Cancer eye

[sidney411]

My vet was telling me about options for a cow w/ cancer eye - If it's small enough they can freeze it off or if not in surrounding tissue they can surgically remove the cancer or they have removed the whole eye and sewn the eyelids shut. I have a couple old cows that are starting to get cancer eye. I want to know if anyone has ever had any of these things done and if it worked to remove the cancer or was it just a "band-aid" to get them through raising their calf then to ship them?

 

[cfpinz]

Our best cow had it about a year and a half ago. If it were any other cow I would have let the wife cut on her but we paid the vet to fix this one. Gave her some local anasthetic, jerked the tissue up and cut it off. Vet injected a pocket of pen in the upper eyelid in order to drain over the eye. She's no worse for the wear and I haven't noticed it coming back.

cfpinz

 

[Hippie Rancher]

When I was a kid there were a couple old one eyed cows around the place. (Grampa had Herefords) they seemed to do fine and I know he kept them for years. watched the procedure once - interesting in a queasy kind of way.

 

[MrBilly]

About one and one half years ago, we had a good cow get the cancer eye that invaded into the cornea. The vet said they cow would be rejected at the sale barn, so that meant we kill her and bury her which cost us about $100 OR she could remove the entire eye and sew the eye lids shut. The cost of that was $125. We opted for the surgery which included knocking the cow out, cutting out the eyeball, removing the tissue from the edges of the two eyelids and sewing them togetheter.

It is a bloody surgery and I assited. The cow woke up breifly in the middle of the surgery and scattered surgical tools hither and yon, but remarkedly, she has done very well. Delivered a beautiful calf later that year, weaned it and is now cooking another. There is no evidence of a recurrence. This was money well spent.

Had another cow develop a very early cancer on the nictatating membrane of the eye (the third lid some call it). We used our immobilizer on her and the vet picked up the membrane and cut it out after a bit of novacaine. Cow tolerated it well and has done well with no recurrence seen.

Billy

 

[sidney411]

Thanks for the replys - I feel better abou thte removal option now. One more question - on the cows with the eye removed - did you notice a difference in the way she acted after the removal? Harder to work them since vision is decreased?

 

[cfpinz]

Had another cow develop a very early cancer on the nictatating membrane of the eye (the third lid some call it). We used our immobilizer on her and the vet picked up the membrane and cut it out after a bit of novacaine. Cow tolerated it well and has done well with no recurrence seen.

Billy

That's what we had done. No immobilizer, just a head table. Cow didn't care much for it but seems to have worked, the faster you catch it the easier it is on everybody. Was around $80 including farm call for the whole shebang.

cfpinz

 

[cfpinz]

Thanks for the replys - I feel better abou thte removal option now. One more question - on the cows with the eye removed - did you notice a difference in the way she acted after the removal? Harder to work them since vision is decreased?

We've had some one-eyed cows and still have a couple cone-eyes, just remember they can't see you and treat them accordingly. When you're on their blind side make some constant noise so they know where you are, doesn't have to be much. Seems to keep them calmer than a light touch with a stick.

cfpinz

 

[MrBilly]

Thanks for the replys - I feel better abou thte removal option now. One more question - on the cows with the eye removed - did you notice a difference in the way she acted after the removal? Harder to work them since vision is decreased?

Like the above comment, you need to let her know you are near when you are on the blind side. Other than that she is quite normal out in the pasture.

Billy :banana:

 

[Angus In Texas]

We had a cow that got cancer in her eye and we ended up having it removed and sewn shut. She lived like that for years until we shipped her due to age.

 

[Caustic Burno]

My vet was telling me about options for a cow w/ cancer eye - If it's small enough they can freeze it off or if not in surrounding tissue they can surgically remove the cancer or they have removed the whole eye and sewn the eyelids shut. I have a couple old cows that are starting to get cancer eye. I want to know if anyone has ever had any of these things done and if it worked to remove the cancer or was it just a "band-aid" to get them through raising their calf then to ship them?

Depends on how early you find it,if it has gotten in the bone not a lot of options. I have had the eye removed before .Had the first case I have had in ten years pop up on a 15 year old soon as she weans the calf this summer she will be innoculated.

