This wasn't a life or death thing but it WAS a thing that could have blinded him in one eye - at least. Vet said we'd initially caught the infection within the first 6 hours (what are the odds?) and he installed a heplock into the eyelid, anchored to his halter. Poor guy hasn't worn a halter more than 6 days in the past 10 years - he's NOT a happy camper with it.
The virus/whatever had already drilled a hole into the side of his eye and was progressing inward when we caught it. Meds through the heplock every couple hours killed the bug right away - apparently - but it's been a battle stopping the progression of damage.
We've lost our share of furkids over the past 20 years -
every one of old age, the oldest being 38. ALL our horses are rescues, so we really haven't done too bad overall.
First pic is Banjo (formal name Mac Prince), our blue-eyed beauty with the problem, and my daughter.
Some of our kids, on a normal day. Banjo's in the rear in this one. Blue (my Arab) (formal name "dla Basks* Blue Smoke") is the gray ghost. As he's gotten older, he's turned nearly white. This pic is from about 5 years ago.
And, y'er right - every one of them is as much family as my human kids.
BTW, Mike - isn't that a massive listing of b'hoods?!! Haven't done the "big search" in awhile. I'm sure more have popped up and I need to check. Maybe this weekend.