Surgery Improves Horse's World View

Published: Aug 24, 2007

BRANDON - The Dahl family knew something was wrong with Ego-Trip, their 11-year-old thoroughbred horse, when he started bumping into things.

He already was blind in one eye, and an evaluation showed he was suffering from glaucoma in the other. But a highly unusual operation has saved him from going blind, veterinarians said.

The horse, which comes from Land O' Lakes, had his first follow-up visit Thursday morning at the Surgi-Care Center, a veterinary clinic in Brandon. Horse surgeons performed laser surgery there April 5.

"It's not a complicated surgery and not invasive, but it's very uncommon to do [laser eye surgery] on horses, so there's not a lot of cases where you can study the impact. But he is doing remarkably well," said veterinarian Franck Ollivier, the lead surgeon.

Blindness in a horse is much harder to manage than other animals, Ollivier said. "It's not like a blind dog or cat. It's at least 1,000 pounds, so it's more of a challenge."

Owner Larry Dahl, looking on as Ollivier performed the checkup, was elated.

"It's fantastic. My daughter's been riding him for four years now, so they are good pals," he said.

Victoria Dahl, 15, was equally pleased.

"I wouldn't have been able to ride him otherwise," she said.

Kevin Brady