Diagnosis: Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Cash was diagnosed with Squamous Cell Carcinoma today. He has lesions on his right eye, left nostril, and on his sheath.

To be honest, I'm shocked that we've made it this far without any cancer. I mean, he's PINK and he's TWENTY-FOUR. He's got one blue eye, and the skin around his brown eye is entirely pink all the way around. He's had a tiny (like, the size of a pin head) bump on his lower eyelid on the right side for... oh, say five years. I've had several vets tell me that if it ever changed I should have it looked at immediately. Two weeks ago, it turned a raw-looking pink, instead of its usual skin color. In the last few weeks he's had a crusty thing develop on the top lid of that same eye, along with a small scabby spot on his nostril. I'd also noticed a scab on his sheath a while ago, and MC noticed that it hadn't healed... so, another clue it was time to have him looked at.

A little research (warning, icky pics) shows that squamous cell is very common in pink and gray horses, especially on the eyes and genitalia. Fortunately, if it's caught and treated early, it can be kept in check. In addition, the treatments for the early stages are minimally invasive. In Cash's case, they used cryo techniques to freeze off the lesions. There's even a topical chemotherapy cream that we can use on his sheath if it becomes necessary, but hopefully we caught it early enough that the cryo got it all.

I did have my vet tell me that I'm the Most Anal Owner Ever (well, and MC. She's even more anal than I am, and WAY more observant!). I'd sent her an email with a list of all the areas of concern, along with all the juicy details (ok, I didn't take pics of each spot, but I did think about it). Apparently after checking all the spots I had mentioned, she, two other vets, AND two vet techs went over Cash with a fine-toothed comb to see if they could find any other suspicious areas. Fortunately, they didn't find anything else.

So, the prognosis is good. He gets a fly mask (with a nose) all day every day when it's sunny (he's gotten one for years and years, so we just need to keep doing it). He has shady spots to stand in during the day, since keeping him in a stall would drive him batty. We'll keep an eye on things and any time something turns up, we have it looked at. Hopefully todays treatment will keep everything in check and this will not be too much of an ongoing problem.

On the other hand... remember that Bromance that Cash and Saga have going on? Right, well they both went to the vet today, Cash for the lesions and Saga to get new shoes. They couldn't have stalls right next to each other, but instead were about 50 feet apart and facing each other, with the Dutch doors on the stalls down. The MOMENT I put Saga in one and Cash in the other, they started screaming for each other. Loudly and repeatedly.

I think this bromance has moved past the "friendly relationship" phase and well into the "co-dependent" phase. How embarrassing.