Why does it seem that horses are so vulnerable to injuries and disorders affecting their eyes? And why does it seem so challenging to save a horse’s eye once infection sets in?
As horse owners, we’ve struggled with medicating our horses’ eyes and quickly learned the value of veterinary surgeons with experience in eye disorders. But just as advances in eye surgery and treatment grow more sophisticated, it seems like the incidence of eye disorders (or the ability to recognize and diagnose them) may be on the rise.
Equine eye problems are especially devastating in the developing world.
When it comes to horses’ eye disorders, we need all the help we can get. Just ask anyone who’s been there. So the news from Wiley Online Library this week is welcome across the veterinary industry, and should benefit horses by providing free and immediate access to current research from anywhere in the world.
Wiley has announced a special virtual issue of 22 ophthalmology papers from three of its journals: Equine Veterinary Journal, Equine Veterinary Education and Veterinary Ophthalmology.
Clinical equine ophthalmology: The current state of the art brings together papers on some of the most significant advances in equine clinical ophthalmology into a single issue to make them more readily available to a wider audience. The issue contains information of direct relevance to all sectors of the veterinary profession from general practitioners and specialists to researchers, surgeons and students, covering common diseases, surgical procedures and outcomes.
The new publication was devised and compiled by a prestigious panel of guest editors comprising Mary Lassaline, DVM, PhD, MA, DACVO, member of the Veterinary Ophthalmology editorial board and veterinary ophthalmologist in the Department of Surgical and Radiological Sciences at the University of California at Davis School of Veterinary Medicine; David A. Wilkie, DVM, Editor of Veterinary Ophthalmology and professor of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at The Ohio State University; Tim Mair, editor of Equine Veterinary Education and based at Bell Equine Veterinary Clinic, Kent (GB); and Celia M. Marr, Editor of Equine Veterinary Journal, based at Rossdales, Newmarket (GB).
“The goal was to provide broad access to the most current information applicable to every stratum of the equine veterinary profession,” said Dr. Lassaline. “Subsequently, a salient feature is that many of the papers included are collaborations between veterinary ophthalmologists with a special interest in horses, equine practitioners with a special interest in ophthalmology, private practitioners, and those in academia, and academicians from different institutions.”
Subjects covered include seven papers on new approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of ulcerative and non-ulcerative keratitis in the horse. There are three articles on novel approaches to corneal surgery and a further three on corneal neoplasia. Six papers provide valuable data regarding long-term outcomes following surgical intervention for equine recurrent uveitis (ERU), glaucoma, and cataracts. Finally, three articles present new information regarding retinal and orbital disease.
Professor Celia Marr, editor of the Equine Veterinary Journal said: “The key purpose of the EVJ is to disseminate information to help the enhancement of specialist knowledge at every level of the veterinary profession. By collating the most important and up-to-date ophthalmology research into one easy resource the new special issue does exactly that.”
The ophthalmology special issue is available free online at: http://bit.ly/1bi0RG0
Top photo courtesy of David Noah.
