This creates a vicious cycle of increasing discomfort and worsening symptoms.

An official diagnosis can only be made by a veterinarian, but you may notice these symptoms as indicators of uveitis in your horse. Officially diagnosing uveitis typically involves a combination of physical and ophthalmic examinations, lab work, and possibly ultrasound imaging

What Causes Equine Uveitis?

Traditional veterinary medicine identifies several factors that can lead to the development of uveitis in horses. Here are some common contributors:

• Infectious Agents: Bacterial, viral, or parasitic infections can trigger an immune response that leads to uveitis. A notable example is leptospirosis, a bacterial infection that often causes this condition.
• Trauma: Physical injury to the eye can result in inflammation and subsequent uveitis.
• Genetics: Some horse breeds, like Appaloosas, are genetically predisposed to developing uveitis.

While conventional veterinary medicine cites these causes of uveitis, we often find that head trauma is a significant, yet overlooked, culprit.

Head trauma usually happens when a horse pulls back while tied. But why would this lead to weepy, inflamed, and red eyes? Good question!

We’ve all seen it: your horse is tied to a rail or trailer, something startles them, and they suddenly pull back in a panic. Their “fight or flight” response kicks in, and before you know it, the horse is reacting instinctively, trying to flee from the perceived danger and struggling to get free from whatever they are tied to.

As the panic escalates, the horse pulls against the tie, causing the halter to pull down on the occiput (the knobby part at the top of the skull). This pulls the occipital area down and forward, creating compression and flattening the area.

As the horse pulls harder, it can twist its head to one side, resulting in uneven pressure and more compression on one side of the skull. This intense pressure affects all the cranial and facial bones: the occipital, parietal, frontal, nasal, temporal, and especially the lacrimal (cheekbone).

When the lacrimal bone is compressed, it jams and obstructs the lacrimal duct (tear duct), preventing proper drainage. This leads to a clogged duct, causing swelling above and below the eye, discharge, and redness: uveitis.

Looking at the issue from a whole-body perspective, we can understand how cranial compression could be a common cause of uveitis.

Symptoms of Head Trauma in Combination with Uveitis

Very often uveitis goes hand-in-hand with head trauma. Is your horse experiencing any of these other problems simultaneously as uveitis?

• Frequent spooking
• Head-shaking
• Struggling to turn smoothly
• Resisting the halter or bridle
• Difficult to bit

These behaviors can be more than just quirks—they might be symptoms of head trauma which can lead to uveitis as a result!

Preventing or Recovering From Equine Uveitis and Head Trauma

Traditional treatment for uveitis can range from the use of anti-inflammatory medications, antibiotics or antifungals, Atropine, or, in severe cases, surgery.

If your horse is being prescribed eye medication, here is a video on how to administer the eye medication easily.

At Holistic Horseworks, our alternative, holistic whole-body approach to horse care shows you address the root cause of uveitis— cranial compression— rather than focusing solely on the symptoms. Learning this approach may help your horse recover from or prevent this condition.

In the photo below, this five-year-old horse was diagnosed with uveitis and scheduled to have its eye surgically removed. Before a session, the eye was puffy, swollen, weepy, and red. After just one hour of bodywork, the eye vastly improved. During the next vet exam, the vet no longer recommended removing the eye!

Want to get these results? We’ll show you how!

Cranial Sacral Therapy

Cranial sacral therapy is a gentle, holistic bodywork technique that focuses on the bones of the horse’s skull (cranial) and spine (sacral).

During a cranial sacral session, light touch is used to evaluate the movement of these bones and the natural cranial rhythmic impulse. Areas of restriction or tension are identified and then addressed through physical and energetic manipulation. This helps restore balance, improve mobility, and allow the body’s natural self-healing abilities to function optimally.

Because the cranial bones influence the entire body’s structural integrity, adjusting the head can also relieve compensatory tension patterns throughout the horse’s frame. Cranial sacral therapy can aid in treating issues like vision problems, dental misalignment, metabolic disorders, and overall structural integration when used as part of an integrative approach alongside other holistic modalities.

The Equine Cranial Sacral Energy Work video (formerly “Horses With Headaches”) helps you learn energy hand holds for Cranial Sacral releases that has proven to help my two horses, as well as hundreds of others all over the world.

Use coupon code CRANIAL10 to get $10 off. Not valid in combination with other offers. Limit 1 per customer.

Equine Cranial Decompression

Equine Cranial Decompression is a technique that manually repositions misaligned bones in the horse’s skull. Through manual manipulation of bones like the lacrimal bone near the eye,we have seen many horses find relief from chronic and acute uveitis. 

Because it requires sensitive manual manipulation of the cranial bones, Equine Cranial Decompression is only available to learn in person at a hands-on clinic. This is level 3 of the Holistic Horseworks Program, and the final step in releasing the horse’s skull and restoring their entire body to proper balance, form, and function. Enrollment requires completion of Level 1: Equine Musculoskeletal Unwinding and Level 2: Cranio Sacral Unwinding and Advanced Applied Kinesiology. 

Dynamite Release Spray

One helpful tool for addressing uveitis and cranial issues in horses through Cranial Sacral or Cranial Decompression therapy is Dynamite’s Release spray. This spray helps open up blood flow and get things moving when working on a horse’s cranial bones and structures.

Apply the Release spray liberally over the horse’s head. The spray helps open things up and prepare the area for manual adjustments to the cranial bones. Using the Release spray can help speed up the results when doing cranial sacral work on a horse. By improving blood flow and circulation to the head, the spray supports the healing and rebalancing of the cranial structures.

Dynamite’s Release spray is an all-natural, topical product that combines flower essences and other natural ingredients to ‘release’ areas of the body experiencing inflammation, swelling, pain, etc.

With Holistic Horseworks programs, you’ll learn how to ease all those pesky pains and restrictions from head to tail that can lead to uveitis and a bunch of other horse health issues. Our methods are gentle, easy to pick up, and super effective. They’ll help your horse bounce back with more energy, flexibility, and top-notch performance skills, turning them into the happy, healthy equine partner you’ve always wanted!

About the Author

April Love
Founder of Holistic Horseworks & Horse Healers Academy

Owner of Holistic Horseworks LLC, April Love empowers horse lovers to take healing into their own hands in order to keep their horses healthy, happy, and rideable through their 30’s while saving thousands of dollars on vet care. She has created a unique IICT (International Institute for Complementary Therapists) approved methodology that she teaches through in-person, hands-on clinics as well as virtual home study courses. April has also trained and vetted many instructors who share this practice worldwide.

As a gift to you, please enjoy a FREE copy of “Horse 101: Everything You Wish You Knew Before You Bought Your First Horse” www.horseacademy101.com 

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