It's all fun and games until somebody tries to poke an eye out

After an entire summer of no rain, we've gotten loads of rain in the last two weeks. Which means loads of mold, and loads of bugs. Which also means that sensitive horses (like a certain grey wonderpony) get itchy eyes.

And they rub them.

And sometimes they rub them on sharp, pointy things, which then requires a vet call and a bunch of stitches.

Luckily it was just the eyelid - the eye has a small scratch on it but is otherwise OK.

Unfortunately there's a lot of local swelling, so it's not the prettiest thing.

He's on Banamine and Uniprim, plus an antibiotic eye ointment 4x/day. He can't have anything steroidal (which would speed healing) because Cushings horses cannot have steroids.  

Unfortunately, he tore his eyelid last Sunday - the day before the vet was supposed to come out for fall shots. He's been having vaccine reactions, so he now gets Banamine whenever he's vaccinated. Unfortunately, with his immune system already stressed from the eye, we can't do vaccinations until the eye is fully on the mend. 

Normally the timing of vaccines wouldn't be a problem, but he has to have flu/rhino at least 10 days before any rated show, and our third level debut show starts in 11 days. He was all set for a vet re-check this morning, when we were hoping he would be cleared for vaccinations, but then I got a call saying that he's torn the stitches. 

At this point all I'm not even disappointed about the show - all I care about is him healing up and getting better. Rushing his health right now, for the sake of a competition, is not something I'm willing to do. So we'll tell T to stop rubbing his face (poor guy!) and wait for the all-clear from the vet. Besides, this just gives us more time to perfect our still questionable lead changes.

Also moar time to feed moar cookies.