Cancer Eye

I always enjoyed my trips to Alice’s ranch. Not so much for the veterinary work, but the people-watching was the fun part. They were quite a pair. It was a lovely spring day to be working outside.

“I called you out here to check an eye on one of our cows,” Alice said as I stepped out of the truck. “I think it is nothing to worry about, but Daddy here thinks it needs to be checked. This is one of our best cows. She gives us one of the top calves in the herd every year.”

I could see they had the cow in the crowding alley. She looked like a nice Hereford cow of 5 or 6 years of age. The right side of her face was wet and dirty from the eye-watering and running down the side of her face.

I grabbed my bucket and filled it with warm water.

“Let’s go get a look at the old girl,” I said.

“She’s not an old cow,” Robert said.

“Don’t make a big deal out of his comment, Bobby,” Alice said. “He was just using a figure of speech. Lucy is going to be fine.”

Alice was a real battle axe. She was both taller and heavier than Robert. And she dominated every conversation. Those were the only words I expected to hear from Robert today.

We moved Lucy into the chute and put a rope halter on her to secure her head to the left side of the chute so I could get a good view of the right eye.

Looking at the eye, there was cauliflower-like growth on the surface of the third eyelid. I leaned against Lucy’s head and neck to help immobilize it. Then, using a forceps, I grasped the third eyelid and pulled it away from the surface of the eye so I could make sure we were looking at an isolated lesion.

“What do you think, Doc,” Robert asked.

The question surprised me, coming from Robert. I am not sure he has ever asked me a question.

“I think this is most likely a cancer eye,” I said, “We don’t see many cases here in the Willamette Valley, but in Colorado, it was very common. The good thing is that this lesion is currently isolated to the third eyelid. We can remove her third eyelid and probably be done with the problem.”

“That’s good,” Robert said. “Why don’t we do that right now?”

“Now, just a minute, Bobby,” Alice said. “I thought we agreed that we weren’t going to rush into any surgery or anything expensive.”

“Alice, this is a cancer,” I said. “It is going to continue to grow. If it spreads beyond the third eyelid, we will have to remove the eye. That will be a lot more expensive. And if we wait too long, this cancer will spread beyond the eye, and then you may not even be able to salvage this cow.”

“This is our best cow,” Alice said. “We are sure not going to be talking about salvaging her.”
“That’s right,” I said. “That is why the best course of action right now is to remove this third eyelid. Lucy can get along well without the third eyelid. The procedure is simple. Just some local anesthesia, remove the third eyelid with scissors, and place a few sutures. Along with some fly control, that’s all there is to it.”

“How can you be sure that this is a cancer?” Alice asked.

“I am going on experience,” I said. “I have seen many of these cases. Once we remove the third eyelid, we can send it to the lab and get a final diagnosis. Even if it turns out to be a simple wart, removing the thing now is the best course of action.”

“Well, I talked with Tom, up on Turbyne, you know, he used to pull calves before you came, and he said that he thought it sounded like pinkeye,” Alice said. “If it is pinkeye, we should be able to cure it with some powder or something.”

“I can assure you, Alice, this is not pinkeye,” I said. “There is an old saying in veterinary medicine about cancer surgery. It goes something like cut early, cut wide, and cut deep. Oftentimes, our best chance of curing cancer in an animal is with surgery. I think we should remove this third eyelid now. We can worry about the diagnosis after we have this lesion off of her eye.”

“I think we should we should remove it now, also,” said Robert from behind the chute.

“You just keep your thoughts to yourself, Bobby,” Alice said, “I am making the decisions around here. And I think we are going to watch this for a little while.”

“Okay, but I think that is a big mistake,” I said. “I see people watch things, and they always wait too long. But let me give Lucy a shot in the eye and clean up her face a bit.”

“No, you have done what we called you for,” Alice said. “We have some medicine for the eye. I will call you if it gets worse.”

---

It was late October when Alice called again.

“Doc, I think you better get another look at Lucy’s eye,” Alice said. “I don’t think this pinkeye medicine is doing what it is supposed to do.”

“I can get out there tomorrow afternoon,” I said.

“I don’t know, Doc,” Alice said. “I think it is sort of an emergency,”

“Alice, it has been almost six months since I looked at that cancer eye,” I said. “A few more hours isn’t going to change things much.”

“I will have her in the chute in the morning,” Alice said. “Can you get her taken care of first thing?”

“Okay, I will move my schedule around and be out to your place at eight in the morning,” I said. “How is this eye looking?”

 “It’s looking pretty bad, Doc,” Alice said. “I don’t think I can see the eye anymore.”

“Her only chance will be to remove the eye at this point,” I said. “And her prognosis will be guarded. Are you going to be up to that?”

“Yes, Robert and I talked it over,” Alice said. “We want to do what we can. She should be calving next spring, so we don’t want to lose her now.”

---

As promised, Alice had Lucy waiting in the chute when I pulled into the barnyard. I could see Robert and Alice coming from the house when I glanced into my rearview mirror.

Lucy’s eye looked terrible. Cancer tissue was bulging from the eye socket. That tissue had pushed the globe back in the socket, and you could not even see that an eye existed.

“I’m sorry we kept you waiting, Doc,” Alice said. “We were just finishing up with our breakfast. What do you think now?”

“I think we should have removed that third eyelid last spring,” I said. “You remember, I said people tend to wait too long. Looking at this eye, this has been too long. Let me check and make sure she is pregnant. We should be able to buy her enough time to raise a calf, then you should try to salvage her.”

“Why do you say salvage?” Alice asked.

“At this point, this cancer has gone elsewhere,” I said. “If you send her to slaughter, they will accept her as a suspect. They automatically condemn the head. Then, if the inspector finds any cancer beyond the head, they will tank the entire carcass. You will end up paying a slaughter fee and not getting anything in return.”

“What if we just make hamburger out of her with a mobile slaughter outfit?” Alice asked.

“That’s your choice,” I said. “I guess it depends on how hungry you are. It won’t kill you, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”

Why do you want to check her pregnancy?” Alice asked.

“If she is not pregnant, it probably isn’t worth removing this eye,” I said. “I would recommend just sending her to salvage.

“She always has a calf,” Alice said. “But if you think it is necessary, go ahead and check her.”

I pulled on an OB sleeve and ran my left arm into her rectum. I easily retracted her uterus into her pelvis. That was a sure sign she was not pregnant. She should be four or five months along at this point. I carefully examined the full length of her uterus. Not pregnant.

“She is not pregnant,” I said as pull my arm out and removed the sleeve.

“How could that be?” Alice said. “She is always one of the first to calve.”

“This eye has been pretty stressful,” I said. “Without a pregnancy, you have to get two years of survival to get another calf. That makes holding her over a poor decision. Add to that the surgery expense and the only viable option is to salvage her now.”

“I’m not sure about your math, Doc,” Alice said. “I just hate to think of losing our best cow.”

“That’s okay, Doc,” Robert popped up from behind the chute. “We are not going to put her through surgery and a possible cancer death just because Alice couldn’t believe you in the first place. I will call Mohawk and have them pick her up in the morning.”

“How dare you overrule my decisions!” Alice screamed at Robert as she wheeled around and headed for the house.

“She will be okay, Doc,” Robert said. “She is just upset that she didn’t listen to you in the first case.

Lucy went to Mohawk Slaughterhouse the following morning. The cancer had progressed to the point that it was found in the lymph nodes in the neck and in the chest. Her carcass was discarded by the rendering company. 

Robert stood a little taller after finally standing up to Alice. I am not sure that Alice fully recovered from the events.

Photo Credit: Photo by Lukas Kosc on Pexels.