Moon Blindness

I had my vet come out the other day to look at my horse, Harley,'s eyes. He seemed to be blind in his right eye and I wanted to know if it was a degenerative eye condition or an old injury. After a thorough look over, the vet concluded that he has Moon Blindness. This can be a potentially dangerous thing and the horse could lose his eye from it. Luckily, Harley is not to that point. 

According to my further research, this type of eye problem is called 'equine recurrent uveitis (ERU). 

This may be one of the first documented veterinary diseases dating back to possibly 4,500 years ago! It was dubbed the term Moon blindness because in the 1600's, it was believed that the recurring attacks were linked to the phases of the moon. 

There could be many causes for moon blindness. Some include trauma to the eye and a bacterial infection such as brucellosis, but one of the most common causes is an infection with Leptospora. Leptospira is a spiral shaped bacteria that is found in areas with standing, stagnant water. The blindness is not caused by the bacteria, but by the immune response of the horse when infected with Leptospira. There can be flair-ups of this disease even after years of dormancy. These flair-ups can occur in times of stress such as vaccination, deworming, and long trips in the trailer.

My vet said to use Banamine to treat Harley when there are signs of a flair-up. Banamine is a non steroidal anti inflammatory. He told me that flair ups can be detected when the horse's eyes are weepy, swollen and or inflamed. It looks like the horse has pink eye. I have been told by other horse owners that I should invest in a fly mask to keep the flies and the sun out of his eyes to discourage flair-ups. Have you ever dealt with ERU? What was your experience? What did you do?

*For more information on Moon Blindness in Horses, please visit this website that I found that has a great explanation on the disease. Out of all my research, this has the best information. 

http://www.thehorse.com/articles/18087/moon-blindness

**This article is not meant to diagnose or treat moon blindness in horses. If you feel that your horse has this disease, please contact your local vet.