One eyed Jack

[Donn Hewes]

I got some bad news yesterday. I finally brought my 3 y/o mammoth Jack home from the Amish farm were he was staying. He was not really thriving there but I really didn’t know what was wrong. In the last couple of weeks he got bad scratches and scabs on his legs and all over. Yesterday, I had a really good vet look at him. In two seconds he told me he was blind in one, Leptospirosis. Other eye is not good, might go blind there too. Probably has lice, and is very anemic, possibly blood worms.

Naturally, it was a very disappointing visit. I don’t know exactly what we will do now. We are treating him and getting him out on pasture. We can clean up a lot of his problems, but obviously there is nothing I can do if he is blind. I plan to call the place I bought him from but, I have owned him for a few months, and he came from Kentucky. I guess that is farming.

[karl t pfister]

Wow Donn ,that is wicked bad luck ! Very hard to make sense of that. Our hopes are some how it will turn out better than you think , sorta like mowing late second cut hay based on a weak high weather report ! Farming is legalized gambling ,but then you know that , One Eyed Jack , karl

[Robert MoonShadow]

Hey Don…if he ends up being 1-eyed (instead of totally blind), he can still be useful, if you and he are adaptive enough. This from a 1-eyed guy, so I know just a bit about the subject. As for going totally blind – what is/was his intended purpose? As a working donkey, or a breeder? I don’t know anything about lepto – if it’s contagious or hereditary? – if not, and he’s good enough quality for keeping as a stud, then why not? He can accomplish that, still. Just a thought. Sorry to hear about this, though.

[near horse]

@Donn Hewes 28245 wrote:

I got some bad news yesterday. I finally brought my 3 y/o mammoth Jack home from the Amish farm were he was staying. He was not really thriving there but I really didn’t know what was wrong. In the last couple of weeks he got bad scratches and scabs on his legs and all over. Yesterday, I had a really good vet look at him. In two seconds he told me he was blind in one, Leptospirosis. Other eye is not good, might go blind there too. Probably has lice, and is very anemic, possibly blood worms.

Naturally, it was a very disappointing visit. I don’t know exactly what we will do now. We are treating him and getting him out on pasture. We can clean up a lot of his problems, but obviously there is nothing I can do if he is blind. I plan to call the place I bought him from but, I have owned him for a few months, and he came from Kentucky. I guess that is farming.

That’s too bad Donn – sorry to hear that. I looked up some Lepto stuff as I’d never heard of it in horses – dogs are routinely vaccinated against it as part of their distemper, hepatitis, lepto, parainfluenza and parvo shot. From what I saw, it looks like the eye infection (moon blindness) is the common result in adult equids. Here’s a bit from the Merck manual:

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[TD=”class: para2″]Leptospirosis in horses is most commonly associated with uveitis or abortions. The disease is typically seen as a self-limiting mild fever with anorexia, although in severe forms hemolysis and vasculitis can result in petechial hemorrhages on mucosal surfaces, hemoglobinuria, anemia, icterus, conjunctival suffusion, depression, and weakness. Renal failure has been documented in foals. Recurrent uveitis (moon blindness) develops anytime from 2-8 mo following the initial infection ( Equine Recurrent Uveitis: Introduction). Leptospirosis appears to be a significant cause of recurrent uveitis in horses, accounting for up to 67% of the cases. Serovar pomona and an unidentified serovar have been isolated from the aqueous humor of horses with uveitis. It is not clear whether the uveitis is due to intraocular infection or is immune-mediated. Leptospirosis is responsible for 3-4% of all equine abortions annually, although flooding and other environmental catastrophes may result in abortion outbreaks. In the USA, serovar pomona type kennewicki appears to be the most significant cause of abortion. The prevalence of leptospirosis in horses is unknown, but serologic evidence indicates a higher incidence than is apparent clinically. In the USA, seroconversion to serovar bratislava is reported in up to 40% of horses in large population studies; horses may be a reservoir host for serovar bratislava .[/TD]
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[TD=”class: para2″]Measures for control and treatment are similar to those for cattle and pigs, but specific bacterins have not been developed for horses. Uveitis is treated symptomatically to reduce inflammation and prevent synechiae.[/TD]
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