This horse presented with a painful lacrimating eye. What might be happening here – extrapolate from other species maybe to give you a clue! What diagnostic steps would you take and what treatment might be appropriate?
Well this looked similar to a dendritic ulcer you might see in a cat, so we took swabs for equine herpesvirus PCV but to no avail. Treatment with penciclovir was not sufficient but with topical steroid added in as well as antiviral the lesions resolved. Make of that what you will! The photograph here shows a different horse where a corneal sample was positive for EHV-5 on PCR but the scarring seen here needed surgery to remove it.