The Culbert family headed out to the barn on a Saturday morning to load up for the show, when they noticed a stablemate who had literally ripped a strip of his upper eyelid off, all the way back to the corner of the eye.  All his eyelashes were attached to the torn-off strip, and it was just hanging there from a still-attached stalk of tissue! Laura Culbert thought perhaps it could just be removed by snipping it off at the stalk, which would seem pretty simple and obvious.  However,  preserving the function of lid and lashes is crucial to the overall continuing health of the eye:  It had to be addressed. The horse had been stalled overnight, but nothing sharp could be identified within his stall…, is it not ever so with our accident-prone equines?  It’s amazing that the eye itself sustained no injuries!  Dr. Devaney put in a very neat and tidy row of stitches to reattach that important row of eyelashes to the upper eyelid, with suturing thread so fine that it was hard to  visualize.  The blood supply in the stalk of tissue that did NOT tear was crucial to the health of the strip that needed reattaching. Fortunately, the blood supply was, in fact,  still there due to everyone’s quick response! Had there been a 24 hour delay, this tissue could not have been reattached, and the horse would likely have lost the eye within a year.  This fella has a career, so a beautiful job of stitching was really important to ensure that he will be completely presentable.  Thank you, Dr. Devaney! #virginiaequinecares #keepingyoucompeting #oncallgoodcall #firstentrytoourcontest