The enucleation (eye removal) was very interesting as we first did a cat scan and then moved the horse into surgery for the actual removal of the eye. As you can imagine moving a thousand pound horse around different parts of the hospital and from a table in the CT room to a table in surgery is no easy feat! But with a whole lot of effort and people we managed to do this fairly smoothly!
Horses (as well as many other species) with white faces are predisposed to getting cancer around their eyes from the lack of pigment that helps deflect the suns rays. That is also why pink eye and cancer eye are so common among Hereford cows (all white face). Our horse today not only had cancer in his eye but it was obvious that it was a very advanced case. After we got the eye out we were all surprised to see what this deadly disease can really do. The cancer had eaten the bone of the eye orbit leaving a whole in the skull where the eye usually sits that was about the size of a penny. So before closing the eye completely we put a string of medical beads infused with chemotherapy drugs into the orbit. The purpose of the beads is that they will slowly release chemotherapy drugs over a long period of time, so we won't have to handle these dangerous drugs and the horse can get the long term treatment needed directly where the cancer was seeding. During this long surgery the whole room was rocking out to Bon Jovi to lighten the intensity of the surgery room (see picture)!
hi honey - bet that was a site with all those rockers in the hospital - will the horse be o k now that the eye has been removed?? hope so - and i'm glad the little calf is on the mend again - just think how MUCH you are learning and getting experience!!!! love you lots nana
ReplyDelete