Eye Surgery

Surgery of the horse’s eye can be complex, requiring precise expertise and specialist equipment, often under a general anaesthetic. However, several procedures relating to the horse’s eye can be carried out safely in our standing surgery suite for a sensible, adequately sedated patient under local anaesthetic.

One example of this would be removal of the third eyelid – usually where there is a tumour, such as a squamous cell carcinoma. In some cases, minor surgery of the cornea (the surface of the eye) may also be carried out safely under local anaesthetic.

Where major injuries to the horse’s eye occur and the eye cannot be salvaged, surgical removal is sometimes required. This is a procedure which can be carried out routinely under sedation and local anaesthetic. The prognosis for full recovery and healing once the badly damaged eye has been removed is usually excellent, and horses with one eye adapt and cope amazingly well, adjusting to normal life and returning to almost all forms of activity and use.