Skipper Update

Last week-end Skipper's eye started weeping and it seemed to be bothering him more. Called the vet on Sunday and he came out first thing Monday morning. He did an eye culture and debrided his cornea. We put him back on the Banamine for pain and added atropine ointment every two days to dilate his eye and reduce spasms. The eye cultures came back later in the week and the vet was back on Thursday to re-check. So now he's getting Banamine every day, atropine every 2-3 days, miconazole cream twice a day, triple antibiotic ointment four times a day and we've added tobramycin four times a day (to cover some bug that grew in the cultures that was resistant to the neomycin in the triple antibiotic). The tobra is the injectable form that gets reconstituted then I draw it up in a syringe and squirt it in his eye (needle removed). My kitchen counter looks like a med station and I told Jeff it feels like I'm working in ICU again.

The vet said I should have saved that acorn shell for posterity. We are all getting into the routine now, Jeff comes home from work at lunch everyday to help, though I've been trying to convince him that I could do the noon time meds by myself. Skipper is very calm about the whole thing now, maybe it's because he knows if he holds still he gets a carrot after every treatment.

He has to be up in the stall during the daylight (dilating his eye), but gets turned out as soon as the sun goes down till morning. Horses do get into a routine though and he and Peanut are waiting in the barn for us to get out there every night for the last treatment before bedtime.

The other funny thing is I leave Peanut's stall door open during the day so he can come and go as he pleases. He wanders out for awhile, but comes back and stands in his stall for most of the day keeping Skipper company. He is enjoying all this attention also. He doesn't get poked on every six hours, but he always gets a carrot too!

Thursday the vet said 1-2 more weeks of meds probably.