I have a 29 year old mare. Her left eye has been slowly getting pushed out of the socket. I have had 2 vets look at it and they concluded it has a tumor or cancer growth behind it. It’s gotten bad within the past 2 months and there is tissue being pushed out with the eye. It waters quite a lot now and she has some nasal discharge. I am considering getting it removed and have called a few vets. My concern is with her age. She is healthy otherwise. I would even still ride her but I was afraid of the pain from her eye. Have you seen or had older horses get this procedure done? And how did they do?
((Hugs)) on the issue you find yourself working through with your old mare. For myself, if my vet’s best hunch was that cancer was causing the to move out of the socket I would let the mare go because the cancer is going to spread and cause pain.
OTOH, if you could opt to have her eye enucleated and have pathology run on the biopsy to determine exactly what the cause is before making a decision. In my lifetime of being around horses I’ve had the pleasure to know half a dozen horses who lost one eye, 2 of them as aged horses, and they transitioned into being a one eyed horse just fine with time. However, once the eye was removed the horse was not dealing with a secondary health issue.
Again hugs and good luck as you look for ideas.
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I am so very sorry you are dealing with this.
The situation sounds very painful for your horse.
I help with the procedure. It is called an enucleation.
Does your vet have an plan to assess how invasive the tumor behind our horse’s eye is? I would do that first if it is possible. This tumor may be damaging structures within the horse’s head, or the bone of the eye socket.
Please think very hard if this surgery is something a horse of very advanced age should be put through.
If you go ahead with the surgery, a good vet who is a skilled surgeon can do a simple enucleation in the barn or in stocks with the horse standing, but sedated. The nerves around the eye will be blocked to make the whole area numb.
With the complication of the tumor, and the threat of hemorrhage your horse’s surgery may need to be done in a more controlled environment.
The after care is pretty simple, keep the stitches clean, give antibiotics, and meds for pain.
The vet I worked with, in fact all the vets I know, would not use an implant to fill out the socket of the removed eye. An implant would be contraindicated in your horse due to the tumor.
I will be praying and jingling for you and your horse.
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I’ve known two horses that their eye removed. One had cancer and was fine after surgery. Went on to continue packing kids around at horse shows. However they both were no where near 29 yo. I would seriously consider letting her go especially if it is cancer.
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Taking out an eye actually isn’t that big a deal. The cancer is another matter, though, and I’d want some more information on that.
Does this horse have a pasture buddy? A 28 year old in my barn just went through this and is fine. He does stick pretty close to his buddy, though, and his wasn’t a cancer situation.
Good luck, OP. And jingles for your horse.
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I had this sort of issue with my “most” beloved gelding. Option suggested was enucleation including bone scraping of the skull and major tissue removed. Too much for me to ask of my old guy. He was not in any pain or eye bulging. He spent the next 6 months enjoying life with only daily eye ointment applications to keep the eye greased and moisturized. Next spring after he enjoyed the fresh grass and sunny day…we euthanized him. What you, OP, describe is not my idea of the best …for the horse…course of action. Too much trauma with cancer being the underlying problem. Enucleation will not address your problem. Sorry…JMO.
My horse went through something very similar when he was 29. His eye turned cloudy and then started bulging out. First vet was afraid his eye would rupture. Ophthalmologist said it was caused by glaucoma and recommended enucleation. She wanted it to be done under general anesthesia which I did not want to do at his age. I found another clinic who agreed to do it standing. He lived another 4 years and I just put him down at age 33.
If your mare is healthy I wouldn’t hesitate to have it done unless they know for sure it is cancerous. My guy made it through 2 more near death illnesses before his time was up. Older horses can be much tougher than we give them credit for.
I would agree with some of the points other posters have made.
What is the extent of the tumor? Surely it’s spreading outward in order to cause the eye to protrude outward, but what is it doing inside? What structures it is compressing inside her head? It is a cancerous growth or a benign one?
I would be less worried about the eye itself, and more worried what else the tumor is doing internally.
I think I would need to gather much more information about the tumor, before deciding how to proceed … including considering putting the horse down. It would seem to me that the horse would be in pain, if the tumor is pressing so hard it pushing the eye outward. Imagine having a pressure headache 24/7. :eek:
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I would not worry at all about removing the eye - did it on my oldster, standing sedation, he had pre-cancerous tissue on an eye lid and he recovered very quickly. Cost was about $1100 but I am in an expensive area.
I’m in Triangle area of NC , my gelding age 25 had glaucoma ,swelling cloudy eye and pain. Took out his eye $900(standing) and he is happy camper, he lives out 24/7 and has zero problems adjusting. He seemed so glad to be out of pain.
