Third eyelid removal

[myheartinahoofbeat]

I have a two year old spotty gelding and he has been diagnosed with a tiny tumour on his third eyelid. It ever so slightly doesn’t retract as well as the other eye. He has always appeared red around his eyes. Another vet from the same practice thought is was an allergic reactions to flies when she looked at him during the summer but now it’s autumn, he’s still the same.This more experienced vet has said it’s a tiny tumour, not uncommon in spotty horses(I’ve got two others who are fine)vet has recommended removal of the third eyelid under standing sedation and biopsy of the tumour. Obviously I’m thinking how will this affect him long term although the vet is confident it shouldn’t cause any problems unless it reoccurs.Has anyone else’s horse had this?

 

[Mrs. Glittery Jingle Balls]

I had a horse that underwent surgery for the same and he recovered to become absolutely normal doing all activities despite a slight lack of vision in the operated eye. To save typing it all again here is my reply to a similar thread a few years back. I really hope you have an equally happy ending.

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.

 

[myheartinahoofbeat]

I had a horse that underwent surgery for the same and he recovered to become absolutely normal doing all activities despite a slight lack of vision in the operated eye. To save typing it all again here is my reply to a similar thread a few years back. I really hope you have an equally happy ending.

Thanks for your reply. Thats very reassuring

 

[Nettle123]

Our gelding had an operation to remove the third eyelid. The operation went very well, carried out in the field, bandaged and left in the field with his two companions. Recovery and healing no problems. He was completely unbothered by it.

Unfortunately our boy later developed a tumour behind the eye. It was inoperable and sadly we had to let him go.
.

 

[BronsonNutter]

Sooner rather than later is better for these, to try and minimise spread to the other structures around the eyeball. It's a relatively minor op - despite looking a bit scary with where it is! - generally performed under local anaesthetic and sedation. Occasionally you can get a bit of fat prolapsing from behind the eyeball but if this occurs it can be trimmed away, and you have to monitor for things like eye ulcers, conjunctivitis etc, with there no longer being the third eyelid for additional protection. Some cases might be given follow on chemotherapy eye drops to try and prevent any tumour growth elsewhere around the eye. Hope it goes ok!

 

[myheartinahoofbeat]

Good news. The vet who came to do the third eye lid removal, had a good look at the growth and said it didn't look like a typical tumour to him. He decided to just do a biopsy instead. Results came back today and it is not a tumour. It is just a lump, nothing sinister, possibly caused by an allergic reaction. No more action required and my two year old gets to keep his eyelid.