Back From The Brink: Quasi Cool Rebounds From Eye Socket Injury – The Chronicle of the Horse
As Sidnee Ledyard went to collect Quasi Cool from his paddock at Phillip Dutton’s winter base in Loxahatchee, Florida, on the morning of Feb. 5, she could tell something wasn’t right. The gelding hadn’t touched his grain, and when she approached him, she noticed that his nose was bleeding. She reached up to slip his halter on, and “Quasi” spooked and didn’t want her touching his face. Upon removing his black fly mask, she determined the cause. Overnight, Caroline Moran’s 11-year-old Holsteiner (Quo Vados—B-Estelle, Lord) had broken his right orbital bone, and due to the swelling, his eye was protruding from the socket with the iris facing down.
“I went around his field [later] to see what he could’ve hit his head on,” Ledyard said. “There were some sliding marks next to a tree that was in his field, and then there was a chunk of forelock up in the bark, so it was pretty clear what had happened there. He must’ve spooked or something in the night and either spun or run and skidded and hit his face on the tree, the poor guy.”
Dutton called Courtney Wittich, DVM, of B.W. Furlong & Associates, for an initial evaluation and X-rays to determine the extent of the damage, including whether any bone fragments had damaged the eye, necessitating removal. Wittich referred them to Palm Beach Equine Clinic in Wellington, Florida, to surgically repair the damage.
“[I am] very grateful to Palm Beach Equine, and the first vet that I called worked for Brendan Furlong,” Dutton said. “She was the one that first diagnosed it and reacted quickly so that we could get the best care for him and make sure we did everything we could to get him there as quickly as possible, which I think in the long term probably helped save his eyesight.”
