Equine Uveitis Resolved By Haliotis Powder And Bo Yun San

This is not a complicated case, but a very significant one for me because I thought of myself as a small animal practitioner. Horse pulses have been elusive, at best, and I always joke around that I have a veterinarian for my own horse. You just can’t do everything! 

One day this past spring, shortly after taking the Liver module, another horse in my horse’s barn, made my heart sink. “Cheyenne”, a 12 year old Standardbred mare, looked out her stall door with an eye that was extremely swollen, completely closed, and had tears running down her cheek so that the left side of her face was saturated. She was in obvious pain and head shy. I do not get to the barn as often as I would like, and had no idea how long she had been this way. I e-mailed the owner, who is also a friend, to ask what had happened, and I heard back that this had started one day after spring shots 3 WEEKS AGO! His veterinarian diagnosed uveitis and had prescribed an antibiotic/ steroid ointment, but said the horse would probably lose the eye. He would appreciate anything I could do to help. So the case begins.  

The horse presented with pulses that were bounding and rapid, a tongue that appeared reddish-purple. The TCVM diagnosis was Liver Heat secondary to the vaccines that had progressed to Liver Phlegm Fire. Points that were significant and easily needled were chosen. “Cheyenne” was not that happy about the needles. The first treatment included: local points GB 1, ST 1, BL 1, distal points GB 34, GB 44, ST 45, BL 67, Ting point LIV 1 and 2 points to release heat LI 4, and GV 14. A vial of Bo Yun San powder was mixed with approximately 15 ml. of 0.9% NaCl solution to make an eye drop and applied as best as possible to the severely swollen eye twice daily.  I had a 200 gram container of HaIiotis powder (since I only practice small animal!) which  we started at 15 grams twice daily. 

I returned to the barn 2 days later, and she had the eye open a small amount and the tearing was slightly less. Pulses remained bounding and slightly less rapid, tongue slightly less reddish-purple. The same acupuncture treatment was used. 

I received a phone call from the owner the following morning to say that the eye was wide open! The horse was eating better, and he was thrilled. We continued the eye drops and more Haliotis Powder  was ordered and continued twice daily. We continued the treatments every 3 – 7 days as I could make it to the barn for approximately 3 weeks, and the eye is now completely open, the tearing has stopped and the horse still has her eye and eyesight.  A small scar remains in the eye and we will continue to attempt to resolve this lesion.