Thursday, January 6, 2011

Day 23 - Callie and the Eye Mass

This is Callie.  At the time of this picture she was a 4 year old Collie. She came to see me because of this swelling of her lower eyelid. 

When I saw it - my reaction was rather one of shock and surprise.  I had no idea what this was!

So I took pictures and emailed them to my favorite veterinary ophthalmologists on the planet - Dr. Diane Hendrix and Dr. Dan Ward - both of whom were my professors at UT.

They wrote back and suggested a biopsy instead of me trying to remove it. 

The owner REALLY wanted me to remove it - but I would be removing way too much of the lower eyelid for my comfort level.  I looked at diagrams that suggested using a slice of her lip and swinging it up and suturing it in place of her eyelid - but opted not to try it.  :)  I like surgery and all - but am not a daredevil. 

Biopsy came back as a histiocytoma!  A completely benign skin mass that we see commonly in young dogs either on the face (usually on the bridge of the nose) or even more commonly on the feet or legs.  These masses just go away on their own.  So cool.

I loved Dr. Ward's response when I emailed him the biopsy results "That's one big honkin histiocytoma!" 

He's fun.  I like him. :)

Callie's eye mass did completely go away on it's own.  And I got a pretty cool picture.  If you enlarge it you can see me in my lab coat in the reflection of her eye.

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4 comments:

  1. Cool,never seen one in the eye like that!!!
    Bbbbbbuuuuuuttttttt,if I do I'll surely know what to do gal thanks!!!

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  2. Seeing your reflection in her eye is both cool and gross at the same time. But I'm glad you mentioned it. I felt like I was playing Where's Waldo.

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  3. My Maltese has this and I have been worried sick about him. Took him to the doctor they prescribed Hill Science prescription food for allergies, oral amoxicillian and Vetropolycin HC in his eye. Tonight will be 3 whole days of meds and no change. We noticed his skin color was hot pink Monday and UTI infection.

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