Eye tumours

[sophiem]

Hi I wondered if anyone has come across this condition before? My horse Becky has had a weepy eye for about a week and a half now and the yard owner put it down to flies irritating her. When I went up to see her yesterday it was quite lumpy and there was a bit of pus. I called the vet out who had a good look and said he is happy to put it down to conjunctivitus and she has now got eye drops. I'm just a bit worried as he asked me to keep checking it as she has a cauliflower shaped lump in her eye which is a common place for a type of tumour to grow. He said it would involve the removal of the tumour and her 3rd eyelid? Just wondered if anyone else has come across this problem as I am a bit worried!

[Casey76]

Hi!

Cochise's horse Cheeky had a squamous cell carcinoma (I think) on his third eyelid. You may want to PM her.

:)

[Cochise]

He did have a squamous cell carcinoma. And I don't like the sound of your horses lump on his eye. Get a second opinion right away. It may be an option to have a biopsy done on the eye to be sure. You can't take these things too lightly, and if you're worried about it then I can't stress enough to get a second opinion!
OK sorry to scare you with all that :o
A squamous cell carcinoma is usually sun related. My horse, an appaloosa has a lot of pink around his eye, which is sensitive to the sun. I noticed it looked fleshy and lumpy, with pus discharge. The vet performed a biopsy straight away and we operated almost as soon as the results came in.
OK this is kinda random, but this tells of what we went through and has pictures of what his eye looked like.
http://cheeky-tails.tripod.com/id7.html
And for more information on eye tumours, go here:
http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/ceh/HR20-1eyes.html
Please keep me up to date with what's going on with horse. From someone who has been there, it's not fun. I hope it's not a carcinoma! I'll support you all I can!

[sophiem]

Thank you for your advice and I will definitely get a second opinion!

[cvb]

sophie

not sure what you mean by lumpy - but our chap gets weepy eyes, which atracts the flies, and flies come with a risk of infection.

He used to get this years ago when i first owned him and we were given opticortisone pills for him, which brought it down straight away. But it was always suggested this was an allergic reaction.

I got him back in his old age, and this time he also had COPD - so still seemed to have the allergic thing going on. But a comment by the (new) vet indicated he thought it might be uveitis - at 33 (the horse not the vet !) he didn't think it was worth going through a full diagnosis process.

So my chap now has a mask for the summer (see another thread on "my horse is an alien" ;) ). And he gets bute if he needs it, or ointment to treat any infection.

Now Red just gets "puffy" eyes, which might not be what you mean by "lumpy"... so this may not be relevent.

But a previous vet came out to see him (for the eye problem) without even a scope to look at his eyes :eek: :mad: so do make sure you push for a proper diagnosis if it doesn't clear up quickly.