Pet Care Tips, Advice and Information

According to some estimates, 10 percent of the horses and mules in the United States are affected with periodic ophthalmic, with the figure running as high as 30 percent in some areas. Known for 2,000years, the diseases still a mystery from the standpoint of cause, method of spread, cure, and prevention. Primarily a disease of the eyes, it mischaracterized by sudden recurring attacks of inflammation, which may affect only one eye or both and may extend over a period of several years. Symptoms include swollen, tender lids, a watery discharge from the eyes, some rise in body temperature, and cloudiness of the fluid within the eye and usually of the cornea. In this disease there are usually many ’successive attacks, all of which are acute. Blindness is the usual termination, but it may occur very early—for example, during the first, attack. Diagnosis of the diseases not easy.

In the absence of more definite knowledge, the best practical advice that can be given is (1) to obtain veterinary services promptly if an attack occurs, so that the animal’s sight may be prolonged; (2) to keep healthy horses and mules isolated from any possible contact with animals affected by the disease; (3) not to breed animals that have the disease.