Director's Message - Spring 2024

Like most equestrians, all of us at CEH have been eagerly anticipating a return to drier, warmer weather, and longer daylight hours. The center has been busy with teaching labs, student activities, outreach events, and research projects.

We are excited to bring you the spring 2024 issue of the Horse Report, all about equine ophthalmology. The topic has been on our list for a while, and we could not have asked for more enthusiastic collaborators than the faculty and residents of the UC Davis Ophthalmology service, in particular Dr. Lauren Charnock, to bring you the latest on equine eye health. We work closely with 
the Ophthalmology Service to care for client horses in our layup program, as well as our CEH Teaching Herd horses. Dr. Charnock and her colleagues are wonderful partners and we are grateful to them for their dedication and expertise.

In this issue, we give you a glimpse into the Ophthalmology Service and introduce you to a special case that demonstrates the exceptional level of care available to horses at UC Davis. We have also featured a discussion about how our understanding of equine vision affects our horses’ performance, insights into equine recurrent uveitis (ERU) and heterochromic iridocyclitis with secondary keratitis (HIK), and more.

This is a dense and often complicated topic, but it is important to think about how our horses see the world, both on a day-to-day basis and when problems arise. We hope this issue brings some perspective the next time you are heading down the centerline, making a short turn to an oxer, crossing a bridge, or even loading your horse in a trailer.

Best wishes,

Carrie J. Finno, DVM, PhD, Diplomate ACVIM 

CEH Director

Thank You to Our Contributor

Dr. Lauren Charnock is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgical and Radiological Sciences and a board-certified veterinary ophthalmologist at the UC Davis veterinary hospital. She completed her DVM at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, a rotating internship at the Atlantic Veterinary College, University of Prince Edward Island, and a residency in comparative ophthalmology with a Master of Science at Auburn University.