Ocular squamous cell carcinoma

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Hello, has anyone here had experiences of a horse with the above please? We're not sure this is what it is yet but it is one possibility (investigating vet has sent photos to a specialist at liverpool veterinary hospital for a second opinion).
I am very, very frightened for my darling spotty girl. But am reading up everything I can just in case
Thank you,
One very very worried owner

 

[LadyGascoyne]

Oh no, @AFishOutOfWater , that must be awfully scary.

My friend’s Appaloosa had squamous cell carcinoma of the eyelid. It was removed and treated successfully and he had about five years before it recurred and they did let him go as he was an older horse at this point, and there was other stuff going on too. There is a known risk with cutaneous carcinomas that some cells are left during the removal process, and recurrence is common. In the eye itself, as I recall, if they remove the eye that can actually be curative.

If it is confirmed as SCC, I think a lot will depend on whether it has spread.

Appaloosas do seem to have a predisposition to all sorts of eye issues so I wouldn’t leap to SCC although I know it’s almost impossible not to worry.

 

[meleeka]

Mine had a squamous cell tumour on her vulva, diagnosed with a biopsy. It did look like a bit like a sarcoid at first but appeared quickly. It was very slow growing, but did appear to itch. Whether that was because she could feel it or it did actually itch, I’m not sure. It ulcerated often when she rubbed it, but aside from that didn’t cause any issues. If it was a young horse I’d get it removed (I didn’t as pony was ancient) and I think is fairly straightforward. I don’t think it’s very common for them to spread, from my reading, although it’s obviously a possibility.

 

[Red-1]

My best mare had a squamous cell carcinoma of the eye. The 1st vet thought I was making a fuss about nothing as it was tiny and gave some drops, thinking it was an infection or something. After a week, it was a little bigger so I asked for a second opinion and got an eye specialist. A week after that, she had an operation.

The operation was successful but she had to have a little of her tear duct removed so that eye was a little weepy after. No recurrence and she was fighting fit apart from the odd dribble from the eye. Where the tear duct was taken made the lower eyelid too low, so some tears leaked out, even though the tear duct itself did work.

She carried on eventing no issues. Just had her face wiped daily.

 

[Hollylee1989]

No experience of an ocular one, but my boy had one at the end of his tinkle. Grew quite rapidly, so had it removed, along with some of his tinkle. He was 7 at the time, now 22 and had no issues again. He does have melanomas, which popped up soon after his op. Luckily they've not grown to a size where they're causing problems yet.

 

[Mrs. Jingle]

Yes I had a skewbald cob had this at 5 years of age. I lived in the UK then and my local vet tried to remove it but it very soon became a big problem. He was taken to Newmarket to see a specialist there, they took him in and removed the inner eyelid, part of the tear duct and did some sort of cyro surgery on other parts of the eye socket. Hew was sent home with a cannular straight into the eye from the middle of his forehead and I had to administer some sort of noxious substance 3 times a day for 2 weeks. He also had a type of contact lense put in to try to protect the eye itself from too much damage from whatever the stuff was (sorry years ago and can't remember the name.

The Newmarket guy quite cheerfully explained to his students (in front of me ) that there is a high incidence in greys and skewbalds and at the very least he would lose his eye sight in that eye, but most probably wouldn't survive for more than a year anyway as in his esteemed opinion the cancer had probably already spread elsewhere...wrong! The op was very successful, he did lose some sight in that eye but all you could see was a white line across one side of the actual eye. We had a good few years, showing, hunting and long distance riding. He came to Ireland with me as a 9 year old but unfortunately had to be retired at 15 for totally unrelated reasons, he also had 8 more years of extremely happy retirement here, so made it to 23. I guess it hadn't spread anywhere else after all.

Good luck with yours I hope yours will be just as successful to treat, I imagine treatment has advanced light years by now anyway.

 

[Ditchjumper2]

My mare had this on her eyes. They were flat and white. She went to Newmarket and had her third eyelids removed. She then just carried on as normal. She was a blue roan.