Eye Contact

Some might see it as horsing around, but making contact lenses for horses is a serious business for Optech Inc. of Honolulu. The animals are often prey to eye maladies, and veterinarians find it hard to medicate the equine eye. One possible solution: fit the horse with soft, noncorrective lenses that can hold needed medication against the eyeball. Drugs put in the eye are normally washed away in seconds by the animal’s natural tears.

Optech has fitted out some 50 horses, but any profit from the venture is still a gleam in the eye of Owner Stephen A. Dunn. Says he: “I’ve been supplying the lenses free and getting information in exchange while developing the whole program. We’re planning to go to market early next year.”

Dunn recently went beyond his depth, though, while trying to help a 7-ft.-long shark at San Francisco’s Steinhart Aquarium. The shark, a creature of the lightless deep, was in pain near the surface. Dunn tried a pair of colored contacts that did not help, and the fish died between fittings. But Dunn still has the lenses and is hoping to find another shark.