Your horse greets you one morning with one eye held shut and tears running down the side of his face. He resists your attempts to get a closer look at the eye, so you can't tell if there's something embedded in it.

Eye injuries are fairly common in horses and can be serious, especially if neglected. They run the gamut from corneal injuries (e.g., superficial scratches, punctures, or a foreign body caught under an eyelid) to full-thickness eyelid lacerations to blunt trauma.

Have a veterinarian examine a horse with an eye injury as soon as possible to diagnose the problem, check for corneal ulcers, and determine the best course of treatment