Ok, that's a big oops.

So sometimes you mess up. Sometimes you do something just plain stupid and mess up. Sometimes I do that. And I did it yesterday.

So I've been treating a horse for a superficial corneal ulcer for over a month now. Corneal ulcers don't happen all that often in horses, and thank goodness, because they are a pain in the butt when they do. Not because they are hard to heal. On the contrary, they heal wonderfully on their own. However, you have to treat with broad spectrum antibiotics and anti fungals when they occur because of a horse's propensity to stick it's head into places filled with fungus and bacteria.

So, I've been treating this mare for over a month. This ulcer just won't heal all the way. It's almost healed, but not quite. So, I decide to do a procedure called a grid keratectomy on it, where you scour across the ulcer and the cornea with a needle to create a fresh bed of injury to stimulate healing. I also decided to use some iodine to chemically debride the ulcer site. So, in I squirt iodine. Instant disaster.

It was 7% tincture of iodine instead of a nice 1% solution like it should be.

So, no said horse has very swollen eyelids and conjunctiva and a cornea missing the top layer of epithelium. And we're having to put eye meds in every two hours. It's a good thing these clients like me. I still may get sued over it, though.

Hopefully the cornea doesn't decide to turn into a melting ulcer. Then we win a visit to Big Teaching Hospital down the road.

That thunking sound you hear? It's me hitting myself over the head with a 2 x 4. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.