Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Horse has painful right eye - what is Mortierella wolfii
By Wada, Shinya et al.·Published in Veterinary ophthalmology·2011·Racehorse Hospital, Japan·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Mortierella wolfii keratomycosis in a horse.
- Species:
- horse
Plain-English summary
A thoroughbred filly was brought in with a painful right eye that had been bothering her for two days. The veterinarian found a superficial corneal ulcer and some cloudy spots on the cornea. Tests showed that a fungus called Mortierella wolfii was causing the issue. The filly was treated with a combination of antifungal and antibiotic eye drops, along with a special serum, and she fully recovered within two weeks.
People also search for: horse eye problems · fungal eye infection in horses · treatment for horse corneal ulcer
Abstract
PURPOSE: To describe a case of superficial keratomycosis caused by Mortierella wolfii (M. wolfii) in a horse. METHODS: A thoroughbred filly was presented with painful right eye of 2 days' duration. A superficial corneal ulcer was observed ventrally together with multifocal punctuate opacities axially. Samples were collected by swabbing and scraping the ulcerated lesion and submitted for microbiologic and cytologic examination. RESULTS: Microscopic evaluation of debrided corneal tissue revealed the presence of nonseptate fungal hyphae, and culture of a corneal swab yielded fungal growth. Medical treatment with topical antifungal, antibiotic and autogenous serum and systemic anti-inflammatory resolved the problem within 2 weeks. CONCLUSIONS: Cytologic evaluation of a corneal scraping was useful to make a clinical diagnosis of keratomycosis. Based on the mycological characteristics, the fungus isolated from the corneal lesion was identified as M. wolfii. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first case report of equine keratomycosis associated with this fungus, although the organism is known to infect various organs of cattle.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21733069/