 

[Susie David]

Our logo looks like a winking cow...
actually it is o'l Boss Cow had her eye removed three calves ago and she is still pushing out big healthy calves every spring.
IMO if the animal is caught in the early stages it can be frozen with some success, had this done to Boss Cow but the eye went bad again so we had it removed and sewn shut.
Dmc

 

[TheBullLady]

When my old Hereford cow started getting it, we had it "frozen" with the liquid nitrogen by the vet. Worked great.. I can't recall that it came back at all. About two years after the procedure was done, had her come up with a weird swelling between her ear and jaw. The vet speculated that it may be cancer that had spread, but when they opened her up, found it to be a strange abcess.

Catching it early is the key. If she's a good cow, I'd definately get it done. It's relatively inexpensive as well.

 

[smnherf]

I hope everyone realizes that cancer eye is a heritable trait. Keeping daughters out of her only passes those traits on.

Cancer eye is a guaranteed trip to the sale barn for anything around here. I don't care if she is the "best" cow on the place.

Brian

 

[I luv herfrds]

I agree Brian. we got an eight year old right now with cancer in both her eyes and on the third eye lid. She is about 7 1/2 months along with calf. Husband doesn't want to ship her and I am all for sending her down the road as a short term.
Vet removed the tumor on the third eye, but there is nothing he can do for the eyes.
Had a couple of cows that had to have their eyes removed. They both acted fine unless you got on their blind side. They both went down the road that fall. Our vet never knocked them out. He just restrained them in a head catch gave them a local and removed the eye.

 

[farmwife]

I hope everyone realizes that cancer eye is a heritable trait. Keeping daughters out of her only passes those traits on.
Brian

From what I have read, cancer eye is not inherited. However, eye pigment, which tends to prevent cancer eye, is inherited. Of course, I could be wrong about this, where did you find your information.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Farmwife we had a nice cow that had the red pigment around both eyes and she still ended up with cancer eye. I just don't believe the pigment will stop cancer eye, unless it is just on the outside of the eye; like skin cancer. Had that too. This cow had it right on her eye.
I would like to see that info on it being passed from mother to daughter too.

 

[farmwife]

Farmwife we had a nice cow that had the red pigment around both eyes and she still ended up with cancer eye. I just don't believe the pigment will stop cancer eye, unless it is just on the outside of the eye; like skin cancer. Had that too. This cow had it right on her eye.
I would like to see that info on it being passed from mother to daughter too.

I agree that pigment is not a complete prevention, I was only mentioning what I had read at the same time I read about cancer eye heritability.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Farmwife I'm not too sure about heredity now. I just went through out cow books from 2007 to 1995. We try to mark each cow sold and why. I marked down every cow shipped with cancer eye and if she had them daughters that were kept. Right now we 4 daughters to these cows and not a one has shown any sign of cancer eye. I looked back even farther and it's not even in their grandmothers. The only way it could have been brought in is through the bulls. The one we have now with cancer eye has none in her dams history.
Now this is our cow herd, not anybody elses. Guess we will just have to keep an eye on them.
Come to think of it the ones that seem to get it are 8 to 10 years of age, nothing younger here.
Makes you think.

 

[smnherf]

Cancer eye is absolutely heritable. It ranks right up there with weaning weight and birth weight.

Here is a link. Check out the chart.

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/livestocksystems/DI3926.html

Red pigment won't necessarily cure the problem either. I have seen solid red cows with cancer eye. It may help but if an animal has a genetic predispotion to some trait, it will eventually come out. Just think about the genetic links to some cancers in humans. Like skin or breast cancer.

Just think of the distance we have come with regards to weaning performance in the last 20 years. There are caves being weaned of the cow that are as heavy as yearlings were 20 years ago. If the heritability of weaning weight and cancer eye is the same, there is no reason why this shouldn't have been eliminated as well. For the good of the breed please cull the problem cows.

Brian

 

[I luv herfrds]

smnherf I went to the link and mainly read about cross breeding.